The Epica Book 2006
The Epica Book is the only annual of its kind devoted exclusively to the best advertising from Europe and the EMEA region.
With 400 pages, the 20th edition is bigger than ever before. It features more than 950 commercials, print ads, publications, internet sites and direct marketing operations honoured in the 2006 awards. The book is introduced by Erik Vervroegen, Executive Creative Director & Chairman of TBWA\Paris. It includes background stories on the 2006 Epica d’Or winners and a 20th anniversary Epica d’Or retrospective by Lewis Blackwell.
The price of the Epica Book 20 is €80, including postage within Europe. You can buy it in the Epica Shop.
Index
This unique record of European creative achievement is fully indexed and conveniently arranged by product categories with creative credits and brief English translations where necessary.
NO NEW ELDORADO
Erik Vervroegen, Executive Creative Director & Chairman, TBWA\Paris
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.
SECRETS OF SUCESS
Lewis Blackwell is renowned as a commentator on creativity. His work as SVP group creative director of Getty Images, and formerly Editor-in-chief and publisher of Creative Review, has led him to work with agencies around the world.
The greatest gift this article could give you is a secret. That secret would be to reveal the magic formula, the 7X equivalent, the knowledge that turns a humble ad into an Epica winner capable of triumphing over the best from Europe and beyond.
That certainly would be a gift worth having. On a regular basis whatever comes out on top at Epica goes on to clean up at many of the awards elsewhere around the world. At the time of writing it’s too early to know how the Coke ‘Happiness Factory’ will perform in the 2007 awards season, but three of the previous four Epica d’Or winners have gone on to top the analysis in the Gunn Report and the last two took Grand Prix at Cannes.
So let’s start the revelations on the inner workings of an Epica d’Or...
[read the full article in the Epica Book 20]