On Judging Creativity

Two Sundays ago, I spent most of my time on "jury duty". Luckily for me, it wasn't really about someone that was accused of breaking the law, but about online advertising. Yeap, it was for the Ad:Tech Awards, so I spent a good chunk of my weekend reading briefs and goals and strategies and results, and reviewing traditional and non-traditional online advertising.

This is not the first time I act as jury and for me is always a blast. Of course it takes time and I don't take it lightly, so it can take a LOT of time. But there are worst ways of spending your time, believe me.

As always, after reading so many briefs and seeing so many campaigns (I was suppoused to vote on at least 30 pieces, but I went through way more than that), I was amazed to see such good and horrible ads mixed all in the same basket.

When I say "horrible" is not a matter of taste. When judging creativity applied to advertising, is never about your taste. Is about the brand, the goals and the target. The taste of the target. But still, sometimes you just wonder if that one is the best strategy for that brand. What can I say? As a juror I am bound to secrecy. So I will not give names here. Let's just say that before giving a negative vote I just decided to skip some campaigns.

On April the winners are going to be revealed. Hopefully I'll be there. I don't really know how the rest voted, so I am very curious to see who won. Want to know more about Ad:tech and the Ad:Tech Awards? Visit their site and take a peek.