When agencies measure themselves, and are in turn weighed by their clients in terms of the number of awards they win, the race to grab awards can lead to the odd misstep.

We are referring, of course, to ‘scam ads’ – ads created with the sole purpose of wowing awards juries and never mind the product or the client’s interest! A few years ago, a rash of scam ads had nearly killed off what is arguably the biggest show put on by India’s Rs 36,000-crore-plus advertising industry, Goafest, when it had barely begun.

Then the industry sat up, tightened the rules and the back-checks, brought in external auditors to validate the process, and the problem was laid to rest. Or so we thought.

But this time around, the problem is back. With a vengeance. Scam ads cast a long shadow over Goafest 2013 even before it began. They scalped a number of creative heads at India’s biggest agency JWT, including its Chief Creative Officer Bobby Pawar.

The controversy also led to a rash of pullouts and resignations from various juries and committees, and saw its share of boycotts, the most notable being the absence of Ogilvy & Mather. But finally, the festival happened, the awards were given out and the matter was done with – for the time being at least.

Or so we thought. In a surprise move earlier this week, Leo Burnett, which topped the medals tally at Goafest this year, decided to withdraw two radio spots for Tata Salt Lite, which had won Abbys (as the awards are nicknamed) in the digital category. The controversy was once again over the ads being created only for being considered for awards not for any paid release.

With the rules clearly stipulating that eligible ads have to be part of paid-for campaigns, Arvind Sharma, chairman & CEO India Subcontinent, Leo Burnett India, who also heads the Awards Governing Council of Goafest, withdrew the ads.

The two spots for Tata Salt Lite had bagged two golds and two silvers in the radio and radio craft categories for Leo Burnett.

After the ads were pulled out, Leo Burnett's award tally fell to 67 – including seven gold, 32 silver, and 28 bronze awards.

Although it won more awards in total than McCann Worldgroup, which came second with 56 awards, McCann now emerges as the most awarded agency, because it had the same number of golds as Leo Burnett, but had a grand prix – the ‘gold of golds’ – as well.

But while the industry was celebrating wins, mourning losses and totting up awards, there was a clear message from the people who actually enable the industry to exist – the clients themselves.

At the Conclave which usually precedes the awards ceremony, the message from the clients was clear: “Listen to us.” As Nitin Paranjpe, managing director and chief executive officer of India’s largest fast moving consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever put it succinctly: “Consumers are not dying to see your ads.” He demonstrated his case for not bombarding the consumers with endless ads by showing a chilling, real-life video of ordinary housewives on what ads meant to them. Most said they used ad breaks to surf channels or actually get up and finish household work!

Consumers, Paranjpe said, ‘saw’ over 3,000 brand messages a week – but remembered almost none of them. Worse, almost 76 per cent of consumers surveyed felt ads lied. Instead of trying to solve this problem with yet more ad blitzes, he asked, “why not take a step back and do something different?”

Suresh Bandi, deputy managing director of Panasonic India, put the client-agency relationship in a different perspective. Clients, he argued, only ask of agencies what they are in turn asked for by customers. “If we say we want ‘faster, better, cheaper’ advertising, it is because our consumers want products ‘faster, better and cheaper’, he pointed out.

In fact, a passing remark by another speaker – Amul’s MD R. S. Sodhi, that he spent only 1 per cent of revenues on advertising, appeared to have struck a chord with most advertisers. If Amul could manage its enviable brand recall by spending just one per cent of revenues, why can’t we, appeared to be the common thought.

But Amul manages to do with less because its creative, low-cost ads manage to cut through the clutter and register on the consumer’s mind, admitted a senior advertising professional.

Which brings us back to the vexed issue of creativity, awards and scams. “The industry needs awards,” argues Leo Burnett’s Arvind Sharma, one of the moving spirits behind the Goafest and the Abbys. “Abbys are awards for the industry, by the industry. It’s peer to peer. And that is the only way you can judge creativity.”

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