THE AGENCY
BRAVE CLIENTS
GET AWARDS!
By Frank Maina
A
s the story goes, the
wrangling couple and their
child find themselves in
front of a judge. “Can I send you
to live with your dad?” The judge
asks the little boy. “No! No! He
beats me.” The little boy answers
frantically. “How about your mum?”
he asks, hoping to resolve the
matter quickly. “She beats me too”
he says.
Exasperated, the judge removes his
spectacles and and asks, “So who
do you want to live with my good
fellow?” The boy gives it a thought
and says “I want to live with
Harambee Stars!” Now perplexed,
the judge asks why. “Because my
dad says they don’t beat anybody.”
Like the little boy, you might be
wondering why you live and work
with an agency that doesn’t win any
awards. You could have a lot more
to do with this lack of awards than
they do.
The two main industry awards for
marketing and advertising in Kenya
are the APA awards and the MSK
Warrior awards. The former have
happened recently after more than a
decade long break.
The latter happen every year and
are seen more as effectiveness and
peer awards. Creative awards are
a rather complex business as they
‘‘ To win awards an agency requires not just a
better than average crop of creatives but also a
bolder than average roster of clients. If you are
telling stories to society about itself boldness
is sometimes necessary. A punch in the face
for the consumers or a kick in the bottom for
policy makers can be delivered
through creativity.’’
46 MAL 17/17 ISSUE
are often judged by panels whose
books may vary from one event to
the other.
Firstly they are craft awards which
means that they will often judge
for skills rather than how well
consumers relate to an ad. As the
ad industry focuses on telling
society`s stories through its brands,
the skill with which these stories
are told determines who gets the
awards and that can be subjective.
In biking terms the guy who can do
a wheelies gets a craft award before
the guy who rode the fastest.
To win awards an agency requires
not just a better than average crop
of creatives but also a bolder than
average roster of clients. If you are
telling stories to society about itself
boldness is sometimes necessary. A
punch in the face for the consumers
or a kick in the bottom for policy
makers can be delivered through
creativity.
This takes guts to approve. Clients
who take creative risks are thus
rewarded with great work and often
better results in the marketplace.