When the B.C. ad industry honours its best this November at the resurrected Lotus Awards, it’s making sure no asterisk symbols need to be stamped on any of the prizes handed out.
Nadine Cole, Lotus Awards co-chairwoman and general manager of Cossette's Vancouver office, said there was “quite a bit of dissatisfaction in the industry” at the last Lotuses two years ago when multiple awards were given to “scam ads” or “dog-walker ads.”
They’re the type of ads developed for the sole purpose of winning an award. A client for the ad might exist but the client did not commission the work.
“It’s a lot easier to do fun, and creative, and innovative work when there’s absolutely no one holding you accountable to budget or to actual demographics or even specific criteria about who you’re trying to reach,” Cole said.
For example, a buttoned-down organization like BC Hydro may be reluctant to give the green light to an advertisement depicting space aliens or pirates.
“If you can win an award with a client like that (BC Hydro), that’s smart, strategic work vs. the great little pop-up store that might sell trinkets,” Cole said.
If an agency is caught submitting a scam ad to the 2015 Lotus Awards, it will be barred from submitting the following year.
“It’s such a small industry, it would do an agency a disservice to get caught for something like this,” Cole said.
“We’re hoping that people are going to play it clean and really want to enter great work that they’ve done for clients.”
The Lotuses were shelved in 2014 following last year’s dissolution of the industry group that owned the awards, the Advertising Agency Association of B.C. (AAABC).
But 123w ad agency CEO Scot Keith, who is co-chairman of the 2015 Lotus Awards, organized a makeshift show last year featuring a reel of local ads at the Steel Toad Pub in the Olympic Village.
“And it was packed,” Cole recalled.
This year, the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) stepped in to organize the 2015 awards at the request of former members of the AAABC. The ICA has managed the Toronto-based Cassie Awards for more than two decades and nominations are open for ads created in 2013 to make up for the lost year.
“Having the ICA running this whole show puts a lot more validity behind the Lotus,” Cole said, adding the organizing committee has re-evaluated and modernized the award categories.
This year, the show is recognizing categories such as best social media campaign, mobile game and public relations.
“It’s really more of a reflection of what marketing and communications looks like today,” Cole said.
“ICA has helped us refresh what Lotus can be.”
Nominations for the 2015 Lotus Awards are open through to August 4.
