I was delighted to come across a small pride of lions in a corner, as clearly it’s more about the journey than the destination. Precisely one year after Saatchi Saatchi New York won Grand Prix and the coveted Lion for Agency of the Year, I came across them yesterday in a corner of a meeting room during a tour of their offices.
Of course I couldn’t resist the temptation to check how much one of these things weighs, and as expected, they are heavy… and desirable! (Don’t let any advertiser or creative tell me they wouldn’t love to win one !!!!). I’m not denying it, although I still recognize that it’s like aspiring to a final in the World Cup, not impossible, but unlikely or at least, very difficult.
These felines are so heavy that there is no agency that has won them that has not suffered the consequences that make you think of the dark side of the Lion. They are a kind of magnetic spells that contain some kind of spell, to put it in terms of a typical fairy tale.
In fact, my good friend and Quorum colleague in Peru, Mauricio Paez (below in the light blue sweater) was telling me about all the consequences that the pair of Lions in Lima brought them two years ago.
Clearly, not all that glitters is gold, and although the advertising world is measured in terms of creativity, it is also measured in terms of the consequences it brings. In fact, Quorum did not participate in awards again since its Lions!, as they opted for a break after practically all of its creative team was hired by other agencies under unsustainable conditions.
In my opinion, advertising awards measure the gap between what we might give clients and what they normally choose to approve. They are also valuable in attracting the best talent in the world’s markets, as well as being irreplaceable in the pull that daily life requires to raise its creative level, a vital essence in the connection between brands and people. They are also sensational for directing organizations towards creativity, for organizing competitions when they are won and for competing. They also have risks and threats, but I am not going to focus on them in this essay.
However, when the agency of the year 2007 in Cannes tells us, through its CEO, Mary Baglivo, that in presentations they don’t even mention their extraordinary recent awards, it reminds us then how internal, how ours and how small the subject of advertising contests is in the face of the big market.
From last Thursday, and after a day’s meeting at Saatchi NY, below is part of the group of CEOs from Latin America and the Hispanic market, together with the hosts of the great New York agency at the corner of Hudson and Houston.
This Saturday in Cannes the first of the 8,000-odd delegates expected by organizers this year will be arriving. In fact, Josafat Padilla, Humberto Ling and Gabriel Alfaro should already be there, the first two preparing to receive their brief tomorrow at the Young Lions Print Competition.
In the meantime, from that nice New York office, a couple more photos, including a view of its lobby and the atrium to the meeting rooms on the 16th floor, on a sunny June afternoon in SoHo.
In the meantime, this Sunday kicks off the 2008 version of the Cannes Lions International Festival.
