O’Rourke on selecting ‘The World’s Best Advertising’

 

 

Developing a team of talented, dedicated and knowledgeable staff members who all have a tremendous amount of respect for the industry in which we serve.  Any agency is only as good as the team it assembles and NYF believes in this same ideal.  Over the last four years, we have made significant strides on many fronts, from the structure of our competition, the process and pool of jury members that have joined us, our efforts to promote our winners and the education of the future of the advertising industry.  Collectively, we have continued to adapt alongside an ever changing landscape and because of this, the winners from the New York Festivals provide a true representation of the world’s most creative forms of communication.

 

 

The fact that NYF has been around for almost 56 years speaks volumes about the organization and our dedication to awarding great work.  We pride ourselves on many things, one of which is evolving and adapting.  As a service provider to the industry at large, we focus on continuously learning and acting on the valuable feedback that our entrants and jury members provide.  As a result of this, we were able to create an entirely unique entry process and judging procedure unique from any other show.  With the creation of the Executive Jury featuring over 30 chief creative officers from around the globe, we felt it was important that we allow them to evaluate all entries across all mediums.  This culminates in a true representation of the work being awarded within our industry, across all platforms.

 

 

What began with product placement has since evolved into various forms of what the industry calls branded entertainment.   The idea of branded entertainment has taken on new life for brands with the advent of original online content such as YouTube, where brand communication meets entertainment.  In addition to this, there are projects that are often the result of a content partnership between brands, broadcasters, and cross platform media integration deals.  In evaluating what our competition previously offered, we realized that the demand is there for such a competition within the NYF Advertising Awards and have created a more accurate platform for this type of work to be received.  

 

 

While the amount of channels to target the consumer has increased, it has also fractured the consumer in terms of your opportunity to reach them.  Consumer habits have changed significantly.  But, any successful campaign today has achieved what any successful campaign 20 years ago did.  And it has done so through the key fundamental of any piece of communication, the idea.  Simply utilizing multiple channels doesn’t mean it’s going to work.  The key difference today is measurability, allowing agencies to adapt a campaign based on consumer feedback and response. But at the end of the day, the idea reigns supreme and without it, you haven’t reached that message’s potential no matter how many channels you use. 

 

 

Showcasing the award winning work is the ultimate goal.  Providing young creatives with an opportunity to engage with the NYF winners is a crucial part of what we do in terms of educating the future of the advertising industry.  In 2010, New York Festivals began the NYF Media Center program at various universities around the world. These centers showcase the World¹s Best Advertising® across all 14 competitions, providing university students studying marketing and advertising the unique opportunity to experience the award winning work from the New York Festivals® International Advertising Awards®. Featuring screening rooms, print galleries, interactive work stations and a library of Advertising Annuals, the NYF Media Centers provide the future of advertising with a source of education, entertainment and inspiration. Content is provided annually, allowing the university students to witness the evolution of award winning ideas each year.  To be able to provide the future of advertising with unprecedented access to the most creative form of communications is something we’ve dedicated a tremendous amount of time too.

 

 

Each year there is a campaign that truly differentiates itself from anything else that¹s been done. It’s a message; it’s a campaign that captivates the attention of both the jury and the average consumer unequivocally.  The World’s Best Idea™ represents a campaign that people won¹t forget for a long, long time, it¹s a message that people pay attention to and engages people in a way that keeps their attention and changes their way of thinking.  And in the world of advertising, changing consumer behavior and their way of life is something that never really played into the original brief. It used to be about selling product, but now consumers are knowledgeable and well informed, educated and provided power, so what can you do to effectively change human behavior.

 

The World’s Best Idea ™represents those efforts.