The background is straight-forward enough. Keeping shareholders happy in the low profit margin business of advertising, a host of communication giants like Bcom3 (Leo Burnett, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and D'Arcy), WPP (Ogilvy & Mather and J. Walter Thompson) and Interpublic (McCann-Erickson and Lowe) have declared India and China development targets for the next financial year. With its population size and the economic aspirations of Western multinationals in its hands, the Asia-Pacific region now makes more television commercials than any other.
But this is not just about money.
A more serious criticism lies in the suggestion that D&AD is dominated by British, male-skewed London-parochial advertising standards which render the judging of NEL impossible, and the achievement of a D&AD NEL award irrelevant in overseas markets. So who really stands to benefit from the new category?
"D&AD is looking to expand its influence and fame,
says John Hegarty, BBH's chairman and worldwide creative director, who sat on a separate board of judges created for the new category. Judging by exactly the same creative standards as the rest of D&AD, Hegarty insists that NEL is not a back door to a Pencil and remains quintessentially British.
Throwing the question of Western cultural domination of the advertising industry into sharp relief and in a subtle twist that marks a sea difference behind the thinking, O&M's regional creative head, Tham Kai Meng, the Asian representative on the board of judges, sees NEL's launch as solid evidence that D&AD is acquiring a different, less "Brit-centric
view of the world.
But is it adding to a growing body of expertise or redressing an imbalance and weakness? Either way the bottomline is this: for the first time in Asian advertising history, non-native English speakers have the opportunity to show their mettle at D&AD.
Despite a very quiet launch (there were no press releases; just a few phone calls to executive creative directors in the region), an estimated 500 entries were received. As many as 18 may have made it in the book.
Compared to an overall tally of 1,800 entries and an estimated 660 in the book, this isn't a bad start. According to Tham, the NEL awards mark a resurgence of good work from the region, in particular from Hong Kong.
Winning awards is an expensive business, but it's an investment that pays off many times over for those who are good enough and are prepared to put their money where their mouths are.
The most creative agencies listed in The Gunn Report are by no coincidence the most financially successful, and clients who buy their creative outrun same category competitors in terms of market share by a wide margin.
The new category is now offering NEL creatives who are good, hard-working, and committed the same recognition. People in the business say the battle for recognition makes for a competitive, aggressive and, on occasion, duplicitous world. Be that as it may, the work that picks up honours at D&AD gets results.
More importantly, the new category will give Western-owned agencies an opportunity to show their commitment to truly empowering their non-English speaking creative talent.
