Today I head off to Singapore to go to the Spikes awards.
I’ll be walking around halls filled with clever people, clever work and, sadly, a bunch of scam.
As I have written numerous times before, I hate scam. I hate how the industry continues to turn a blind eye to so much of it. And I hate that the people behind it are often rewarded with awards, bonuses and new jobs.
I appreciate some clients are very closed minded.
I appreciate some creatives want an outlet to demonstrate what they can do.
But why the award shows don’t create a ‘concept’ category where creatives can show what they could do, is anyones guess.
Of course I know the real reason why, because apart from the fact we would see 95% of all future award entries going into this category – which means agencies wouldn’t want to fund it nearly so much – it doesn’t do our industry much good if the only creativity we can show is when we don’t have a client to answer to.
That said, I do think award shows are important. Not just to get the industry together and discuss major issues. Not just because it allows us to showcase the work that actually deserve to be showcased. But because – and the Spikes is especially good at this – it offers access, exposure and training to the people who are new to the industry so that [hopefully] they will want to progress based on substance rather than the superficial.
Which gets back to the importance of killing scam because if we want to win back our credibility with the CEO’s and CMO’s worth their salt, we’re going to have to accept giving awards to a single print ad that ran in a free Singaporean local ‘newspaper’ for a local BBQ supplies shop is not going to cut it. Quite the opposite in fact.
This industry – with our clients – has, does and can-do amazing things … but it’s hardly surprising business questions us when our strategy to demonstrate our value appears to be bestowing an obscene amount of awards on the fictitious or the spurious and then shouting about it like we’ve just won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Today is going to be an interesting day.
Thank god I have my blood pressure pills with me.