Ad Age's Scott Donaton on Cannes, Independence, and Creativity

In his weekly article, Scott notes this year's Cannes winners being independents versus large conglomerates (a good thing) and how awards shows can stifle effective marketing (a bad thing).

It can be argued that the most effective client solutions often don't include cutting-edge TV ads, and that awards shows such as Cannes harm the industry more than consolidation by perpetuating its dependence on the 30-second spot. There are, too, greater challenges to the relevance of agencies.

Yet, he contends, rightly so, their necessity.

Ads are the only tangible product agencies produce, and they want that product to be of the highest quality. When it comes to peer-group benchmarking, employee morale, client confidence and new-business opportunities, awards aren't as meaningless as critics of them would have you believe.

And anyway, who doesn't like the pomp and ego boost that comes from an awards show?

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