Last week , we explored what clients think of Chillies. This week , the blog features prominent advertising personalities in the country and what they think of chillies.
They were given 4 common questions where the answer should not exceed 5 lines.
Here are the questions.
Question 1
As the Chairman/CEO/ECD of a leading advertising agency, is the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business? Yes! or No! and Why?
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all? If yes/no, in what way does it have a positive or negative impact?
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years? Yes/No and Why?
Question 4
Is the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards fair?Yes/No and Why?
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
Not really. Over the years we have not seen dramatic shifts either way. If at all it raises the profile of the agency’s creative reputation in the short term. Its how the winning agencies manage it in the longer term that will impact on winning significant business.
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
Yes it does as it motivates the creative people in the industry to raise the bar. Agencies should maximize the opportunity this creates. There is no doubt that winning creates an adrenaline high but also egos
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
The quality of ideation is improving. There is better technology available that has enhanced the creative execution.
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?
Mostly fair. Creativity is subjective and participants will always have to take that into consideration. Judges although given guidelines will be subject to their own personal likes and dislikes and that will have an influence on their final decision.
Lilamini Dias Benson , LOWE
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
Winning awards does add to lustre to an Ad Agency. But a true results-oriented brand-building Agency will always be respected and will in the end be the criteria for new business. Nowadays (in crunch times) even more so than before
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
The Chillies has in past years brought out the worst in the ad industry. And we have been guilty of washing our dirty linen in public as well!! But then it has also brought out ingenuity and resourcefulness and has seen many people flexing their creative muscles very productively. Even if only in pursuance of scam. THE IMAGINATION WHEN STRETCHED TO NEW LENGTHS NEVER RETURNS TO ITS ORIGINAL DIMENSION. So its always good to stretch!
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
Yes. And NO NO NO. Recently we’ve all been guilty of cheap and dirty! Largely because clients DO NOT recognise that a great, memorable, relevant idea lifts his brand sky high above the reaches of other ordinary brands. And you can run it just a few times and everybody who sees will remember. It needs much less media investment. We badly need clients who recognise this. They are too few
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?
I think the judging is inevitably pretty subjective, based on personalities and personal taste and opinions. But I cannot answer this truthfully because I have never seen what items were in the running for any particular award.
Ranil De Silva , Leo Burnett
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
It is not necessarily a new business winner but it does influence the decision making process. However, I might add that our success at The Chillies last year resulted in us getting 2 new clients
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
It certainly does as it helps to showcase our work and the creative standards and it helps each agency to make a statement for itself for its creative product. It also serves as an aspiration to the people in the industry to do better work and helps to uplift the standards of the industry as witnessed by The Chillies since its inception in 2006
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
This is quite obvious when you see the work and how it is improving year after year as well as the regional and global recognition we are gaining.
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?
It is fair as it can be and there is no fool proof method for it. However, the current system seems to be the best available solution. If more agencies and people got involved with The Chillies and genuinely contributed towards its management, it certainly will help a lot more and result in even better management and operations.
Dilith Jayaweera , Triad
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
No, because clients are very much aware of the reality. And especially thanks to campaigns launched by loosers time to time, The Chillies has now more known to be an award show of scams than a proper award show among the marketing fraternity.
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
Yes, because it helps the industry to improve the quality of its core product “The Creative Product”.
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
Yes, because Sri Lanka has started producing more and more locally relevant communications campaigns, therefore , now we see something called Sri Lankan ads rather than irrelevant ”international quality ads”.
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?
No, yet it really doesn’t matter to people who believe in their work.
Thayalan Bartlett , JWT Colombo
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
A strong win in any award show can fuel your reputation. However when it comes to the Chillies, I think we are a long way off the mark. The Chillies has a lot more to prove in terms of its credibility as it has little significance on a client’s choice of an agency . But I sincerely hope that the Chillies will enhance its reputation so that it becomes a decision making tool for clients.
The essence of the Chillies must be to identify those Ideas that have the ability: To sell more product in more places to more people on more occasions ie: Creativity = Effectiveness = Client respect = New business. That is all that matters.
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
It certainly does in terms of motivating agency staff. Whilst there are a few pieces of good work which is gaining us recognition locally and internationally they are largely being delivered on insignificant brands which sometimes begs the question of its authenticity and credibility. The Chillies will come of age when we start delivering big awards on real brands.
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
There is far too much of bad advertising that shrouds the few pieces of good work that make it. Overall I say No! …… because there is too much client influencing that prevails than creative freedom. Its important that client’s expose themselves to international work as much as the agencies do. Sadly very few clients are tuned into global trends in advertising. The few clients who know this are pushing their agencies to deliver. The way to go!
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards fair?
The process and management outlined in the blue print is pretty robust. Beyond this it is our actions and conscience to ensure its fairness. Most often I see actions and conscience not in sync with the blue print. We must work to an “industry agenda” that will benefit all and not a “personal agenda” that benefit a few.
Chandini Rajaratnam , ECD – JWT , Colombo
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
No, I cannot remember Chillies or SLIM or any award bringing new bis in. Unfortunately clients take a dim view of awards because they consider it and creativity, ad agency ego massage. I believe strongly that creativity enhances effectivity and especially in tight economic situations it helps brands in many ways. Clients differ in their opinion of this. Added to this, most clients think the Chillies are a bit of a circus.Having said this, I would love to see the day when a Chilly win means more bis.
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
It has had a terribly negative impact on the industry because of the scam issue. Clients and people in general think we have hit a new low and they cannot comprehend the extent to which some agencies have gone just to win an award. Now when we take an ad to a client on a genuine innitiative they tend to view it suspiciously. Sadly, it has erroded the respect won by professionalism. The Chillies could benefit the industry when it showcases kick ass work on tough, real brands with sharp clients. Then the overall standard of the industry will go up.
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
When scam wins, it cannot improve standards. This is because the ‘template’ set by scam ads don’t do anything to improve creative thinking or hone skills. It’s easy to do ads for a nonexistent client who will not question why there is no body copy or contact details or why the brand and the logo are both next to invincible or how it will bring in sales. Also the tendency to scour award books and the net and copy trends in winning work inhibits originality that could help set our own new standard.
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards fair?
Let me just say that I have stayed out of all of it.
Trevor Kennedy , ECD – LEO Burnett
Question 1
Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?
I think it does because people and brands want to be associated with success even if they don’t want creative work. They want to think the best people are working on their business even if it is just a small ad.
Question 2
Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?
Yes it does. Because everyone wants to win it makes them more aware of what is being produced globally. This has to be good as you are also looking at different strategies.
Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?
Yes. The better work entered this year was of a higher standard and there was more of it.
Question 4
Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?
I think the judging was fair but I would like to see more focus on the good work we produce and less on scam and finding reasons why some work didn’t win.
So , we have now looked at what the clients and the agency individuals have to say. What do you think?
Is Chillies, really Hot? or Not?
