I sit drafting this post in McGinty's bar in the domestic departures hall of OR Tambo Airport, glass of cold Black Label in hand. I can't say I've been caught drinking beer at 9am on a Sunday morning before, but to me its 3am in New York and I think I deserve a drink after a 17 hour flight.
The Snapple Theatre West 50th and Broadway - venue for the judging.
I've just experienced judging my first international awards in the Big Apple. The John Caples Awards held at the Snapple Theatre on Broadway incorporated two days of solid reviewing, debating and near fisticuffs with 70 other Creative Directors from around the world. As an aside, you could count the women in the room on both hands, but that’s to be expected from a gathering of highly recognised advertising agencies, marketing companies and most importantly digital agencies. I'd been invited by Glynn Venter (Executive Creative Director, Draft FCB) who has served as the South African chair in previous years, and it was a great honour and a privilege for me personally and for Quirk professionally to attend.
From far and wide they came - Sydney, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, London, Atlanta, Zurich and so on. Unlike other awards, Caples is a not-for-profit affair and does not pay for judges’ flights or accommodation. The reason Caples is considered one of the best awards is because the judges that attend are there because they want to be there, their agencies want them to be there and not because it’s a free lunch. (Well we did get a free lunch and breakfast, but you know what I mean.)
Groups of Creative Directors judge a range of work.
Entries are measured primarily on three criteria - concept, copy and art direction. Sadly this was not a results-orientated awards like The Bookmarks. On the first day, Caples likes to mix up the judges and get them to step outside their disciplines for the morning. I was allocated print and print collateral (not quite what I expected), which allowed me to broaden my thinking and not be too critical - it’s very easy to be too harsh with work that is very similar to what you do for a day job.
We were placed in groups of three on a table of six. Boxes of work were stacked around us and the aim of day one was to pass or fail the work. A pass means it continues to day two and onto a new set of judges, and fail means it gets binned. Literally. The expense of mailing multiple A2 boards to NYC did not fail to amaze me. I hope they recycled because there must have been a ton of rubbish. Caples could build a site which companies can upload their work to, but we know the majority of advertising agencies lean toward the dinosaur when it comes to anything involving digital. With that in mind we had a lunchtime panel debate hosted by Haymarket Media with typical ad agency heavyweight ECDs discussing Social Media. To say they were 'not convinced of its potential' is an understatement despite multiple points to the contrary by the digital CDs on the floor. Sigh. I would have choked on my roasted vegetable pasta salad if I hadn't seen it coming.
Day two. With five other judges I was assigned Social Media, ecommerce and viral video categories to score. Each judge had a score sheet which was marked privately, and should one of your agency's entries be listed you abstain from the vote and another judge would score for you. It was great to see that one of Quirk's entries had made the cut, and now we'll have to wait for the results. The total scores will be collated by the organisers and the winners announced in March.
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