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D&AD JUDGING WEEK 2015 D&AD

D&AD president Mark Bonner on why it needs a ‘sexier sell’ to appeal to young creatives

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

April 22, 2015 | 4 min read

Despite being a champion of design and advertising in the UK, the D&AD has a problem and that problem is echoed across the industry – how to engage young creatives to ensure a bright future in the market going forward.

One such challenge is creating a “sexier sell” according to 2015’s D&AD president Mark Bonner, also co-creative director of design and ad agency GBH London, who spoke to The Drum at the association’s inaugural Judging Week festival in East London.

“It’s a specific challenge for us here because we’ve got something that is quite altruistic,” he said, referring to D&AD. “It’s kind of a pure D&AD thing that is non-profit and gives back and that is not the sexiest sell to a young creative who wants to make progress. They aren’t really thinking of giving back yet they haven’t had enough out actually,” he remarked.

It’s an interesting issue for D&AD. Like many brands it is looking to diversify away from its core product, in this case its awards, and invest in year-round activities and branded content. The first iteration of that is the Judging Week, a new festival comprising talks, workshops and public exhibition days to drive interest, which Bonner explained.

“I think having all our cool stuff in one place feels exactly the right thing to do,” he said. “It feels like we are right in front of the young creative audience.” However, he was keen to express that the established sector of the industry can’t be neglected.

“We can’t take our eye of the ball. Let’s be honest the middle aged older types need constant inspiration too and this is the challenge – we’ve got to be active and smart at both ends of the spectrum.”

Bonner is striving to get D&AD’s New Blood awards, which honour new talent in the industry, running internationally and is working to organise more events and talks to engage the younger generation in design and advertising. But the advent of digital is taking its toll on the awards process.

“D&AD really means a lot to creatives of a certain generation who know of its history and iconic status and impurity,” he said. “[But] there is also an almost skipped generation that don’t need it. You can argue because there are so many ways of getting accreditation digitally… certainly they don’t have to wait six weeks for a bunch of big heads to decide if it’s good enough or not.”

Speaking with his GBH hat on, Bonner said that agencies are starting to converge and can, dependent on the project, can sometimes feel like an advertising agency then a digital agency and back to a graphic design agency. A process he feels will evolve organically as the modern client continues to transform.

“To me it’s all about the space between these disciplines and that’s where the best work in the world is appearing now,” he said. "You can’t pin it down specifically to whether it’s coming from design or an advertising mind-set. The best work is connecting and it’s happening more and more.”

D&AD JUDGING WEEK 2015 D&AD

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