After the winners of the Gerety Awards were announced, members of the Gerety Awards jury sat with Nicola Kemp, Editorial Director at Creativebrief, spoke with Karolina Galacz, Executive Creative Director at VML Hungary and Dagmara Witek-Kuśmider, Chief Creative Director at Publicis Worldwide Poland - to discuss how the jury connected with the award-winning work.

In a wide-ranging conversation, the panel discussed the winning work, what makes for effective campaigns, and how they see the industry evolving. From this informative discussion, 5 trends emerged: taking risks, listening to different perspectives, staying curious, humour in purpose driven work, and unskippable storytelling.

From building trust in agency and brand relationships for producing riskier work, to listening to a wide range of perspectives, the discussion shed light on both what makes great work and how to employ practical strategies to get there.

1. Embrace risk taking

Risk taking delivered rewards for this year’s winners. Work that stood out did so because it was braver than its counterparts. Karolina Galacz, Executive Creative Director at VML Hungary, explained: “There’s no creativity without taking a risk”.

Silver winner for Craft Cut - Direction, ‘It’s handy to have a dick’ for Equal Pay Day, by Mortierbrigade, demonstrated just that. Partnering humour with outlandish and slightly crude imagery makes for a shocking campaign with a cut-through and message that actually sticks with audiences.

Optimistically, the jury hopes to see an uptick in work that takes risks and breaks through the comfortable limits of not rocking the boat.  But to get there, as Dagmara Witek-Kuśmider, Chief Creative Director at Publicis Worldwide Poland, explained, there needs to be a “one-team culture” between brand and agency. Witek-Kuśmider explained: “In order to produce work that is brave, humorous, risky”, there needs to be a “partnership between brand and agency”.

Galacz added: “There needs to be trust,” adding that: “Better work comes when there is a real partnership and trust”. Once clients are convinced to do braver work, the partnership can create something outstanding, according to Dagmara.

2. Listening to different perspectives

This year’s awards underlined that the work that shines through is work which is rooted in a deep understanding of people. Witek-Kuśmider explained: “Advertising and culture have a long-term relationship, advertising has been influenced by culture and fuels culture”.

‘Oreo Cheat Cookies’, a campaign for Oreo by Saatchi & Saatchi Germany, showcased this mutually effective relationship. Winning the Silver award for Entertainment Cut, Integration, the work demonstrated how advertising can impact gaming culture, by leaning on existing cultural codes.

In order to create work with such an effect, agencies and brands must centre their audiences, authentically. People are central to the industry, and listening to communities is vital. The work should reflect the perspectives of real people, the ones that it is speaking to.

This is also why the Gerety Awards are unique. Diverse juries encapsulate a range of perspectives, shedding new light on the work. Not only is the lens shifted to women, but also to people from different backgrounds, shared Witek-Kuśmider.

She explained that In this way, we can “choose campaigns which are truly impactful because we don’t lose perspectives.”  Underlining that, creative brilliance is not bound by age, gender, or class. Discussing the influence of culture on advertising and advertising on culture, Dagmara added: “It's not surprising at all that the Gerety Awards reflects this beautiful symbiosis”.

3. Staying curious

Following the theme of listening to different perspectives, Witek-Kuśmider and Karolina discussed the importance of staying curious to create great work. “The key is to stay curious, because if we stay curious inspiration can come from anywhere,” added Witek-Kuśmider.

She highlighted how, in today’s fast-paced industry, it is vital to stay connected with what's happening around us. When we keep our finger on the pulse and listen to a variety of perspectives, we might find that inspiration strikes from unexpected places.

The winning work reflects the power of this open-minded and curious approach. Grand Prix winner for Craft Cut - Art Direction was ‘My Japan Railway - JR Group’ for Japan Railway 150th Anniversary, created by Dentsu. The campaign came from research on the history and culture of the stations and their respective communities. Using this context, Dentsu created work which was inspired by a wide expanse of inspirations.

Inspiration is essential to produce dynamic, effective work, and it can come from anywhere. For Witek-Kuśmider, this can come from talking to consumers, staying in tune with social media platforms, and watching a variety of content.

Galacz highlighted the importance of an open and interactive culture within an agency, saying agencies need a culture “that allows for accidental moments, where people from different generations can learn from each other”. Witek-Kuśmider suggested creating a ‘creative tribe’ of sorts, where people from different disciplines form a dialogue which can produce amazing results.

4. You can do good things and make people laugh

Purpose-driven work is a well  populated and important category for advertising. This year’s Gerety Awards points to the emergence of more purpose-driven work which uses humour. This became apparent as the jury members noted;  you can do good things and also make people laugh.

Galacz commented that: “Purpose-led work can invite a serious tone of voice” but added; “humour is coming back”.

‘It’s handy to have a dick’ is a great example of work which gets its message across whilst making audiences laugh. In fact, the humour in this campaign helps to prove its purpose, not just convey it - a literal representation of the male advantage perpetuating the gender pay gap.

Looking to the future, Witek-Kuśmider hopes that even more brands will stand for something, and more purpose-driven work will emerge. Especially given the fact that research has shown purpose to be important to consumers. Often people wish to support brands that share their values and stand for something.

With brands committed to making purpose-driven work, humour is a way to cut through. However, Galacz commented that clients need to be a little braver in using humour. The winning campaigns show bravery can produce outstanding work.

5. Embrace the rise of unskippable storytelling

In a world of shorter, quicker content, engagement fishing, and limited time, long-form content has to fight to hold attention. What showed up in the winning work this year, however, was the value of unskippable storytelling.

Long-form content is bucking the trend of skippable advertising. As Galacz explained: “What won was a commitment to creative storytelling”, work where, “once you start watching the story you can’t stop”.

HIghlighting the value of this approach was the Grand Prix winner for Entertainment Cut - TV/Cinema, ‘We Are Ayenda’ for WhatsApp, Meta, by CreativeX, Meta. The campaign tells the story of the girls of the Afghan National Youth Football Team and their journey out of Afghanistan after becoming endangered by the Taliban’s takeover.

Vital to their escape was the privacy encryption afforded by Whatsapp, as their correspondence was protected from view. Detailing this incredible journey, the campaign created a 30-minute long documentary, showing on Amazon Prime Video, ‘We Are Ayenda’. The film launched during the 2023 Women’s World Cup, winning two awards and creating 550 million impressions.

Galacz explained that the short film; “sets the bar for branded content”. She explained that it can be viewed as a product demonstration, showing Whatsapp’s features of privacy, security, and encrypted messaging.

She hopes that we will see more of this storytelling that immerses consumers by being rooted in  brands playing in spaces they belong. Long-form unskippable content is a trend that is here to stay.