INTRODUCTION

The AME Awards honors not just campaigns that are creative, but campaigns that hit the bullseye for brands, triumphing in both creativity and effectiveness and AME’s Grand Jury are the genius minds behind many of AME’s award-winning entries.

AME’s Grand Jury is the powerhouse behind the prestigious AME Awards, their high standard of excellence ensures that AME’s 25-year legacy is upheld and respected globally both by winners and industry reports measuring creative distinction. Their dedication result in truly award-worthy work being recognized

2019 Grand Jury member Ciahn Dalgliesh Waugh is Strategic Planner for Havas Lynx in Manchester England. She was born and raised in New Zealand, with a background in academic research, Ciahn joined the world of health advertising to pursue her sincere interest in the social good sector and community, health and environmental strategies.

 Starting her advertising career in Australia in account management, she made the shift to strategy and hasn’t looked back. Now based in the United Kingdom, Ciahn has worked on a wide array of national and international brand strategies.

 Ciahn brings dynamic and creative passion to the strategic world, always looking for ways to better lives and health from a holistic perspective. Her innate curiosity and ability to drive to the heart of complex problems with only a few well-placed questions has quickly becomes Ciahn’s trademark.

 In the interview below Ciahn shares what standout campaigns have in common, the importance of effectiveness competitions, why she’s judging this year and her guidelines for entrants.

INTERVIEW

AME Awards: As a strategic creative, what stand-out attributes do you recognize in award-winning creative and effective advertising…what do ads that have taken the brief and turned it into campaign that transforms opinions, evokes action and raises the bar for the brand have in common? 

Ciahn Dalgliesh Waugh: There are 3 things that these campaigns often have in common.

1) They have a fundamental truth that resonates with the audience and talks to their core. The campaigns that I see that tend to have impact are the ones that bring a fundamental human truth or experience to the forefront. They are usually ‘simple' truths that are right under our noses and therefore the ones most frequently overlooked. I use the term simple, but they are certainly not simple to identify amongst all the noise. We are often busy looking for that ‘brilliant’ idea that breaks through all the noise that we neglect to truly notice the ‘simple’ insight that is right in front of us, which if looked at from a different perspective becomes very impactful - that ‘simple' insight that will really talk to our audience - this is true whether it is a patients experience within a disease state, the reason someone buys a bar, or people get on board with supporting a charity or cause.  

2) They are creatively inspiring. A strategy is only as good as the creative it is working alongside and vice versa. Therefore, the proposition and strategy need to be inspiring so that the creative juices can flow. Both strategy and creative need to work together and both resonate with the audience in order to have the desired effect. 

3) A brave client. Amazing and brave work is unlikely to get off the ground if you don’t have a brave client to champion it.

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

Ciahn Dalgliesh Waugh: In today’s world we are bombarded with communications from all directions so how do we know which ones are cutting through and having impact? This is why effectiveness awards are so important. We know creativity is important, and in many instances beautiful to the eye, but this means little if we are not reaching the audience we need to reach and getting the results we aim to get. Awards like the AME’s are important because it allows us to see the most effective campaigns at a global level, encouraging the bar to keep being raised, and those designing creative campaigns that are effective to be recognised.

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?

Ciahn Dalgliesh Waugh: I agreed to be a judge on the AME awards because I love to see the creative work globally that has been effective. I pursued strategy because I wanted to create impact and I believe strategy is an area you can accomplish that. I got into advertising because I love the creative and out of the box thinking that it encourages. With judging awards like the AME’s I get to see these two things combined at high standards. I find it inspirational and insightful to see the effective campaigns being produced all across the region and globe, and how new solutions are being developed to stand out in this noisy and cluttered world.

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

Ciahn Dalgliesh Waugh: Remember the judges are reading a number of entries, therefore make it easy for them to read.

 1)  Bring the story to life. You are entering the campaign because the strategy and creative had impact and was effective so bring this story to life in order to capture the reader’s attention.

 2) Start the entry early. Through doing this you will have time to make the entry concise while still being able to fit in the details.

 3) Effectiveness is linking the campaign to the results therefore make the link between the campaign and the results straightforward, easy to understand, and indisputable.

 4) Get someone else to read your entry before submitting it. It is very easy when you have designed the strategy and written several versions of the case study in order to get it right, to miss spelling errors and think that it all makes sense. Get someone new to read it as this is a good way of picking up missed grammatical errors, making sure it reads well, and that it is easy to follow and digest.