The Gerety Awards are unique because they judge all advertising, not just advertising to women, through the female lens.

In the UK advertising industry that female lens is under threat. Major Players recently revealed a 5% decrease in the number of women and non-binary individuals across the Creative Industries which equates to 120,000 departures. The phrase ‘who shapes the work, makes the work’ has never been more poignant.

To help the brand leaders who seek to better connect with all audiences, navigate our fast-moving and jargon-fuelled landscape, Nicola Kemp, Editorial Director at Creativebrief, sat down with Ruth Boulter, Creative Director at McCann London, Emma De La Fosse, Former CCO at Edelman, Tash Beecher, Executive Creative Director at Syneos Health and Pansy Aung, Creative Director at Digitas to unpack the learnings from this year’s Gerety award-winning entries. 

The wide-reaching conversation spanned the importance of humour at a time of polarisation, how AI can help us to fail faster and reach our potential and how to protect the diverse talent that is producing genre-defining work. 

Simplicity stands out

Kicking off the discussion, the judges noted three standout themes from this year’s Gerety Award-winning work: Humour, simplicity and boldness. 

“The past few years, a lot of the work has been quite heavy,” shared De La Fosse. Adding: “These days we just don’t have that bandwidth, we need simplicity and we could do with a laugh.” In a year of doom and gloom, audiences appreciate light-heartedness and laughter from brands. During judging, it was the humorous work that the jury instantly connected with.

Aung championed the power of entertaining and additive work. She explained: “The word ‘interruption’ should be phased out of advertising. Why should brands be getting in the way?” Pointing to gaming as an example of a medium that connects with audiences, she urged brands to create work that people want to get involved with, rather than skip past. 

Such work does not need to reinvent the wheel but can instead be simple, humorous and fun. Boulter pointed to the example of Mountain Dew’s Play The Dew campaign, which saw the brand replace noises in gaming with the word ‘Dew’. “Where there was a lack of newness, there were more joyful ideas,” says Boulter. She continued: “The place where creativity can really flourish is not so much in the mechanics but in the way you make something really memorable.”

Going further, not faster

At a time when DEI is under attack and women are exiting the industry at an alarming rate, Beecher pointed to the importance of moving beyond ‘tokenistic’ thinking and embracing a profitability mindset. 

Drawing on the example of Outvertising Advocacy Playbook insight, which shows diverse workforces are 25% more profitable, she urges the industry to think more creatively and look to hire from different pools for the sake of the bottom line. “Profitability comes when we have people in our businesses who channel their differences to maximum impact,” she explained.

Puncturing the myth that motherhood is a creative full stop, Boulter shared her own experience of how motherhood has stoked her creative ambition. “I have a newfound ambition and hunger, which is an energy that really surprised me,” she said. While the notion of having it all is used as a stick with which to beat women, Boulter advocates for a squiggly career and a fresh approach “Let’s reframe it as we don’t have to have it all right now,” she adds.

With burnout a growing concern for creative leaders, Aung outlined the importance of finding a sustainable pace. Instead of seeing being busy as a badge of honour, finding a way to be a well-rounded person at work creates a more fulfilling cycle. “It’s a great time to be a female creative,” she says, adding: “There’s lots more acceptance of flexible working and work life balance.”

AI-powered creative ambition

Instead of viewing AI as a job-snatching enemy, finding ways for it to fuel women’s creative careers can help expand creative horizons. 

“As a creative person, the way I look at AI is that ideas that used to be impossible are now possible,” says De La Fosse. She continued: “I want the conversation around AI and creativity to be positive and additive.” Comparing the introduction of AI to the introduction of the internet, she urges creatives to ‘grab the opportunities with both hands.’ 

“One of the key things for me is that AI is allowing us to fail faster,” added Beecher. She continued: “If you are a smaller brand, the ability to fail faster allows you to rub shoulders with brands you wouldn’t have once competed with.”

Using AI to mock up creatively ambitious projects to sell-in bigger thinking can help brands be more agile and free creative ideas from being bogged down in process. R/GA’s campaign for TaDa Delivery, ‘Abandoned Nights’ leveraged AI to creatively revisit abandoned shopping carts and show users what they were missing out on with personalised videos. An example of creativity at scale that would not be possible without new tools. 

Aung shared that challenger brands have the opportunity to tap into AI at pace. “Being a challenger brand is about being a bit less risk-averse and having that mentality regardless of size of the company,” she shared. She pointed to the example of Curry’s as an established brand with this fast-paced challenger mindset. 

Ultimately, the jury agreed that AI should help work be more effective, but ended on the important note that the separation between good and great work is how it makes people feel. A standout campaign from the judging was VML México’s Dancing Washers for Whirlpool, which connected the panel with humour and joy.  

Urging brands to make audiences consider their legacy, push for change and make us feel something. De La Fosse left the audience with a reminder of the enduring power of emotion. She explained: “It doesn't matter how you get there, does the idea make you feel something? Like it or not, that's what will stay with us.”