2. WHAT THE TRAINING WILL COVER
1. What makes the awards unique
2. Practical tips to get started
3. Lessons from previous years
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3. The Jay Chiat awards are designed to be unique
Many other shows award effectiveness
Many other shows award creativity
No other shows award excellence in creative thinking
No other shows award reshaping how we see the world
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4. Instructions to the Judges
Celebrate brilliant strategic thinking that clearly led to a powerful creative expression
Ultimately, we are looking for papers that fill you with envy and that showcase what’s
possible for planning.
Clearly this is a subjective evaluation, but there are some common areas you should be
assessing:
1. Brilliant strategic thinking
Is there a previously unearthed insight?
Is there new thinking in the role of communications?
Is there new thinking in media or channels?
Was new ground broken in measurement?
Did this expand the frontiers of the discipline itself?
2. Powerful creative expression
Is there a clear link between the thinking and the creative?
Do you believe this creative would not have happened without planning?
Is there new thinking in the execution of the idea?
Is this great creative?
Was the creative effective?
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5. A unique judging panel
Not just planners
Industry focused, not discipline focused
Smart, intelligent, experienced
Have seen it all before and have spun more stories than any of us
Get excited and passionate if given the right stimuli…turned off if not
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7. Start by asking yourself:
“Should I really be entering this award?”
• Not every piece of business we work on is
worthy of an award.
• Ask yourself the following questions:
Did we discover a fresh insight into either the
consumer or the category?
Can we prove that planning played a key role
in informing a powerful creative expression?
• If the answer to both those questions is no,
then it may not be the best case study to
choose.
• Finally, get your client’s permission to write
the paper before you start, not after!
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8. Inertia can be a killer
• Getting started can be the hardest
part of writing an award.
• Block out a regular time in your
calendar each week to work on the
paper and stick to it!
• Don’t rely on others to get you
information before you get started
(the client or account guy will
undoubtedly drag their feet). If you
need info, get it yourself.
• Don’t rely on the deadline to be the
thing that motivates you. Last-minute
papers read like you did them at the
last minute…
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9. Plot out the story before you start writing
• The paper isn’t going to write itself.
You need a clear idea of what the
story will be before you start writing.
• Try to condense the story down to a
paragraph; break it down to the key
elements.
• If you can shrink your story down to
this paragraph, you probably have a
coherent story and you should get
going.
• If you can’t write it in a paragraph,
you need to rethink what the
structure of the story should be.
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10. Hone it, then hone it some more
• Very few people can write the perfect
award paper first time around.
• It pays to write it, rewrite, and rewrite
again.
• Look for sentences that aren’t adding
anything to the story you want to tell.
• Trim away excessive verbiage or
unnecessary superlatives.
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11. Find yourself a critic
• It’s important to have others read
and critique your work.
• Often times the act of writing the
award leaves you unable to see the
wood for the trees.
• Have people who haven’t worked on
the account read through the paper.
• Try to also have a non-planner read
the award. Second round judges are
creatives and agency heads.
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12. Read Past Award Winners
• Simple as it sounds, a great way to
learn how to write an award-winning
paper is to read all the previous
year’s winners.
• The AAAA publish the winning
papers each year.
• Or alternatively, read the following
section of this presentation.
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14. Creative thinking is not the same as creative writing.
There has to be an idea in the paper that judges feel is new and original.
The idea has to come from planning and be visible in the creative.
You must have a story of planning excellence before you start.
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15. All the winners challenged conventional thinking.
Using insights, they reframed how we could look at:
1. The problem
2. The consumer
3. The strategy
4. The execution
5. The connection
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16. Insight vs insights
The winning papers had a single idea that consistently informed every aspect
of the paper.
Not multiple disconnected insights.
Not one insight for creative, one insight for media, one insight for the consumer, etc.
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17. Reframing the problem: not the sales goal, but an
understanding of what really needs to happen.
Axe Snake Peel: From selling a shower gel to linking
exfoliation with the promise of the brand.
Coca-Cola Vault: From out-DEWing Mountain Dew to
tapping into the psyche of blue-collar workers.
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18. The consumer: fresh understanding that changed our
view of the audience and their motivations.
Tonik: Uninsured young adults aren’t all dropouts,
some just don’t want a corporate life. Neither do
they feel invincible; they’re actually quite anxious.
National Car Rental: Not all business travelers care
about perks and price. Some would prefer to get
through the experience as quickly as possible.
ONDCP “Above the influence”: Doing things just
because your peers tell you to is as powerfully
resisted as doing things your parents tell you to do.
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19. The strategy: weaving together the facts to create a
brand new interpretation.
TLC: From “Reality Show Network” to “Sharing
Life’s Lessons.”
Angel Soft: From “Unmentionables” to
“Shared Experiences.”
Principal Financial Group: From “What we do for you
in the future” to “What we can do for you today.”
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20. The work: bringing insight to bear by breaking the
conventions in execution.
Napster: Used an icon of iPod—white—and an asset of
Napster—piracy—to appropriate the semiotic code of the
Navy vs. the Pirates.
PSP: defined a target that was a tribe—Urban
Nomads—documented their symbols and modes of
communication.
Sims: Making gamers the heroes (rather than the game)
and getting them to create the ads using the games.
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21. The connection: using insight to change how we
speak to our audience.
Audi: Used insights gleaned from people’s entertainment
systems, book, CD, and DVD collections to create a living
spy story told across multiple mediums.
Axe Spring Break: Identified places where stamina might
wane as perfect locations for its help in “Staying The
Course.”
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22. Winning the top prizes required fresh thinking in
most (if not all) of these areas.
Yet simply bringing great insight to one or two areas could guarantee you a place on the
short-list.
Winners let the writing get out of the way of these insights
• In all sessions it was ultimately the thinking that was discussed rather than the writing.
The writing can’t substitute for the content, but it can be the difference between elimination
and short-listing.
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23. Well-written papers were great marketing cases that
clearly showed planning’s impact.
They weren’t just stories of planners doing their jobs.
• “Everyone was doing X so we did something different” is not an idea.
All of them focused on a point of disruption.
• A place where planning changed the accepted view of the world.
• A place without which the creatives couldn’t have gotten to the solution.
They were written simply, with a minimum of hyperbole and flowery language.
In short, they were things you and I might want to read.
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24. Conversely, writing all too frequently got in the way
of the story.
Writing often showed symptoms of self-congratulation and self-gratification.
• Over-detailed and over-blown stories of an individual planner’s heroism
• Clear exaggerations of a planner’s creativity or impact
• Endless lists of other awards the campaign had won or press mentions and quotes
that simply weren’t relevant
• Design and art direction that made the story almost illegible
• “Over adjective-ing”
• Judges do not accept an idea as “Brilliant” just because you say it is
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25. As did telling the wrong story.
Writing also let down stories that might otherwise have been contenders
• A disconnect between strategy and creative or a strategy that is only in some
of the creative
• Incomplete or rambling logic
• Insights tiptoed around rather than spelled out
• Following the Effie outline/structure
• Judges often said there was a great story, but the paper had chosen not to tell it.
• Telling a story that planners were interested in rather than telling a story of great
thinking that everyone would be interested in
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26. Some writers fell in love with the process of
planning, not the result.
Many papers seemed to think that using trendy research technique qualifies for an award.
• What did this deliver that could not have been achieved from ‘traditional’
approaches?
Don’t describe everything you did, just the bits that got you to the idea.
Everyone wants to get away from focus groups. This does not make your paper notable.
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27. GOOD LUCK…
More questions?
Continue the conversation on Facebook
Jay Chiat Planning Awards 2008 Group
at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7890942903
30. Service Brand
Best contribution of planning to a service brand that has been in the marketplace
for more than two years.
Silver
• Fallon, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism
Honorable Mention
• Campbell-Ewald, Alltel (Wireless)
• TAXI, Blue Shield of California
No Gold or Bronze was awarded in this category.
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31. Product Brand
Best contribution of planning to a product brand that has been in the marketplace
for more than two years.
Gold
• BBH, Unilever (AXE, The Gamekillers”)
Silver
• JWT, Kimberly Clark (Kleenex)
Bronze
• RPA, Honda (Element)
Honorable Mention
• The Richards Group, Thomasville
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32. Product/Service Introduction
Best contribution of planning to a brand that has been in the marketplace for less
than two years.
Gold
• Cramer-Krasselt, Takeda Pharmaceuticals (Rozerem)
Silver
• TBWA/Chiat/Day LA, Sony Computer Entertainment America (PlayStation 3)
Honorable Mention
• JWT, Dominos Pizza
• JWT, Unilever (Sunsilk)
No Bronze was awarded in this category.
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33. Pro Bono
Best contribution of planning to a pro bono brand.
Bronze
• The Buntin Group, Partnership for a Drug-Free America (Infected by Meth)
Honorable Mention
• Fallon, Children’s Defense Fund
• Grey San Francisco, Youth Leadership Institute
No Gold or Silver was awarded in this category.
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34. Small Budget
Best contribution of planning to a small budget brand (under $5 million).
Silver
• The Martin Agency, Hanesbrands Inc. (Barely There)
Honorable Mention
• JWT, Tourism Ireland
• SS&K, msnbc.com
No Gold or Bronze was awarded in this category.
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35. Global
Best contribution of planning to a global campaign originating from North America
and running in at least three other countries.
Honorable Mention
• Euro RSCG, Novartis (Nicotinell)
No Gold, Silver, or Bronze was awarded in this category.
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36. International
Best contribution of planning for communications that ran in international markets
(not originating in the United States).
Gold
• BBH London, Unilever (AXE/Lynx)
Silver
• BBH London, Unilever (Becel)
Honorable Mention
• JWT London, Bayer (CalciAid)
• JWT Brazil, Diageo Brazil LTDA (Smirnoff)
No Bronze was awarded in this category.
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