Editorial: It's the big ideas that underline excellence

by Bhavna Mistry Promotions & Incentives 14-Dec-06

When P&I and sister Haymarket title Marketing launched the Impact Awards in September, the aim was to run a set of gongs that rewarded consistent agency excellence, with an outcome that was of use to client-side marketers.

That's still our objective, and its good to have it endorsed by two of the most significant trade bodies in our sector, the MCCA and the ISP.

Both recognise the relevance of the Impact Awards and have pledged support for the scheme with a whole host of joint initiatives (news, page 9).

And we've all worked together to set up an exciting line-up for 2007 with three key opportunities to showcase the excellence emerging from below-the-line shops, with the Best Awards in April, ISP in mid-May and the Impact Awards now in September.

Not all is so rosy: to produce outstanding work, you need great clients of course, but you also need exceptional agency talent. There's just not enough of that to be had, if agencies' current recruitment problems are any indication. Our news analysis (page 21) reveals a chronic shortage of staff and skills agency-side, and it's worrying not only for the shops concerned, but also for clients.

If I were to pin-point a single useful thing from the many that came out of P&I's bestSPever initiative, it would be the recognition across the industry that it's the big ideas that make for great campaigns. It's the factor that unites the top five winning campaigns (see page 24), that at their core is an entertaining and interactive concept that translates seamlessly into all channels.

It's this sort of work we all want to see winning awards, be they Impact, Best, ISP - or all three. It's also this imaginative, exciting way of adding value and bringing brands to life that will suffer if agencies don't invest in attracting, training and, just as importantly, retaining, outstanding talent.