A special edition of the AdNews magazine is out, with all the winners and finalists from the AdNews Agency of the Year.
This 116-page magazine has a flip cover, with one showing the awards and the other pointing to an AdNews investigation into the state of creativity.
The awards cover has an emotion-charged photograph, taken by Tim Levy, of Todd Sampson embracing his friend, and fellow ABC Gruen panelist, Russel Howcroft on being inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.
"I wish I had his confidence and surety," said Sampson. "I wish I was that charming and likeable. I wish I could play the drums like him.
"I’ve never met anyone I disagree with more yet respect so much. He’s the only person other than my wife that has said to my face, in his case on television – ‘What are you going on about, you’re talking a load of shit’."
Howcroft, in his acceptance speech, said he owed everything to three wonderful decades in this industry: “Thirty years as an advertising agency executive – as a TV executive – as a TV panellist and presenter – as a radio presenter – as an author - as a lobbyist – as chairman of various industry groups – and now a consultant and -moderate - investor in the start-up Good One and, nearly, a game show host.”
The awards coverage covers every section and winner, including the AdNews Agency of the Year, BMF.
The Meet the Team feature is also on BMF. CEO Stephen McAardle says the agency has a lot to celebrate since its inception in 1996.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have achieved a lot in the past 26-years," he says.
"One of the standout moments before my time was in 2010 when we won an agency of the decade award, which points towards the ability to, within a relatively short space of time, turn a startup into a really meaningful business that delivers great work consistently, over a long period of time.
“We've had our biggest couple of years of growth, growing by over 30%, which gave us the opportunity to expand our capabilities. Within content and social, we’ve hired a number of people and built in more strategic capabilities to lead into the content production side.
“With regards to creative talent, we love to get the best people from around Australia, but we also keep our eyes on the US and the UK. In the past six months, we've been lucky enough to hire some great people from the world’s best agencies.”
The flipside cover of the latest magazine -- showing a brain being held by a hand -- was created by the team at Edge under the headline Feeling the Squeeze. Photography was by Steven Popovich and Louis&Co and Limehouse handled retouching.
"We wanted the image to look real and visceral but not unnecessarily gory," said Edge. "We explored CGI brains but were not convinced it would have the same impact. We took the risk of not knowing if a real brain would work."
"Getting a real brain to look instantly recognisable in-camera and getting the right amount of squeeze was a challenge. You would imagine brains to be perky and rubbery, however, in reality, it is sloppy and hard to manipulate."
On the flipside, AdNews asked creatives about the state of creativity in Australia, the big issues, including a reported shortage of talent, the battle between social responsibility and business and the march of the robots, AI and the chatbot.
According to Deloitte Insights: “Individual talent is important to creativity, but there’s much more to it than that.
“Research shows that creativity is the result of multiple factors that must converge for it to spark. It’s an ‘ecological’ or “systems’ phenomenon that arises out of the interactions of individuals and teams, both with each other and with the environment around them.
“Creativity is not just something we have; it’s also something we do—both noun and verb.”
The marketing budget can be cut so many ways that every client has unique needs, and every project demands a tailored approach, according to Alex Derwin, chief creative officer at BMF.
“For the most part clients want less transactional relationships,” he says. “They want to get more access to the people on the floor who generate the work, rather than only seeing the agency leaders, or managers. This means an increasingly specialised group of people who are more immersed in the client’s business.
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