Financial Times

More on the Ad drama
“Much ado about nothing”
By Dilith Jayaweera,Jt. Managing Director Triad Advertising (Pvt) Ltd
After all that is said and done there is always more said than done. Let me add to what’s being said. A comparative new comer to the ad industry, might be the reason for my simplicity of thought. But all this hullabaloo between SLIM and the Ad Industry could be summarized in a few key issues to avoid the confusion and the current waste of space in the national newspapers.

These are the salient points as I see them;
* Are the 4A’s boycotting the SLIM Awards?
* Are the agencies together in wanting a change?
* Is there a hidden agenda among a few top agencies?
* What are the agencies going to do to ensure evaluation of their work?
Let me quickly answer these 5 pertinent questions.

No. The 4A’s are not boycotting the SLIM Awards. The decision to pull out of this year’s awards was thrust on the Ad Industry due to SLIM not accepting the need for some fundamental change. SLIM and 4A’s have been discussing the requirement to differentiate between creativity and efficacy in keeping with global standards. Today in the global scenario there are two types of awards, creative awards and efficacy awards, such as Cannes, AdFest and even the Abby’s that judge only creativity and the Effies that evaluate efficacy. This was the simple request that we made. This is an 18 year-old argument. We have over the years stated clearly that SLIM has the mandate to organize effectiveness awards and not creative awards. It’s that simple.

But I must say, having been a part of this dialogue that if SLIM was professional enough to live up to their promises, this unfortunate situation could have been avoided and we would have jointly achieved the objectives we had set out together earlier. SLIM agreeing to an 80/20, creativity/efficacy in essence does not do justice to the aspect of advertising efficacy in the first place.

So we were not boycotting; only urging SLIM to do the right thing by their Association. An emphatic yes. That would be the answer to the second question. I am surprised that this question is even being entertained, when all but one of the agencies that contribute to over 88% of the entries year on year have signed a memorandum of understanding, unanimously agreeing to opt out of this year’s SLIM Awards. Is the majority of this industry being accused of being irrational and dishonest? A question that demands an answer from the accusers.

In my capacity, representing a 13 year old local agency that has chosen to be independent for strategic and national reasons, it would be brainless for us to condone a possible “Multinational” syndicated conspiracy as is being touted in the media.

It is my firm belief that the Sri Lankan advertising industry has to achieve basic international standards especially with regard to creativity, avoiding a mindless local approach and adopting prevailing globally accepted standards in creativity. So the answer to this question is NO, there is no hidden agenda among a few top agencies.

In conclusion I am pleased to observe that the Ad Industry has come together and identified some industry objectives inter alia raising the bar on our creative talent avoiding the need to import creative talent en masse as is the current situation in some cases. The Joint Industry Initiative will now organize the Ad Industry’s own awards before the end of June 2006 in line with international shows such as The London International Advertising Awards and the Cannes International Advertising Awards.

It is imperative now, that this unity in the Ad Industry be safeguarded, that mischievous elements are not allowed to chip away the trust and fraternity that has now been cultivated and that this industry moves forward on a firm footing for the benefit of the industry, the marketing fraternity and the peoples of this proud little island nation.

Comments and opinions could be sent to the writer, who is also Secretary -4A’s – at dilith@triad.lk

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