By: Jelena Fiškuš, Creative Director, Studio Sonda
Photos by: Sean Poropat
We’re ignorant, and not ashamed to admit it. Just two years ago, HURA called us and asked if we have anything to report to Effies and we asked what’s that. We recently recorded our first TVC and the client talked about the importance of PPM, and we acted as if we understood what that meant and nodded our heads, only to google it afterwards.
For this reason, we use every opportunity to learn something. This year we attended three great festivals in just three months, in three different parts of the world. We couldn’t be more delighted.
Two days ago I wrote about the Iceland Design March, in the article titled: Iceland has an incredible sense of design, but no designer of the world will ever outdo the design of nature on this island. Yesterday I wrote about the Days of Communication. And I will finish my trilogy on festivals with the article on ADC 97th Annual Awards.
New York was high on our list of priorities, but we told ourselves we would go there only once they invite us. This finally happened in the middle of April when we received a wonderful mail from the organizers of the oldest award in the design and communications industry that is being awarded continuously for the 97th consecutive year… And so we come to the trip that was immortalized for us with the ADC Gold Cube. That same golden Cube was the reason why at the Newark Airport they told us: “Step back ma’am and do not talk to me until I’m finished searching”. Only after the Gold Cube from the hand luggage (where we put it in order to prevent any possible misplacing) was well inspected and checked for the presence of dynamite, it was granted permission to come home, to Vižinada, together with us. ADC jury awarded the Piquentum wine with the Gold Cube in the packaging design category, which also brought us nomination for the Boutique Design Firm of the Year. The win, eventually, and well deserved, went to the Magpie Studio from London.
Anyway, it’s quite hard to remember the award ceremony after the jet lag and two kamikaze Shutterstock cocktails, but what’s not so easily forgotten is the moment you share the stage with the works like Barbers’ for Apple, #Blood Normal (really, is there anyone who never asked why the liquid in ads for sanitary pads is always blue?), as well as with the makers of the Japanese wheelchair with pedals for the disabled COGY Wheelchair, with the Fearless Girl … etc etc … Yes, it’s nice to be on stage with the Fearless Girl, and is even better to wake up in the morning and go see her in person.
Two days later, in the Convene building on Park Avenue, One Club creative week was held. It’s one of those buildings with doormen, which you always look from the outside and wonder who lives there. And now we were there, greeted with strawberries for breakfast. Nice. Many, many lectures at once, in four halls, and the eternal conundrum – which one to choose. Now we see Susan Cradle almost more often than our own parents: Last month in Rovinj, the day before she was applauding us, and today we were applauding her at the panel on Project Meddle. In the meantime, Susan was selected as the first woman president of the One Club for Creativity, the most famous non-profit organization that supports creative excellence in the advertising and design industry, and we congratulate her on that. Malicious people will say “She must have slept with some,” – like those signatories for Siniša Labrović’s “referendum”. At the roundtable, one of Susan’s interlocutors is an anonymous, communicating through a video wall. The project creators, who call themselves “a group of concerned creative professionals”, have designed a case study for the campaign they believe is the most brilliant ever. Because if it succeeded in winning over American audience, it can conquer advertising festivals as well, right. So they enter the project to a host of festivals, like the One Show, Cannes Lions, Clio Awards … And it’s about Russian meddling in the US elections. The only problem is that none of the festivals knows what category to put it in, but when the campaign results are summed up: immeasurable number of media mentions, 760 million CTRs (thanks Google), 288 million twitter impressions, and a pro-Russia oriented U.S. President… You must admit they deserved at least an Effie!
The project was entered on behalf of Russia, and you can check it out here: https://www.projectmeddle.org
Also interesting was Paul Bichler, creative director at Saachi & Saachi who firsthand presented us the It’s a Tide Ad campaign, or how they like to say: Hijacking the Super Bowl. They created a stunt that made almost every Super Bowl ad look like it promoted Tide detergent. And even more than that. With interventions in the intro program, and with several clever announcements, it turned out as if even the Super Bowl itself was promoting it. Have you seen how Eagles and Patriots have nice white kits? You can say that it’s a dream of every creative to make other brands act in your favor. And while in the case of the Responsibly beer it was something cute
in the case of Tide it’s so ingenious that it even gets brazen. I mean, to hijack the Super Bowl… wow
For the end of the article, instead of attempting to describe NY, here’s a nice video that will tell you all you need to know.
In conclusion, every opportunity for personal growth is invaluable, but the festivals I wrote about over the last three days have an added educational and experiential value for us, because in some way they connect the extremes. From the most dynamic city in the world, to the hot springs hidden in the tectonic hollows and volcanos. From the hijacking of the Super Bowl to the clandestine plays by the most powerful president in the world. From a rhubarb sweet and a sheep wool blanket, to the closure of the full circle and return home. It all reminded us that we are on the right track. It reinforced our opinion that design and communication are most valuable when they are a reflection of the region they come from, when they are intuitive, logical and useful, when they relate to the issues of the area they come from. And it taught us that never, absolutely never, is their value reduced because they used hard-earned, then discarded foods to produce brandy or some ugly vegeta, or whether they are a global performance that fundamentally questions the postulates of democracy, to the point it gets media space on CNN. Most of all, I want to have more of such approach in our region, in Croatia, and then Days of Communication, apart from great lectures, will also have a lot more gold awards at Ideja X.
