The Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) Award has been criticised in the past for lacking life and creative spark that could make some of its entries win global awards. But at this year’s edition, LAIF had bite, with new agencies beating old ones except Insight Communication and DDB Lagos on the medals’ table, writes ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI
THE Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) is an industry-based award that recognises the best advertising concepts in Nigeria.
The award aspires to be like the world’s most covetous advertising award, the Cannes Lion, which holds in France every year. But in terms of parameters, such as organisation, number of gold medals won, transparency of the screening of winning adverts, level of creativity, LAIF still has a lot to learn from Cannes. Over the years, LAIF has not had it so good as it did at this year’s edition held at the Civic Centre, Lagos.
The award, last Saturday, though punctuated by technical hitches in the previous editions, was scored high because of its side attractions, the number of golds medals won, the gorgeous dressing of the women and men who attended the event and the electrifying ambience of the venue.
LAIF, according to regular attendees, lacked the spark that is the hallmark of such events in previous editions.
Side attractions
Organisers of the event, the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), gave the award the life it needed to make it memorable. AAAN gave Nigerian percussionist Helen Parker-Jayne Isibor, also known as The Venus Bushfires, the stage to thrill the audience with her ethereal sounds of the hang, the power of the talking drum and the quirks of children’s toys cross-fertilising multiple visual and musical styles.
Isibor harnessed influences from avant-garde, psychedelic, tribal and meditative arts and draws inspiration from the 70s’ musical pioneers such as Fela Kuti and Can, creating music and stories that explore both the sensual and the spiritual. She described her music genre as Neo Afro Folk.
Her performance made the creative community feel at home as she added to the event, a creative spark that is expected of the industry.
She has become known for her captivating and trance-inducing live sets, immersive performance art shows and impromptu sound journey displays in unusual spaces.
Isibor has created music for Christian Dior, Sony PlayStation, Disney, Oxfam, British Asian Trust (one of Prince Charles’ personal charities) and her songs have featured on French television and documentary films. In 2008, she orchestrated the world’s first ever ‘hang flash gig’ at the Lovebox festival which was broadcast on Channel 4, a British public service radio.
End of gold drought
The choice of Isibor appeared understandable. In the last three years, there have been few gold medals on the shelves of most creative agencies. However, with 18 gold carted away by agencies, 50 silver, and 55 bronze medals, the organiser, felt the need to give LAIF more pomp.
How winners emerged
The table was led by four agencies including two new generations agencies. The agencies are DDB Lagos, Insight Communication, X3M Ideas and Noah’s Ark but the old agencies are fast declining and disappearing from the creative medals’ table, a situation an industry expert described as “creative spark of new generation agencies.”
This trend is against the creative outing of 2011, 2012 and 2013. For instance, the medals’ table for 2011 edition of the awards was led by old agencies led by the oldest agency, LoweLintas. It coasted home with the Grand Prix, one gold and silver. DDB Nigeria was the first place runners up with three gold, seven silver and five bronze medals, making a total of 15 medals haul. Rosabel Leo-Burnett is the second place runners up with three gold, six silver, five bronze. It’s total medal haul stood at 14. At that time, the then young but dynamic Noah’s Ark came fourth, with two gold, one silver and one bronze, making a total of four medals.
In 2012, the outing was not that impressive. It was gathered that that year’s edition proved that only a few agencies slugged it out with one another.
A breakdown of the award for that year revealed that only 20 agencies, which represented just 20 per cent of the total number of registered agencies submitted entries. About the same number also participated the previous year. Another noticeable trend in 2012 was that there was a shortfall in the number of gold won at the award as most of the agencies got mentioned in silver and bronze in all the five major categories, which included press, outdoor, radio, TV and special category.
“With the outcome of the award, especially considering the shortfall in the number gold won, creativity is not growing in the industry as expected,” an industry expert told The Nation.
Last year’s medals’ table recorded gold drought but the new generation agencies such as Noah’s Ark continued dancing around the top four in the medals’ table as a newly unveiled agency, X3M Ideas, joined Noah’s Ark at the top of the table to compete with the old agencies such as DDB Lagos and Insight which had remained the only old agencies at the top of the table for years at LAIF.
Insight Communications came tops with a total of 26 medals including four gold, eight silver and 14 bronze. Noah’s Ark won 12 medals made up of one gold, four silver and seven bronze to come second while X3m Ideas came third with one gold, one silver and one bronze.
When compared to 2012, industry experts raised concern over the dearth of gold at the award. Some of the judges attributed it to the dwindling level of creativity in the industry. “One clear evidence of diminishing creativity was in the outdoor category where most of the works presented were plainly direct cut and paste from print,” an observer noted.
The 2013 LAIF Awards also threw up the falling performance of old generation agencies such as Lowe Lintas, Rosabel Leo Burnet, LTC JWT, centrespread and SO&U Saatchi & Saatchi compared to newer agencies run by renegade creatives such as Noah’s Ark and X3M Ideas.
These new agencies, however, remained at the top of the table in this year’s edition which analysts say is a major improvement on previous editions. X3M Ideas maintained its third most creative agency position on the LAIF medals’ table with two gold , five silver and six bronze making a total of 13 medals following DDB Lagos’ grand prix and Insight Communications as overall winner and first runner-up respectively.
With the final result of the ninth edition, the less than two and half years agency has proved to be a consistently improving creative power house with impressive medal hauls for the third year running. It has proved that its performances in its first two outings were not a fluke.
Speaking on the agency’s performance at the awards over the last three editions, the Chief Creativity Officer and CEO, X3M Ideas Steve Babaeko, said: “Winning is good and to consistently improve is exciting but building our clients’ businesses is the ultimate goal for us as an agency.”
Though Babaeko seemed not too impressed with the third position, he said: “being third or whatever is not good enough for us; this is because the agency was set up with a mindset to be the No. 1 agency.”
He said the firm is on its way to slug it out with the agencies currently on the top of the table. He said: “We respect all but the point is that we are out to prosecute a set goal, therefore we are giving our all to that mission moving forward.
“As X3M Ideas, we are excited with the awards, it shows our team of young and talented individuals coming from different backgrounds have found the rhythm to be on top of our game from the onset. For instance, our creative director has a background in law; such is our varied and diverse backgrounds. Recording our name at this level means a clarion call on us not to drop the ball.”
AAAN president, Mr. Kelechi Nwosu, said LAIF is the brain child of AAAN with the aim of recognising creative excellence, improving the quality of creative craft and promoting the spirit of healthy competition among indigenous creative agencies.
For the Director General, Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency (LASAA), Mr. George Noah, the state government will continue to support the industry through collaboration.
