Rebecca Carrasco’s Andy’s Diary – The Final Day

RebeccaCarrasco is in New Orleans this week judging the annual internationalANDY Awards, one of four Aussies on the 24 person international jury,who has kindly agreed to write a daily diary exclusively for CB.Campaign Brief,Campaign Brief Asia and Bestads are international media partners of theANDY Awards, which has an all-star jury, chaired by Ty Montague, chiefcreative officer, JWT North America and Michael Lebowitz, founder andCEO, Big Spaceship.

The Final Day

It’s not so much that there’s an elephant in the room anymore: it’s more like we’re in the elephant enclosure. But it’s a nice looking enclosure, with a small pond and a water feature. If we tread carefully around the pond we should be OK.

The great thing about this show is that you get to see all of the work.With the exception of the early preliminary judging you see allcategories, all the contenders and all the winners, across all mediums.So there’s a real sense of balance to the way things are awarded. If acertain yardstick is used to measure integrated, film, or online, it’sused to measure everything. Which is why this is one very difficultshow to win. And that’s not a bad thing.

What stands out is the work that finds a different solution to a realproblem – well thought-through and well-executed. If it doesn’t extendcomfortably into a certain medium, don’t enter that part; it could killthe whole entry. It doesn’t have to be a Star Spangled Spectacular; itjust has to be a great idea cleverly brought to life through the rightchannels. Or channel. Nothing wrong with one channel if that’s all ittakes to solve the problem in a new way.

As always, the work that will get awarded is the work that makes youthink. And kick your dog. Despite the GFC, or perhaps because of it,there have been great problems met with inventive, clever solutions. Ithink you’ll see that in this year’s big winners. They’re smart. Theypunch above their weight. And they make every dollar spent that muchmore valuable. A few things did get through that I wouldn’t havepicked, and a few pieces didn’t make the cut that I felt deserved arun, but that’s to be expected. That’s why there are 25 judges, not one.

There was a lot of good debate: idea versus execution; new thinking orold thinking newly applied to advertising; innovative idea or just newtechnology; how much interactivity a good site requires; the importanceof craft; marketing solutions versus ads; and effectiveness versusidea. Just to name a few. Any work that did make it through defendeditself against every attack. So congratulations to the winners – greatwork, really well deserved. One thing you do feel when judging is thepassion that goes into this award. The Board Members have a genuineinterest in the quality of the work that bears the ANDY name. TheChairmen of Judges emphasize that you’re not just awarding work; you’recurators of a show. And the organizers put on a great week for thejury.

Last night ended with the launch of an art auction organized by theANDYs to help fund the rebuilding of the Lower 9th Ward by the Make ItRight Foundation. With the help of Shepard Fairey – one of the jurors -a collection of world-class artwork is now up for auction online toraise funds for the project. (See link below.)

Great group. Great week. Great work. Now for the 19-hour flight home.