Why advertising sector needs to get creative

MEDIA AND MARKETING:ICAD's mission to encourage high creative standards in advertising is not bearing fruit

THE INSTITUTE of Creative Advertising & Design (ICAD) has been championing creative excellence since 1958.

It was founded to encourage high creative standards in advertising. But more than half a century on, its mission is not bearing fruit.

ICAD’s annual awards presentation took place recently but, of the 55 “Bells” handed out, only three were in the gold category and none of them were for big-brand creativity.

Design agency Bloom won gold in the ambient media category for a project executed in hotel bathrooms for Irish Tatlermagazine. The idea was that when you stood in a certain spot and looked in the mirror, you could see yourself on the magazine cover.

Atelier David Smith won the other gold Bells for projects related to artists’ workshops and brochures, and a public art project.

ICAD’s award juries have a reputation for being stingy with the top awards, and entries this year were down 17 per cent.

However, ICAD president David Joyce insists the institute has not set the creative bar too high. “Gold is only awarded when the entry is considered to be of international standard,” he says. “You can produce work to a national standard but if you want to create work of an international standard of excellence you have to push your work a bit more.”

Jury member Rob O’Reilly says: “Producing a piece of commercial work that engages creatively and also communicates at a corporate level is difficult.”

He was impressed by Creative Inc’s design work on an IDA publication, which won a silver Bell. “Traditionally a brochure like that would be thrown together with some stock photography. But the design agency made a distinct effort to do something different and that wouldn’t have been easy.”

For the first time this year, there was a digital category, though in the opinion of the jury the winning entries only merited bronze awards. “Making standout creative [work] for the online space requires different thinking. To do it right you have to put the client second and put what’s of value to the audience first and work back from there,” says jury member David Birss, digital creative head of OgilvyOne in London.

“The recession should not have an impact on creativity. But it does take away the luxury of time. Everything has to be done very fast to get results. Great creative [work] doesn’t need a multimillion-euro budget. It’s the idea that matters.”

ICAD is just one of several organisations representing the advertising and design sectors in Ireland. Other bodies include the Graphic Design Business Association, the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland and the Institute of Designers in Ireland.

Joyce believes the sector would be better served if resources were pooled. “These organisations are doing similar things to ourselves. It would be more impactful if we joined together to lobby the Government and ultimately make the advertising and design industry stronger.”

Top of the lobbying agenda should be the teaching of advertising at third level.

“There is only one dedicated course for advertising in Ireland, at Dublin Institute of Technology. In England there’s a plethora of advertising courses up to degree and MA level,” says Joyce. “What happens in advertising in Ireland is that people come to advertising as a career from lots of different routes, such as marketing, sales promotion and graphic design. There is a lot of work to be done on the infrastructure in how advertising is taught and how it’s practised in this country.”

An exhibition of the ICAD award winners opens in Dublin on May 27th and will travel to Belfast and Cork later in the year.

siobhan@businessplus.ie