IAS AR 2004 - Institute of Advertising Singapore

JUDGING THE INAUGURAL SINGAPORE EFFIES
Florence Lian, Senior General Manager, MediaCorp
Radio; David Tang, EFFIE Chairman & MD, DDB;
Francis Hsu, Senior VP, Credit Cards UOB.
L-R : Angela Koch, Director, Strategic Planning M&C Saatchi; Gerry Rezel,
IAS Council Member & VP, Group Marketing & Communications, CK Tang
Ltd; Steve Straw, Exec.Creative Director, Leo Burnett; Sandy Burns,
Planning Director, Saatchi & Saatchi. Standing is Peter Khoo, Vice President
& Head Editorial Projects & Branding, Singapore Press Holdings
■ Linden Davis
Representative of the New York
American Marketing Association &
Observer of the EFFIE Awards Singapore
“My job here is to brief the moderators,
discuss any peculiarities of judging roles &
procedural adjustments compared to what is done
in the US and resolve problems/issues as they come
up. It’s the first time for all 58 judges and
moderators, and we have tried to make it as
rewarding as possible.”
■ Greg Paul
Principal R3
“I’m truly impressed at the good quality
of the entries overall. Singapore is truly ‘up there’
in marketing effectiveness as compared to
Malaysia, China and Hong Kong. Marketers
here don’t really care for creative awards, they
are more focused on the effectiveness of ads – in
terms of building awareness or a change of
image that predictably results in increased
dollar revenue and brand health. EFFIE
Winners certainly will get more new business
and more prospective clients.”
■ Moderator Pallani Pillai
CEO, Crush
“I see the paretos rule of the 80/20 – 20%
good, 80% mediocre. We need to set and
maintain high standards – 20% of the work
here deserves to win 80% of the awards.”
■ Allein Moore
Ad Asia
“Much harder to judge than a straight
creative award. The EFFIES are an excellent
balance in the award show arena.”
■ Katherine Frith
Associate Professor, NTU
“Really great – high standards in entries
here and it’s all very professionally organized.
I think highly of the judging criteria,
especially in categories that required
quantitative research & data. It’s great that
we evaluate entries by mind & data, not just
by emotions and visual appeal.”
■ Graham Kelly
Executive Creative Director,
Saatchi & Saatchi
“I found many entries to be creatively
weak. Except for one on contact lenses, the
rest were bland. Granted, this was a tough
category.”
■ Rebecca Ang Lee
Regional Marketing Director,
Giordano Originals
“It was very clear which entries stood out
in the categories that I judged. Creative briefs
were rather disappointing, but overall since this
is the first EFFIES, it was acceptable.”
■ David Matthew Fong
Deputy Director, MCDS
“It’s been a long time coming. I can see
this from a client’s perspective.
Yes, creativity matters, but clients want
results, awareness and perception of the
brand, dollar increase. This changes people’s
mindsets, creates a touchpoint.”
Palani Pillai, IAS Council Member & MD, CRUSH; Peter Khoo,Vice President
& Head Editorial Projects & Branding, Singapore Press Holdings; James
Wong, IAS Council Member & Communications & Corporate Affairs
Manager, Néstle
■ Tanuj Philip
Managing Director, Y & R and Wunderman
“The number of entries submitted was
most encouraging, especially the cross-section
in terms of big & small clients and
categories.”
■ Kenneth Tsang
Managing Director, Zenith Media
“People tried very hard – the number
of entries showed that people do want to move
in this new direction of effective advertising.
Meaningful advertising from a creative
standpoint is very different from effectiveness.
What do I mean – there’s the $ revenue,
increased awareness and image consciousness
to consider.”
■ Simone Bartley
Chief Executive Officer,
Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore
“I was incredibly impressed with the high
calibre of judges. It is a clear sign from the
marketing and advertising community on the
importance of effectiveness awards. I have to
say though that I felt the calibre of entries was
average, with only a few stand-out submissions
(based on the categories I reviewed). But let
me be clear – I don’t mean average ideas - I
mean average submissions.
In many cases a great idea was undersold
- with only half the story told. Or the work
submitted did not follow the submission
guidelines which meant in some cases the work
was not able to be fairly viewed. I would like
to think next year that we can have all CEOs
make a point to review their agencies entries -
just as all ECDs do with creative.”
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