The End of False Recognitions: DDB Worldwide CCO Amir Kassaei on why there’ll be less work from DDB at award shows in 2016
There is something fundamentally wrong in ad land. Everybody knows it but nobody has been willing to fix it orreally even talk about it. Until now. As of today, we’re more than just talking openly about it, we’re going to walk the talk. And hopefully recalibrate some of the most important values in our industry to show the way forward in terms of how this industry should think, act and create.
Our DDB agencies are among the most-awarded agencies in the history of advertising. We’ve won more Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity than any other network on the planet. Almost every DDB office around the world is among the most-awarded agency brands in their markets. And that is a huge problem. Because that is not what matters.
Too many of us in the industry have bought into the idea that winning awards is proof of creative effectiveness, so much so that we’re willing to sacrifice our integrity to get them. And in turn that has lessened the integrity of the awards themselves. So if you believe that you are a great creative or an amazing agency or a great network because you won such and such meaningless award in a sub sub sub category at an advertising award show where ad people award ad people’s irrelevant solutions for problems which often do not even exist, then you’d better think again.
If you believe that the proof of your real talent is that you came up with a funky case video for an idea that did not have anything to do with the real world and was not even created for a reason other than to please a jury at an award show, then you are not talented.
If you are coming up with social ideas which pretend to solve the world’s biggest problems or help disenfranchised people, but, in fact, are only being done to win an award, you are cynical and perhaps even criminal.
Our industry has lost focus about what really matters. All of us who are working in advertising and marketing communication have only one purpose: to use our creative talents and insights to build relevance and influence in today’s world that consequently create substantial results for the brands, products and services of our clients.
If we do that in great, unseen, fresh and innovative ways, we will move people. We will impact societies and shape culture. That is the real and only relevant recognition that we as an industry should aim for. And that is the only currency which is valid out there. Remember the “Think Small” ad for Volkswagen, which was voted the best advertising ever created, and was the foundation of the creative revolution and changed everything? It didn’t win major international awards, but it helped Volkswagen become a global and successful brand. And it changed culture, art, music and society.
We have to stop the madness. Not only by talking about it, but by also doing something against it. So we at DDB will not play this mad game. We will be coming up with a plan to divest ourselves from the madness. We at DDB want to be recognized for the real work that we do for our real clients and their real problems, and if, on top of that, we get some applause from the industry for it, we’ll be happy.
You will see less work from DDB at some of the shows. And maybe they will won’t win much against the phony prototypes. So what. We want to be the best and most influential company in our industry, not the most awarded. We may be saying goodbye to the made-up empty titles like Agency of the Year, Network of the Year or whatever. But when we do receive these recognitions, you can be sure it is only because we were the best with the best work and not because we were the network with the most prototypes or who spent the most money.
Because we believe that winning awards only means that you are good at winning awards. Because we care more about selling our clients than ourselves. Because we care more about emptying our clients’ shelves than filling our own with trophies. Because we care more about real talent that connects with real people than people with portfolios full of false creativity and awards which do not really mean anything.
There will be a lot of people out there who will hate us, who will point fingers at us and accuse us of being harmful to award shows and our industry in general. But we are lucky. At DDB we have always had a foundation built by Bill Bernbach at our core to guide us to be brave. As Bill once said, “If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some people against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you and nobody for you.”
Amir Kassaei is Chief Creative Officer at DDB Worldwide.
50 Comments
People in advertising are the only people who care about advertising.
Awards make us feel “clever” and “creative”.
Are the winds of change blowing? How many cause-related prototype ideas will we see again this year?
This is the best article I’ve read in a long time.
Amen brother.
A quick count of the 35 stories featured on CB’s homepage right now shows 16 are about awards. If that doesn’t tell you the industry’s obsession with awards is out of control then nothing will!
This is exactly what I wanted to hear from one in a position to speak the truth and with the cajones to make it happen.
May your winds of integrity blow through the corridors of the other networks and send a shamefully shiver down the spines of the false gods of creativity.
Obviously he blew the entire years’ awards budget on his jacket.
2 years ago he pulls the same story sitting in Cannes, saying he is not going to enter then wins most of the awards as a pay off. Full of s***.
How do i get payrise/promotion if i dont win awards amir?
As much as I applaud this viewpoint – I think it’s valid, I really do – it’s a bit rich coming from someone who has built a significant career through award shows. He’s been riding the jury gravy train for a long time and now that he’s made it he says: thanks for the awards everyone but I don’t believe in them any more.
Anyone hiring? I need to jump ship.
Love it. Awards do serve a purpose and those that run them will hope that we only see a change in the sort of work that gets entered, as opposed to the volume of work.
What would happen to Cannes and every other show if every network took this admirable stance? They would lose 80% of their entry fee revenue and we would celebrate the best, real work.
The reasons why the award show circus is out of control have been listed over and over. Safe clients not buying decent real work, awards equaling recogniton and promotion ya da ya. I really hope the other networks follow suit but I fear they will just lick their lips and be glad there’s less competition. But DDB NZ and Melbourne don’t seem to have any problem doing great work for mostly real, non charity clients, so why can’t the rest?
Lots and lots of noise. Zero commitment to anything that DDB (or Amir) can actually be held accountable to. Pointless adwank, nothing more.
How will you get a raise?
Do good work.
Winning an award doesn’t make work good, being good makes work good.
If your boss can’t recognise good work without it having won an award, he’s useless. Get a better boss.
100% with you.
It’s not about killing all award shows. Just about work that actually ran and actually achieved something other than winning an award getting the metal.
DDB will be entering LESS work at SOME of the show?
LESS? SOME?
If awards are a crock of ish then enter NONE at ANY of the award shows!
Totally half arsed statement if ever I heard one!
Nothing will change.
As already pointed out..’some and less.’..how brave!
It’s just posturing.
The award addiction is too entrenched to change and the odd exposure of cheating will change nothing….maybe even make things more devious.
And its just heavyweights versus heavy weights…how do start ups and individuals who are often years ahead of the dinasours but cant pay award entries or prefer to spend on staff or other needed improvements and innovations compete?
These days virtually everyone has won ‘metal’…why not have an Advertising day where all award winners put their trophies in a wheelbarrow and wheel them through the city so the average consumer can show their appreciation of such a game changing industry.What do you think that the real world reaction would be?
Update: 37 stories. 17 about awards.
It’s always the big company bosses who say awards don’t matter.
Meanwhile, going job to job in advertising’s always volatile job market, one or two recent awards sure help the individual.
The Manly daily is not going to be happy
DDB Award budget cut in half
Times at DDB.
Gee, I seem to remember writing several (unpopular) articles and columns about this subject when I was still relevant. Only after I’d won a shitload of awards myself of course! Admirable sentiments, Amir, but hardly a new insight. Someone else in this thread spotted your attempt to walk both sides of the street by committing to enter LESS award shows. Surely if awards are a wank – and they most certainly are – it’s all or nothing. I fear the cat’s too far out of the bag. It’s like trying to end the gun ownership madness in the USA. It won’t happen. You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube. Yours cynically, OCDG.
Yeah. That’s why.
Yeah. The Old CD guy got it right.
Gongs are out the window now.
( Cancel all trips to Cannes. That’ll save ya a bit)
Service and price. That’s what it’s about these days.
If you don’t have the service sorted you are f*******d
Creative power????????????????????????????
Who cares anymore.
Brand campaigns are yesteryear.
Said but true
Awards are a double edge sword.
Yes, they are a magnet for hacks and scam.
On the flipside, here’s a stat about the last 5 clients of the year at Cannes (so the brand that had the most creative and effective work) – each of their share prices in the year they won, so when they were doing their most creative work, was way above the stock market norm.
Great creative work does make a difference. That’s what award shows SHOULD be about.
We don’t need people like Amir chucking their toys out of the pram and saying they won’t enter as much. We need people like Amir on the juries to be more diligent in what they award.
As an industry, we need to polish the right side of the sword.
That shiny, shiny sword.
Shiny.
Sword.
It’s easy. Amir bought a shiny leather jacket.
Jacket cost more than half the awards budget.
Amir does press release telling everyone the awards budget is cut in half.
Easy.
Meanwhile, every other agency steps up to take DDB’s crown (and their clients).
DDB gone.
Can I have my big moment back?
Very nicely written. You’re a true wordsmith.
View post on imgur.com
Nice job having the New York Festivals call for entries above the article though. Best Placement award maybe.
The article was inspiring.
These responses are depressing.
nuff said
Nice article, good to see someone trying to change the industry.
Agree with a few earlier comments, could have gone further. ‘Less’ and ‘Some’ not far enough to truly have an impact.
The article was not inspiring. Amir was having a big whinge. Now A-meh’s comment, that was inspiring. “Polish the right side of the sword.” Yes. Pointed and poignant. It gives award shows relevance plus a reality check to juries. Had Amir said that instead of his utterly predictable award rant, I would have been truly inspired.
Bill Bernbach said
“Its not just what you say that stirs people. It’s the way that you say it.”
Maybe the some / less comment was intentional aimed at stirring debate. Thirty years ago award madness was rife. Hasnt changed. If this article generates productive ideas and outcomes for the industry then job done Amir. The quality of our ideas on the subject is what will make a difference . Lets not rant but hear the essence of the argument and take it somewhere positive.
I reckon this is a stunt to get people talking about Cannes. There is probably some social agency somewhere with a whole roadmap of how this discussion is going to pan out. The angry diatribe on Mumbrella, some informed discussion on CB. What’s the betting he is “kidnapped” by a group of creative jihadis who start posting YouTube videos where he renounces this position and evangelises about the festival circuit, telling us we don’t realise how much we miss them until the awards are taken away from us? They’ve probably got the case study and a bunch of dodgy results to back it up already.
Many eons ago, when I started in this business, the goal was to do Good Work.
You recognised Good Work because you liked it, your peers talked about it, and the public talked about it.
Usually this consensus also resulted in Good Things for our clients.
As a result, you got paid more, bought a sports car, went to lunch every day and tried really hard to be better.
If the Good Work seemed good enough, you’d enter it into an award.
The idea of entering something that hadn’t run never entered anyone’s head.
To create something just to win an award seemed pointless. WHy do that when you could be at lunch?
It was nice when Good Work won an award, but that didn’t change it’s essential goodness or badness.
The point was always to do Good Work first.
Over time, we did a good job of connecting Good Work to awards for our clients.
Perhaps too good a job.
For many clients, awards became just another metric. An alternative to Link testing.
Agencies noticed.
The massive explosion (especially at Cannes) came about because the big agency networks realised that the more awards you win, the more new biz lists you get on.
It became all about numbers.The award shows came to the party by having more categories.
Nowadays, awards have a coincidental relationship with Good Work.
The point is the award, not the work.
And that’s what makes them pointless when it comes to recognising creativity.
They are new business generators.
I think Amir’s article is extremely positive, although I agree there are too many weasel words.
Awards rant aside, what has Amir done for the global DDB network?
Anywhere near what Ben Priest has done?
You’d honestly have to say, if it wasn’t for him and an inspiring team of CCO’s in the better performing offices, Amir’s remit would be finished.
Shame on you. This is a guy at the top of the game trying to make a stand about something we in our heart of hearts know is fundamentally wrong. And what do you do? You shoot him down. You question his motives. You call bullshit. Fuck me, this industry is really dissapointing sometimes.
Just do great work.You know when you’ve done it.The client knows when you’ve done it.The consumer knows when you’ve done it.The industry knows when you’ve done it.Do you really need to spend thousands of dollars for an award jury to tell you you’ve done it? I’m not sure,its a lot of fun though.
Do you think you’d be where you are amir without your award wins? Doubt it. Seems like your trying to justify your existence as a WW CCO. Anyone with functioning brain cell would know that even without you, it’d all still be the same. Do DDB really need your permission to do what they were already doing before? It’s like saying they weren’t capable before you turned up. You were no longer required, even before this half arsed article.
I totally agree. Great article Amir.
I have 12 pockets.
youre missing the point.
If he was to say DDB were boycotting all awards based on their new found integrity, then fair enough, good call – he didn’t, he said he was entering LESS and SOME.
Totally half arsed and nulls his point entirely
Agree we should be more positive. Awards have gone crazy.
However…
Amir is trying to make a stand but he’s not really. He’s making a fence and sitting on it.
If he’d committed to a certain few, and really put his cojones on the line, then I totally agree. at present still seems a bit vague for me.
Been saying this for a long time. I think the problem is these awards are too subjective. There’s no metrics to base the judgement on. I remember seeing many award winners who’s ads ran for less than a week simply so they could be entered.
If the awards were performance based, for example, did it raise awareness, did it increase profit, numbers through the doors, clicks, EOIs, etc…
A digital campaign is easy to measure due to analytics and the like but with the awards there’s no consistency, no firm way to say if an ad actually served its purpose and benefited the client. And really, that’s what we get paid for.
This is just an excuse to get in the press – because the last few years DDB just hasn’t been in the press with awards. Unfortunately the Amir years for DDB are lacklustre to say the least. The VW work has lost it’s identity and the German agency is wallowing. Instead of preaching this nonsense – just fix what once was a great agency.
Is DDB the next McCann? Just putting it out there.