Dave’s Take

I have been fortunate to have worked with some great creative talent throughout my career and as a result, I have received my fare share of awards. I say fare share because I seldom submit entries for award consideration. My philosophy towards industry awards is “trophies don’t sell soap.” While it’s great to receive recognition from one’s peers, I believed that good creative should be driven by the desire to help your client rather than creating a campaign that will look good in competition. I say ‘believed’ because recent research has forced me to rethink my position.

According to a new study by the British consulting firm, Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), a definite link between creativity and effectiveness has finally been discovered. Their research examined 213 case studies of ad campaigns over the past eight years, involving such prominent clients as Cadbury, Budweiser, Audi, Honda and Volkswagen. Their findings? Creatively awarded campaigns are eleven times more effective than campaigns that were not awarded industry accolades. Eleven times – that’s a lot. How could I have ever doubted the value of Addies, Tellies et al.? Maybe because I still don’t buy the multiplier of eleven in terms of award winners over never-rans.

“Creatively awarded campaigns are a more reliable investment – they achieve greater effectiveness levels,” said Harnish Pringle, director general of the IPA. His report considered a wide range of qualifiers, including sales, profits, ROI, likeability, emotional appeal and market-share growth. “Creativity and effectiveness are inseparable. This is a good step, but there’s still a lot of work to do to show the exponential value of great creative ideas,” warns Bert Moore, chief strategy officer of Lowe Worldwide. Clearly the study is a dire warning to those CEOs that believe cutting costs brings the best return on investment.

While I’m still not completely convinced that a campaign’s effectiveness is vastly related to the number of Addies, Tellies or Cleos it garners, I have to admit the British study has opened my eyes to the realization of a connection between the two. I still need proof from an American research team that the same causality exists in our campaigns. After all, even though we share a language and common heritage, the Brits are in a world of their own.