10 April 2008

A million fakes and a couple of genuine winners

Dave King, Executive Creative Director at AIM Proximity Auckland, describes his time as a juror at the 2008 Dubai Lynx Awards.

A million fake watches, a bar full of dodgy women and some very nice ideas. Definitely not what I expected to find at this year’s Dubai Lynx advertising festival.

To be honest, when Terry Savage, Chairman of Cannes Lions asked me if I wanted to judge Cannes’ sister show, the Lynx Awards, I had to admit I’d never heard of ‘em. “The major show for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) mate. It’s a cracker!” he said. And after guaranteeing he’d show me a great time, I eagerly agreed. Thank God I did.

Judging international shows is always rewarding. As well as getting you thinking about what it is that differentiates really good work from great work, it also gets you debating the same with a bunch of world class creatives. And, I have to say, the interactive and direct panel I was on was one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of being with, not only while judging, but also while enjoying the many delights of Dubai. Being the perfect size, just 9 people, our panel debated and argued and discussed but always respected what the others had to say. More importantly, we were also able to be flexible and widen the goal posts when we needed to. Let me explain.

When we started judging, we all judged just as we would at Cannes. We were tough. By lunch we all realised we’d probably been too tough and at the rate we were going we would have needed an armed escort to escape the gala night unscathed. It wasn’t that the work we had seen was bad, it just wasn’t great. In fairness, I also think we judged a couple of the weakest sections that first morning.

So we agreed, for the shortlist at least, that we’d relax, put what the rest of the world was doing to the back of our minds, and just judge what was on the table. It was a good call. It meant that we had a good number of finalists, which pretty fairly represented the best work in the region.

Then we could go back to being tough(ish). While giving away a fairly generous number of minor gongs, we agreed that Gold really did need to be world class. Otherwise, it’d like thinking you’re good looking because you are better looking than your ugly mate.

So we looked, we chatted and we agreed. Sitting in front of us was some work that we all agreed will be troubling the jury at Cannes in a few months from now. We dished out a small handful of golds, and there were at least a couple of other pieces that were close to gold as well.

The Direct Grand Prix is a very smart piece that surprised the customer in a clever yet confronting manner.
The problem is that identity theft is a growing problem for credit card companies. Dubai First Credit Card wanted to turn this problem into an opportunity be offering enhanced protection against fraud through its Photo-ID system.
The agency, Bates Pangulf, hit on the great idea of having a courier arrive at the prospect’s office and hand over a package. The recipient, of course, happily signed for the parcel only to open it up and read a pleasant thank you for handing over his/her signature as well as all the other bits of information that make identity theft only too easy.
What a great way to dramatise how vulnerable we all are to theft unless we wise up – with Dubai First Credit.
It was the unanimous choice for the Grand Prix but, personally speaking, I felt the piece could have benefited from a little more crafting of the letter.

I also loved the DHL Truck banner. In the banner, a FedEx truck reverses and loads up the old number, leaving the new number there for you to register. Some jury members thought it was too simple (I wasn’t aware that was possible) but to me that’s what made it so good. Elsewhere in the integrated categories there wasn’t too much to cheer about, I’m afraid, and we awarded no Grand Prix. Still, walking around the exhibited winners in the other categories, it struck me that a lot of the print and poster ideas that did well here in Dubai could also do well in Cannes come June-time. We’ll see.

What was absolutely amazing was the passion shown by the agencies at the Gala night. Louder than a Galatasaray home crowd and just as excitable, there were horns, sirens and machine guns fired into the air (okay, perhaps not the machine guns but it must have got close). Having seen plenty of Grand Prix winning creatives in Australia trudge to the stage looking like they are about to receive an anal examination (without lubricant), it was really refreshing and uplifting to witness such pleasure both from and for the winners. And made me very pleased that we had looked long and hard to find every single one of the gongs we gave out.

Run by our good friends from Cannes Lions, the week-long Lynx experience was an absolute blast. Terry (and Lisa) were true to their word; a good time was had by all and some very good, bordering on great work got honoured. Good to see the Middle-east beginning to develop its own style and I look forward to the day agencies from Dubai, Bahrain, Saudi, Lebanon et al triumph at the big global awards shows as well as doing well closer to home.

The Big Won

Search

A million fakes and a couple of genuine winners

Comments