A Look into D&AD’s Integrated Jury Room
Defined as ‘Campaigns where a central idea is successfully and cohesively executed across a variety of media’, D&AD’s Integrated category focuses on how the idea for a campaign travels across different touchpoints. Last year’s Yellow Pencil winner was ‘The Lost Class’ by Change the Ref and Leo Burnett Chicago, and this year, over 180 entries are being considered by the jury.
With over 25 years of experience in leading global brands, founder and creative chairman Vidya Manmohan is one of the people who sits on the panel this year. During the decade for which she worked at Grey MENA, Vidya worked across both copywriting and art direction, and in September 2020, decided to develop her own creative consortium. Launching the network agency V4Good, she’s passionate about supporting talented women across the globe and creating work which leads by example.
Having been on the judging panels for many different awards shows over the years, she now sits down with LBB to share her take on the Integrated category this year.
LBB> Let’s start by defining the ‘Integrated’ category. What does it involve?
Vidya> When people are confused about what to enter, they often enter it into ‘Integrated’ thinking it will hit something. It’s a tricky category because people believe that simply adapting a piece into a few touchpoints is creating an integrated campaign, however, that’s not the case. The overarching idea has to come to life at every touchpoint, in different ways, and has to connect to make the audience react. One ad across different media isn’t integrated.
LBB> What are some of the trends you saw in the category this year?
Vidya> It was beautiful to see the diversity of work this year. I was super inspired by all of it - each piece had its own authenticity and was interesting in its own way. It was also great to see work that was culturally relevant. No two pieces were the same, and each piece had its own authenticity. If one was about excelling in the digital framework, the other was about futuristic tech, so it was great to see the range of campaigns.
LBB> What is the first thing you look for when viewing a campaign?
Vidya> The idea, for sure. Firstly, is there an idea? We can often be whitewashed by the execution, the tech and everything else, but at the core of it, if there is a powerful idea, that cuts across everything. Then of course, as D&AD underlines, how beautifully has it been executed and what is the purpose behind the campaign?
‘Purpose’ is currently a bit of a fluff word and not everything and anything needs to be purpose-driven; certain brands and certain work won’t change the world, but they certainly have a purpose in their brand truth and DNA. We have to constantly redefine the way in which we look at work, and redefine executional excellence and what that means. It’s made even more interesting with a jury from different backgrounds.
LBB> How can brands and agencies work together to ensure ideas are conveyed cohesively across every media source to make a campaign authentically integrated?
Vidya> Firstly, I believe clients and the one or multiple agencies involved should work together to bring all of the elements together. There are pros and cons to this, but using multiple agencies means pushing the bar and seeing how different people execute the strategy in a creative way. The flip side of that is the consistency of the strategy of the core creative idea, where the core idea gets lost within all of the different touchpoints, so, I’m a strong believer that everyone should work as one.
LBB> What should someone entering the ‘Integrated’ category consider when putting work forward?
Vidya> Don’t enter work that is an activation, or a film that you’ve created and run across different media, because that isn’t integrated. It’s about every touchpoint being relevant to its true form and adapting the idea into different formats.
