Effectiveness on the Rise: Why Ad Agencies Want More From Their Industry Awards

Industry awards offer a moment to reflect and celebrate. They can lift morale, attract business, and sometimes validate the grind - all pretty important stuff but with the associated costs, is it time to look beyond the glitz and glam?

A trophy adorning your front desk is all well and good. But did the work actually work? Did it add value where value was claimed? Can we now say that it's time for more ad awards to focus on proving effectiveness?

The news that Ascential, the owner of Cannes Lions, has acquired the Effie Awards, remaining a stand-alone initiative within the company, is the latest indication that more is expected from awards investment by the wider industry.

Philip Thomas, CEO of Ascential, explained the reasoning: “The coming together of LIONS and Effie is a powerful testament to the fact that effectiveness and creativity in marketing are inextricably linked. All enlightened businesses know that creative, effective marketing drives growth."

With that increasing demand for proving effectiveness while industry awards continue to emerge as quickly as the next hot coffee spot on the block, should the seeming frivolity of business accolades become a thing of the past?

The growing focus on effectiveness

This year's entry numbers for Cannes Lions received 26,753 entries, that's just over a couple of hundred short of last year's number, however, that is significantly down on 2016 when it recorded 43,101 entries.

Cannes Lions' CEO Simon Cook says that there has been a significant increase in entries into its Effectiveness award category while the 2024 IPA Effectiveness Awards have hit a 32-year high with a whopping 79 case studies.

“As a barometer for the global industry, this is when we see interesting shifts across the global landscape – we’ve seen continued growth in the Creative Effectiveness Lions, which has received the highest number of submissions since its launch in 2011, demonstrating that there’s a strong commitment to creativity as a growth driver. The shift in the makeup of companies is also interesting, with the number of brand submissions rising 6% and media owners are up a significant 31%, demonstrating the breadth of investment in creativity across the full spectrum of branded communications," Cook explained.

The Effectiveness awards carry serious weight for agencies trying to wow clients and stay ahead in a tough market. Yet, with UK agencies feeling the slowdown this year, it begs the question: Are these awards still hitting the mark? And what does their popularity say about the future of advertising effectiveness?

The surge in entries tells us there’s still major value in these particular accolades. Agencies and brands aren’t just chasing trophies; they’re chasing proof that their strategies make a real impact. They’re about showing the cold, hard numbers—billions in marketing spend across diverse sectors and global markets.

As agencies gear up for judgment day at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, one thing is clear: the game is evolving. It’s not just about flashy campaigns anymore—it’s about showing the dollars and cents impact in an industry where results speak louder than words.

We catch-up with industry leaders who emphasise that awards should showcase how creativity drives tangible value for brands and society. While Cannes Lions holds significant global influence, there's ongoing debate about balancing creativity with measurable effectiveness. Changing expectations demand proof of real-world impact from award-winning campaigns, highlighting their evolving role in client-agency relationships and attracting top talent.

Laurent Simon, CCO, BMB

As a corporation, the people of adland are about as loved as estate agents, bankers, or politicians. That’s why, in my mind, awards only have one function - to show how our industry can truly add value. As Honda once put it so insightfully: “Making better better. Onwards, upwards, anywhere but backwards. Tapping [on everyone’s] shoulder saying more forward please.” I’ve always believed that creativity has the power to drive growth by helping brands earn the right for a place in people’s lives. And that is what strategic, creative, and media awards should represent.

Creative awards need to embrace everything. The product (the ad), the byproduct (the results) and all the ingredients (idea, execution, craft).

Cannes is the reference and influences clients across all categories - you just need to walk down La Croisette to spot that Havaianas walk hand in hand with Berlutis. The sharp increase of entries into effectiveness award schemes is the result of two factors:

We know that Creativity is the biggest lever for growth, yet creative agencies still struggle to prove with any surgical precision that great work sells more. So, any outside stamp validating the effectiveness of an agency’s body of work is holy bread.

There’s a perceived imbalance of supply and demand. Too many agencies fighting over a cake that’s getting smaller means that we de facto need to be even more competitive. Effectiveness helps build the case that you generate more value for money for your clients.

Winning creative awards help you become a creative director. Winning effectiveness awards opens the doors to the exec table.

Susie Walker, creative chief of staff, DDB

Both DDB and our clients are most interested in making work that works – which means work that people love and talk about and are excited by, and that moves the dial for clients. That sort of work wins creative and effectiveness awards.

UK CMOs hold the IPAs in high regard, but the Effies have the most global appeal. The apex is the Creative Effectiveness Lion which is the only award that recognises work that is brilliantly creative and brilliantly effective.

There are two major issues with making winning a Lion contingent on even short-term effectiveness metrics. The first is timing: the industry would have to wait a whole year before submitting anything. Cannes Lions would become a showcase of work that is already ‘old’. It defeats the object of the festival, which is to look forward. This year, the winning AI work will shape what the industry produces over the coming 12 months and beyond.

The second issue is more fundamental - it depends on what you consider advertising is for. You’d be hard pushed to find a client in Cannes who agrees that the effectiveness of their advertising can only be measured in linear, commercial terms. It’s a regressive, outdated view. All great brands, and all great advertising, is trying to do something more than that.

Creative awards crowd-source the best ideas from the best people & companies in the world while those ideas are still hot. For DDB, it’s how we celebrate our best work on a global platform to benchmark how we’re doing. It’s where we draw inspiration, look upwards and outwards and move things forward."

Pablo González de la Peña, ECD, Accenture Song

AWARDS - THE GOOD

There's a certain type of Creative who sneers at awards.

And their argument goes like this.

"Scam ads win awards. Real ads win customers."

Bollocks.

The best ads do both. Levi's 'Creek' , Guinness 'Surfer', Sony 'Balls'.

When you’re true to the brief, honest to the client, and their customers, it’s perfectly valid that your ambition, your competitiveness and your pride takes it to a place where it will be recognised by your peers.

And I don’t want to work with any Creative who doesn't think the same.

Because awards generated with real, populist work, still carry a halo effect that affects Creatives, Agencies and Clients.

Twenty years in the industry have taught me that good Clients don’t know much about Agencies, but they for sure know they want a sexy one.

They want to tell the Board they've chosen the Agency that has done this mould-breaking idea and that industry-changing idea. Creative and Effectiveness trophies still matter.

You just have to look at big holding-companies. They're still spending millions buying award-winning agencies to keep them winning awards for their networks. And these companies are everything but dumb.

AWARDS - THE QUESTION

What is the purpose of Effectiveness in Creative Case Studies?

We all want our Creative Ideas to work. But how can that be measured?

I've watched thousands of Case Study films, and they all follow the same formula; a million impressions, a billion dollars of Earned Media, a report on the national news, a comment by someone famous...

We've all done it. (I know I have.)

But even though awareness was raised, did anything change?

Take anti-gun campaigns. They've been winning awards for decades. With brilliant ideas, heartbreaking insights and, of course, persuasive Case Studies.

But gun violence in America has actually increased. By any metric, a failure.

Should the Creatives send their Lions back? I don't think so. They won for their incredible thinking and world-class production.

One final thought. Last week, the most popular ad in the UK was for fabric softener. The advert will sell literally truckloads. It will make millions. By any metric, effective.

Should those Creatives be on the Croisette instead?

Brent Nelson, global chief strategy officer, Edelman

The more interesting question at hand is should our shared expectations of entering awards be changing? Yes. Are those expectations changing? Yes.

Are the expectation of the award shows and judges changing. Yes.

Strategy and creativity writ large are a means to an end, not an end in and of themselves. Both hold the inherent ability when done well, to change human behaviour and therefore business and societal outcomes.

Business success isn’t dependent on awards, BUT IT IS sustained and propelled to a very measurable degree by the sheer level of creativity, craft and impact of the work being awarded. Increased levels of Brand Trust. Attraction. Desire. Transaction. Fame. Societal Impact…et al. All measurable contributions to the business from the highest quality of work.

More commonly now, award shows now not only ask to see the strategic intent and thinking behind the work in a submission, but also the real-world impact from that work. Proof the work works. As intended.

Winning an award judged by industry practitioners and clients alike, is valuable recognition for everyone involved. But more importantly, recognition that the work is amongst the world’s best, with valuable lessons to be shared, learned and applied for the benefit of all. Expectations are changing all around. For the better."

Guy Melzack, global communications director, EssenceMediacom

Awards should almost be considered a by-product of the campaign process. They are, in essence, compelling case studies that highlight to both our clients and our people that the work the agency is creating is world class.

What’s more, this work has been done on behalf of and in partnership with our clients, so they are a great way to reinforce client/agency relationships. This means clients should always be front and centre in the entry process – much like they are when creating the campaigns themselves.

And then, when you win an award, it’s validation to both the agency and the client that the collaboration has been effective, and the resulting work has been recognised by industry peers as being among the most inspiring work in any given year.

We work in an industry that certainly doesn’t lack options when it comes to award shows – and each client differs when it comes to those that are considered priorities. Cannes Lions is regularly at the top of the list, alongside the Effies and the IPA Effectiveness Awards, but more focussed programmes, such as those dedicated to performance marketing, might be more applicable depending on the client’s ambition.

Ultimately, every advertising award show should recognise brilliant creativity alongside outstanding media planning that has delivered results for brands. So, whether ‘effectiveness’ is in the programme’s title or not, that’s what you’re ultimately being judged on.

Matt Waksman, head of strategy, advertising, Ogilvy UK

There was funny little piece of research in the 1970s on college sports fans and phenomenon called “basking in reflected glory.” Professor Cialdini pointed out that when a local sports team had a big win their fans tended to shout, “we won” and wear the specific jersey of their team the next day. When no silverware came home, fans were much more likely to mutter, “they lost” and leave their kit in the wardrobe. Competitions trigger our human battlefield mentality. We have an inherent desire to belong to the winning side and disassociate ourselves from the rest.

This theory is important. Awards have a multiplier effect. They don’t just define pioneering work, recognising the impact of what has already been achieved. They set the organisation up for more success in the future. An agency that wins awards naturally attracts the top talent. All those that come through the door, be they longstanding employees or new arrivals, are ready to get cracking on making next year’s work even more impactful.

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