ADC

The ADC Awards: Behind the Iron Curtain
Posted on 2008-Mar-31 at 01:31
Brandon Burns
New York Correspondant
ihaveanidea

The mystery of advertising awards shows is ﬁnally revealed. Each week I will post an interview of one of the jury members from this year's ADC Awards, giving you an uncensored peek at what really goes on, what the judges are thinking, and how they decide upon which works to bestow the prestigious ADC cube.

Nancy Vonk
CCO
Ogilvy & Mather Toronto
Advertising Jury Chair

"What a crap year."

On the second of four days of judging, Nancy is less then enthused when asked to describe the overall quality of the work entered into this year's ADC awards. She’s been judging for hours. Ten hour days to be exact. She’s jumping on her smart phone between rounds, using a spare 5 minutes here and there to manage the creative department of one of Canada’s most successful agencies. She’s tired. She’s even a tad cranky. Then she takes a moment, readjusts.

"Well, it always feels like that in the beginning. But there's some terriﬁc work that's emerging."

Nancy has served on the jury of almost every major awards show - she knows most of the work is crap. But it's supposed to be that way. She's tasked with leading a group of industry heavyweights as they attempt to ﬁnd the absolute best of the best. The creme de la creme. The stuff that makes you say "I wish I did that." To accomplish that is an amazingly hard task, which is why the ADC is notorious for awarding only a handful of awards each year.

"The ADC stands out not only for big ideas, but excellence in craft. We're not cutting anyone any slack executionally. None."

But what exactly does it take? What's the secret? The formula? "Sometimes you see trends, but this year the trend is no trend. Old formulas are most prominent. And it's sad. I think it shows a lack of imagination. And people aren't responding anymore to this old "logo in the corner" way of thinking."

"But the true gems are the ones where you ﬁnd a good solution to a real problem."

As the puppeteer behind Dove Evolution (you know, the viral spot that swept all the grand prix last lear), Nancy knows that, while hard, cutting through the clutter is possible. Unfortunately, a large part of the ability to do that falls not so much in the hands of the creatives, but in the way agency and client models are structured. "We can't have anymore auto pilot. You can't put a media choice ﬁrst, you have to put the solution ﬁrst. You have to come to more holistic solutions that take into account a bigger issue than what will work in 30 seconds on TV."

But c'mon, Nancy! You can't tell that to a 20-something creative team. At the end of the day, you get a brief and you need to deliver upon that brief or you'll be delivering pizza for a living, right? Wrong.

"Once you show them the way, clients love it." For clients as conservative as Dove and Kraft, Nancy and O&M have had success taking briefs for television spots and print ads and turning them into opportunities to present not only scripts, but other ways to go to market more effectively. Ways that the client probably never thought of. And that's okay, because the clients hire us to be the creative problem solvers.

That's our job. Step up to the plate and solve problems. Solve them with creativity and ﬁnesse. And maybe, if you do a really good job, Nancy and her jurors will gather in a room and have at it as they debate which ADC Cube to award you.