AME's Grand Jury represents some of the world’s most creative and strategic minds in advertising and marketing communications.The AME Awards honors not just campaigns that are creative, but campaigns that hit the bullseye for brands, triumphing in both creativity and effectiveness. AME’s Grand Jury are the genius minds associated with many of AME’s award-winning entries.

2021 AME Grand Jury member Andreas Moellmann is Global Strategy Director, Publicis Groupe Japan. He is a seasoned digital brand strategist at the intersection of business and marketing, creativity and technology. He has worked in strategic roles at VMLY&R and Geomotry Japn. Andreas has set up and managedstrategic planning departments at network agencies (BBDO, DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi) and digital agencies (SapientNitro, Isobar) in different parts of the world. His focus lies in connecting brand and marketing thinking with digital understanding to help the digital transformation of brands – and increasingly of business as well. His work has been internationally recognised through both Effectiveness and Creative Awards.

In the interviw below Andreas shares his perspective on the innovations that are changing the way agencies create on behalf of brands, how Media consumption has changed and how it's  affected the marketing mix, guidelines for entrants and so much more!

AME Awards: As a strategic creative, what stand-out attributes do you recognize in award-winning creative effective advertising?

Andreas Moellmann: The one thing outstanding ideas have in common is that they are either completely unexpected and surprising or so simple and true that it feels obvious (sometimes both). By definition, great ideas are outliers; they are on either side of the bell-curve of standard deviation. Other than that, I don’t think there’s one thing they have in common. It’s the lack of commonality that makes them outstanding ideas.

AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards important?

Andreas Moellmann: Marketing’s purpose is to help business succeed in the marketplace. Business success is an equation of effort vs results. Without competitions like the AME it’s easy to forget why we do marketing in the first place. The AME regularly reminds the industry that effectiveness is our daily work – and not just a one-off event.  

AME Awards: How has the brand’s voice changed since the pandemic confinement measures? Speak to the evolution of brand positioning, values, and tone of voice during COVID.

Andreas Moellmann: Many brands – and their companies - have realized there is more to business than sales: companies have a responsibility towards society. Taking on that responsibility has changed the tone towards more honest, direct and authentic communication. With it, marketing has been elevated, internally and externally, as brands have started doing, not just claiming. Covid has been and is a seminal event for brands and marketing.

AME Awards: What will advertising look like next year? What brands have evolved and succeeded during this year and why?

Andreas Moellmann: I wish I could see the future. My hope is that more brands realize marketing is not just about selling stuff but also about living up to the company’s values, by doing good, not just saying good. People are increasingly critical about corporations and consumption; they see that the world needs fixing, and they expect business to contribute. A crazy as it sounds, it will come down to marketing to make that fix happen, internally and externally. Businesses who understand that will thrive. The rest will not.

AME Awards: What innovations are changing the way agencies create on behalf of brands or launch new products?  Does big data and AI play an even bigger role today?

Andreas Moellmann: Technology will increase its role and influence in marketing, no question. But over the drive to efficiency and cost-savings it is easy to forget that at the end of every device is an individual. And these individuals want to be treated like humans. So while agencies and clients have to up their game on utilizing technology, they should do so to enable more humanity in their marketing, not less. The challenge is to use tech as enabler of humanity, not as a replacement.

AME Awards: What new creative trends have come into play this to deliver creative and effective results?

Andreas Moellmann: Technology has enabled a new class of ideas: those that build continuous engagement. These ideas build relevance and involvement, they let people participate and write part of the story. They are open-ended and allow iteration. They evolve. It needs different thinkers to come up with these ideas – and different clients to understand their potential. 

AME Awards: Media consumption has changed dramatically how has this affected the marketing mix?

Andreas Moellmann: I believe the time for a fixed, annual media plan is gone. Today, an agile, iterative approach to marketing, realizing marketing as a system whose interactions continuously influence each other, needing continuous optimization, becomes ever more reality. So, marketing teams need flexibility, adaptability and a learning culture to constantly adjust decisions based on a continuous flow of new information. The marketing mix will be decided daily.

AME Awards: What mediums will take the lead in 2021 and what will take a backseat?

Andreas Moellmannn: That depends on the objective, the strategy, the idea, the target group, the budget, the sophistication of the marketing team (see marketing mix) and other variables. Of course digital will continue to rise. But that doesn’t say anything about its effectiveness.  

AME Awards: Why did you agree to participate on this year’s AME Grand Jury and What do you hope to learn by viewing entries into this competition?

Andreas Moellmann: The world is going through a dramatic evolution and marketing will play a big role in this. Of all Cannes winner in 2019 about 40% were related to sustainability goals. I’d like to help promote the practice of effectiveness thinking and hope I will see many more cases that help make the world a better place.

AME Awards: What is your all time, favorite most creative and effective ad and/or ads (share the link or a visual) and why in your opinion did they triumph?

Andreas Moellmann: That’s a tough one. There are too many good examples in my mind. But let’s take DDB’s Volkswagen Beetle’s print ad ‘Think small.’ from 1959. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Small It illustrates the power of marketing: 2 words and one small visual to change people’s perception. Today, we need to re-assess how we think about consumption and how we live our life on this planet. We need to ‘Think different’ (Apple 1997 by Chiat Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different ). Ok, that were 2 ads. They triumphed because they challenged the status quo. That’s what good marketing usually does.

AME Awards: What advice or guidelines would you give to potential entrants on earning an AME Award?

Andreas Moellmann: Your case is a story. Everyone, including the jury, wants to read a good story. Write a story that everyone wants to read and wants to succeed. And then you will.