The Araw Awards give honor to outstanding creative works during the last two years in various ad categories – TV, radio and print craftsmanship, interactive tools, graphic design, direct mail, outdoor pieces, and multi-media campaigns. Three foreign judges were flown in to join a formidable group of local jurors to select the finalists and winners. In this year’s competition, a new special award will be given, the Kodak Vision Award, the winner of which will be chosen by a jury composed of the best cinematographers in the country.
How do Pinoy creatives come up with award-winning ads? What makes them creative? How do they develop ideas? Is there any creative training template that can make an aspiring copywriter or visualizer win an Araw Award? These were some of the questions that were given enlightenment by the thesis done by Rowena C. Cruzat for her MS Advertising course at the UST Graduate School. Cruzat currently works with BBDO/GO. The study entitled The Profile of Selected Fifty Araw Creative Award (ACA) Winners of 1993-2003 assesses the profiles of the Araw recipients from the 1993 to 2003. It aims to determine the factors that can lead creative people to become award-winners. It also examines their demographic profiles, hobbies and interests, childhood data, educational backgrounds, special trainings, and work experiences
The respondents of the study were gathered from the list of Araw winners provided by the Advertising Board of the Philippines (ADBOARD). The list was then tallied on a per ad agency basis and were ranked by the number of awards won. Some names were not included because they were either out of the country during the time of the study, deceased, and for some personal reasons would not want to be interviewed.
They have varied choices, interests and favorites – colors, movies, writers, books, pets, and collections – rarely giving just one answer to the interview questions. They are open to different things that allow them to develop as a creative person. The diversity of their interests helps them grow faster in a highly demanding, highly stressful creative arena.
Most Araw winners believe that they are naturally inclined to the arts and the written word. They have the tendency to play by their lonesome, manipulating and challenging their imagination to create things that can provide solutions to problems and extra excitement to everyday discoveries. Interaction or playing with other kids during their growing up years is a rare opportunity for them. A number dream of becoming astronauts or scientists.
The study likewise shows that Ace Saatchi & Saatchi have trained the most number of 1993-2003 Araw winners. Though most of them are graduates of art-related courses, not all became art directors. Some ended up as copywriters or producers. Within that same decade, Leo Burnett came out to be the advertising agency with the most number of Araw winners.
Two things surfaced when the Araw winners were asked to define creativity in advertising. First, creativity is the panacea to a brand’s lackluster market performance and that its primordial concern is to sell the product. Second, creativity is all about freshness of ideas and uniqueness of executions. A creative ad must move people, shake the marketplace and make the target market react to the advertising stimulus that can possibly result to consumer preference. They all agreed that a winning idea sprouts from what is new, different, and disruptive. It redefines beliefs, emotions and how brands are looked at.
The respondents echoed that there is no formula in creating award-winning ads. A creative ad must be able to find a way to sensually, rationally and emotionally bond with its defined audiences. Great ads that turn award-winners come from solid consumer insights. Creating ads that will win awards is a concern, but is not the be-all of their jobs. Ads per se must be capable of being noticed, be singled out for their creativity, but at the same time be able to bring the brand into every consumer’s shopping basket. Winning an Araw is seen as a bonus, a great recognition given by peers, and a big ego-booster.
In the conceptualization process, most of the respondents follow certain habits or rituals, some of which are pretty normal, and some understandably weird. For example, some can whip up ideas during unholy hours of the day. Others have to consume large doses of caffeine to make the ideas flow or make them think more vividly, or have a full stomach before buckling down to work. And still some like to have a clean table while at work, believing that a cluttered or messy table may hamper the creative process.
The physical setup of the ad agency where creative people work impacts on their outputs. The atmosphere or environment in the workplace sets the creative mood. And as they work, the Araw winners have a way of dealing with reviews and criticisms, looking at them as challenges to better their current best. They look at put-downs (subtle or otherwise) as something that can help improve the creative product.
Araw winners accept that the award derby is significant because it serves as a venue for camaraderie among advertising creatives. Its highly competitive nature has helped raise the standard of Philippine advertising as it pushes the Pinoy creatives to spheres of excellence, both locally and internationally.
Cruzat’s study further reveals that there are several changes that may take place after being recognized as Araw winners. First off, more responsibility is placed on their "creative" shoulders. For the more senior creatives, the need for greater motivation and guidance of their subordinates become even more intense. Aside from doing creative stuff, there is the added administrative work to mind. Second, Araw awardees move up to higher positions, which of course come with higher salaries. Third, the pressure for better delivery is heightened, knowing that they are only as good as their last award-winning campaign.
All of us are born creative and the environment where we grow up is a big factor in either dulling our talents or sharpening our creative gifts. If the environment we move in is nurturing and inspiring, the chance of generating excellent, as well as exciting, results will be greater. Most of the Araw winners love the thinking process involved in the work, as well as discovering unique ways of executing ideas in an atmosphere of experimentation, positivity, trust and open-mindedness.
To Araw winners the first step of breaking into the advertising scene is to study in a good school where one can efficiently learn basic communication skills, creativity and technical abilities. From there, an aspiring creative must learn from gurus, encounter new things, read books, watch movies, constantly observe human behaviors, and do other things that will help in discovery and enlightenment. Ideas may not be captured in the confines of the four walls of the agency cubicle. It may come through a variation of processes, a widening of one’s field of experience, bringing passion into every creative endeavor, and not easily giving up or tiring out. Hence, creative people should never stop until they get a solution or approach right. A right that can lead to a recognition of the work accomplished, not only from their countrymen but also from people from other parts of the world.
Araw winners are very optimistic that the Philippines can reach global acclaim if everyone in the ad industry works in unison to achieve this elusive dream. Philippine advertising has revved up and is ready to step on the gas to drive our advertising works to the worldwide creative race track. Though the predictable barriers continue to persist – conservative clients, review restrictions and lack or insufficient logistical supports – but under these conditions, new discoveries can, without a doubt, be unearthed.
Will the sun shine on the Pinoys’ advertising creative parade?