You usually need the wisdom of King Solomon and the diplomacy of Kofi Annan to chair an awards jury. Egos assume barrage-balloon proportions, old feuds are rekindled and stale smelling, adrenaline fuelled rooms become battlefields of razor sharp observations and put downs.
So it was a relief and a refreshing change to find myself chairing the final creative judging jury at the MAA Best Awards, because the jury chose to channel their passions into a wider discussion of industry issues. And most potent among them was the subject of "innovation".
Many of the marketing campaigns we saw claimed to be innovative: some were creative applications of new technologies; some were old ideas with a new twist; others were brilliant extensions of ideas through social media - so we had a diverse range to chose from.
Two of my favourite campaigns sit at opposite ends of this innovation spectrum. One was an "ice cube voucher" for Rocktails (frozen cocktails) which melted within minutes. This was used to drive people directly to the Rocktail stand at the Taste of London trade show where they could claim a free cocktail – if they got there before the voucher melted.
Another was when Paddy Power took Twitter to the skies at the Ryder Cup to "Sky-Tweet" messages at 10,000ft. This clever initiative was argued by some to be just a clever extension of the Nike Chalkbot idea (a Cannes cyber lions grand prix winner 2011), which spray-painted digitally submitted messages on to roads along the Tour de France route. I loved Sky Tweet for the way it dominated the Ryder Cup event in a cheeky way, which reflected the Paddy Power brand and took the limelight away from the other sponsors.
Innovation exists in social media campaigns, which explore ways to reach and make advocates of new audiences. We saw campaigns that revisited traditional methods and simplified them to make customers and vendors lives easier.
The innovations that had most resonance were those that impacted on their audience in a creative way. It seemed that creativity made the innovative element more relevant.
And having established that, we returned to the thorny issue of how best to define really "great" creative work. That is the debate that all award juries seem to wrestle with, as they define and redefine ideas of what components of creativity are most important.
David Harris, executive creative director at Wunderman. The winners of the MAA Best Awards will be announced at an evening ceremony on 7 March 2013
