Some think the Cannes awards are just for the ad industry to pat themselves on the back in an echo chamber that means nothing outside the Riviera. They are wrong, argues Gillian Rightford.
Creative awards get a bad rap. There's been a long-held belief in the corridors of power that creatives in agencies ("ponytails" as radio presenter John Robbie liked to refer to them) like to do work aimed for award shows to swell their egos and put pretty statues in their display cases. Their work is creative for creative's sake and should be avoided, nay shunned, at all costs by serious marketers.
Thankfully, that line of thinking is now showing up that kind of marketer and CEO as the kind of business thinker firmly behind the curve regarding trends driving growth.