VIRTUAL TRAINING FOR JAY CHIATPLANNING AWARDS

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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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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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Instructions to the JudgesCelebrate 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’spossible for planning.

Clearly this is a subjective evaluation, but there are some common areas you should beassessing:

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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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

PRACTICAL TIPS TO GET STARTED

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Start by asking yourself:“Should I really be entering this award?”

• Not every piece of business we work on isworthy 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 rolein informing a powerful creative expression?

• If the answer to both those questions is no,then it may not be the best case study tochoose.

• Finally, get your client’s permission to writethe paper before you start, not after!

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Inertia can be a killer

• Getting started can be the hardestpart of writing an award.

• Block out a regular time in yourcalendar each week to work on thepaper and stick to it!

• Don’t rely on others to get youinformation before you get started(the client or account guy willundoubtedly drag their feet). If youneed info, get it yourself.

• Don’t rely on the deadline to be thething that motivates you. Last-minutepapers read like you did them at thelast minute…

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Plot out the story before you start writing

• The paper isn’t going to write itself.You need a clear idea of what thestory will be before you start writing.

• Try to condense the story down to aparagraph; break it down to the keyelements.

• If you can shrink your story down tothis paragraph, you probably have acoherent story and you should getgoing.

• If you can’t write it in a paragraph,you need to rethink what thestructure of the story should be.

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Hone it, then hone it some more

• Very few people can write the perfectaward paper first time around.

• It pays to write it, rewrite, and rewriteagain.

• Look for sentences that aren’t addinganything to the story you want to tell.

• Trim away excessive verbiage orunnecessary superlatives.

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Find yourself a critic

• It’s important to have others readand critique your work.

• Often times the act of writing theaward leaves you unable to see thewood for the trees.

• Have people who haven’t worked onthe account read through the paper.

• Try to also have a non-planner readthe award. Second round judges arecreatives and agency heads.

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Read Past Award Winners

• Simple as it sounds, a great way tolearn how to write an award-winningpaper is to read all the previousyear’s winners.

• The AAAA publish the winningpapers each year.

• Or alternatively, read the followingsection of this presentation.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM PREVIOUS WINNERS

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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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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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Insight vs insights

The winning papers had a single idea that consistently informed every aspectof 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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Reframing the problem: not the sales goal, but anunderstanding of what really needs to happen.

Axe Snake Peel: From selling a shower gel to linkingexfoliation with the promise of the brand.

Coca-Cola Vault: From out-DEWing Mountain Dew totapping into the psyche of blue-collar workers.

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Tonik: Uninsured young adults aren’t all dropouts,some just don’t want a corporate life. Neither dothey feel invincible; they’re actually quite anxious.

National Car Rental: Not all business travelers careabout perks and price. Some would prefer to getthrough the experience as quickly as possible.

ONDCP “Above the influence”: Doing things justbecause your peers tell you to is as powerfullyresisted as doing things your parents tell you to do.

The consumer: fresh understanding that changed ourview of the audience and their motivations.

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The strategy: weaving together the facts to create abrand new interpretation.

TLC: From “Reality Show Network” to “SharingLife’s Lessons.”

Angel Soft: From “Unmentionables” to“Shared Experiences.”

Principal Financial Group: From “What we do for youin the future” to “What we can do for you today.”

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Napster: Used an icon of iPod—white—and an asset ofNapster—piracy—to appropriate the semiotic code of theNavy vs. the Pirates.

PSP: defined a target that was a tribe—UrbanNomads—documented their symbols and modes ofcommunication.

Sims: Making gamers the heroes (rather than the game)and getting them to create the ads using the games.

The work: bringing insight to bear by breaking theconventions in execution.

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The connection: using insight to change how wespeak to our audience.

Audi: Used insights gleaned from people’s entertainmentsystems, book, CD, and DVD collections to create a livingspy story told across multiple mediums.

Axe Spring Break: Identified places where stamina mightwane as perfect locations for its help in “Staying TheCourse.”

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Winning the top prizes required fresh thinking inmost (if not all) of these areas.

Yet simply bringing great insight to one or two areas could guarantee you a place on theshort-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 eliminationand short-listing.

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Well-written papers were great marketing cases thatclearly 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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Conversely, writing all too frequently got in the wayof 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 quotesthat 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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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 someof 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 greatthinking that everyone would be interested in

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Some writers fell in love with the process ofplanning, 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.

GOOD LUCK…

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Winners 2007

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Grand Prix

BBH London, Unilever (AXE/Lynx)

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Service BrandBest contribution of planning to a service brand that has been in the marketplacefor 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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Product BrandBest contribution of planning to a product brand that has been in the marketplacefor 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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Product/Service IntroductionBest contribution of planning to a brand that has been in the marketplace for lessthan 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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Pro BonoBest 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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Small BudgetBest 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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GlobalBest contribution of planning to a global campaign originating from North Americaand 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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InternationalBest 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.