Yes, awards do matter
By Nick Capanear, executive VP and executive creative director for GSW-NY, a Syneos Health company
I recently read an article about how awards don’t really matter in the advertising industry. The author basically said the only thing advertising is supposed to do is sell stuff. I agree, but not completely. Awards do matter.
If awards in creatively driven fields don’t matter, why does the film industry spend almost the entire first quarter of the year dressing up and accepting awards? If you use the argument that the film industry’s reason for making movies is to sell theater seats, it doesn’t add up. The films that win the Academy Awards usually aren’t box office smashes. Instead, the award is given because of the film’s craft, creativity, or innovation. And then when it wins the award, more people will see it, which then sells theater seats. I think that awards in the advertising industry are just like the film industry.
For those of us in the advertising industry, this is why awards matter:
1. They help recruit the top talent to your agency
The fight for talent in agency world is fierce. You have to sell your agency to get the best people to come work there. Awards help you with a soft sell because creatives see your agency getting awards and want to work for you. I think for most creatives, a shop winning awards is potentially the most alluring reason they’d want to work there. It’s a clear signal that the agency is an ambassador of smart, beautiful work.
2. Your potential clients see your awards
Your potential clients see when your agency wins awards. That keeps you top of mind when it comes time for their RFPs. It happened to us when our Pradaxa “Redfish” campaign got a nod during the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Even though we didn’t win the final award, we won in the end because we picked up more clients after they saw our work in an award-worthy setting. Think of award recognition as long-term ROI.
3. Your team gets a boost out of winning awards
Winning always feels good. Positive morale boosts creativity and makes your people happy. People who are happy don’t tend to look for another job.
4. They’re validation for your client
In a world of ROI, clients love to show their bosses when the creative for their brand wins awards. Creatively awarded work is validation that they picked the right agency to work with. And this can also lead to retention and growth in the client-agency relationship.
My opinion can be backed up with data. In 2010, Ad Age published a report from the U.K.’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising that showed that creatively awarded campaigns are 11 times more effective than campaigns that do not win creative awards. (To read more about the 213 case studies examined over an eight-year period, visit this link: http://adage.com/article/global-news/ipa-report-ads-win-awards-11-times-effective/144942/.)
At GSW, we have something called Passion Projects. It’s essentially doing pro bono or deeply discounted creative work for charities that are important to GSW team members.
One of those is MiracleFeet, an organization dedicated to treating club foot all over the world. GSW won multiple awards for its creative work for MiracleFeet, which led to more awareness of this great organization. And the MiracleFeet team saw a direct correlation in increased donations during the time the award was covered in the press. That’s an incredible outcome of the awards process, even better than winning the actual award.
At the end of the day, I see only the upside of awards. Sure, you’ll have detractors say it’s just a way for the awards people to make money. There is some truth to that – a rising tide lifts all boats. If you’re already doing excellent work for clients, it takes minimal extra effort to submit that work for an award. I know that’s what we’ll continue to do at GSW.
