ADFEST – THE INTERACTIVE WORK IS GOOD, BUT IS IT RELEVANT?
By Barbara Messer in Pattaya Beach, Thailand
TomEslinger, the Jury President for this year’s Cyber Lotus category atADFEST, says he’s enjoying the quality of this year’s entries.
But Eslinger, interactive worldwide creative director at Saatchi &Saatchi London, can’t help wondering whether some of the ideas arerelevant to the brands they’re created for.
“We’re seeing a lot of work that explains the brief, challenge andresults, but sometimes I wonder what it has to do with the brand?” asksEslinger.
Shaun Branagan, executive CD at NetX in Sydney, agrees: “It’s as thoughagencies are developing interactive campaigns because they want to showoff the latest technology – you can tell they’re technology-drivenagencies rather than ideas-driven agencies.”
Eslinger says it’s unfortunate interactive agencies are still beingbrought in so late in the creative process. “You can tell when thecampaign revolves around a TV commercial or a print ad, instead ofbeing built around a strong interactive idea.”
The jury panel, which includes Valerie Cheng from ARC WorldwideSingapore and Hiroo Kida, viral director at ADK, will spend the nexttwo days debating the entries of this year’s Cyber Lotus, with thewinners announced at the Gala Dinner on Saturday night.
18 Comments
Rollover the heads in the photo – they explode.
Wow!
You can upload your own face on to them too!
Why don’t web sites with midi files of Yankee Doodle Dandy and opening and closing gif flowers win awards anymore? They were nice
It’s perfectly ok the slag most of the stuff on the net, just remember that it’s just as relevant to tv ads.
Think about it, tv is getting more and more technology driven and less about ideas this year in award shows more than ever.
Couple of examples, Coke happiness factory. A shit load of awards and if a junior cam up and said “ok the idea is that inside the coke machine there’s a crazy world of little things that make it…… and it’s ANIMATED!”
mmmmmm gold.
Cadbury Gorilla, we’ll see if that shiny thing catches the jury’s eyes, but if there is an idea, I’d love someone to explain it to me.
“OK the idea is that we buy the biggest soundtrack we can with a solid beat and use all the special effects we can to make a gorilla look as good as the gorilla we’ve all see in the movies last year.
So to sum up, slag the net all you want, but the the “best” of TV is just as technology driven as most of the interactive ideas.
9.14, if you can’t see the idea in Cadbury Gorilla, I fear for your career trajectory.
Chocolate makes you feel happy. Cadbury would like to further entrench their position as the dominant chocolate brand in the market, therefore they create a campaign that attempts to own the emotion that chocolate promises (happiness).
It’s classic brand work, and it will do well at shows, as it deserves to.
Based on your logic, there’s no ‘idea’ in Guinness Surfer either. Or any number of great brand campaigns that are based on emotion, not rationality.
I don’t like slagging people off, but I honestly think you have no idea about creativity in advertising. Please tell me you don’t get paid to make ads, write strategies, or approve work. Please.
I’d say the idea was that you could enjoy a few seconds of whimsy, kinda like eating a block of chocolate. Which worked for me.
Fair point about the vfx in tvcs though.
What’s Adfest?
9:14, you need to move past award school.
for your own sake.
quickly…
Cadbury Gorilla is the biggest peice of bullshit to hit the industry this year. all the high fiving and self congratulation going on from it is embarrassing to the industry as a whole. anyone who “explains” why this is a good ad is deluding themselves, it is a creative wank of the highest order, an embarrassing statement of what we think is actually “good”.
So, 1:33pm, you’re suggesting the Cadbury create happiness, I mean, wow, you need to take a break, I recommend about 2 months and stop listening to the bullshit your client sends you because you’re starting to believe it.
Oh bTW, the make chocolate, pretty average chocolate at that.
9.28, have you ever given a piece of chocolate to a kid? Because when you do – guess what – you create happiness.
It’s really easy. Hand over chocolate bar, kid’s face lights up, kid is happier than before chocolate bar.
Have you ever seen someone who’s had a shitty day, hit the couch with a block of chocolate? They do this because the chocolate makes them feel better; happier.
People buy and eat chocolate because it feeds them emotionally. Chocolate makes people happy.
If you think that’s some piece of esoteric planning bullshit, you have the insight of a housebrick, and don’t deserve to be commenting in an advertising blog, let alone drawing a salary.
For god’s sake the creatives themselves have admitted that they thought of the idea for another product! Cadbury Gorilla is a joke.
Cadbury Gorilla won Best Television Commercial of the Year in the recent British TV Advertising Awards, so the judges there seemed to like it.
1:09pm – See your point. But what does that have to do with a gorilla? Don’t get me wrong, I love the ad. It’s entertaining and you won’t get people changing the channel when it pops on. BUT, your rationale is just marketing mumbo jumbo to the max-o. Honestly, do you think viewers will think what you’re talking about when they see the ad? The rationales people come up with are hilarious. You’re hilarious. You don’t need this rubbish to sell a good idea. Try educating your client on what a good idea is first. It’s like teaching a dog to sit. The more you show them, the more they comprehend.
Technology driven versus ideas driven is a euphemism for “I don’t know shit so I’ll talk bogus brandspeak and non-existent big ideas all day long!”
nah, 9.01. They’ll feel (not think):
that ad made me feel good =>
It was a Cadbury ad =>
Cadbury makes me feel good.
That’s it.
Can’t believe people don’t get this.
You have to stop looking at what ads say, and think for a second about how they make you FEEL.
All the great branding work is based on emotion, with a thread of logic tied back to the product.
This is not ‘marketing mumbo jumbo’. This is how big ideas are sold to big clients in big markets. Or do you believe that they just approved the ‘happiness’ work because they thought gorillas were cute?
But yeah… sure. You can go into Cadbury or Nestle or Unilever or Coke without any of this marketing or planning ‘rubbish’ and just show them a good idea, and they’ll buy it.
Bwaaaa haaaa haaaa haaaaa…
No. YOU’RE hilarious.
what does an above the line creative know anything about online! I eman we dont tell you how to do your jobs, even thou you try and do ours telling us to do what we have doen in print. Bunch of idiots. You can preten to understand the medium but really yours just fakes. When was the last time you had a online creative telling you what to do. Arrogant flick of the wrist syndrome. Maybe you should just get a real job at bakers delight.
Most online people are there to help each other,work together to resolve the issue, come up with a solution. But the big boys in the above the line are too busy lloking at the mirrors and saying how good they are beacuse they have won some sort of industry standard award. Did it really sell anything? or was it again made up. Online at least can be measured by individual people and not 600 people.
Get yourself on second life and take another look at the mirror.
Shaun Branagan, executive CD at NetX in Sydney, agrees: “It’s as though agencies are developing interactive campaigns because they want to show off the latest technology – you can tell they’re technology-driven agencies rather than ideas-driven agencies.”
Hmmm Netx isnt an ideas company or an advertising compnay so how the hell would he know. Have you seen the work that was done by Netx…i’ll sum it up…lacks ideas how ironic! Good to see netx is up there with the rest of the interactive agency! last time i saw they didnt even make top ten!