Ahhh springtime...when the bears wake up, the flowers bloom, and every week another shortlist drops. It’s awards season in ad land—whether you’re anxiously waiting for the results or just looking forward to browsing the best work of the year, it’s an exciting time. At least it is for us ad nerds. What’s the point of all these awards? From an outside perspective, it might seem like our industry is a bit #OBSESSED.
Everyone has their own reasons. It feels good to win. It’s validating. It means you set the bar high and met it. Perhaps you want to get on the Strategy Report Card. Maybe striving for awards is that extra nudge that fires you up to swing for the fences on your next brief.
Yesterday’s lunchroom talk covered the topic of bribing your children to play harder in sports. Someone said they used to pay their son $5 per goal when they were younger. I laughed, thinking, “That’s not the point of sports!” But I remember similar motivations from when I played lacrosse as a kid. The deal was, if I scored a goal in a game, we stopped at DQ for a blizzard on the way home. Obviously, blizzard/payout or not, you want your team to win. You want to play your best or to get that satisfaction of catching the pass that leads you to an epic breakaway. That promise of ice cream just seemed to make me push a little harder and run a bit faster…
Here in Alberta, we have two local ad clubs with nationally recognized shows: The Advertising Club of Edmonton (ACE) and Calgary’s Ad Rodeo, hosts of the ACE Awards and Anvil Awards, respectively. That means work is judged at the national level—and winning at these shows counts towards the Strategy Report Card rankings (a high status to have) along with shows like Applied Arts, ADCC, Comm Arts, etc. These two organizations bring together the community and raise the bar for exceptional work here in our home cities. With another ACE Awards behind us and the Anvils quickly approaching, we’re reflecting on how what we’re all in it for (aside from the party).
Are awards the ultimate goal? No. Making world-class, effective, smart, “wish I thought of that”-level work is the goal. Awards are a motivating tool—the ice cream treat we hope we get to go along with all of that.
Then it’s time to buckle up and go kick ass all over again.
See you at the Anvils?