Page 6 - Advertising Annual 57

EDITOR’SCOLUMNPatrick Coyne Entries to this year’s Advertising Competition continued the
submission trends we’ve been witnessing the past several
years: a decline in print advertising and television commer- cial entries and an increase in digital and non-traditional advertising entries. One big surprise was an increase in the submission of posters, one of the oldest advertising mediums of all.
“The best entries had a strong idea tied to an innovative execution,” juror Joanne Kim says. “You can tell these teams thought through the entire execution as it was coming together, rather than waiting until the idea was ‘perfect’ to throw to the producers.”
“Humor and satirical entries were way down, and heady causes were way up,” juror John Maxham says. “In the wake of social con- science–raising successes like Always and Dove, a new template has emerged—tug-at-the-heartstrings case study videos.”
“There were a dispropor- tionate amount of entries from the health-care sector,” says juror Carolyn Hadlock, “[but] very little work made it into the book. However, this sector will continue to grow, creating an opportunity to do the first disruptive work in the category.”
“I was most impressed with the integrated and
non-traditional entries,” juror Pat McKay says. “Every year, I see non-traditional stuff that makes me angry because I didn’t think of it—good angry.”
“A lot of the work we saw was in the ‘What is it?’ camp,” Kim says. “It was sometimes difficult to put a label on it; many entries made you stop and question: ‘Is that advertising?’”
“Grey San Francisco’s ‘In Search of the Most Dangerous Town on the Internet’ for Norton by Symantec is probably one of the greatest examples of work that illustrates the changing use of media and demographics,” juror Jaime Rosado says. “This documentary is not only amazingly filmed, but also a very good example of great content designed for a very specific audience. Nowadays, brands need to be publishers and content creators.”
Craft in advertising has been a topic of discussion by recent juries, and this year was no exception.
6
Advertising Annual 2016
Photographs by Steve Castillo