RE: UKNM: Banner creative and Yell awards

[Ross Sleight]

At 10:27 17/07/98 -0000, you wrote:

>>In my view if you are going to give awards for banner design then you

>>should do so based on results.

>>

><snip>

>>

>>Ray Taylor

>>NMC/Adplan


>Total rubbish !!!

>

>Just because a banner, or any other product, produces a large reward, 

>finacially or whatever, doesn't mean that it's actually any good

design/ 

>technically wise.

>

>Lee


Creativity can be termed as a subjective area and results can be termed

as an objective area. All communications industries have different

awards for these areas - in Advertising Creative awards such as Cannes,

BTA, Campaign poster, Campaign press etc etc. work by looking at the

creative enhancement of a single proposition and judge how effective

this may have been against the target audience of the ad.  Thus a lot of

charity ads for example are awarded gongs in comparison to FMCg goods as

the content allows greater scope for creating an impactful message.

Their effectiveness is not judged.  In advertising, effectiveness is

judged by the IPA Effectiveness awards and to a certain extent Media

Week awards (as placement is just as, if not moreso important now than

the actual message - what good is a really creative exposition of a

proposition if no one in the right audience sees it in the right

environment at the right time/aperture?).  These are judged upon a

submission that looks at the strategy for implementing the proposition

and the effect of that proposition against the target audience, often

with econometric models applied in order to ascertain what the payback

on marketing/advertising is. Thus FMCg goods ads often win in this

category as their effectiveness, � return for � spent has been

quantified, along with the unquantifiables such as raising awareness,

changing brand perceptions etc. 


I do not believe that;


(a)	If you spend more on an ad in execution it is better.  How many

c�1M ads for production are better than c�250k? This depends on the type

of production values required to bring the creative idea alive, and the

type of tone of voice that the brand wants to project 


(b)	If you spend more on an ad in media placement it is a better ad

- Mcdonalds spend c�50M a year in advertising - Coke c�30M, Unilever

across all products c�60M, Tango c�4M - size does not dictate creativity


- it dictates awareness and reach against your target audience.


Thus a banner ad on the web could cost �200 to make v one that costs

�3k.  It doesn't make the �3k one better.  If you spend �100k in

placement against a mass audience to ensure reach, it doesn't make it a

better ad than spending �1k media placement against a small defined

target audience.  


We have the genus of awards in this industry - some of which are

creatively based (subjective) such as Yell, some of which are

objectively based (effectiveness) such as the NMA effectiveness awards.

Neither is right or wrong - they are just measured in different ways,

and as long as clients are aware of this then we should run parallel

award schemes.


Ross