Publicis Groupe bars agencies from entering awards in 2018
Publicis Groupe has reportedly informed its staff that the company will be pulling out all awards shows in 2018 – including the Cannes Lions festival.
According to a leaked office memo, the global company’s new chief executive officer Arthur Sadoun has barred all of its agencies from participating in awards shows, trade shows or other paid marketing efforts for more than a year.
In the internal office note written by Frank Voris, the CEO of Publicis Groupe’s financial services unit Re:Sources, the company said it is seeking “2.5 percent cost synergies for 2018”, according to AdWeek.
The memo also said: “No promotional events. We’re serious about that. No Cannes next year.”
The pullout is intended to move Publicis’ spend towards a new artificial intelligence-powered professional assistant platform named Marcel.
The platform, which is in the process of being built, will allegedly allow the company’s 80,000 employees stay connected, identify project opportunities they want to work on in different markets and anticipate clients’ needs with predictive behaviour, Publicis announced in a YouTube video.
This is a move in the right direction only it there’s good follow through.
1-The money that’s saved doesn’t go to the bonus pool at the top.
2-It’s reinvested in retaining and rewarding the talents who are instrumental in delivering great work for their paying clients.
3-Introduce another creative competition that rewards creativity relevantly.
In the past, DY&R Asia Pac rewarded the best creative work (from Japan to New Zealand) for real clients -(judged by the region’s MDs & ECDs). Winners got between USD5,000 to USD 15,000 cash.
Back then, the prize money was worth even more when the strong USD was converted back into ringgit, baht, pesos and S$.
The winning work was automatically eligible for the global Y&R awards where the prize money snowballed to USD50,000.
A winner could have two bites of the cherry with the same piece of creative.
Imagine how pocketing an extra USD10,000 feels to a junior earning USD24,000.
That was in the late 80s-early 90s.
The genius of it was that the rewards for creativity was tangible.( Cash, not trophies one had to pay for.) The recognition spurred proper competition. Talent was retained as the winners did not need to job hop for money.
It was win-win for all.
Then in the mid 90s, New York decided to drop the internal awards and pump the cash to cannes as entry fees. Soon, things started go to hell in a hand basket. Y&R went public and got swallowed by WPP. And cannes became the designated arena for Ogilvy, JWT, Grey & Y&R to compete for the holding company’s creative crown.
They started hiring and promoting scammers, clients started losing trust, agencies lost focus and awards lost their shine.
Maybe the French actually got it right by refusing to drink any more rose-flavoured Kool Aid.
Once Publicis clients applaud this move. And the stock market rewards its performance, I’m sure the other holding companies will follow.
ReplyOh my, what ever will the CEO of PubComms Singapore do without these awards to rave about?
ReplyWhat a stupid move. There’s no logic to it other than losing or employing great creatures.
ReplyOnly the french could do this video. It’s beyond satire.
Pulling the awards budget will have zero impact on their business.
Although, looks like they are just trying to build a glorified sharepoint. The agency holding groups don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to building their own tech.
Reply“Oh my, what ever will the CEO of PubComms Singapore do without these awards to rave about?”
Maybe learn what a good ad is?
ReplyOh shit. wow. Even if some of us hate awards because of scams etc, awards do give some form of recognition and satisfaction to the team who slogged and work hard for a project – especially if it’s a functional and successful one. It motivates the team to work harder. Since our industry isn’t that good at rewarding monetarily or progression, i wonder if this AI tool will be there to make the team happy. Why cant publicis cut off their upper management bonuses instead? That will show true commitment.
Judging by the number of wins this Cannes by Publicis own company like BBH with their Nike unlimited project – what a waste if they have something great in the pipeline that can’t be celebrated for next year?
ReplyWould have more respect for him if he did this to push the creative output. As in no paid PR, because we need to create ideas that can scale themselves.
ReplyNo entries in 2018….use the year to scam….lets enter again in 2019.
Cant make this up.
ReplyDidn’t DDB say the same a few years ago? Seem to remember Ogilvy boycotting a few awards shows as well. It won’t last.
ReplyThe real questions to be answered is “is all award winning work good creative work?” As decided by who? A jury comprising the same people who had some hand in the work? No conflict of interest? Even if you don’t judge ur own work, what about judges from your own holding company in the room?
ReplyMumbrella Comments,
A place for those who have achieved nothing to gather & pontificate on subjects on which they know nothing.
Spice with misogyny, a hint of racism and cover with anonymity and you have the perfect recipe for shit soup.
Which is exactly what this cesspool of the mediocre baring teeth at the ambitious has become
Replycut awards budget and it goes straight to the upper mgt’s pocket. whats the point of doing that again?
Replywhere did this idea come from… they stated very clearly where the money was going
ReplyYou just described a typical agency internal meeting attended by global & regional seagulls who either just flew in or logged into a conf call.
Anyone for seconds of steaming shite soup?
ReplyAllez, Allez, Marcel!
ReplyThe best thing for Publicis to do, was to keep quiet about it and just build the damn thing they want to build. They’re not the first agency to claim they’ll never enter work into awards, and they won’t be the last. But is it really news?
ReplyHave your say