Five years ago interactive was still an exotic discipline. One that lacked respect from traditional creatives reared on print, radio and TV. Of course, that’s changing and fast, for even the most entrenched people in advertising know how to follow the money.
Brian Morrissey of Adweek, reminds us that the transition is still underway, particularly when it comes to award show recognition.
The issue, long a point of contention among the digital shops that bring traditional agencies’ concepts to life, blew into the open in Cannes when BBDO took top honors in several categories, including a gold Lion in Cyber, for HBO “Voyeur.” The crux of the issue: The HBO “Voyeur” site was created by Big Spaceship, a small Brooklyn digital shop. The lack of credit given to Big Spaceship caused jury chair Colleen DeCourcy, chief digital officer at TBWA, to mention the forgotten partner when giving the award to BBDO. Still, the snub riled Big Spaceship CEO Michael Lebowitz, who served on the Cannes Cyber jury. He maintains that BBDO did not deserve all the credit for something it didn’t create.
“The era of everything being based on the great idea is over,” he says. “Other things have risen to a common level of importance.” Without interactive experts to bring ideas to life, he adds, the big ideas are like “a fart in the wind.”
