Interview with BalticBest 2024 jury member and creative director of Estonian agency Tabasco Kerstin “Kessu” Raidma.
How do you see the importance of (international) advertising contests today? What do they provide?
Advertising contests continue to be important for several reasons. First, they provide a good opportunity for brands and creative agencies to confirm their name and show that they operate at the highest level in their field. Contests are also a good way to promote an ad without being intrusive. Winning or being shortlisted is a confirmation for the creative or marketing teams that a good job has been done and it provides motivation to move forward. Building self-confidence is an investment in a high standard of work in the future.
Without a doubt, the contests are also great places to spread your mission or campaign message. Winning entries can often carry an uncomfortable but socially important message, and if they win, there is an increased chance that the topic will reach a wider audience and thus gain more attention. If it is a very good job, it can score from small festivals to world-scale festivals, where the reach can be calculated in millions. For example, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, international creative competitions had a significant percentage of festival works either from Ukraine or war-themed. Understandably, both the creative industry of Ukraine and the supporters of Ukraine were dealing with the most topical issue.
Crisis situations push people out of their comfort zones and can result in extraordinary solutions or campaigns. In advertising contests, novelty and unexpected technical or communicative outputs meet, providing inspiration for drawing new ideas and discovering trends. Competitions provide an opportunity for self-analysis and help you see where the standards are, whether you are up to date with trends and where things are moving. Finally, when we talk about mega-festivals, the key word is networking. For example, in addition to visitors with a Cannes Lions ticket, many creative people from around the world also travel to the festival city to communicate and make acquaintances. Yes, life is online, but real contacts are still as important as they were 10 or 20 years ago.
What major changes do you see in the advertising world in the near future?
I think that although traditional media solutions will not disappear, their use will become more modest and will be replaced to some extent by various special solutions. However, this is a challenge in itself, because when you reach mass demand, it becomes more and more difficult to come up with special solutions, because “everything has already been done”. But unexpectedness and novelty are what overcome the threshold of virality.
No outstanding advertising project is born without PR support. Entertainment marketing and its promotional advertising have a ride inside, and direction changers are also included in it. We have to see what Generation X likes. Media and advertising will soon move to the places and media they consume, the rest will follow. The topics that are talked about, which they want to shine through or on which brands weave their values - sports, social responsibility, body positivity, music, computer games, fashion, pets, gender neutrality – are rather carried over from the philosophy of the new generation. Another observation regarding the consumption of culture (and thus advertising) is that today’s teenage years already extend into the 60s and 70s. In other words, it’s as long as pop culture.
There are no longer so clearly “young” and “old” things, and this line is blurring more and more. “Live fast, die young” means a completely normal 90-year-old life soon! Therefore, considering the mass aging of the population in welfare states, in the near future we will be marketing mainly to youthful old people. An exciting nuance is also the still developing technical innovations and possibilities – for example “space-ads” – where advertisements are displayed in the sky by satellite technology. The humor is also back, but with a watchful eye on the culture of offending. You can joke, but the days of Monty Python-like sharp humor are over, the joke passes the “competency check”, and it must also be suitable for people with a thinner sense of humor. And, of course, all kinds of AI mechanisms that are developing at a crazy speed. But today I see them as more of a helper than a creator.
What new skills/knowledge do the changing circumstances (including AI) demand from marketers and agencies?
Speaking of AI, we need to be ready for the phase where “everyone can design themselves” or “everyone can write themselves”. In other words, we have to take into account that customers also want to go through it and test it, which is also a completely understandable desire. But this in turn affects the composition and work organization of the agencies. However, there is no reason to panic.
It is increasingly being pushed that anyone can advertise with the help of AI, but this is where the problem of genericity arises. AI today is not yet capable of creating cognitively unique distinctiveness. A person can get a very good level of mass production with AI’s handwriting on it, but the eye and heart are still looking for something “special”, unique and “real”. The ability of the eye and the brain to differentiate is limited. So, as marketers, we are all fighting to capture attention, which is increasingly difficult in a barrage of offers. Fortunately, alone, without the contribution of the human factor, AI does not yet bring a special result. A completely unexpected solution often turns out to be the winner. So I wouldn’t throw the pencil and pen in the corner.
But what to do? You have to familiarize yourself with the technical possibilities and use them wisely and smartly. Creative thinking, the ability to put familiar things together in such a way as to create a unique result, is still in people’s hands. AI is a very good tool for increasing the speed of work completion and expanding technical possibilities, but the result could still be made unique by the hand of a designer and copywriter. Then it is certain that it is a unique result. AI will probably raise the level of technically average advertising so much that there will be a “next level”, how to stand out. Some AI applications also offer creative teams organizational helpers as well as brainstorming capabilities. As a curious person, I will definitely get to know everything, and what is effective will also be used.
Interview was conducted by Laura Reiter.
EXTRA INFORMATION
- Adwards creative competition win gives you points for Baltic Agency of the Year ranking! (read more about ranking)
- Winning any prize at BalticBest and become part of shortlist gives you more points for Baltic Agency of the Year ranking!
BalticBest 2024
You can find rules HERE.
Submission deadline: 12.08.2024
Shortlist published: 21.08.2024
Live judging and awards announced: 28.08.2024
