Dance around the golden calf
Samuel Helbling on the Meaning and Purpose of Creativity Rankings
Samuel Helbling on the meaning and purpose of creative rankingsFor the fifth time, Werbewoche has published its ranking of the ten most creative Swiss advertising agencies (WW 43) - this time, too, not without some critical reactions. At the heart of the current hit parade is the ADC Switzerland awards ceremony. This has less to do with navel-gazing than with the fact that this is the only event at which practically all well-known Swiss campaigns compete against each other. For the ranking, the awards
of the most important creative competitions according to a differentiated
points system.
The fact that large agencies or networks can take part in international competitions more often than small agencies thanks to larger in-house advertising budgets cannot be dismissed. However, anyone who - like Andreas Prokesch in the guest commentary - also wants to bring headcount into play and break the whole thing down to awards per employee is ignoring reality: agency brands are relevant for clients - and that is what it is primarily about.
For them, creative and efficiency prices are the currency in which the core competence of an agency is measured. These determine its market value.
How many people have worked on a campaign or are involved in a
agency, on the other hand, is of no interest to the client. Whether a work is even submitted to different festivals does not matter to him. Because each jury is different and sets its own accents. Nor does it matter whether the client has a large budget or a modest one. A creative agency worthy of the name will do its best in both cases. Commercial communication is
a single dance around the golden calf of attention. And also for
advertisers, there is no beyond the media society. An advertising agency is nothing more than an attention bank, which creates the
The key to success is to convert invested money into attention and back into more money. The royal road to success leads via the level of awareness, for example by means of rankings. Only those who master the rules of the media society can be top of mind. And this is especially true for advertising agencies. Anyone who doesn't want to understand this should continue
advertise.
> Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief
of the most important creative competitions according to a differentiated
points system.
The fact that large agencies or networks can take part in international competitions more often than small agencies thanks to larger in-house advertising budgets cannot be dismissed. However, anyone who - like Andreas Prokesch in the guest commentary - also wants to bring headcount into play and break the whole thing down to awards per employee is ignoring reality: agency brands are relevant for clients - and that is what it is primarily about.
For them, creative and efficiency prices are the currency in which the core competence of an agency is measured. These determine its market value.
How many people have worked on a campaign or are involved in a
agency, on the other hand, is of no interest to the client. Whether a work is even submitted to different festivals does not matter to him. Because each jury is different and sets its own accents. Nor does it matter whether the client has a large budget or a modest one. A creative agency worthy of the name will do its best in both cases. Commercial communication is
a single dance around the golden calf of attention. And also for
advertisers, there is no beyond the media society. An advertising agency is nothing more than an attention bank, which creates the
The key to success is to convert invested money into attention and back into more money. The royal road to success leads via the level of awareness, for example by means of rankings. Only those who master the rules of the media society can be top of mind. And this is especially true for advertising agencies. Anyone who doesn't want to understand this should continue
advertise.
> Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief
