The Creative Circle was formed approximately 26 years ago. Its objectives are to promote creativity as a business resource, to raise and maintain high standards of creativity in advertising, to provide input into official industry bodies like the ACA, and ASA, and to have a meaningful, tangible impact on decisions taken by these industry bodies listed above by united, cohesive action.
The Creative Circle has also constituted an educational committee or intern programme, to find ways of helping develop the more disadvantaged creatives either already in or looking to enter the industry by placing 10 interns in 10 different Creative Circle member agencies. It doesn't end there though, as the interns are often invited along to the Creative Circle Award judging sessions to look and learn.
These Creative Circle Awards garner lots of attention in the industry, with many paying attention to the monthly 'winners' newsletter, with few understanding the process so I asked Donenberg what goes on behind-the-scenes...
How is work entered into the awards? What is the criteria for being considered? Donenberg: Only Creative Circle members can enter the monthly awards. All member agencies can enter all their work, as long as it has been flighted in the media in the category they are entering. So if they are entering a TV ad, it must have flighted on TV.
Please explain the difference between the monthly, quarterly and annual versions of the Creative Circle Awards? Donenberg: As agencies do not do much experiential and digital work, we judge this category every three months to ensure there's enough work to judge. We have a separate panel that judge the digital work, all from digital agencies. Then, the categories of TV, radio, out of home or outdoor, and print - covering newspaper and magazine - are judged every month. All the monthly award winners in all the categories are then entered into the Annual awards, and a panel of 18 senior creatives judges all the work, selecting a winner from each category, to become Ad of the Year.
Let us in on the judging procedure... Donenberg: Judges cannot vote for work in their own agency or agency group. They then score all the work out of 100. To simplify:
Judging is transparent, as all scoring sheets can be called for and viewed by any Creative Circle member. There's also no debate during judging. Any ads that end up very close in score can be debated after, and the order of the top three can be swapped with the chairperson's guidance. The top three ads in each category then go through to Ad of the Year.
Tell us about the judging criteria... Donenberg: The judging criteria for ad of the month is exactly that - the best ad for that month, regardless of whether it's a good month or not. The top three pieces of work in each category then go through to the Creative Circle Ad of the Year judging.
The aim of the competition is simple: we seek to reward work that is fresh and original, and raises the standard of South African advertising. If it somehow feels familiar, done or expected, we don't reward it.
All work is judged according to five criteria:
Work must meet the first criterion to even be considered for an award. Ad of the month is always judged in a constructive, positive spirit, with discussion only once the results have been calculated, under the guidance of the Chairperson to ensure a piece of work is never talked down.
How is the judging panel chosen? Donenberg: The Chairperson has to be on the Creative Circle Executive Committee or ExCo, their agency then hosts the monthly awards judging. So that means if Justin Gomes from FoxP2 is the Chairperson, FoxP2 will host the judging for that month. All ExCo members have to chair a monthly award. Most of them are from Johannesburg or are group executive creative directors of both Johannesburg and Cape Town. In this case, I would hold the majority of the monthly awards at their Johannesburg agency, with two of the monthly awards held in Cape Town.
Then, only creatives who have won an award at any of the Creative Circle-endorsed awards in the last two years can be selected for the judging panel. These Creative Circle-endorsed awards are: Cannes, D&AD, Clios, The One Show, The Loeries, The Creative Circle Monthly Awards and The Creative Circle Ad of the Year Award. There are 10 judges in total, of which five are senior creatives and five are middle/junior creatives.
Talk us through the timing factor of judging the awards... Donenberg: The normal judging dates would be September judged in October, October judged in November. Agencies can only enter work from the first flighting date, and have two months to enter the work. That means if the first flighting date was on 30 September, they can enter it into either the September or October awards. But they can't enter a piece of work that was first flighted in March and enter it into the September awards.
With the July Awards, Chair of the panel, Chris Gotz, CCO Ogilvy & Mather South Africa wished there was more to enthuse about and said there were bits and pieces of brightness in the gloom. Is there perhaps too much focus on awards at the moment with the Loeries, AMASAs, Apex, Assegai, Bookmarks, Pendorings, PRISMS, Smarties and more, all local? Donenberg: I don't think so. There are always months where there's a lot of good work entered and months where average work is entered, it all depends on the work that the agencies have done in that month. This is not a reflection of focusing on any of the other awards.
Donenberg asserts that the South African ad industry is probably rated the best on the continent, and tends to do well in the radio and print categories internationally. For example, this year FCB won the Grand Prix for its Coca-Cola "Rainbow" radio ad at Cannes. Unfortunately, she says that's where our best work lies, as South African's TV work only has a few exceptional pieces that feature internationally, and our digital work just isn't highly rated at the moment.
So get on it, local ad agencies! I, for one, am hoping to see South African digital and TV work make a name for itself in 2015. Follow the Creative Circle on Twitter to ensure you don't miss a creative step.
