billington cartmell. the thinking brands agency

About the Author

Graham Wall

In these times of heightened commercial awareness, it makes sound sense that our creatives should themselves be more commercially aware. So, by the same measure, shouldn't the awards we win be for ideas that deliver genuine commercial success?

Of course there are bodies that already do this - the likes of the DMA and MCCA spring to mind. But it's pencils and lions that creatives really covet, and more often than not these awards bodies - and many creatives - couldn't give a hoot how work's actually performed in the real world.

Let me say upfront that I'm not knocking ideas - quite the contrary, in fact. What I'm questioning here are the ideas that have been written by creatives for creatives, so we can sit back, slap ourselves on the back and say how clever we are - all the time ignoring the fact that a rather important person's been entirely forgotten in this process: our client, and their business's bottom line.

Maybe things are changing though. After all, there was a sign this year that the industry is starting to realise that the best ideas are ones which actually make a difference. For those of you who missed it, 2009's big winner was 'The Best Job in the World' campaign, where a team took a normal brief for a tourism authority in Australia and did a novel thing - they thought about what the client actually needed, rather than just going through the motions and using traditional advertising channels.

Now, I must declare a prejudice here - the idea was created by Ralph Barnett, a close friend and former colleague of mine. But, objectively, the reason the campaign is so strong is that it was a great idea that made a very real difference to its client.

Rather than just creating the usual poster and TV ads, they decided that people were desensitised to the traditional pieces they see plastered all over the place. So they got really creative and thought about their media before they thought about their idea. And you know what, it worked. Queensland Tourism Authority had set a measurable target of 400,000 visitors to their website over the duration of the campaign. In the first day alone, 200,000 people visited the site. And that was just the beginning.

In all, the site had more than eight million visits and 34,684 video job applications from 197 different countries. And if you combine the global news coverage, from CNN stories to BBC documentaries and Time magazine articles, the estimated media coverage is valued at more than £175million.

The onus to change shouldn't lie solely with awards though. Agencies have a duty to ensure that their creatives don't sit in an oblivious bubble. And Creative Directors have a duty to ensure the people they hire have more than a good book.

So let's start a change. Instead of simply asking my next prospective employee how many awards he's won, I'll ask how many niche brands he's built into multi-million pound accounts. I'll ask him to present the work in his book. And instead of merely admiring a campaign's art direction and copy, I'll ask if it was measurable, and what effect it had on sales.

To many agencies, this approach would seem rather radical. But is it really such a big thing - after all, aren't results what our clients pay us for?