Dennis Lück: "My career was made possible by awards".

To the article: Creative ranking 2018: Jung von Matt/Limmat leaves no stone unturned

Werbewoche: Congratulations on your victory! What is the significance of this title distribution?

Dennis Lück: I'm totally thrilled every year (laughs). That also shows how important the ranking is. It's the yardstick for creativity in our industry. That's why I'm as happy as a soccer team to win the championship every year.

Often a football team is most pleased when it wins the title for the first time ...

I think becoming number one is hard enough - but it's even harder to keep it. That's why the joy is all the greater for me. It doesn't decrease, but increases exponentially.

Looking back on this season - which was the most beautiful success?

What pleased me most was the range with which we won. We didn't have one case that dominated everything, but half a dozen cases that scored points. What made me particularly proud: The award-winning work was all created in the course of day-to-day business and won in promising categories such as creative data, mobile, PR, brand experience and activation.

In contrast to other agencies that have greatly reduced award entries due to pressure to save money, it seems as if Jung von Matt is not submitting with the handbrake on - is this impression deceptive?

It's deceptive. We've been running with the handbrake on just as much and are only working with about a third of the award budget of previous years. So we are also feeling the cost and cost-cutting pressure. Since awards have become cruelly expensive, I take a very targeted approach to submissions so that the maximum return on investment results.

What do awards bring to the agency in concrete terms - apart from the pleasure of the employees? Is it also about customer acquisition?

They definitely also have a strategic component. The headline "Jung von Matt is number one" is worth something on the market, which is why I participate in the ranking. The consistency of the headline is also strategically valuable from my point of view. Just taking part in awards because it's fun and we can drink to it - I don't need that. Besides, it's exciting for talented people to work for an agency that has a proven track record of great creative work. So for me, besides performance, self-promotion and recruiting are still the focus. As a young, up-and-coming talent, you focus on where you can learn what from whom.

Is the lack of good people also a key issue for Jung von Matt?

This is an omnipresent issue for the entire Swiss market.

Are awards - in view of the increasing cost pressure - still in keeping with the times? The award culture dates back to a completely different time, when the industry was swimming in money. Are the awards also losing some of their original meaning due to the pressure to save money?

They don't lose their meaning. If money were no object, everyone would enter the awards. To compete against the best in the country or the world: That's fun, that's an appeal, that's a drive. However, when I look at the way awards work today, I firmly believe that a counter-trend will form again from the current phase. Many agencies will come to the realization: I'm not going to be a part of this anymore.

Do you also do work that has award juries at least in the back of your mind? The much-awarded SoundBook app for the NordSüd publishing house, for example. Even a year later, only one supported book is available, the app has - it seems from the outside - mainly taken place in casemovies ...

Some ideas are so great that you have to bring them to life. As a rule, we then also try to sell them to customers. That was exactly the case with NordSüd-Verlag. Whether the customer wants to take the idea further is no longer up to us as an agency.

But first there was the idea and only then did they look at which customer it would suit? This approach is often criticized in connection with awards for NGO work.

These cases will always exist in our industry. And I'm not resisting them - on the contrary. Such work moves us forward as an agency and perhaps further cooperation with the client develops from it, or this very project attracts other clients with a similar need. So the issue is much more complex than: I have a "fart idea", knock it out and never see it again. Of course, the ideal situation is when an idea comes up with a real client in real day-to-day business - like our four big campaigns that scored last year, for example - but I'm the very last person who doesn't offer a hand when I have bombshell ideas for client XY on the table. I owe that to my creative talents.

How has the value of awards changed over the course of your career?

When I think back, my career was made possible by awards. I wouldn't be sitting across from you now if it weren't for these stupid awards (laughs). I was an intern at Scholz & Friends in Hamburg and had an idea that went on to win a Silver Lion in Cannes. Silver in Cannes as an intern! That's why I was able to gain a foothold in the first place. So my career began with the belief: I need the awards to be able to keep the job - and that's how it was back then. Awards meant glamour, fame, glory. Whoever won a lion was canonized for all time. Today, awards have destroyed themselves to a certain extent due to the developments already mentioned. That's probably why they no longer have the status they once had. This is especially true for the smaller festivals. A few - Cannes Lions, for example - have managed to retain their fame to some extent. Many, on the other hand, are now almost disappearing into insignificance.

Many agencies take award breaks and don't submit anything for a year. Is that also an option for you?

Basically, this is always a topic we discuss for the reasons I mentioned. To what extent do we join in the circus? Do we participate at all? The whole thing - despite the relevance I still ascribe to the ranking and the festivals - is indeed worthy of discussion.

Are you addressing submission fees or the proliferation of categories?

Both! The categories, for example, have increased almost tenfold in the last few years. The costs, of course, have also increased. That can't go well in the long run.

Cannes Lions underwent a major reform this year due to industry dissatisfaction. So has the rethinking already begun?

Yes, this is a good example of a counter-trend. Since agencies are already withdrawing from the award circus, festival organizers must fear that they will fall into a crisis and disappear. This will force them to "clean up" their sometimes absurd cost structures in the background and work in a more customer-centric way again. Will mean: In the future, the awards will have to please us agencies again, so that we will participate with joy again.

Would the creative competitions still work at all if they cut costs? You are probably already aware that the agencies are bothered by this.

We're talking about a multimillion-dollar business here. Not just Cannes - the other festivals are money machines, too. You could start by downsizing the infrastructure, for example, or even digitizing it. That's what's happening right now. In the past, jurors were picked up at the airport by chauffeur and spent two weeks in Cannes. Today, pre-votings only take place online. These are measures to keep costs somewhat under control. So far, however, the organizers do not pass this cost reduction on to the submission fees. I think Cannes would be more successful if they curbed the fees downwards.

You often hear that the big networks pull the strings in the juries and look out for each other. Is it more difficult for you as an owner-managed agency to win awards than for network agencies?

I don't think so. My attitude to everything that's going on in the background has always been clear: There's an end to all the games when it comes to the best work. Because they always prevail. Possible skirmishes behind the scenes work at most up to the shortlist or perhaps to bronze level. From then on, it's pure quality that counts. So my tactic is to knock out works that are above the games, and therefore don't have to depend on them.

Graubünden Ferien is no longer part of your portfolio. Has this meant the loss of a grateful client for award-affine work? You always had the feeling that the client was also a kind of playground for attractive, novel and original ideas that were well received far beyond the country's borders.

We will benefit from Graubünden Ferien for another year anyway, because we can still submit all the work from 2018 (laughs). So the former client will disappear from our points list for the first time in 2020. But regardless of that, I'm glad that our creative energy is now somewhat distributed. In the past, we were often reduced a bit to Graubünden Ferien in connection with awards. Yet it was just a normal paying customer like any other. This shift of creative energy to other customers is now an opportunity.

So there's no need to worry about your award offspring?

No! (laughs)

Are there other ways to fight development than complete retreat?

You have to let the festivals know that you don't agree with the pricing policy. They call regularly and ask us to submit. Then I answer: No, you are too expensive for me. Or: No, you are not ranking-relevant. You can't duck and think: Then I'll just swallow the bitter pill and pay what it costs. That would be the wrong approach. There is, of course, the mixed calculation that you only participate in those that have a certain relevance and leave out the rest, thus accepting a drop in the ranking.

Are the problems described regarding the cost structure limited to the international awards or do you also observe them in Switzerland?

In Switzerland, we didn't let it get out of hand like it did on the big stage internationally. Here, we tried to adapt the categories in a sensible way. When it came to refining the categories at ADC, for example, we didn't go about it with the goal of earning more money. Rather, we wanted to improve the competition and keep it in line with the times in the interests of our submitting customers.

Do people in small Switzerland participate in awards mainly out of goodwill?

No. Nobody does it out of goodwill, otherwise we'd have to fill out donation slips (laughs). The visibility that an award triggers still exists here in Switzerland, otherwise no one would take part. To participate in awards just for the sake of goodwill, the whole thing is simply too expensive. Everywhere.

But at the ADC Awards, you yourself sit on the board and are part of the whole. So the hurdle would certainly be higher not to submit more entries?

If I look at ADC only as an award, that would be an economic decision that one would have to accept as it is. But if you see ADC as a promoter of creativity and of young talent in the country - for example, through vessels like Creative Week or the Young Creatives Awards - then I would certainly want to support the association in a different way if I didn't participate, and I would want to get involved together with the agency, for example, through sponsorship. ADC is not just about a creative festival, but about promoting creativity in the country. And we are all interested in that.

In conclusion: How long will the Jung von Matt dominance in the rankings last?

Until we decide to take a break (laughs). For the next ranking, we're looking forward to returning competitors like Publicis, perennial favorites like Ruf Lanz, or new competitors like TBWA or Thjnk. Our quiver is well stocked - let's start the new season! But for now, let's celebrate the No. 1 and cheer on all the movers and shakers.