Publicis—one of the world’s largest networks that includes agencies such as Leo Burnett Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, and BBH, and with a nearly a century of heritage, having been founded 91 years ago in France—has decided to forego entering all awards and trade show beginning July 1.
Arthur Sadoun, after less than a month of assuming the role of CEO of Publicis at 46 years of age, has decided to take this bold step. This after Publicis lightheartedly made fun of Sadoun’s french accent with its Cannes Lions video titled ‘Break Bond Build’ and winning Lions at the festival’s first to be announced awards category, Health and Wellness: a Gold Lion for the ‘I’m moving to Canada’ campaign by Publicis New York for Doctors of the World and a Bronze Lion for the ‘Headaches’ campaign by Publicis Mexico for Liomont Analgen Forte.
Savings
The reason given for shunning awards and and trade shows was to save on costs of entry fees and attendance for such events. Publicis was the third most profitable multinational advertising and public relations company with 11 billion USD in revenue last year. However, in the last quarter of 2016, Maurice Lévy, former Publicis CEO, had announced a 1.44 billion USD write-down after the company missed revenue goals.
A memo from Frank Voris, CEO of Publicis Groupe, read: “For perspective, the GROUPE is looking for 2.5% cost synergies for 2018 and will be ELIMINATING all Award / Trade shows for the next year. As a result, ReSources will not participate in any Vendor conferences, Industry tradeshows and/or Award shows effective July 1st. This is mandatory and exceptions will not be approved.” Publicis Groupe had begun laying off over a hundred employees earlier this year due to automation.
Nicolas Menat, Publicis CEO Asia, in correspondence with adobo magazine, clarifies, “This is about a year’s pause (1st of July 2017 until 1st July 2018) from investment into awards shows by Publicis Groupe. It is not a ban nor is it a permanent situation.”
Enter Marcel
Sadoun has decided to transform the company from a network to a “platform” using artificial intelligence and machine learning, a move that will affect over 80,000 employees in some 130 different countries. Already, the company has unveiled Marcel, an artificial assistant that promises to foster better collaboration across the 200 disciplines of Publicis’ employees.
“There is no way we are going to be a platform if we don’t build one. We want to build a platform at the core of our organization that will totally transform the way we interact, in that it will actually change the way we operate and give another meaning and another future to our talents,” Sadoun declared.
For his part, Menat states, “Creativity is our raison d’être and investing into Marcel, the world’s first professional assistant powered by AI and machine learning, will allow us to enable an even higher level of creativity for our future.”
“Marcel will be unveiled at Viva Technology 2018 – do please keep an eye out for the launch then,” Menat reveals.
No more
Sadoun’s decision follows earlier dissatisfaction with creative awards. In January 13, 2016, Amir Kassaei, DDB’s worldwide Chief Creative Officer, authored an opinion piece for Campaign titled “The End of False Recognitions” that read in part:
“Our DDB agencies are among the most-awarded agencies in the history of advertising. We’ve won more Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity than any other network on the planet. Almost every DDB office around the world is among the most-awarded agency brands in its market. And that is a huge problem. Because that is not what matters.
“Too many of us in the industry have bought into the idea that winning awards is proof of creative effectiveness, so much so that we’re willing to sacrifice our integrity to get them. And in turn that has lessened the integrity of the awards themselves. So if we believe that we are a great creative or an amazing agency or a great network because we won such and such meaningless award in a sub-sub-sub-category at an advertising awards show where ad people award ad people’s irrelevant solutions for problems that often do not even exist, then we’d better think again.
“If we believe that the proof of our real talent is that we came up with a funky case video for an idea that did not have anything to do with the real world and was not even created for a reason other than to please a jury at an award show, then we are not talented.
“If we are coming up with social ideas that pretend to solve the world’s biggest problems or help disenfranchised people, but, in fact, are only being done to win an award, we are cynical and perhaps even criminal.
“Our industry has lost focus about what really matters. All of us who are working in advertising and marketing communication have only one purpose: to use our creative talents and insights to build relevance and influence in today’s world that consequently creates substantial results for the brands, products and services of our clients.”
To be seen
Awards offer a quantitative and qualitative appreciation of creativity—something to put one one’s resume, something with which to haggle for a raise and a promotion, or something to justify spending company money poaching and pirating the talented employees of rivals.
Prior to the recognition from one’s peers in the industry afforded by creative awards, the only metrics for success of a campaign was the increased revenue for clients. It is no coincidence that the era before creative awards was characterized by a plethora of hard sell and formulaic ads.
Creative festivals foster camaraderie between rivals, allowing the entire industry to galvanize on certain advocacies. The talks that complement most creative festivals are masterclasses wherein professional can be mentored by legends.
How Publicis’ decision to forego entering awards and trade shows will affect its pool of creative talent or if other agency networks will follow suit, remains to be seen.
Menat declares, “At Publicis Groupe and Publicis One, we stand for great work. We have a strong creative heritage and benchmark for all our agency brands. While yes, we will be pausing all promotional investments which includes award shows participation locally and globally for the next 365 days, we are doing so with the intention of making our work better, by developing new types of collaboration that will lead to creativity without borders and without limits.”
