An invisible problem

The Caples Awards were founded in 1977 by the late, great Andi Emerson.

About a year ago I had lunch with the splendid Steve Henry. He recalled an evening spent sitting in the offices of HHCL in 1994 waiting for the advertising campaign to break for Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain.

There were 2,357 entries in the Direct category and 227 campaigns made it to the shortlist. Or 10% of the total number of submissions.

The end of our sixth year. And there is some fabulous work for you to look at and learn from. Much of it was on show at the Cannes Festival of Creativity, back in late June.

Wherever you look Direct Marketing is on the rise and clearly has a bright future because it’s all about relationships. But what about in Greece? How successful is Direct in the land of low budgets, safe decision-making and lost dreams?

The past five years have been challenging for Ireland, to say the least. In the face of a severe recession, Finance Directors took the lead and cut, slashed and saved in every area possible.

In this issue of Directory there is work from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Croatia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK and the USA. We also feature the top winners from the AnPost Irish Direct Marketing Awards and The UK's Best Awards.

Howard Luck Gossage was a direct marketing man who died in 1969. You may not have heard of him, but you are his protegées.

Best Awards Awards 2012. Where the people who buy it judge it

QR codes were originally created by Toyota in Japan to help them track car-parts as and when they were needed. The letters stand for Quick Response and the copyright is still owned by the car maker even though usage for these clever little code decoders has spilled out into a much wider world than its designers could ever have imagined.

It’s the publication of the global rankings of 2011’s most awarded campaigns, agencies and people. “Where are we?” I hear you ask. “Did we beat DDB?” “How can we be one of the most awarded agencies and I’m not on the top ECD’s list?”

The 2011 rankings are compiled from some 6,000 awards won by 4,048 campaigns on behalf of 2,461 clients by 1,302 agencies rewarding the efforts of 272 Chief Creative Officers, 690 Executive Creative Directors, 2,373 copywriters and 2,472 art directors.

In researching and writing his book, 'The Real Mad Men' about the Golden Age of Advertising, Andrew Cracknell was forced to ponder on the meaning of creativity. He interviewed over fifty people who were in on Madison Avenue’s heyday including the legendary George Lois and Jerry Della Femina.