So direct: Bringing home the international judging insights

By Leigh Andrews

21 Jul 2015

21 Jul 2015

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This year alone, Wright has judged on three entirely different categories for three entirely different international award shows - Direct at Cannes Lions, Design work at the New York Festivals and Direct Marketing at the D&AD.

Justin Wright

He tells us what makes each of the international judging panels he's recently been part of different from one another and the importance of making sure the work entered actually meets the criteria of the category...

1. Let's start with a quick recap of the judging experience at Cannes...

Wright: It was truly great. We watched a record amount of case study videos (2,800 in total), had many informative discussions and, by the end of the sixth day as a panel, we were very proud of the work that we awarded. The work was of an extremely high standard. The challenge with Direct as a category though, is first about just understanding what Direct is. A lot of the debate around individual pieces was centred on whether or not they met the criteria of the category. The official Cannes definition is as follows: "Direct is targeted communication designed to generate a measurable response or specific action, whilst building and prolonging relationships."

Often, this category is the dumping ground for entries better suited for and already entered into Product Design, Outdoor or Promo & Activation. Basically, the lines are blurred, which is exciting. More often than not, the best ideas are relevant in and cover every media spectrum.

2. How did this differ from other international award shows you've judged this year alone?

Wright: Cannes has all the glamour, the amazing speakers and more importantly, the scale. At D&AD we only judged about 700 pieces, a quarter of what we judged at Cannes. I saw a lot of the same work rising to the top at both shows, which is expected. I personally feel that Cannes is the one truly international award show. D&AD has a more British skew... and New York Festivals sadly doesn't quite match the quality of Cannes and D&AD.

3. How does this overall international judging experience differ from local award judging?

Wright: To date, I've never judged a main category at Loeries. I've only ever judged Craft Film writing and Student Loeries once, as well as a few 'Ad of the Month' Creative Circle awards. The exposure and learnings you get in judging international award shows is somewhat 'next level' compared to local award shows. The standard is higher and you get to pick the brains of very experienced judges from every corner of the planet.

4. How do you avoid 'judging fatigue' when you've already seen reams of entries, but still have a batch to get through, or worse, in consecutive award shows?

Wright: A whole lot of coffee. I really love breakthrough ideas executed perfectly and work that truly worked, so it made the process a lot easier to get through. At Cannes, we took a lot of five-minute breaks to refocus ourselves. I actually found the preliminary judging for both D&AD and Cannes harder to get through. I had to put 17 hours aside for each award show, not to mention having to deal with poor bandwidth issues while downloading 300+ case study videos. At Cannes they torture you though, they give you a view of all the yachts in the harbour while you sit inside an air-conditioned environment watching a screen for 15 hours. It's pure evil.

5. Please share any clear trends from the global winners you've seen this year...

Wright: Firstly, and it's no surprise as it's been a trend for years - the freshest, bravest and/or most innovative ideas won through. There was a lot of new technology supporting some of the best pieces. However, work that solely depended on technology and didn't really have an idea fell by the wayside. Brands have also shifted their focus from just selling a product or service to focusing on 'higher purpose' projects, whether it's making condensed air conditioner water drinkable, challenging behaviour in the Always 'kick like a girl' campaign to market pads and panty liners, or Burger King creating a 'gay burger' that's the same inside. There is still room, however, for traditional direct marketing, be it a B2B campaign or just launching a new product. All in all, there was some fantastic work this year.

6. Let's end with what makes work from the African continent stand out - whether this actually gets the award accolades or not...

Wright: Local Insights. We must, where possible, stay true to ourselves and show the world something new.