Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Adnan Arnautlija
Last month Amsterdam was the venue for the jubilee 30th edition of the Epica Awards, Europe’s oldest awards for creativity in advertising and the only industry awards judged exclusively by representatives of the media dedicated to creative communications. Therefore, this award may be the most relevant as a mark of creative excellence, because their basic postulate is impartiality.
Now, when the impressions from this year’s jubilee edition have settled in, we taped editorial director of Epica Awards and author of numerous books on marketing, media and advertising, Mark Tungate, who shared with Media Marketing his opinions on this year’s awards, and announced some changes for the next edition.
How would you assess this year’s edition of the Epica Awards? Are you satisfied with the overall quality of entries?
Honestly, I worry every year that the level will fall – but it never seems to do so. When we were choosing the five Grand Prix on the last day of judging, I think everyone in the room could see that we had a cornucopia of wonderful work to choose from. The sheer number of solutions available to those who work in the communication and design industries have liberated creative imaginations. My only regret is that the number of “classic” press and poster entries has shrunk – but those that were entered were very good indeed.
This year you included over 100 journalists in the pre-selection jury who assessed the entries online and sifted out the shortlist for the Grand Jury to scrutinize in Amsterdam. In this manner of judging there’s always a danger that some works worthy of the finals get dropped out before the finale. What’s your opinion on this?
It’s difficult to envisage another way of doing it. Obviously I can’t sift through all 4,000 entries myself – and in any case that would be extremely unfair, as I would be basing my decisions on my own tastes and influences. Even if three members of the Epica team did that job, it would still be unjust. I think the only way of achieving an acceptable selection is to let a fairly broad swathe of experts judge and vote. There is always a danger that something will slip through, but we take a close look at the entries which “just miss” the shortlist by a few points and “rescue” them for the main jury if possible.
The jury in Amsterdam noted the remarkable trend of strengthening in video and digital campaigns, while print seems to be lacking innovation and courage. Is this because agencies invest less effort in print, or do you think they simply don’t enter their print works enough?
I was a little disappointed by this, as I mentioned earlier. I’m assuming that it has something to do with the increasing dominance of digital technology – especially in the outdoor space – and the shrinking number of print newspapers and magazines. But like vinyl records and paperback books, perhaps print ads will make a comeback. Analogue can seem very seductive to the digital generation.
Epica gathers the most relevant media of advertising industry from across the globe, who appoint their representatives to the jury. We at Media Marketing believe that gathering of editors for the “jury duty” could also be used for a one-day conference of advertising media where we could exchange experiences, visions for the development of the industry, and simply make the judging week even more useful for our business. Or do you think that breaks in between judging sessions are enough for this? We have an idea how this could be organized.
I absolutely agree with this and it’s something we’ve done in the past – as a working lunch. But time is indeed tight during jury week, so perhaps we need to meet at another moment in the year. In any case I believe Epica has a duty to make a contribution to the press by encouraging innovation and networking. I write a quarterly media innovation newsletter called Media Shot, which is sent to all the journalists on our jury, so we could certainly expand on that. Conversely, I’ve sometimes observed a reluctance on the part of our editors and publishers to share their ideas with perceived “rivals”, even if those rivals are based in another country!
Epica this year turned 30, and as some say, the real life begins only after you hit 30. What are your plans for the future? What should we expect next year?
We will probably reshuffle the categories a little to reflect the evolution of the industry, especially the importance of branded content. More broadly I think we need to continually remind the advertising and design community that we are a unique and prestigious award. The involvement of international media brands like Time and Euronews in our organisation has helped that, but many creatives seem to think that they make advertising purely for other creatives – and they only want to be judged by their own circle. Staying in a bubble is dangerous; it’s important to break out and seek alternative views. I think we can provide that service, while of course celebrating creative excellence.