Also in this special report:
* Palmer Jarvis leads the pack p.37
* Breakdown: Clients p.38
* Breakdown: Advertising Agencies p.38
* Breakdown: Creative Directors p.38
* Breakdown: Copywriters p.39
* Breakdown: Art Directors p.39
* Breakdown: Television p.40
* Breakdown: Magazine p.40
* Breakdown: Newspaper p.42
* Breakdown: Transit p.42
* Breakdown: Outdoor p.43
* Breakdown: Direct Marketing p.43
* Breakdown: Radio p.43
Chris Staples. Alan Russell. Ian Grais.
If you grew tired of hearing these names at industry awards shows in the past year … well, sorry, but here they are again.
As the architects of two of the past year’s most celebrated advertising campaigns – on behalf of Crime Stoppers and Vancouver’s Playland amusement park – this trio brought home a truckload of prizes for themselves and their agency, Palmer Jarvis Communications, in 1997.
And their success has, in turn, secured first-place honors for Palmer Jarvis (to be renamed Palmer Jarvis DDB by Jan. 9 if a planned merger with DDB Canada is approved by all parties) in Strategy’s annual Creative Report Card – further confirmation, if any should still be needed, that this Vancouver-based agency is currently one of the two or three most formidable creative shops in the country.
The Creative Report Card charts the results of the major Canadian advertising awards programs held in 1997, to provide a snapshot of Canada’s most celebrated agencies, clients and creative talent.
Staples took first-place honors in the creative director category, by a wide margin over the closest finisher, Steven Landsberg of Ogilvy & Mather.
Top copywriter honors went to Russell, while Grais finished first in the art director category.
Among clients, Timex Canada earned the greatest number of points, on the strength of Ogilvy & Mather’s much-lauded Olympic-themed campaign for Indiglo Night-Light watches. Federal Express Canada finished in second place, thanks to bbdo’s work for them in print and outdoor, while Playland took third.
bbdo took second place in the agency category, followed by Ogilvy & Mather. Roche Macaulay & Partners Advertising, the winner of Strategy’s 1997 Agency of the Year competition, finished fourth.
The Creative Report Card is undertaken separately from the Agency of the Year. In that exercise, Strategy asks a panel of clients and advertising professionals to evaluate work from a shortlist of agencies (see second section).
While the Agency of the Year competition evaluates current work, the Creative Report Card tends to reflect the performance of agencies during the previous year, since there is generally about a year’s delay between the time advertising creative is developed and the time it makes it to the awards circuit.
The Creative Report Card, therefore, largely reflects an agency’s work in 1996.
It should be noted that this ranking does not purport to reveal the names of the ‘best’ creative directors, art directors or copywriters – or that a low number of points means that one is among the ‘worst.’ Such judgments are purely subjective, and Strategy would never claim to possess the authority to make a definitive determination.
Rather, the Creative Report Card serves as a comprehensive record of whose work the industry has honored most highly in the course of the previous year.
Strategy has developed a grading system that provides a cumulative measure of the hundreds of individual advertising awards presented in the past year.
Here’s how the system works:
Strategy assigns a point value to each gold, silver, bronze and certificate of merit (or the equivalents), weighted according to the relative importance of each awards program, as judged by Strategy’s editorial staff.
National awards programs are accorded greater weight than regional shows.
In the same way, awards shows that honor a cross-section of media are accorded greater weight than those that look at only a single medium.
By adding up the points accorded to each award-winning piece of advertising, Strategy is in turn able to assign points to each agency, client, creative director, art director and copywriter whose work is honored.
The Creative Report Card uses, as its foundation, the results of the major national and regional advertising awards programs that recognize excellence in consumer advertising. These are:
* The Advertising and Design Club of Canada awards (all media), presented by the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.
* The Applied Arts awards (all media), presented by Applied Arts magazine.
* The Ad Rodeo awards (all media), presented by an independent advertising industry committee based in Calgary, Alta.
* The Bessies (tv), presented by the Television Bureau of Canada.
* Les Coqs d’Or (all media), presented by the Publicite Club de Montreal.
* The Extras (newspaper), presented by the Canadian Newspaper Association.
* The Marketing awards (all media), presented by Marketing Magazine.
* The Radio Impact awards (radio), presented by the Radio Marketing Bureau.
* The rsvp awards (direct response), presented by the Canadian Direct Marketing Association.
(The Billi awards, which honor excellence in outdoor advertising, have been postponed until early in the new year. The 1997 Lotus awards, the b.c. advertising industry’s annual celebration, were held too late this year to be included in our ranking. We hope to have both back in next year.)
As a group, these awards shows recognize excellence in seven media categories: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor, transit and direct response marketing.
The Creative Report Card begins with overall listings of advertising agencies, clients, creative directors, art directors and copywriters.
Within the seven media categories, results are broken out by agency, client, creative director, art director (with the obvious exception of radio) and copywriter.
A summary of the top performers in each category appears on the first page of this report.
As usual, since the various awards were announced, a number of creatives have changed agencies. (Can’t you people all just stay put?) To be consistent, they are listed with the agency for which they won the award. In categories where an individual won awards for more than one agency, each agency is listed.
Awards programs and annuals were our reference for all credits.
Due to limited editorial space, listings below 10 points have not necessarily been included.
Advertising Agency
Palmer Jarvis
Client
Timex Canada
Creative Director
Chris Staples
Art Director
Ian Grais
Copywriter
Alan Russell
Agency (TV)
Palmer Jarvis
Client (TV)
Timex Canada
Creative Director (TV)
Chris Staples
Art Director (TV)
Elsie Fehr
Nancy Vonk
Copywriter (TV)
Janet Kestin
Arthur Shah
Brian Smith
Agency (Radio)
Pirate Radio and Television
Client (Radio)
