Ben Coulson’s D&AD Diary Part 1 – Case Study Waterboarding

Ben Coulson, ANZ Chief Creative Officer at Dentsu Creative is president of the Creative Commerce Jury at this year’s D&AD Awards. In Part 1 of his D&AD Diary, exclusive to Campaign Brief, Coulson dives into the sea of case films with dry wit and a sharp eye on what really cuts through.

Ok, here we go, enter the password and pow – you have 600,000,0047 case films still to judge. I think this is D&AD’s way of seeing if you really want the gig. If you’ve got the right stuff. Like basic training in the army. Seriously, a judge pulled out last week, must have hit their ‘media wall animation’ breaking point. It’s crazy what some people enter.

Makes me worry a bit about the way we are creating ideas, thinking and designing for a case film.

About now, I’m loving the few ideas that don’t try to doing everything a case film dictates. Even the ones that don’t show up in the very repetitive formula of a case film.

You have 300,000,034 case films still to judge. Now I’m ready to spill state secrets. I heard they play the worst case films on repeat at Guantanamo bay.

Problem is, they all blur into one. They’re all super slick. A meticulously crafted film with top shelf motion graphics can’t help you stand out anymore. In fact it makes you blend in.

With this in mind, one tip – don’t overlook the written part of the entry. Specifically, don’t bury the idea in an Effie paper.

Judges use the write up as refuge from watching case films. If you can see the idea in 50 words and it’s interesting, you might get them on the hook.

As the really good stuff starts to emerge, it is always the quality, newness, boldness of the idea that gets it into contention, not the polish of the case film. After days of sifting though work, the best ideas you can’t forget, the other 98.5% you can’t even remember.

We now have a pretty short shortlist, and as you’d expect at D&AD, getting on it would probably get you a gold at most other shows.

So if you want to know before the press release which work made it, just read every third word of this blog in reverse, while listing to The Beatles’ ‘Day in the life’, it will reveal everything.