Winning awards has its perks. It's a major ego boost. Some of them look really nice on our reception desk. And it gets us invitations to judge in some of the industry's most important competitions. Follow us for a look behind the scenes & inside the jury.
D&AD Young Blood Competition
Pieter Nys, our UX director
"The D&AD New Blood awards (https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-new-blood-awards/) are a little different than most other awards. Only young designers and creatives can participate, and they do so by answering to real briefs instead of just sending in any work that fits into a specific category. The briefs are created by real companies and should solve real challenges those companies are facing.
I was asked to be part of the jury for the 'Spotify Design Brief'. Spotify is struggling to introduce social into their application, so they were looking for fresh ideas to make listening to music a more social experience. In short, this is what they asked the participants: How can Spotify turn the listening experience into a social experience by enabling people to share the audio that means the most to them? How can they help listeners build a deeper connection with friends and artists?
The entries that stood out the most were very simple ideas that were executed very well. I know this has been said a lot, but if an idea can’t be explained in one or two simple sentences, chances are it’s not good enough. A lot of ideas aren’t even considered because the case movie is too complex. So, remember: If it needs to be rewinded several times to make the idea clear, it’s a lost cause."
This winner illustrates it perfectly: A simple idea, perfectly explained in a 1:30 case movie: https://www.dandad.org/awards/new-blood/2021/spotify-design/3900/spotify-charts/. All the winners can be found here: https://www.dandad.org/profiles/jury/631902/spotify-design/
Creative Belgium Awards - Digital, Brand Experience, Media and PR
Our Online Strategy Genius Laura
"After being locked up in my house for over a year, it was great to get to judge in real life. And also a little bit awkward. But mostly great. As a virgin (a jury one, that is), a lot of things surprised me. Like how intense these couple of days were, how much awesome Belgian work I hadn’t seen before and how tough - yet fair - the debating process was. But above all, I was impressed by how we, as a jury, were looking for the right balance between strong, creative work and solving real client problems. It’s not only about great ideas, they have to make a difference too."
Creative Belgium Awards - Integrated and Innovative campaign
Philippe De Ceuster, the best-looking design director in the world (dixit)
"I had the pleasure of being a judge at this year's Creative Belgium Awards 2021. For the crème de la crème of all categories: Creative Data, Culture & Social Behavior, Innovative, Integrated & Grand Prix for Good. The chairman of the jury, Stef Selfslagh, gave a short briefing with some points of interest. He urged us to let out "the commercial whores" inside us. Meaning: we should award campaigns that we sincerely believe have grown the advertiser's business.
The whore inside me didn't find that obvious: 60% of the entries were non-profit cases and social responsibility campaigns. Needless to say, we didn't talk much about growth... And consequently, we quickly relapsed into a classic judging pattern. Being: is this a good, relevant, well executed idea that fits in the category? It wasn't a great year. Covid was definitely a major killjoy. But there were a lot of covid ideas that boosted the creativity curves. So thanks, Corona!
In the end, we only handed out 2 golds, 7 silvers and 3 bronzes, which says it all. Many ideas lacked sharpness. In our categories, I only saw cases. Well-balanced, well-written and well-presented stories, but sometimes the case was better than the idea.
It's no secret that it's getting harder and harder to produce creative work for big brands. The commercial interests have become so big! And that leads to creatives who are starting to act more and more like do-gooders. But can we blame them? Next year, let's change the world AND advertising. Let's have one sole purpose: Agency of the Year!"
Cannes Lions Film jury
Jens
"A few years ago, some professionals predicted the end of the 30 second commercial. They were right. Not a single one of the commercials that we judged was 30 seconds. They are all longer. And better. And stronger. The moral of the story: We need more time to tell your story."
