Shadow of the scams recedes at Singapore creative awards show

Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore swept the board at the recent Singapore Creative Circle Awards, taking home 23 golds, silvers and bronzes*. In second place in the metal tally was Leo Burnett with 13 silvers and bronzes, followed by Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Euro RSCG, who both took six awards. Nine golds were handed out on the night, with Saatchis again taking home the lion's share (five), followed by BBH (two) and one each to Work and Kinetic Interactive. It was Discovery Channel Asia which really stole the show, seeing 20 of its advertisements (created variously by both Saatchis and Leo Burnett Singapore) win awards. Unlike the Kancil Awards held in Kuala Lumpur the week earlier, at which close to 1,500 agency staffers packed the Shangri-La ballroom and cheered wildly every time a winner was announced, Singapore's Creative Circle Awards this year lacked a certain je ne sais quois in terms of atmosphere and camaraderie. The issue of scam ads hovered over both events, however, with various attendees attempting to speculate just how many of the winning ads had been done for genuine clients. "I've heard people say 70 per cent of the winners in Singapore are scams, but I think that's a bit harsh," said one industry source, who asked not to be named. "I saw a few this year which I would have questions about, but you have to consider the fact that the big winners were all done for real clients and with big production budgets. "I do think that the 4As has been far more vigilant this year in filtering out the scam entries, but that's probably because of the stink that was kicked up in Hong Kong over the issue." (see MEDIA, September 29 and October 13). Newly-appointed regional head of BBDO, Peter Wilken, also took a pragmatic view on the subject. "It's hard to get people to talk openly about the other side of 'scam ads' - why they're done at all, why they've been around forever, and why we'll probably still be talking about them in years to come," he said. "Few people will argue that the ultimate goal is to produce award-winning work for the large, traditionally conservative, clients like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble. And it can be done ... Few would argue either, that while such goliaths are raising the call for creativity, it takes time to change deeply-ingrained systems and philosophies that mitigate against innovative ideas (like pre-testing storyboards)." Mr Wilken said the industry needed an avenue "that allows our industry to create trends, not just follow them". He also echoed a comment by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide global CD Neil French, who argues loudly the case for scam ads on page 8 of this issue: "There's an element of inverse snobbery about those people in our industry who complain loudest about 'scams for small clients'," Mr Wilken said. "These tend to come from the bigger, creatively-challenged agencies. Small clients are still clients, it doesn't mean we have to give them small ideas. Small clients with big ideas become big clients." * Finalist awards have not been included in the tallies referred to in this article.

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