24-Hour Party People

It's April. Award-show season—what passes for party time in the ad industry—has officially begun. It's the time of year when agencies can forget the daily pains of the business, at least for the time it takes to hand out 20 or 30 statuettes, certificates, whatever form the accolades take, and just revel in the work. The work, the work, the work. If only it were that easy. Time and time again, it's been proven that creative awards mean little to clients. Creatives often tell me, with fingers crossed, their hopes and expectations for the season, while hiding their excitement from their clients, lest they be perceived as looking out for themselves and not the company's bottom line. But even those clients who actually don't seem to mind the award-show regalia, who seem to enjoy it, even—it seems like one minute they're patting their agencies on the back, the next minute they're walking away as if it all meant nothing. The nerve! Let's look at Cannes. Clients have expressed more and more interest in the show in recent years, but does the track record of some of the big winners tell us anything?2003 was the first international hurrah for Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the industry's current golden child. The Miami shop won the Grand Prix for Ikea, for "Lamp," directed by Spike Jonze. At the time, the judges waxed on about how it not only managed to tell an interesting, entertaining story that evoked feelings of empathy for the discarded lamp, but it also focused on the product. While the industry praised Ikea and CP+B's work, though, behind closed doors the relationship was unraveling. Despite the creative successes, piece by piece the business moved, until the U.S. account landed at another agency a year later. In 2001, the Grand Prix winner in print, Paradiset DDB for Diesel, which had won the top prize in film a few years earlier, lost the account to KesselsKramer before the festival even opened. And in 1998, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' Grand Prix for Nike proved to be something of a parting gift, as the client, which had invited the agency to join Wieden + Kennedy on the roster, said goodbye the following year. Award-show wins obviously can't save a troubled agency/client relationship. The shows don't operate in the real world, nor are they meant to—at least, not the shows that judge the work based on creativity. Who cares about creativity if pretty pictures and clever words can't sell the product. What about results? Shouldn't numbers mean something? They do sometimes. Last week, the Effie winners were revealed. Though they probably should, creatives usually don't talk about this show as much. It's the one that honors the "most effective" ads. But even that doesn't insulate agencies from trouble. The infamous example is Taco Bell and TBWA\Chiat\ Day. In 1999, the agency won the Grand Effie for its "Yo quero Taco Bell" Chihuahua campaign. The next year, the client buried it. eBay recently fired Goodby after six years. It's not a new story, but it's one that keeps repeating itself. It's all about who you know and who you haven't yet pissed off. When it comes to eBay, it seems like just another case of one agency's personal relationship trumping another's work. The vibrant musical "Do it eBay" campaign, and even its more tranquil follow-up, "The power of all of us," had gained fans. The work had even won a gold Effie last year and a bronze in 2002. "Who could blame them?" Jeff Goodby asked in an internal memo following the dismissal. "Brilliant creative work that deftly shifted gears at their request and remained exasperatingly still brilliant gets, well, kind of repetitive after a while, doesn't it?" So, go ahead and celebrate while you can. The party doesn't always last.

Brand Marketing

24-Hour Party People

Eleftheria Parpis

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Eleftheria Parpis