It's good enough. But is it award winning?

After spending the last several days as a 3rd Round Judge at the Direct Marketing Association International Echo Awards, I am beginning to wonder if I expect too much from my colleagues and peers in the industry.

I reviewed nearly 100 entries across 4 categories, and I'm disappointed that I only found a handful of truly brilliant entries that, in my humble opinion, deserve to be recognized with an Echo Award.

The Echo's are awarded based on a combination of 3 key factors: strategy, creativity, and results. Considering today's business climate and marketing challenges, I firmly believe that if a marketing effort doesn't move the sales needle even to generate more interest and awareness in your product or service, then the marketing expenditure may have been wasted.

Brilliant direct marketing solutions start by digging deep into the client's business problem. Asking lots of questions and conducting research to fill in any gaps, it is imperative that you understand what's going on in the marketplace, and how the client's particular product or service solves a problem experienced by the target (even if they don't realize they have that problem!).
Determining the most innovative way to position the solution and how, where and when to communicate it to the target efficiently so it drives the desired action is the biggest challenge. This is the strategic part of the marketing equation and the step that seems to be missing from most of the entries I judged.

The execution of that solution is the creative itself. Superior creative seamlessly leverages both words and visuals. It brings them together in perfect harmony in a way that will be most attractive to the target, cause an emotional or visceral reaction, and entice them to learn more/purchase/visit a web site.
The proof of a brilliant strategy and flawless creative are the results. Did the marketing do what it was supposed to do?

It seems that many direct marketers took a problem and applied the most obvious solution. Whether it was a new segmentation strategy, or leveraged a previously tested idea, what I witnessed was rarely breakthrough and certainly did not have the “wow!” factor.

Am I wrong to make this one of my benchmarks?

We all have work we’re proud of – work that has achieved or exceeded a client’s objective. But is it worthy of an Echo award, one of the most prestigious awards in our industry?

Personally, I’m looking for campaigns that make me think “I wish I’d thought of that!”. Or that demonstrate such a new and innovative way of solving a problem that it puts the rest of us to shame.

Sid Liebenson of Draft/FCB delivered a “Lunch and Learn” presentation on how the U.S. has seemingly fallen behind in the creative competitive arena proven by the fewer and fewer awards held by domestic agencies. I must admit I was a little incensed during the discussion, but now that I’ve seen the work for myself I have to wonder: “Is good enough, good enough?”

I hope not. I hope I’ll continue to push my own team to rise to every business and creative challenge because without exceeding the edges of the envelope, we’re destined to become obscure.