Amazing isn’t it that an event such as the GMR Marketing Forum last week is not on the Campaign calendar either, but there you go COMPLAIN again!!!

Flip will be participating in international awards, and once the IAB is launched in the Middle East and online gets a body that understands digital is all about, then we will come back and hopefully support online awards for and by online people.

Let’s face it things are not going to change overnight, but let’s dare buyers to stop advertising in un-audited print media, let them prove the audience they are reaching with mass media formats, and justify effectiveness of the media used, rather than sticking a finger in the air and thinking they can gauge it by the figures they are given by the media owners.

Having worked for one of the regional publishers, circulation figures are a joke, yet agencies will still continue to book into these media. The whole industry needs to take a long hard look at itself, other media is coming guys, and like the rest of the world print and outdoor will take a big hit.

We are in this together. Or at least most of us..

I can answer that question for you. I have worked in an offline agency for 4 years and prior to that on the Clients side and I can tell you this:

Sure Online is another medium, but the measurements are 100% different. For a print ad to become a Cannes Finalist it needs to move people’s emotions and feelings about the brand and just be a brilliant piece of work. In online however it’s about the END CONSUMER first and then everything else.

I was part of a team that created award winning TVCS and Print ads which made clean sweeps at IAA awards over the past years. They were fantastic. But could I tell my Client how many people saw their TVCs, how many responded etc? My previous Agency was extremely ethical but matter of fact is, that some agencies go to their Client (or dont) asking for their TVC or print ad to run at least once so they can enter it into awards…..

Online…however can delivers specific results to Clients, go down to deeper consumer physographics and turn around my client businesses.

This is not an argument nor is one better than they other, but they are different in terms of measurments. Both mediums demand respect very, one cannot survive without the other BUT this is why you require special judging. It’s not based on creativity but on end results first and foremost - and as per my last comment(read above)- Creativity is at many many levels.

This is why special judges who understand this are required.

And by the way, Cannes Advertising Awards have realized this and thus have established the Cannes Cyber Lions in 1998 with Juries completely immersed in the understanding of Online, as well as Cannes Direct, Cannes Integrated, Cannes Radio, Cannes Print…etc, etc.

We should all meet on an understanding that online did not yet get it’s share in the market. Any award won at this stage is won for the online industry as a whole and not for a particular brand/agency. We should all work together into educating the market on the benefits of online and i am sure we will get their very soon

It was a fantastic night and everyone was deligghted with the winners.

I suggest that we all support those awadrs next year…

Get real people - it cannnot be a case of awards for award’s sake.

Listen to Joe Ghossoub’s commments at the IAA World Conference this year. Online is nowhere at the moment in the Middle East in terms of spend, startegy nor creativity.

I cann understand people being upset at not winning - but I think that the whole market has to take a long hard look at themselves.

Special judges for radio, spearate judges for outdoor, and yet another for print?

What is so special about Online, Mr Sheridan, that requires special judges? Online is yet another medium.

Rather than Online moaning that they are treated badly alol of the time, perhaps they should strat doing something positive.

Surround sound is another factor, when you have strong executions across every medium that deliver on the brand attributes and positioning you already establish a link with the consumer (or the judges in this case). Once that link is established they will be attentive to anything you throw at them, better yet they would be waiting for it! Looking at it from a standalone online perspective is just too narrow in this case…
Finally packaging (after all this is what we do we come up with solutions and package them)…

On a separate note, consumers don’t see campaigns that are spanning 15 portals or multiple geographies, they don’t even see a strategy; the complexity of a solution does not define its success.. it’s actually the simplicity of it that does.. Whether we achieve our objectives through a “Strategic plan” as you label it or an award winning simple execution, what matters is that it clicked with consumers.. and obviously with the judges.

If you want to discuss this further, Rasha has my number.