AME's Grand Jury members are known for both their creative and strategic skills, their award-winning campaigns and commitment to ground-breaking effective work have delivered impressive results for prestigious global brands. The jury panel represents the genius minds associated with many of AME’s award-winning entries, their stellar reputations and commitment to both creative and effective work set the benchmark for innovation.

2021 AME Grand Jury member, Fanny Camus Tournier is Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy Paris and a member of the Executive Management Committee, her strategic perspective and award-winning experience are an asset to the jury panel.

Fanny is a highly respected barometer check. Integration is core to her strategic application, having experience working at both online and offline agencies Herezie, Buzzman, La Chose, Blast Radius… and with a diverse range of brands Coca-Cola, Thierry Mugler, Hermes, EasyJet, IKEA, Danone or Delsey… This range of perspective has led Fanny to develop a strong capacity for adaptability in her thinking across different platforms, industries and consumer insights. As a planner, she is deeply convinced of the importance of having an unbeatable understanding of the audiences in which brands wish to participate. In addition to her daily tasks,

In the interview below, Fanny shares the attributes of stand-out work, how the voice of the brand changed during Covid, how innovations are changing advertising and much more.

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

Fanny Camus Tournier: It has to be simple. It has to be smart. It has to come back in my mind when I’m not supposed to think about it anymore.

“Simple” because simplicity goes fast and has the capability to create an instant connection with the people you want to reach.

“Smart” because brands must show respect to their consumers. And the best way to do it is by bringing them something that is inspiring.

“Come back in my mind when I’m not supposed to think about it anymore” because it proves the natural effectiveness of a campaign: not having to push it many times to be reminded but being sufficiently relevant to stay in people’s minds.

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

Fanny Camus Tournier: First because they remind us the purpose of our industry.

Second because they bring us some… hope! The abyssal number of messages we are all exposed to lowers the effectiveness of advertising. Competitions like the AME Awards proves that it is still possible for brands to matter. They also prove that there is only one condition left to win against infobesity: relevance.

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.

Fanny Camus Tournier: During the first lockdown, care became the norm. Everyone (including brands) was shocked. Nobody (including brands) knew how to get out of it. The softness of care was obviously the most comfortable solution. To such an extent that we witnessed a kind of “care-washing” and consequently “effectiveness-dropping”.

Today the question is not to take the COVID crisis into consideration. It is how to take it into consideration. It opens to different answers depending who you are or who your brand is.

People haven’t lived the pandemic the same way. Some of us were petrified. Others preferred not to face the truth. The same cause has created different behaviors. It has to be the same for brands or institutions.

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

Fanny Camus Tournier: I hope advertising will be more connected to people and what they’re concerned about. Brands who reacted the most rapidly, consistently and boldly are the ones who succeeded. It is the case of Boursorama Banque, a French online bank, who proposed to their clients to reimburse their bank fees of 2020 to erase the bad year they went through. More than a generous idea, it’s a brilliant way to keep on being the most recommended bank which is the tagline of the brand.

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?

Fanny Camus Tournier: Innovations are changing advertising. It allows us to be less stuck in a narrow scope and to embrace big ideas instead.

Still, innovations shouldn’t be perceived as an objective itself. There are tremendous tools to help building creative and sustainable brand strategies. 

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

Fanny Camus Tournier: I hope the AME submissions we will judge will help me answer this question!

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

Fanny Camus Tournier: Despite big changes in media consumption, online hasn’t (completely) killed offline. The time we spend on our mobile is a time we used for other things than media like people watching while waiting for a bus.

It broadens the opportunities to reach consumers. It also opens to pitfall: fragmentation.

In that context, the best way for brands to keep on being heard is to choose and of course to renounce.