In a recent interveiw in AdWeek magazine, Mal MacDougal, a veteran marketer responsible for such efforts as the Diet Coke rollout, was asked what one thing he would change about the advertising industry:

“I would stop the overzealous love of award shows. I’ve judged almost all the award shows. We picked the ads that were the most outrageous one that the creative guys got by the client. Some of the winners do represent great advertising. BUT, AT LEAST THREE-QUARTERS IS CREATIVE WITHOUT SELL. And I don’t think, in our business, you can do great creative without great sell.”

MacDougal’s comments are not unusual. Too much focus on winning awards and not enough focus on results is an exceedingly common complaint lodged against advertising agencies.

Perhaps what is unusual is an advertising agency taking action – not just lip service – against this problem.
Since our inception in 1994, Prodigal Media has had a strict policy against entering advertising industry awards competitions. We have found it to be the most logical means of assuring that our clients, and our clients alone, are the sole judge of our efforts.

Jeff Hedrich, Prodigal’s president and creative director, worked at an agency in Cleveland, Ohio that won a number of awards. He noticed a striking, negative correlation between what ads or campaigns won awards and what ads and campaign were successful in terms of meeting the clients’ sales objectives. And so drawing from his own experience, as well as comments such as Mr. MacDougal’s, he instituted this policy.

While not everyone working at our agency is initially pleased to hear of this policy, most have found that the “reward” of knowing they have meet a client’s needs is ultimately more satisfactory.

So, the “awards” we take to heart in are like the following:

• Being informed by Burger King that our Cleveland Browns tie-in campaign was one of the most successful adult customer promotional campaigns ever for their Northeast Ohio restaurants.


• Being informed by Perfecta Products that our targeted advertising, PR and promotional work had helped their product “Zim’s Crack Creme” become the number one recommended skin care product for feet in the first aid category by America’s pharmacists (as reported in the June 2003 issue of Pharmacy Times magazine).


• Being informed by Packer Thomas, a CPA firm, that our presentation on their behalf had helped them garner the National Marketplace Ethics award from the Better Business Bureau, an especially prestigious and important honor for an accounting firm during this era of corporate accounting and financial scandals.

Occasionally, Prodigal Media has won or shared with our clients in awards granted by industry trade associations and the like. In these situations, our clients have entered campaigns or ads we have executed on their behalf, or in cooperation with their internal marketing teams.

For example, our efforts have won five awards from APRO, the national trade association for the rent-to-own industry; a television campaign on behalf of our client Farmers National Bank garnered a best TV campaign for an Ohio bank by the Ohio Banking Association, etc.

Finally, an award we did not seek but are honored to have is the 2000 Small Business of the Year by the Regional Association of Fundraising Professionals. This award was granted for our numerous efforts on behalf of charitable and faith-based organizations.