We're awesome. They told us so!
If you have been in the agency business any period of time, it is hard not to have a love/hate relationship with awards. My cynical side says that the award “industry” has grown into a self-supporting and profitable business that trades on the human need (and, really, who is more human than our creative brethren) for validation and acknowledgement. So, agencies dutifully fill out the paper work, detail their latest project, and off it goes with the requisite entry fee. If you have executed a well thought out and visually appealing project, you will probably receive some level of award. Really, it is a somewhat symbiotic dynamic as the agency feels acknowledged, the client has a nice plaque to put on the wall and the awards organization makes a nice profit. Again, this is what my cynical side says.
At our agency, the ultimate goal is to meet and exceed the identified business and marketing goals that are defined at the beginning of an effort. As these always include a number of measures, we usually have a good view into the performance of our projects. This is always the driving force behind what we do. Clearly, creative must be on-brand and visually engaging. Also, great creative and architecture strike a balance between meeting the goals of both the client and the end user. While this is where art and science meet in our business, we can track and measure effectiveness. Again, my cynical side says we don’t need awards to validate our work. We validate our own work every day.
Having said that, there is something meaningful to be found in winning awards. The recognition of industry leaders who live each day as we do, immersed in the digital space, is a nice thing to have. We may know we do good work, but having our creative product validated, via a systematic analysis and as compared to the work of our peers, well, it just feels good. So, it is with a mix of trepidation and pride that I mention some recent wins by the THINK team.
Greenies Joint Care site
This year, THINK won three Interactive Media awards for our Nutro Pet Food client. The Know Your Small Breed website and GREENIES Holiday E-card both received Outstanding Achievement awards in the Consumer Goods category. Our work for the GREENIES Joint Care product launch won the Best in Class award, besting over one hundred other entries in the Consumer Products category. In fact, since 2008 we have won eight IMA Awards, including four Best in Class winners. And we have shown particularly well in the Pet category, winning three of the five Best in Class awards they have given through the years.
We are very proud of the work we do here at THINK. Ultimately, our success is measured by the success of our clients and that is exactly as it should be. Still, it is nice to know that others in the industry find our efforts to be so noteworthy. Everyone, even the sometimes-cynic like myself, can enjoy an old fashioned pat on the back once in a while.