3 November, 2006: The explosion of digital advertising and the corresponding rise in quality of creative work are behind the decision by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Australia (IAB) to launch “Creative Showcase”, an ongoing quarterly competition for innovative creative work.
Launched last night at DoubleClick’s 10th birthday party, Creative Showcase will feature the exceptional online creative work being done in Australia on a quarterly basis. It will sit alongside the recently announced annual IAB Australia Interactive Advertising Awards.
“Many creative agencies have already responded very positively to the concept of Creative Showcase as a means of inspiring creativity and keeping a healthy competitive edge in the Australian digital advertising industry,” said Patty Keegan, IAB Australia’s General Manager.
“We believe Creative Showcase which is focused on creativity, will complement the IAB Australia Interactive Advertising Awards, which will feature Australia’s best practice interactive advertising campaigns incorporating campaign effectiveness and measurable results,” said Ms Keegan.
Each quarter agencies will be able to submit to Creative Showcase any creative work that has run in the previous three months, ensuring the Showcase features fresh new ideas each quarter.
One creative campaign will be selected each quarter as the winner by a rotating panel of Australian creatives, with two runners up also announced. At the end of the year, the ‘Best of the Best’ creative winner will be announced and awarded a trip for two to the US to MIXX 2007 with entry in their awards.
Creative Showcase was originally set up in the UK three years ago by a group of creatives as an outlet to display the industry’s most impressive creative work in a timely and easy way.
In Australia, Creative Showcase came about as a result of discussions between IAB Australia and major sponsor DoubleClick and and Daniele Fiandaca, the global COO of Profero, who had been instrumental in setting up the awards in the UK.
With DoubleClick’s DART Motif product for digital creative growing massively in popularity in Australia, managing director Kaylie Smith wanted to do something that encouraged and rewarded exceptional creativity in digital advertising.
“A year is a long time in digital advertising – we see so many great creative campaigns over this time, and they come and go rapidly and we wanted to do something that would keep up with the pace of development of work.
“We enlisted the help of Mike Zeederberg from Profero, who had recently arrived back in Australia from the UK and had been involved with Creative Showcase over there,” she says.
According to Mike Zeederberg, inaugural chair of the Creative Showcase judging panel, response to the concept of the awards from creative directors has been terrific, particularly its simplicity and low cost of entry.
“After all, the award is all about celebrating digital creativity in the simplest way possible. It’s all about letting the work speak for itself and being recognised by your peers for outstanding creative. Over time, we will have a fantastic archive of the best of Australian online creative, to inspire both creatives and clients alike,” he said.
First round entries open on November 11 and close November 23, with first quarter winners to be announced at Clickaholics in Sydney on December 7.
To register or for more information visit the Creative Showcase website at: www.creativeshowcase.net.au
