The Hindu Business Line : Mere sound and fury?

A leading advertising agency recently bagged a host of awards for its out-of-the- box creatives for a fashion brand. It won golds, silvers and bronzes in virtually every category that it had entered. It was definitely an unusual creative, but most people in the audience tried hard to remember if they had ever seen the campaign earlier. And some even wondered what it was all about, till they saw the tagline which mentioned the brand's name. While there are controversies galore about advertising agencies entering competitions in India, winning awards are vital for them. But how important are awards for the advertiser? Is an award-winning creative, which has not really delivered for the brand, of any use to the advertiser?

"Definitely not," says Vivek Bali, Senior Vice-President (Marketing), Airtel. Bali says that while creativity in advertising is definitely required, what is imperative is that it delivers against the objectives with respect to the target audience.

"It could be with respect to increase in sales, market share or salience as measured on the basis of certain metrics. We have goals and targets on which we have to deliver as an organisation, and these are shared with our key partners including our advertising agency. An award for the sake of an award is simply not good enough in highly competitive categories such as ours," he says.

Tata Motors also shares a similar opinion. "For Tata Motors, advertising has to be effective and draw consumers' attention to the campaign and eventually the brand. Awards are secondary," says a company spokesperson.

Girish Shah, Head of Marketing, Kingfisher Airlines, says though campaigns making it to awards shows are hardly visible and few really deliver for the brand, it is not fair to expect advertising to deliver all the growth.

"There are a number of other factors such as pricing and distribution strategy which impact growth tremendously.

"Having said so, I also feel that advertising needs to deliver results. And, for this, the advertiser has to ensure a good brief articulating the strategic imperatives facing the brand is given to the agency. The agency has to understand the brief well and come up with great clutter-breaking ideas. An effective 360-degree communication solution is more important than an award-winning creative."

Does an agency's award-winning record actually matter for the advertiser when he/she shortlists an advertising agency? "Awards are a mere hygiene factor," says Vijay Jain, CEO of jewellery brand Orra.

"When we shortlist an agency, we first look at the quality of work the agency has done and also the team that would work on the account. While the institution is important, it is also important to know about the talent pool it has," adds Jain.

"We look at factors such as whether the agency has relevant experience to offer the brand, whether it has operated across the globe, the kind of brands it has handled and its speed of response to creative challenges," says Shah of Kingfisher Airlines.

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