No Subpoena Needed: Here’s the Whole Story

To everyone who has paused from watching Court TV to call me at the office, and found me missing, I’ve neither been indicted nor have I been subpoenaed to appear before Ken Starr’s grand jury.

Moreover, I’ve chosen to waive any executive, attorney-client, or protective- service privilege to which I may be entitled, so that I can tell you more rather than less, sooner rather than later, everything you need to know about the 1998 World PRO Awards of Excellence.

So here goes.

In Chicago on Oct. 2, an international panel of judges, including promo media partners, client-side marketers, and creative directors from agencies in the U.S. and overseas will meet to review and select 15 winners from the 58 finalists that survived similar scrutiny at competitions earlier in the year in London, Santiago, Sydney, Toronto, and Chicago.

For those of us who haven’t been rendered brain-dead yet by all the speculation about civil and criminal perjury, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice going on in our nation’s capital, here are some background notes on this year’s awards activities thus far.

For one thing, three of the top five regional awards – Best in Asia-Pacific, Best in Canada, and Best in the U.S. – went to agencies that had never won PRO awards. And all five were for decidedly unconventional promotions in non-foods categories. These include a savings bank in Chile, a shopping mall in Korea, a heating-oil combine in Spain, a novelty beer in Canada, and a retail chain in the Midwest.

In fact, for 47 (1 in 3) of the 137 agencies and client companies that participated worldwide, this was their first venture into World PRO competition. That 32 of the 58 regional winners were newcomers means that better than two out of three (68%) grabbed gold their first time out. This year 375 promotions – up from 353 last year – were entered by agencies and client companies in the U.S. and 17 other countries. And the number keeps growing.

Who cares about safe? This leads us to some conclusions. One is that, given the size ($150 billion) and breadth (thousands of products, hundreds of agencies) of the worldwide promotion industry, 375 is a respectable number but merely, as one should reply if asked what to call 100 politicians at the bottom of the Potomac, a good start.

Another is that in the U.S. as well as other countries, the vanguard of promotion creativity seems to be shifting away from the safe idea writ large for broad-based categories (coupons for coffee, cereal, soap) and toward the unconventional notion applied by the nontraditional entity for the unusual effect. Example: K2, the German sports equipment manufacturer, creating and staging its own events for the introduction of in-line skates in Europe.

The third is that this sets up an enormous opportunity for the kind of information transfer, to paraphrase our friend and agency principal Alessandro Borrini of Promotions Italia in Milan, of the kind that took place in advertising more than a decade ago that led to the refinement of high-quality advertising techniques for multinational brands. That’s just what the PRO Awards, and promo’s Best of the Best presentations are, in the U.S. and overseas: a chance to check out the competition, kick a few tires, and look under some hoods for new goodies to take back to the office.

Which brings us back to the future.

Four days after the above-described judging, at a gala reception at Chicago’s Navy Pier on the eve of PROMO EXPO, 15 world-class winners will be announced, and the judges’ choice of the overall champion – creator of The Best Promotion in the World – will be named as well. Then for the next two days (Oct. 7 and 8), the winning boards will be on display in the Creative Gallery at PROMO EXPO. The winners will go home with revenue-producing, career-enhancing bragging rights for the next 12 months.

So come on out and join the fun. Not only is it legal, it’s educational, too. With Seinfeld gone, the investigation over, and elections just around the corner, it’ll sure beat watching Court TV.

(For a full report on U.S. regional PRO Award winners, see page 10.)