Spiked: Top, the advertising is valid!

In the last days before Christmas, a golden radiance and glow pours over all the station streets of this world. The glitter of Christmas decorations reminds us every year that Christmas shopping is not the only thing that is just around the corner. Tying up the package with the creative ranking will also once again create emotionally charged moods in our editorial department. "Most advertising agencies neglect their self-promotion. They only preach that to their clients," noted Werbewoche in a recent article. It is probably to be explained by a "guilty conscience" in this regard that shortly before the start of the new year, at least a resolution is made that one wants to tackle it more actively in the coming 2012. One last opportunity to do this before New Year's Eve is the creative ranking. The telephone wires are running hot to make sure that everything comes out right. In fact, during this Advent season, well-known agencies have already asked us for an advance copy of this ranking, because a decisive presentation has snowed into their homes once again in December. We are happy to provide this service and feel flattered as a reference, of course. However, just as the school grades in the final report do not reveal everything about a student's true talent, the creative ranking is also not a clean bill of health for neatly designed advertising. Last week I was able to spend four exciting days in Paris. Representatives of 25 trade journals were there as jurors for the Epica Awards, reviewing some 3800 pieces of work. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., we clutched an electronic scoreboard and pressed scores between 1 and 10. To form this opinion, the rules allowed us five seconds each between the presentation of two spots or posters. These subjects followed each other in a fast but fair rhythm non-stop throughout the day.

"Every day, more than 3,000 advertising messages hit people," says a finding from advertising research that has already been quoted many times. From this point of view, it is therefore certainly correct if we wanted to generate similar spontaneous reactions in the Epicas for rating. However, this led to a few perplexing results. A Nike film, which was celebrated with gold at all the "important" festivals in the world, still couldn't make it off the shortlist in Paris even after voting twice. It's a gripping film. But is it really the highest of all film arts to be able to capture the more or less unmissable emotions in a seething soccer stadium with three dozen cameras? Isn't it much more of a creative craft if the little figures in a doll's house are shot in thousands of frames in such a way that the finally moving dolls still move the viewer to tears even after the fifth viewing of the film? As is well known, there is no accounting for taste. Thus, even Wunderman's perfect subjects for Phonak, only a few days after the eleven record clios in New York, first won nothing at all in Paris and then, after a corrective round of discussions, still won gold and twice silver. Jung von Matt/Limmat fared similarly. Only in the discussion was the Facebook action for Obermutten rewarded with a well-deserved silver. All this haggling in the "tie-break" finally resulted in Switzerland winning not 7 - as reported on Monday - but 19 Epicas this year. The accounting for the creative ranking gratefully accepts it. And the methods of "advertising research" may continue to be discussed in the future.