At the top of my 2012 checklist

by Filip Nilsson

Every year it happens: I’m so battered by the torrent of horrible, troubling or insignificant things produced by our lovely industry that I start asking myself why the hell I’m working in it – aren’t there more interesting and useful things I could be doing, like moving furniture or directing traffic?

And then every year it’s the same: when the downpour stops, we’re left with a few incredible, brilliant things that have the potential to transform our profession. Then I admit that I’m right to do this indescribable job, perhaps the most astonishing job in the world, because there’s not a single year that doesn’t deliver wonderful surprises even when you think you’re living through hell.

In 2009, for example (truly a hellish year, no?), it was the turn of T-Mobile to shine, with an Epica d’Or-winning campaign that raises the standards of the industry. Places at the top are scarce, and they’re reserved for those who break records. Records often so hard to shatter that having a new and fantastic idea is not enough. To this you must add excellent writing, perfect execution and a flair for orchestration; combined with freshness and an air of simplicity. In short, craftsmanship of an exceptionally high quality. That’s the Holy Grail. The payback from consumers is enthusiasm, surprise and connection – almost addiction. What more can an advertiser dream of (apart from the odd sexual fantasy that would be out of place here)?

We’re paid to strive towards that goal. To come up with not just any idea, but a staggering idea, expressed in an ideal way. We’re paid to constantly protect brands from banality and inconsistency. To enable them to break through the ambient noise, so that they stand out from the rest. To help them construct a lasting identity through acts that are striking, committed, intelligent – and well executed. Right now you might be thinking that we always say the same thing, that the world has changed and that our discourse has become a bit limited, so why don’t we change the record? A first observation: certainly things are changing, and ever more rapidly, but what’s great is that this fight for the new idea, for simplicity and brilliance of execution, has not changed one bit. In fact it’s even more relevant amid the confusion, cacophony and complexity of the media.

A second observation: there has been a slight misunderstanding about the definition of “newness”. We’re starting to see in our industry a trend in which one novelty chases out another and in which everyone is running to keep up; in which certain “geeks” turn their noses up at so-called traditional advertising. They are no less ridiculous than the lofty nostalgia buffs who snigger at our “tweets”. It’s touching how everyone fears being left behind when things begin to accelerate. But the battle is being waged elsewhere. Real novelty always emerges where one least expects it, and almost never from the simple use of technological innovation, which is what many people seem to expect.

I think it’s important to state again that the use of novelty for novelty’s sake is almost as useless in advertising as the use of art for art’s sake.

Let’s focus on ideas and the eloquence of ideas. The rest is just directing traffic.

Filip Nilsson, Executive Creative Director, Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg (2010)

New is boring

by Rémi Babinet

Every year it happens: I’m so battered by the torrent of horrible, troubling or insignificant things produced by our lovely industry that I start asking myself why the hell I’m working in it – aren’t there more interesting and useful things I could be doing, like moving furniture or directing traffic?

And then every year it’s the same: when the downpour stops, we’re left with a few incredible, brilliant things that have the potential to transform our profession. Then I admit that I’m right to do this indescribable job, perhaps the most astonishing job in the world, because there’s not a single year that doesn’t deliver wonderful surprises even when you think you’re living through hell.

In 2009, for example (truly a hellish year, no?), it was the turn of T-Mobile to shine, with an Epica d’Or-winning campaign that raises the standards of the industry. Places at the top are scarce, and they’re reserved for those who break records. Records often so hard to shatter that having a new and fantastic idea is not enough. To this you must add excellent writing, perfect execution and a flair for orchestration; combined with freshness and an air of simplicity. In short, craftsmanship of an exceptionally high quality. That’s the Holy Grail. The payback from consumers is enthusiasm, surprise and connection – almost addiction. What more can an advertiser dream of (apart from the odd sexual fantasy that would be out of place here)?

We’re paid to strive towards that goal. To come up with not just any idea, but a staggering idea, expressed in an ideal way. We’re paid to constantly protect brands from banality and inconsistency. To enable them to break through the ambient noise, so that they stand out from the rest. To help them construct a lasting identity through acts that are striking, committed, intelligent – and well executed. Right now you might be thinking that we always say the same thing, that the world has changed and that our discourse has become a bit limited, so why don’t we change the record? A first observation: certainly things are changing, and ever more rapidly, but what’s great is that this fight for the new idea, for simplicity and brilliance of execution, has not changed one bit. In fact it’s even more relevant amid the confusion, cacophony and complexity of the media.

A second observation: there has been a slight misunderstanding about the definition of “newness”. We’re starting to see in our industry a trend in which one novelty chases out another and in which everyone is running to keep up; in which certain “geeks” turn their noses up at so-called traditional advertising. They are no less ridiculous than the lofty nostalgia buffs who snigger at our “tweets”. It’s touching how everyone fears being left behind when things begin to accelerate. But the battle is being waged elsewhere. Real novelty always emerges where one least expects it, and almost never from the simple use of technological innovation, which is what many people seem to expect.

I think it’s important to state again that the use of novelty for novelty’s sake is almost as useless in advertising as the use of art for art’s sake.

Let’s focus on ideas and the eloquence of ideas. The rest is just directing traffic.

Rémi Babinet, Founder of BETC Euro RSCG & Global Creative Director of Euro RSCG (2009)

Foreword

by Amir Kassaei

At present we are living through one of the most radical but exciting periods in recent history.

It is not only the financial and economical crisis that is keeping the world in suspense. It is the speed with which it is undermining old structures and forcing new thinking.

We have reached the end of an era that has been driven by a policy of short-term gain and profit maximization. Now we are experiencing the beginning of a new era that spotlights innovation, creativity and sustainability.

Therefore, it is more important than ever to reward ideas that set standards beyond media and categories – standards for new thinking, for intelligent problem solving and for refreshing insights that affect people and markets.

The Epica Awards recognise exactly these sorts of ideas. And you can get an impression of their power and potential by leafing through this book.

Enjoy!

Amir Kassaei, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Group, Germany (2008)

Foreword

by Juan Cabral

When I started working in advertising I thought that ideas where the driving force of the industry. Silly me. Of course I later figured out that it was all about numbers.

But I have to say, that for the last couple of years, I’ve realized that it’s not about numbers anymore. Numbers evolved into something else. Something worse.

The real driving force of the industry is Fear.

Fear is the real client these days. What a shame.

Clients deal with too much pressure. Almost to the point where they can’t think for themselves – it’s like something else controls their heads. That’s why ads are becoming more mediocre at a time when media is blossoming.

So there’s more mediocrity around us.

But I have to say, I’ve been pretty lucky with a few of the clients I’ve worked with lately. I would go even further and say thanks to them.

For leaving fear outside the meeting room.

For avoiding safety (there is no safety).

And for thinking with their hearts (at least for a brief moment – that takes some guts).

Because it’s about winning people’s hearts, not their heads.

That’s where healthy brands live, in the audience’s hearts.

Agencies and clients need to work hard to create bubbles where ideas can be fertile. Where brands can dream – even for a bit. In those sporadic moments I remind myself where the real force of the industry lies.

Juan Cabral, Creative Director, Partner, Fallon London (2007)

No New Eldorado

by Erik Vervroegen

When I was invited to write this introduction, I took a look at what my predecessors had written and I said to myself, "How on earth am I going to come up with such brilliant remarks and appear so smart?" And then the moment came when I just had to start writing.

One thing I've noticed is that certain debates become fashionable in the advertising business. Not so long ago the trendy subject was: does creativity sell? Today, in my experience, you hear nothing but talk about new media and integrated campaigns.

There's a lot of waffle spoken about this subject. Of course communication tools are multiplying, but they don't add up to a magic potion or a new Eldorado. Successful advertising can't exist without a big idea. And for a big idea to emerge, two elements need to be united - as all the award winners in this book already know.

The first is the creative team: talented guys and girls given all the means they need to come up with sensational ideas. The second is a structure capable of bringing these ideas to life; in other words, capable of selling them.

If the entire advertising industry concentrated on these two essential factors, if all our energy was spent training creatives and ensuring that their ideas saw the light of day, the world would be full of very rich clients and much-loved brands.

In the end, despite all the fashionable debates, nothing has really changed since Bill Bernbach.

Erik Vervroegen, Executive Creative Director & Chairman, TBWA\Paris (2006)

Pointing the Way to Tomorrow

by Olivier Altmann

As someone who was honoured with an Epica d'Or in 2004, I know full well just how much winning such an award can mean to an agency. And I'm even prouder that I was asked to write the introduction to this year's Epica Book now that I've seen the quality of the two grand prix winners.

By singling out the Guinness 'noitulovE' commercial and the Grande Reportagem 'Flags' campaign, the jury of trade press journalists showed a combination of rigour and foresight that ought to make them the envy of international advertising juries round the world.

Guinness - now there's a brand that has succeeded in getting back to product roots and then ingeniously transcending them in what must be considered a classic work of 'advertainment'.

The concept was also flawlessly executed (courtesy of Daniel Kleinman): so flawlessly, in fact, that some viewers couldn't resist the temptation to run the commercial backwards. And, of course, it's hard to forget the music that works both to underpin the meaning of the film and to build dramatic tension to a stunning climax.

Likewise, Grande Reportagem has devised a print campaign that brilliantly denounces much of what is dysfunctional in today's world, yet without lapsing into facile solutions like voyeurism, sentimentality and grimness for grimness's sake. In addition, the visual approach they adopted was so ideally suited to the medium and the brand that it couldn't fail to impress a panel of international journalists.

But however exciting these two campaigns may be, we mustn't forget that our business is currently undergoing a sea change. The digital revolution, coupled with the Internet, mobile telephony and interactive television, is rapidly transforming traditional media and the way they're used. People are spending more time at the computer than in front of the TV. They are about as likely to carry their mobile phones round with them as their wallets. And thanks to DVD/hard disk recorders, they can zap commercial breaks with just one click. All this means that we need to seriously rethink the ways in which we seek to woo our audience.

A quick look at the excellent web film made for Axe/Lynx - the winner in its category - should be enough to convince just about anyone that it's a whole new ball game now. Brands can no longer afford to pump out the same message to everybody. Building one-to-one relationships is what it's all about today.

All the advertising agencies are aware of this challenge by now, and they are striving to offer end-consumers a set of 'experiences' with each brand. But let's be honest: so far, only a minority of them are making it happen, and they tend to be located on the other side of the Atlantic. Why? Presumably because the US got a major head start with the Internet, because media budgets are heftier over there and because the idea of taking risks in the interest of greater market share is more deeply ingrained in American culture.

Yet if Europe plans to get in on the globalisation act, we'd better start learning to think outside the box, and fast. Our creative people will have to be more versatile, showing equal motivation whether they're designing a 30-second TV commercial or a website dedicated to a new product launch. Our art directors will have to excel in both designing print ads and flyers for opening nights. Our copywriters will have to be as good at crafting radio scripts as they are at developing content for a mobile phone mini-series.

This may well be a field in which major European advertising events like the Epica Awards can play a vital role - by recognising the best creative work currently being done, particularly work that makes you stand up and take notice. And that means work that points the way to the advertising of tomorrow.

Olivier Altmann, Chairman of the Publicis Worldwide Creative Board (2005)

I Don't Believe the 30 Second Commercial Is Dying. Given Some of the Work in This Book, I Don't Even Think It Smells Funny.

by Basil Mina

Here's an upbeat thought to kick off this celebration of creativity : 86 per cent of advertising goes unseen. It's not just disliked or mistrusted - it's unseen.

Ads are kind of like pigeons. They're everywhere, but you don't notice them until one refuses to get out of the way, and then you have to decide whether or not you want pigeon-kill on your conscience.

Truth is, most people don't give a flying pigeon about advertising. They simply blank it out.

Can't say I blame them. How many commercial breaks, magazine pages or web sites do you figure they have to endure before something brilliant, fresh and innovative (something like the better work in this book) works its way into their hearts and minds?

The answer of course, is "none". TiVo and other evil, ad-hating technology has put us right at the bottom of the food chain. They can simply program us out of their lives.

I guess the obvious question to ask is, if they're indifferent to our brand stories, are they equally indifferent to our brands? You know the answer to that one.

Things have moved on from the days when the biggest media decision was 30 seconds or 60, and, as the great Ed McCabe put it, all your ad had to do was "make them feel a schmuck for not buying your product".

I guess Mr. McCabe would say it's a whole new ball game. There's a growing belief that the 30-second commercial is dying and that 360 degree thinking is the way forward.

Now, while some of the most exciting, breakthrough work we've seen over the past few years has been in viral and alternative media (you only have to look at the wonderful Trojan work in this book) at the end of the day, holistically-driven crap is still crap.

I'm not sure the 30-second commercial is dying. Given some of the work in this book, I don't even think it smells funny. The same goes for print and other conventional forms of advertising.

While the world might have changed, the fundamental problem is the same as it ever was, probably the same as it always will be: the belief that we can communicate via osmosis.

After all the theories, buzz words, acronyms, touch points, brilliant media solutions and "good meetings", all consumers really give a damn about is our ideas. The brilliant creative ones that break through, connect and persuade.

There's some good work in this book (the work is judged by journalists and if it makes it past their naïve, non-judgmental eyes it'll make it past anything).

Some of it is brilliant, fresh & inspiring. But there is also a hell of a lot that is trying really hard to be just like the work that was in here last year.

That's not helping anyone is it?

The only thing that will pull us back up the food chain is fresh, original ideas. And if it's in here, it's no longer fresh or original.

So, pull your nose out of the book & go do anything within the reasonable bounds of the law to get your work in here next year.

Basil Mina, Regional Creative Director Leo Burnett Europe, Middle East & Africa (2004)

This Book Will Teach You How to Do Advertising. This Book Will Teach You How Not to Do Advertising.

by John Pallant

This is the least interesting page in this book.

(Feel free to turn over now, if you wish. I completely understand.)

Much, much, much more interesting are just about all the others.

For there you'll find some of the best ideas from some of the most talented advertising writers and art directors in Europe.

And fabulous they are, too.

(The ideas, that is. The writers and art directors are a pretty odd bunch.)

Study them closely. And when you have studied them, keep this book by your side and study them again.

Because while there are many 'how to' books on just about everything else, this is the closest you'll get to a 'how to' book on creative advertising.

If you are just starting out in this business, there is much to learn here.

And even if you are not, there is much to be reminded of. The power of simplicity, the importance of..(well, I won't go on, you can find out for yourself).

You will see, too, that these principles apply everywhere in Europe .

There are no great cultural differences when it comes to advertising.

Look closer still, and you may even start to detect some techniques which could be borrowed and applied to your own work.

A layout design. The way a headline is constructed, perhaps. A clever image.

Please resist this temptation.

(Hard to do, I know, in these days of less people having to do more work in less time.)

And please resist it again in a few years from now when you think nobody will remember.

Because although this book will teach you how to do advertising, it will be advertising like the advertising in this book.

And as great as it is, the advertising in this book is now the great advertising of the past.

The great advertising of the future will be nothing like it. That's why it will be great advertising, of course.

And where will you find your inspiration for that? Well, fortunately, just about everywhere else apart from this book.

In other words, don't just spend your life thumbing through advertising annuals. And don't spend your life sitting in your office looking out at the world through the window either.

Go out and actively search out new experiences to feed your imagination. You'll have more fun, for one thing, and it will show in everything you do.

And then when you create an idea that bears the unique stamp of your personality and experiences, that's when other people will say, 'I wish I'd done that'. Because they couldn't possibly have done it in a million years.

(And guess what, some of those people will be sitting on awards juries.)

But before you do all that, of course, please do enjoy the wonderful work here and absorb everything it has to give you.

And be inspired, too.

But be inspired not to imitate, but to go and inspire us all back in return.

Which is all from me.

So now you can turn to the most interesting pages in this book.

John Pallant, European Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi. (2003)

The Power of Ideas

by Marco Testa

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked over the last two years is whether advertising - classic, old or whatever you wish to call it - will still have a future given the rise of new media, one-to-one communications and guerrilla marketing.

I always say "yes". Why?

Firstly, because I believe that the beauty of advertising - classic, old or whatever you wish to call it - is that everybody can share it, we can see ourselves in it, as part of a group and it has the ability to create a "community".

Secondly. I believe that advertising is now, and has been for a while, an integral part of pop culture just like cinema, music, and fashion. And I don't believe that cinema, music and fashion would make much sense if they tried communicating "one-to-one".

And finally, I think that the strength of advertising comes from ideas and not necessarily from the media that carry it. A beautiful woman is still a beautiful woman whether she is driving a Ferrari or an old runabout.

So, a brilliant, simple and creative idea can be as powerful whether it is produced as a commercial with a large budget and a famous director, or if we put it in a newspaper or in a web frame.

The power of advertising comes from ideas. The idea of the product that the advertising is made for, the idea we tell through our stories.

Yet, you need passion for ideas, talent for creativity. And you need a lot of dedication to feed passion, ideas and creativity.

Instead, today, with one merger after another, advertising risks losing more and more of the added value which is the foundation of our profession. A profession that is very similarto that of a craftsman. Such craftsmanship is also found in fashion, industrial design and food - things which Italy is renowned for throughout the world. For that reason I continue to think that creativity is not a commodity, which can be sold in bulk by weight. I believe that quality matters and always makes the difference.

I am not here to defend Italian advertising, I never have. I defend creativity, full stop.

Because style and creativity have no flag, they know no boundaries, but they need to be defended everyday.

They need to be protected from the homogenisation of ideas, from cliches and stereotypes, from market research that tells you about the present, but doesn't know what to tell you about the future.

In the same way we need to protect diversity. Our will to be different, to take a few steps further, that step which leads us to a creative leap, the unexpected which goes beyond the mega-trends, which amends and improves it. I mean that imponderable and unexpected spark which sets everyone moving and fascinates consumers.

We need to be a step ahead, to raise the bar a little more everyday. Every day we need to find a little more courage, to challenge what is conventional, we need to invent new paths, new points of view, to surprise others and surprise ourselves.

I believe that the sense of this challenge is well represented by this latest Epica collection.

In a year of downturn like 2002, the greatest risk was to forfeit creativity. Many companies, pushed by the instinct to survive, could have said "no, thanks" to the most innovative ideas and advertising agencies could have locked their drawer of ideas, scared to take risks, lacking courage.

Well, in a such difficult year, the Epica Award succeeded in demonstrating the value of the creative idea more than ever, its vitality and its irreplaceable importance for our industry.

Marco Testa, Chairman & CEO, Armando Testa S.p.A. (2002)

Ideas Sell Best

by Sebastian Turner

Recall values in advertising are pretty down-to-earth. According to various estimates, 50 to 75% of all advertising makes no impact at all. However, these figures are challenged by a new study in which an amazing 87% of the commercials covered by the report achieved or even exceeded their targets. The advertisements in question? The 400 commercials which did best at creative competitions.

So, can we conclude that creative advertisements always succeed? Big flops prove the contrary: lots of campaigns have been praised for their creativity while totally failing in the marketplace. On the other hand, the list of advertising campaigns that have succeeded despite their lack of creativity is pretty long, meaning that creativity does not necessarily affect the outcome of a campaign. So what does this tell us?

Looking at the situation from the consumer's point of view provides some useful insights. Consumer interest in advertising is extremely low and continues to decrease. An international study of advertising recall values has shown that in 1960, 40% of commercial TV viewers could remember one specific spot, whereas today only 8% are able to do so. Even if consumers had nothing better to do than study advertising messages all day, they could not absorb, let alone retain, all the information that is imposed on them by ads.

Of course, the number of ads has exploded over the past few years. How can an advertisement reach its target under such circumstances? One method might be to use a few TV commercials or print ads over a comparatively long period of time. They might thus gain high popularity, but not necessarily become widely accepted - or even create sympathy for a brand. At least one adverse side-effect is the tiring effect of new TV commercials on the target group, provided people are watching in the first place.

The advertising industry seems to be trapped in a vicious cycle:the more monotonous and bland TV commercials become, the less widely accepted they are. Alternatively, high-impact commercials have to be repeated more often in order to increase the pressure and get the desired attention - otherwise monotony sets in and interest levels fall. Consumer surveys show that the final result of these methods is the same: most consumers have had enough of advertising and try to avoid it.

Yet if the majority of advertising is considered annoying by consumers, is it possible that 61 % of them would miss ads if they did not exist? This is the result of a survey conducted in Great Britain. However, as we all know, the British are famous for producing the most creative advertising in the world.

Does this mean that the effectiveness of creative advertising varies from country to country? Interestingly enough, the German market provides a good indication. Two brands have achieved success as a result of the outstanding creative quality of their advertising over the past few years, namely Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Internal studies comparing advertising expenditure with recall values demonstrate this correlation. Both brands show a steep increase in popularity compared to the amount of budget spent. None of their numerous rival marques can demonstrate an equally favourable equation. And both brands offer - in addition to a precisely defined brand core - entertaining advertisements.

A recent joint study by the German Society for Consumer Research and the Gesamtverbandes Werbeagenturen (German Association of Advertising Agencies) measured both advertising pressure - that's to say, the clients' budgets - and the quality of the advertising concerned. High quality ads were deemed to achieve "by far the best results" and led to the conclusion that "the most innovative rather than the biggest [spenders] will make it".

A comparison between the two most important advertising competitions in Germany and Switzerland provides further insights. Every year, the Art Directors Club (ADC) rewards the most creative advertising campaign, as chosen by its jury. Only a very small percentage of all print, poster and commercials have a chance to win these awards. If creativity had only a little influence on the success of advertising, the ADC winners would make a negligible showing in competitions based on effectiveness. However, this is far from the case! In fact, of the campaigns that received Effie (advertising effectiveness) awards from Germany's advertising agencies association in the 1990s, a high percentage were also recognised by the ADC for their creative quality.

Finally, practical experience supports the assumption that creative advertising sells better. An investigation of 480 more- than-usually effective campaigns from all over the world concludes that "the most successful campaigns are clearly more creative than average campaigns". The authors of the study are former Procter & Gamble marketing managers, and thus above any suspicion of praising creativity for their own benefit. In fact, they are supported by the equally objective Nestle boss Helmut Maucher. who observes: "There are plenty of examples where, rather than an extremely high budget, the idea, the creativity and the intelligent positioning of an advertising campaign have guaranteed success."

Sebastian Turner, CEO, Scholz & Friends AG (2001)

Media Investment x Message = Advertising Effect

by Ami Hasan

The formula for effective advertising is really a lot simpler than most people inside or outside the advertising business realize. That is because deep down any advertising campaign consists of only two variables - just two things that the client and the agency have the power to influence.

The first variable, media investment, dictates to whom, when, where, how often and in what size or length you're going to communicate. This is where the bigger part of the advertiser's money usually goes and from experience we know that very few of them are able, if sometimes willing, to double their media budget. Most wise advertisers try and maximize their media expenditure anyhow, though not at the cost of the other variable - the message.

While we all know that media planning is a complicated science, the latter variable, at first look, seems simpler to understand than the first one. It consists of only two components, namely what you're going to talk about and how you're going to talk about it. Simple, just get these two things in place and you have not only done what you get your sizable salary for, but you most probably also have an award winner.

Award winner? Who cares? Why bother?

It may or may not always have been so, but these days there seems to be a lot of criticism directed towards advertising awards shows.

I do agree that there are way too many of them and that agencies (ours included) spend way too much money on them. We could all easily manage without The Annual Award for Best Black and White Quarter Page in Practical Janitor Magazine as well as without some more well known shows. And the sad truth seems to be that most clients don't see the difference between this and the Grand Prix in some prestigious international creative competition. Which only means that most shows could do a better job of promoting themselves amongst our target audience. I can also as easily imagine some better uses for the agency's money than translation costs and entry fees for the work that doesn't win anything - and sadly enough not all of it does. I could gladly use that money to hire some new top class creatives, but then again they would probably produce some more work to be sent to the awards shows. I'm trapped.

Therefore I try to raise another question, which I happen to think is actually a more important one. What about the work that doesn't win awards? Or the work that doesn't even pass the first (and some might say the highest) threshold: the work, whose creators themselves don't even think it is good enough to be sent to compete in awards shows. This work, too, was dearly paid for by the client and he very rightfully expected it to be excellent and bring him, his company and his brand some results.

And excellence is what awards shows are all about. Not only in advertising, by the way, but in all fields of life. Excellent performances, and excellent performances only, are awarded whether it be high school piano competitions or the Olympics. Not the mediocre ones, never.

Does this mean that the vast majority of all advertising is mediocre at best? Sadly, yes. In most advertising there usually is something fundamentally wrong in how it communicates with the target group. That is, it basically creates - or fails to create - an emotional link between the advertised brand and its potential buyers.

There seems to be a constant debate on "does award winning advertising sell?". I would like to turn even that discussion around and ask does non-award winning advertising sell? At the very least I find it extremely easy to believe that excellent advertising is more pleasing to the target audience than mediocre advertising and that they tend to like the senders of excellent messages more than the senders of mediocre ones. I don't need a thorough academic study to prove that - even if there's been quite a few of them done already - it's simple human behaviour, something we advertising agencies are supposed to be experts in.

And since there's an ever increasing amount of advertising surrounding us in our daily lives, I for one would like to see more excellence, brilliance and beauty around us than mediocrity. Be that in advertising, architecture, art or just everyday conversation between two human beings.

Our job as advertising people is to give advertising a good name. Both amongst our clients and equally amongst their clients, the consumers. We can achieve that by simply delivering that excellence, brilliance and beauty through the ads we create.

It doesn't cost anybody more, but it can demand from us a bit more hard work. Part of the return may be an occasional award, an additional proof of work well done.

Which gives me a valid reason to put even that in perspective. The way I see it, awards shows are an excellent benchmarking tool for us agencies. My grading goes as follows:

If you have a finalist in a major awards show, you know you've done a good piece of work. If that piece of work wins an award, you know you're also a lucky son of a bitch.

If your agency year after year has several finalists in major awards shows, you know you have a very good agency. If your agency year after year wins awards in those shows, you know your agency is one of the very best.

Congratulations,
Ami Hasan.

Ami Hasan, Hasan & Parners, Helsinki (2000)

PS. At the moment, after seven fat years, we again face a situation where clients in large numbers seem to be culling their media investments. Hey, that's great news to all ambitious creatives. It means your work - the what and especially the how - will ploy on even more significant role in the formula for effective advertising. Simple mathematics.

Do You Really Like Your Job?

By Konstantin Jacoby

Creative award-competitions are a great place to see if people really like their jobs or not. As Epica is held in a more discrete environment, it's not so apparent as in the more flamboyant scenery of glitzy Cannes: so if you have ever hung out at the Martinez Bar during the International Advertising Festival you have probably seen a lot of very happy colleagues - that is if you were not too drunk yourself.

Did you ever ask yourself why these gentlemen (and sometimes "gentle women") enjoy that stuff so much? One possible reason, which is not very likely, is that all these happy, habby, habbbyboouh people have just won a prize and are celebrating their success you will never find enough Lions for all of them, even if you search as far as Africa.

Another reason could be that all these people just missed out on a Gold Award for their work this year by one single vote of a resentful jury member. Hence the very good reason for a bottle or two of Absolut.

But, the most likely reason is unhappiness, the same kind of unhappiness you may find amongst doctors, stockbrokers or lawyers - an unhappiness which stems from the fact that none of these people actually like their jobs. So, they overcome their unhappiness during "Happy Hour".

What does a creative person actually do? Simple, they invent things. If, deep down, you do not enjoy inventing then this is not a job for you. There is no substitute for this kind of enjoyment - not even a Cannes Lion or an Epica Pyramid can make up for it. After 25 years in the business I've had more than my share of both - and sometimes I've come away empty handed, but never with a headache.

Winning an award like the Epica is public recognition for your creative work. But, it is not your creative work. Your creative work stays the same 365 days a year (and sometimes 365 nights). So, you had better make sure you actually enjoy your job and are not just getting overexcited about the 3 days in Cannes, New York, Berlin or anywhere else you can win prizes.

Like most of us, I find driving, skiing or running on a track boring without that element of competition, it is like the chilli amongst the beans. But, you have to love the beans, i.e. driving, skiing, running, copywriting or layouting. If you hate skiing, there is no fun in downhill racing.

And that seems to be the reason for the one-too-many gin and tonics in the Martinez Bar; there are too many downhill racers who don't really like skiing. Creative competitions like the Epica awards are the necessary turbos for the creative engines in all of us. But, turbos sometimes fail or go up in smoke - so you had better make sure you make it to the end of the race without them. And remember, there are usually a lot of laps to go before the celestial race director drops the chequered flag in front of us.

Konstantin Jacoby, Springer & Jacoby GmBH (1999)

He Who Gets Burnt By Milk Blows On The Yoghurt

by Luis Bassat

It's a fact that creativity in advertising is not at its best right now. There are no new creative paths on the horizon to surprise you and me, let alone our consumers. Around the world, what we see on our TV's and in our papers and magazines is "more of the same". Why?

Basically, because of the attitude of some advertisers. Those who suffered the recession of '93 and had to take incredibly conservative measures have not changed their ways despite the improvement of the economic climate. As the old Balkan saying goes: "He who gets burnt by milk blows on the yoghurt."

The situation today is very different to 1993 but still too many clients are blowing on the yoghurt. In other words, it seems as if the general rule of thumb at the moment is "take no risks". And in advertising, taking no risks is the greatest risk of all.

Predictable advertising, advertising that doesn't surprise the consumer, advertising that isn't based on a great idea, can pass, as David Ogilvy used to say, "like a ship in the night". No-one sees it, no-one notices it.

They say that in Western countries today, each of us is subjected to around 1500 advertising messages a day. Not all of these are in the form of TV commercials. There are radio commercials, the ads in newspapers and magazines, and there's outdoor too. Not just posters, but also bus sides and bus stop ads, advertising in the metro (the tube, in London). even advertising on parking meters. There are also all the little signs in shops and other outlets and the neon logos on top of many buildings.

So, when you ask someone what advertising they can remember from the day before, usually they can mention between three and six brands. Maybe a few more when names are suggested. Not many, though.

This is unacceptable.

There are two basic reasons for this memory loss. The amount of advertising we see; and the similarity between most of it.

I've seen TV montages that include images from several different car commercials over a single soundtrack, and the truth is the montage could belong to any given model. Bursts of acceleration, curves in the road, a change of gears, faces smiling at the landscape, all the clichés. But nothing genuinely authentic that allows us to identify and differentiate one brand from the rest.

Market research has made all advertising much of a muchness, just as the wind tunnel has made all car shapes similar. In research groups, respondents can only tell you about the past or the present. They know nothing of the future. What I would like tomorrow is something I don't know yet and if someone asks me, all I can reply is I'd like what I liked yesterday or what I like today.

Creatives around the world are working with research that tells them what the consumer prefers. Since we all have access to the same information these days, our campaigns end up looking identical. Not only are consumers themselves beginning to complain that advertising is all the same, but client companies are also beginning to look for alternative communication systems that will allow them to differentiate themselves from the competition.

It's a vicious circle that must be broken, but this can only be done through brilliant creativity, with creative work that is innovative, different, surprising, unique. Creative work that is notorious, memorable, and which creates an unmistakable personality for the brand. And, of course, research can help, but in a different way. We have to be able to break the mould, yet mould-breaking work doesn't always test well in advertising research.

If, after the success of his Blue and his Pink periods, Picasso had pre-tested cubism, the consumers back then would almost certainly have rejected it outright. And if he had listened to that research, he wouldn't have gone beyond being a good painter of his time, and nothing more. What made Picasso a genius was he knew how to break moulds. He was able to convince the non-believers. He was able to push the limits continuously, and that's what made him the greatest artist of the 20th Century.

Picasso didn't have a cowardly Brand Manager as his client. Picasso's clients were as courageous as he was, people who were able to back something different from what they had been expecting from him. It's the same thing that makes some clients great, this ability to buy something they had never expected.

To break the mould you have to be able to anticipate tastes. You have to have the guts to present ideas that may not seduce the consumer first time around, but which, given time, will work brilliantly.

I have always said that I'd rather have a pound tomorrow than a penny today.

Marketing is for the brave. Those who dare to make, sell and advertise what the consumer will need and want in the future. Success will belong to those who specialise in "marketing of the unknown". People capable of presenting products, ideas and campaigns the consumer couldn't have ever imagined.

And creatives will have a lot to say in this. We have to know our consumers intimately if we are to surprise them later. We must know what they consume today so we know how to sell them what they will consume tomorrow. We must know how to use our ears so we can tell them something that sounds new and attractive to theirs.

If we do all this, creativity will flower once again. If we do all this, once again we'll see campaigns that surprise us, and once again the effectiveness of advertising will be on everyone's lips. Luckily we know how to do it.

Let's go for it!

Luis Bassat, Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Europe, Africa and Middle East. (1998)

Some days I Wonder if Advertising Has a Future

by Joakim Jonason

Some days I wonder if advertising has a future.

These are the days when I notice that people are sick of bad advertising. Sick of how advertising lacks the very elements that people desire from it - such as any signs of civilised thinking, or a generous spirit, or any relationship to the real world, or an inspiring message that connects to the consumer at a personal level.

It is odd how advertising can so often end up polluting people's minds instead of enriching them. It should be at the front of any advertisers' objectives to endeavour to build a relationship with the consumer based on trust and inspiration. But this is rare.

Instead, the advertising industry prefers to settle for the same old flirtation with the consumer, seemingly blind to the signs of people's irritation at receiving beautifully packaged lies. The advertising industry so often shows that it has lost all contact with real creativity as it pushes out advertising based on the same old basic "rules" for selling to people. We too often rely on tired formulas and only recognise "good advertising" by matching up the new work against historical precedents.

So what would happen if we left the old attitudes and old lies behind and closed in on the real world? For one thing there would be more work. We would integrate our marketing and advertising thinking. Initially, our work would be harder as we sought to understand the much more complex situation that exists (a complexity the tired old model of advertising fails to recognize). But out of this hard work would be born a new understanding.

Marketing and advertising, like war, rely on strategic analysis. In the battle, the ones who dare to attack first from an unexpected direction will be ahead of the others, and are most likely to succeed. So for all the work and risk, the rewards are substantial. For those who redesign the map of advertising, the possibilities of its new routes will be the greatest.

Sometimes creativity is pictured as something that is about tearing down structures, breaking down doors. Well, it can be - but it can also be seen another way. At this point in our advertising evolution, I think it could be about opening doors and creating new rooms in which to live, in which to to consumers.

If we want to have a meaningful dialogue with our fellow inhabitants on planet Earth, and if we want to have this within advertising, then we have to be aware that constant change is an unavoidable part of that. Society is always developing.

Bill Bernbach, the advertising guru whose wisdom has often been misconstrued into those "rules", once said that those of us who shape the mass-media have an immense responsibility in helping shape society. We can vulgarize that society, we can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.

Decide on the latter and you should sleep easier at night - and probably earn a fortune. Two good things for the price of one. Now that's an offer no consumer can resist. Can you?

Joakim Jonason, Creative Director of Paradiset DDB, Stockholm. (1997)

Creativity - One Bath Away From the Winner's Podium

by Trevor Beattie

Have you ever fallen in love? Ever locked yourself out of your house? Ever had a nightmare? Felt jealous? Sad? Happy, bored, terrified?

Of course you have, I know that. And so did Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg. It's called The Human Condition, and what the most successful film-makers acknowledge is that we all suffer from it, whatever language we speak, whatever colour our skin happens to be. The very best ad-makers do the same. Gosh, am I actually suggesting that great creative ideas can cross international borders? You bet your bottom local currency I am.

Over a quarter of a century ago, while I was still singing along to TV jingles in my school shorts (what they were doing in there I'll never know ... ), four very different blokes of very different nationalities sat down around a table and had an idea. Bill Tragos (feisty Greek-American), Claude Bonnage (philosophical Frenchman), Uli Wiesendanger (crazy Swiss creative) and Paolo Airoldi (suave Italian) were the first to suggest that for all our differences, we are all essentially the same: we're all suckers for a great idea.

And although I no longer work for the TBWA organisation, I carry its premise with me. 99% of the work in this book will be understood wherever it's read. We all recognise The Condition. We all laugh, we all cry, we all shop, we all buy.

The question most often asked of the creative person is: "Where on earth do you get your ideas from?" My favourite answer is "Chablis," which is only partly true. In my experience, the best ideas come from a) the product, and b) the human condition. And the correct combination of the two will cross any border. I have always made a point of reminding students that they are one bath away from the Grosvenor House. One bath away from the winner's podium.

This is not meant to be a slight on the personal hygiene of our future talent. Quite the opposite. It's just that the bath tub has always been the traditional home of the great idea (I think it started with Eureka!) and that in our business all it takes is one great idea to turn an impoverished student into a superstar in the spotlight. Almost overnight. (The only other job in which this traditionally happens is pop music.) This, for me, makes ours a blessed profession. Mine is a job of which I am fiercely proud. I've never understood why so many people within our own business are so happy to put it down; compared with the ludicrous occupations of running very fast for ten seconds or standing very still for hours on end with a rifle over one shoulder and half a ton of fur on your head, ours is a veritable vocation.

All we have to do is generate ideas. Nothing more, nothing less. Safe in the knowledge that ideas generate sales. And selling is what we do, people. Art is for art's sake.

If your work happens to appear in this book, congratulations. If your product is featured, felicitations. And if neither got near, never fear. Just remember: you're only one bath away from Epica '98.

Trevor Beattie, Creative Director, GGT London. (1996)

Creativity The Art of Pushing Boundaries

by Marie-Catherine Dupuy

Let's not delude ourselves. Today advertising agencies have lost much of the influence they could at one time have expected over the research and development of products and brands. Yet that is where it's all happening today. And what is happening raises a lot of questions.

For instance, why 24 shampoos when 3 or 4 would suffice, at a time when people expect us to simplify their choices and make their lives easier? How do we explain the success of The Body Shop, which was launched on the strength of an anti-commercial concept? How is it that the street - that strapped-for-cash, fickle melting pot - now imposes its laws and its looks on those who create (used to create?) fashion, while until recently it was the latter who were able to impose their own styles and consequently their class system on Society? We in the advertising business must try to regain influence at the development level; to recreate a role for ourselves in our understanding of products and brands, working in close partnership with our clients, with top level research, development and planning. But that being said, the fact that it is increasingly difficult to find marketing solutions through objective analysis and product differentiation means that there is an increasingly important role for creativity in advertising. Creativity in advertising can create the brand opportunity.

By leaping over the wall, creativity discovers a new sphere of freedom in which there are many ways of adding value to products that have fewer and fewer distinguishing features. That's the contradictory nature of our business. The less useful the product, in the sense that people understand the term today, the more vital the creative leap. The least we can do, since consumers know perfectly well that we are vaunting the umpteenth superfluous product, is to offer them a little gift in return. It's a question of acknowledgement. And "he who gives gets."

Which prompts us to revise some of the old ways of thinking. Does award-winning advertising sell? Well, we all know it does, as the study made by Donald Gunn of Leo Burnett proves beyond a doubt. But for the creatives in an agency, that's not the issue. It 'is not the creatives' job to ascertain whether their work sells or not. Their role is simply to do the very best creative work possible. If they manage not to be polluted by commercial, political or tactical considerations, or simply by fear, and if they have talent, they will see - almost like a revelation - that their ads can touch people. Because people will recognise the gift they've been offered in the advertising itself, through its respect for their intelligence, the surprise they feel, the emotion they experience, and most important perhaps, the sense that this is their advertisement. They'll make a point of laughing at it and understanding it as if they had created it themselves.

It is under these conditions that creativity becomes recreation, a moment of jubilation as much for those who produced it as for those on the receiving end. Which becomes all the more important if we remember that "creative advertising" is aimed not only at the core target - a mania of our age - but at the public in general. No matter what the subject or message, advertisements involve everyone. No matter what the media, unless it's micro-targeted (special interest channels, the Internet, etc), and no matter whether people are potential purchasers or not, everyone is a spectator. Thus advertising has an even greater need to show courtesy, to playa social role, which, by respecting the listener or viewer, encourages a feeling of acceptance. While I may be a target for tampon advertising, my husband and my sons see the TV commercial at the same time as I do, and even though they are not directly concerned, I'd rather they didn't say "Yuk" before sitting down to dinner! It would make the brand a whole lot more likeable to me (after all, I shan't be making a judgement on product quality; I know most tampons are excellent)

Conclusion? Creativity in advertising is added value in itself. It is a gift from the brand to the public. And if it is to be a real gift, it cannot happen without passion and excitement. And that means joy, tears, stress maybe ... but please, no sweat! If people can feel the creative joy in the advertising they see, they can also sense the sweat.

It doesn't mean that there's no discipline, no hard work required. In fact the creative effort has to be greater than the brief or strategy appear to warrant. Just as a river breaks its banks to irrigate new areas, creativity is the art of pushing boundaries so that new desires can grow. Only at this level does one really achieve something, get through to people, influence ideas and attitudes, contribute to the culture and fabric of society.

Maybe that is how we can regain our influence upstream ...

Marie-Catherine Dupuy, Founding Member & Creative Director - BDDP. (1995)

Creativity • Our Only Reason For Beeing

by Michael Conrad

It is always most stimulating to look at award-winning work and fresh ways to sell products and services. It sets the bar for our work higher, and it tells us "yes," there are clients that believe in creativity. It tells us clients can be convinced to run interrupting, daring, fresh, engaging solutions, to do it "their" way, to break through in their category or to even break through all advertising, setting new standards and so achieving much higher results in selling products and services, and in building a distinct reputation and personality in the long run.

My colleague Donald Gunn delivered reliable, researched proof of this in 1994 when he examined the case history results of the 200 most award-winning commercials worldwide over the two previous years and came up with a clear "YESSS!" to the everlasting question: "Do Award-Winning Commercials Sell?" Over 80% of all ads/campaigns that are major award winners achieve, and most overachieve, planned objectives in the marketplace. So, what we are looking at is relevant, especially when work is blessed by a high-caliber international jury.

So, the real question is, "Does Non-Award-Winning Advertising Sell?" What about the 99% of work that falls short creatively?

Two developments underline that more clients than ever have a growing appetite for great work, or even more pointed, they do not want to go on with just good because good is not good enough.

The boldest move came from Coca-Cola, and others may follow. Outshined by Pepsi Cola's brilliant advertising in the USA for almost a decade, the Coca-Cola Company moved from "One Agency, Worldwide Service" to "Most-Creative Agencies, Country-by-Country Service." A mental shift from "Think globally, act locally" to "Think locally, act globally." With less of a centralized grip on things, creative bubbles sparkle today for Coca-Cola from 10 to 15 different agencies worldwide, including Creative Artists in L.A.

Also, a large (and increasing) number of marketers in Europe created Euro-budgets and placed those with some 15 to 20 agencies, almost all of whom have a reputation for hot, award-winning work. Most of them are British, and some of them are Spanish, French, Dutch and Scandinavian. Some of them belong to networks; some of them are independent. Their new business success closely mirrors their success in creative awards. Agencies that do not participate in this trend, especially those from countries that traditionally have poor showings in international award shows, better get their acts together.

Exploring peoples' and countries' unique roots, cultures and insights, in combination with "planning," might be fruitful advice to consistently produce more original advertising with distinct personality. English advertising today is a) strongly British and b) well planned. So is Spanish, Dutch, French and Norwegian advertising, with the result of effectively reaching each country's people. And for "outsiders," the work of these agencies throughout all media is inspiringly original and fresh. You can surely spot some of it in this book.

Based on survival and the need for success within our emerging free-market world economy, our clients will either grow by being innovative or lose their consumer/customer basis by fooling themselves.

Brand leadership results from strong R&D plus superior communication. Brand erosion results from competing with inferior quality and mediocre advertising.

Winning clients invest typically in two areas -In cutting-edge R&D departments to consistently secure superior product quality within a defined category. - In higher-caliber creative agencies to create superior product images.

Both, in combination, create a superior brand in command of its category.

It's getting great to be a Creative these days.

It's getting dangerous to be a "Me-Too"

Michael Conrad, Group President, Leo Burnett Company Inc (1994)

Creativity and Results

by Knut George Andresen

At the conclusion of practically all advertising competitions the same discussion ensues: Sure, creative work wins, but does creative advertising sell? Needless to say, this question is usually posed by the less creative agencies who feel the heat and need to fend off their clients' concern as to why their agency is not among those harvesting honour and fame in advertising competitions.

In their heart of hearts all readers of this article know the answer. Provided the strategy behind the campaign is sound and the target group is correctly identified, exciting advertising obviously sells better than advertising that is lifeless and poorly dramatised. To the extent of one's confidence in advertising copy, this has been documented hundreds of times in our agency alone. Of course, the results attained by clients after a successful campaign is the indisputable proof of the pudding.

All people, unless they are "out to lunch", wish to be engaged in what they are reading or looking at. Advertising is no exception. That advertisement which is able to charm, always wins. Whether it is better to appeal to humour or to other strings on the emotional scale is an issue under constant discussion. Those who master this intuitive art, will always be the best.

During the past few years international advertising competitions have recognised and taken notice of Scandinavian advertising. This year a total of eleven Epica winners were from Scandinavia. How is it that such a relatively tiny part of the international advertising industry brings back such a large helping from the awards' smorgasbord? First of all, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have been inspired by English advertising for many years. Secondly, British humour has a special place in our hearts. Finally, the absence of number crunching analysts, trusting decimals more than gut feelings, has been a blessing for Scandinavian advertising. Market tests are fine for specific and defined purposes. When for example, someone tells me they have a method for testing a storyboard, I literally throw them out of my office.

Thus, I believe that the most gifted Scandinavian advertising people are allowed to be just that. We do not need to insult the consumers' intelligence by promising them true happiness if they would only switch to our brand of shampoo or deodorant. Everybody knows this is poppycock. The producers, the advertisers and the unenviable masses who are exposed to advertising, know this. Many involved in international marketing have experienced a most unpleasant surprise after an attack on the Scandinavian market with products supported by stupefying advertising. The first response is laughter, but the next time such an advertisement appears on the TV screen, the viewers' only question is whether to use the remote or go to the bathroom.

If you have read this far, I have some hope that European advertising will become even more exciting and intelligent in the years to come. Agencies like Och, Paradiset, Rönnberg, Wibroe Dukert, JBR, Leo Burnett and New Deal have shown that such advertising works in Scandinavia. Other European countries have their own top agencies, and the top country is still England both in print and on screen, but English advertising is no longer alone on the summit.

Knut George Andresen, Managing Director/Copywriter – New Deal DDB Needham, Oslo (1993)

Heart-to-Heart Communications

by Jean Etienne Aebi

Extensive research has shown that the number of advertising appeals which confront the individual doubles every ten years. This means that by the end of the century the figure will be eight times greater than it was in 1970.

Inherent in this development is the collapse of many general ideas of mass communications as we know them today - and which for too many of us have not overly changed since the Seventies.

Various surveys have come to similar conclusions. The average time of a person's perception is some two seconds but, if advertising messages are to be at least basically understood, they require forty seconds on average. Billions of dollars are invested in such forty-second events for two-second recipients. And there is no doubt that in ten years' time people will have even less time, interest and energy for what we want to tell them. Awareness of this fact makes us fully realise the necessity of change in many of our long-held ideas of how to address, attract and interest the public by the use of any kind of media. A far higher share and intensity of dialogue and response marketing is the ultimate solution - that is what some of us are unrelenting in propagating, quite irrespective of the fact that nothing shortens a person's average perception and interest in advertising more than the usual direct approaches. Rather than anything else letter-box fillers will attain zero-second attention and are well on the way to becoming nothing more than litter-bin fillers.

The individual's increasing selectivity in the advertising with which he can actually identify will be dependent on two prime needs. At a time when there is an overall parity of commodities coupled with an incomprehensible complexity of worldwide problems and developments, what the man in the street is searching for is short-lived emotions and extraordinary fascinations.

Whoever manages to catch a person's attention at these points will be rewarded by far more than the average two seconds' perception. Interest and desire will again be aroused - and only that leads to action. Basic instincts and the essence of surprise are the crucial elements and they incorporate much more than mere erotics or technical thrills. Sadness, joy, consternation, love, pity, compassion, empathy, fairytales, stunning performances, miracles - in fact the heart and soul of the matter ...

Times are past for those who, in theory, declare they are basing their efforts on consumer orientation and not on producer orientation - while in actual fact all they are seeking out is a means to endorse rational product messages on the public's mind. In the final analysis it is much more the heart to which we have to make the direct appeal.

Creativity therefore continues to be our prime task, although it now needs to be on a far higher plane than ever before. The emotions have to be stimulated, the fascination aroused, and that calls for other talents than the current mode of storytelling and entertaining.

Authenticity, humanity as well as spirituality require more depth and less shine than it took to appeal to the stable tenets of materialism and intellectualism.

May we all improve on this.

Jean Etienne Aebi, Chairman, AEBI / BBOO, Zurich (1992)

Foreword

by Alain Weill

Advertising festivals and the national and international prizes are today's Colosseums, where the stars of the advertising world assemble. As if the competition for new business isn't enough, they face off once more in the awards arena. Whether they compete to reassure themselves (and their clients) of their creative dominance, or simply to flaunt their fighting spirit, these modern-day gladiators all battle for prizes and certificates of distinction which pile up in their corporate offices like so many championship cups.

However illusory these media triumphs might be (and it must be said that for the most part, the awards themselves are hideous), these distinctions permit some evaluations to be made in the advertising world. Awarded by juries of admen where grim battles are waged between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin styles, and between the big corporate firms themselves, in the end the prizes express the opinion of the big names of the industry on their own productions. Over the years, very few major campaigns have been left out of the game.

Unique among all these competitions, the Epica Awards have the distinction of being the only ones judged by observers instead of participants: the journalists of the European advertising magazines. The privileged position of these professionals as year-long monitors of developments in the field gives their judgement a special weight in the advertising world. I can attest to the fact that the debates I have presided over as non-voting chairman in the past three years have been so intense as to leave no room for doubt that these dedicated journalists are as passionately involved with advertising as the admen themselves .

For the first time to my knowledge, a print campaign beat out film projects in a competition open to all media, winning the 1991 Epica D'Or. In no better way could the Epica jury have demonstrated its difference: the acuity and originality of its vision.

Alain Weill, Epica Jury President (1991)

Foreword

by Jacques Séguéla

Money has no ideas..only ideas can make money.

The page has turned on the second millennium ten years in advance. The year 2000 is here and now. Everything changes at the speed of light. Our old world has seen more inventions in the last 40 years than in 40,000 years. A united Europe is forging itself live before our eyes, and tomorrow will be the greatest power in the world. The millennium is shuffling the deck and dealing the cards . one last time. We will be dealt, wonder of wonders, the best hand at the gaming tables of the world's advertising economy. All we've got to do is risk the grand slam. To paraphrase the Marseillaise , "Allons z'idées, le jour de gloire est arrive!"

To communicate is akin to governing: foresight is all. Some of us imagine that advertising is only the mirror of the societies it seduces. And some of us are wrong. First and foremost, advertising is the early warning system of changes in society. Its genius is to sense our future. Advertising must play the sociologist before setting to its creative tasks. After all, advertising only works when it doesn't make mistakes about the next trend. It follows from the old principle that it takes an average of at least three years of campaigning to get a message across that advertising's first priority is to read into the future. If not, how can it be on target in the long run? Thus an agency's creative talent, those periscopes focused on our future desires, are partners in the invention of tomorrow's markets.

Mass communication is a double-edged sword. It has liberated entire peoples: in a few weeks, television led Solidarity to triumph, brought down the Berlin wall and toppled Ceausescu. Television made the winds of liberty blow from the West to the East. As the inspirer and guarantor of democracy it merits our respect. And yet, if television has liberated nations, it can also have a crippling impact on individuals. It is a paradoxical invention, spawning both triumph and tragedy. Television should encourage debate, but for the moment only succeeds in sanctifying the soliloquy. The little screen is nothing but a one-way voice. One out of two Parisians is unmarried and spends three hours alone in front of his television set. In a tragic error of orientation, mass communication fosters isolation. The more we communicate, the less we speak."

It is up to the advertising world of the 1990s to resolve this paradox. We will have to change the medium itself. Where advertising was a monologue, the new communication will be a dialogue. The consumer and the spectator will demand to become actors, and those who were manipulated yesterday will call the shots tomorrow. The weapons of emancipation will be the minitel and other newborn media, the gifted children of telecommunications and computer science. The buyer will become the partner of the advertiser. The era of consumption will give way to the era of participation.

The eighties brought us decentralisation, "personalism" (the discovery of the self, but also the discovery of others), and a fresh look at received ideas. But the pendulum of history is already changing courses. Our society is hesitating on the razor's edge, between dispersion and recentering, materialism and spirituality. After the years of cold cash values, the years of the heart are taking shape. Yesterday the bottom line's obedient daughter, the advert will once again kick up its heels with audacity. Creativity will not hesitate to reclaim the crown from the dictatorship of marketing, and a change in the ruling strategy will follow suit.

We are leaving an era when only appearances and forms had importance, where high-tech replaced technology and the advert thought. A weightless era, which even its heroes are tired of. Enough of playing ostrich. The eighties, those whirlpools carried off by their own foam, refused to see reality face to face. Unemployment, famine, juvenile delinquency, terrorism and wars flashed by in the staccato rhythm of news clips, reduced to glib sound bites. After so much slight of hand, how can the nineties not react with an extra measure of skepticism? After the show years come the cold years. Ethics and aesthetics have already lead the way to rediscovered values: love, sharing, authenticity, spirituality, work, family, ecology. The Values advert will take over from the Spectacle advert. Less flash, more depth. Less packaging, more content. Less symbolism, more sense.

In short, consumers will grow wiser, and will aspire to love at the time when countries are mad and make war. The war in the Gulf aside, at 1,000 billion dollars America's debt will surpass that of the entire third world. At the same time, Japan alone has accumulated nearly half that sum by extending credits. Who will repay those debts? The only cure for this galloping dyspepsia is innovation. And the one inexhaustible mine in the world is the mine of ideas.

I am also convinced that, despite the tragic appearance of these tortured times, the year 2000 will inaugurate the society of spirit. From the car to the computer, the twentieth century has consecrated the machine. From rockets to televisions, we transformed the world into a factory, and made robots into thinkers. The mechanically-minded peoples were the natural winners: the Americans, the Japanese, the Germans. But the wheel turns. The present is no longer devoted to the invention of new tools, but to the discovery of new uses for existing technologies. The future victors: the engineers, the architects and the poets. The whole future of Europe is there. Advertising's creative talent and poets have in common the gift of being eternally young at heart. They are the backward children of society they've fled in order to better reinvent it. Only the extraordinary brings them back to earth. This curiosity is the faith that saves them. The greyer the world becomes, the more they look- at it through tinted glasses. To follow these wayward children in their creations is an oddessey. Indeed, there are no greater campaigns than those that transport us. Art, like adventure, exists to take us to the unknown. I once commissioned an illustration from Dali, and in payment he asked for two Borguereaus and a feminine presence from my agency for the duration of his work. Finding the job too simple for his genius, Dali drew the lithograph for our advert with one hand while he painted the lady's portrait with the other. He asked her to pose nude on his bed. She complied with good grace, and held her pose every day for a week. Each evening the lovely model asked to see the work in progress, but the master refused. At the end of the seventh day he solemnly announced: "Ite missa est." The young woman lept up to see the canvas and let out a cry of horror: Dali depicted nothing but her sex. And my ad.

Jacques Séguéla, Vice President, Roux Séguéla Cayzac & Goudard

Jacques Séguéla, Vice President, Roux Séguéla Cayzac & Goudard (1990)

Foreword

by Peter Block

It is said that advertising is a mirror of society, so who better to capture the nuances than a perceptive professional photographer or graphic artist? There is no doubt advertising work provides a challenge for the best artists and photographers; they must not only interpret their brief accurately, but also create that indefinable extra that brings a concept to life.

We can expect marketing campaigns in the future to reflect the growing similarity in life styles across our continent. But because advertising is somewhere between business and culture, the context can express attitudes, humour and local influence. It is for this reason that I see country campaigns, and country by country adaptations of European and Worldwide campaigns, as continuing to provide the bulk of the work for an advertising agency.

Whilst there may be ups and downs in the business world, the amount of photography used in advertising in Europe is steadily increasing and with the changes occuring in Eastern Europe, this trend must surely accelerate.

Kodak has been involved in advertising photography since the very beginning. It has every intention of continuing to provide the most appropriate, innovative, and reliable products so that professional photographers can concentrate on their task of bringing images to life and fulfill their part in an advertising campaign. In this book we see many examples of this. Thank you Epica for providing a showcase for the best European Advertising photography. Join us, dear reader, in celebrating the work of the professionals and their images and campaigns which took the judges' fancy. In particular we congratulate Neil Godfrey from Collett Dickenson Pearce and Partners, London and Don McCullen; winners of the Epica Photography Prize.

Peter Block, European Manager Professional Photography Division Eastman Kodak Company (1989)

Foreword

by Marco Piccarolo

As Director of Communication of the European Community, it gives me great pleasure to introduce this second Epica Book.

Advertising is a science and it is also an art. Marketing a product, from the most trivial to the most sophisticated, requires imagination, creativity, an artistic touch, and a thorough knowledge of all the skills of modern communications. Advertising therefore rightly deserves a place of its own in our modern culture. Glancing through the pages of this yearbook, the reader immediately realises that European advertising has reached the highest standards of quality; once a monopoly of the U.S.A., excellence in advertising has become a European reality. We can be proud of the production of the European advertising industry, not only because of its artistic value, but also because of its economic importance. The dynamism of this highly specialised service industry is a priceless asset for the European economy on the eve of the 1992 single market.

I am sure that the 1989/90 Epica Awards will be as successful as the two previous editions. On behalf of the Commission, I wish to congratulate all the finalists for their work, and to thank Andrew Rawlins, President of the Epica Awards, for this excellent initiative.

Marco Piccarolo, Director of Communication Commission of the European Communities Directorate General for Information, Communication and Culture

Marco Piccarolo, Director of Communication Commission of the European Communities Directorate General for Information, Communication and Culture (1988)

Foreword

by Ronald Beatson

As President of the Epica jury, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the first Epica Book, a fascinating collection of some of the best creative work from throughout Europe.

As well as representing an excellent souvenir of this first European creative awards, the book also offers a stimulating answer to the question: what is European advertising? Is it any advertisement created in Europe; for one European country; for multimarket use; or for pan European use? The question is similar to the problem of trying to define European culture. Everyone recognizes its existence, but no one can say what it is. My view is that it is more of a patchwork than a single entity: a sum of all our many different cultures in Europe. Similarly, European advertising is the sum of its many different parts rather than one single phenomenon: a point that is well illustrated as one leafs through the pages of this book.

An outstanding advertising campaign will not necessarily cross frontiers. It may be rooted in local idiom, in what is locally topical, in a play on words, or in the esoteric culture of folklore. But, regardless of the approach, the basic task confronting the creative team is the same, and afresh, original creative solution will always stand out regardless of its place of origin, be it Helsinki, Oslo, Turin, Barcelona, Cologne or London.

As 1992 draws near, and Europe gradually becomes a single, integrated market, a specifically European series of awards for creative work is a timely idea and a need that the APCE is answering with brio.

This first Epica Book is a tribute to what has already been achieved, and is a major contribution to our collective understanding of what European advertising is all about.

Ronald Beatson, Director-General European Association of Advertising Agencies, President of the Epica Awards Jury (1987)