Welcome to AME's exclusive interview series, where we spotlight  the distinguished AME Awards Grand Jury. Through the perspective of  some of the industry's foremost strategy leaders, we gain insights into the dynamic landscape of advertising and marketing. These seasoned strategists bring a wealth of experience and sharp perspectives to the table. Join us on this insightful journey as we explore the interplay between creativity, strategy, and effectiveness – the core elements defining the excellence celebrated by the AME Awards.

2024 AME Grand Jury Hugh Munroe is Chief Strategy Officer at The Monkeys, a part of Accenture Song Austrailia. He brings award-winning strategic experience and leadership to the AME Awards jury panel.  In his time at The Monkeys and previously BMF, Hugh has led some of Australia's most effective strategy teams in building the country's most iconic brands. Along the way they've netted seven Effective Agency of the Year titles, across Australia and APAC-wide at the Effies and Spikes. Today, The Monkeys stand alone as the only agency worldwide that's won 3 Global Grand Effies at the Best of the Best Awards. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed Stop It At The Start as “one of the most effective government advertising campaigns I’ve ever seen”.

In the interview below Hugh shares his strategic perspective on future forward trends, how data analytics and AI have impacted advertising campaigns, what he's looking for in award-winning creative effective work, and more.

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

Hugh Munroe: Imagine a world without Effectiveness Awards. Fewer strategists bragging on LinkedIn, yes, but would clients be as convinced of the value of our industry? Would we go to those great lengths to interrogate how a campaign did, and didn’t, work? Would we gain knowledge from each other at the same rate? Effectiveness Awards might just be the most effective way to both prove the value of creativity and understand its magnetic power.

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

Hugh Munroe: When you look the most breakthrough creativity, the best of the best, you’ll notice something. They’re not just effective because they’re creative, they’re creative about how the have an effect. Which means, I’m sorry to say, they have no formula. This can be a hard pill to swallow in the era of pseudo-scientific marketing academics who relentless spout their “laws of this” and “anatomy of that”. But truth is, you don’t unearth new ways for creativity to be effective through a colour-by-numbers approach. Perhaps the only stand-out attribute is the creative alchemy.

AME Awards: What future forward trends and innovations are brands embracing for 2024?

Hugh Munroe: We’re going to see a lot more campaigns that use AI to generate high-quality production at lower costs. I’m watching what how this pans out in terms of ROI – claimed and actual – of campaigns. My suspicion is we’ll see campaigns claiming to have doubled or tripled an ROI thanks to GenAI. But take an average campaign where production costs make up roughly 20% of total campaign costs. Even a tripling of production efficiency through AI would only increase ROI by 15%. On the weightier media side, the cost is a function of human attention – and I’m yet to see an AI that can get me to pay attention to two things at once.

AME Awards: How has the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence impacted the effectiveness of advertising campaigns?

Hugh Munroe: Until now, the ‘Grand Promise’ of data analytics – an econometric engine fueled by trillions of relevant data in near-real-time to inform decision-making – has not panned out in reality. Perhaps it’s a function of scale in markets like Australia where the fixed costs of building and deploying such an engine don’t stack up against ever-shrinking marketing budgets. Instead, the most effective campaigns have used a more deliberate approach to analytics, one that’s laser-focused on testing specific hypotheses. AI could change all that, by delivering that ‘Grand Promise’ at a scalable fraction of the cost. But when it comes to writing Effectiveness papers, don’t get ChatGPT to do it for you. Judges are objective, but they’re also humans who value the kind of charm that only humans can conjure. For now…