Bringing back the ‘Rock and Roll'

Time of India

14-05-2025

HighlightsDara Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of D&AD, praised the vibrant energy at ad agencies in Mumbai, noting that they pose a competitive threat to UK agencies. The D&AD Awards saw a record 12,300+ entries last year, indicating a cultural shift in creative excellence and a decline in purpose-led advertising due to clients prioritizing commercial success post-Covid. D&AD plans to introduce a 'New Creator' Category for the 2025 Awards, reflecting the rapid growth of the creator economy, which could potentially reach a trillion dollars in spending by 2030.
When
Dara Lynch
, CEO of non-profit
D&AD
, visited ad agencies in Mumbai, she was amazed by the 'palpable' energy she found. 'They are buzzing,' she said. 'When I go to the UK agencies, I'm going to tell them, 'You got to watch yourselves, you've got competition coming.''
Lynch was in Mumbai to attend the fifth edition of
Portfolio Evening
. Hosted by
Indian Creative Women
(ICW), DDB Mudra Group and D&AD, Portfolio Evening tries to boost gender parity in the industry by providing a platform for young women and non-binary creatives to get their portfolios reviewed by industry leaders.
In a conversation with Brand Equity, Lynch talks about how the zeitgeist can influence winning entries, the 'slight' dip in
purpose-led advertising
and why their highly sought-after Shift programme is bringing back the 'rock and roll'. Edited excerpts:
Last year, the D&AD Awards saw 12,300+ entries, the highest number since 2007. What were your key takeaways?
Humour was returning and there was a lot of talk in the jury room around whether this work was created by humans or by technology. We did ask entrants to tell us how much AI was used in the production of a piece of work, but it wasn't part of the judging criteria.
Our criteria have never changed; what has changed is culture and the world we live in. And that changes what the definition of creative excellence looks like. Today, a Wonderbra wouldn't win a Graphite Pencil. In 1995, it picked up awards all over. And who knows, depending on how culture is shaped, it could win 10 years from now.
What about impact-led creatives? D&AD is a big proponent of purpose-led advertising.
This is interesting. Last year, there was this sort of edge back towards non-purpose-led work. We saw a slight decline in impact entries, which had been growing year on year. When we researched why, we realised it was because clients are demanding campaigns that deliver a bottom line. Post-Covid, the focus is on upping shareholder value and producing more commercially compelling work.
D&AD has announced a 'New Creator' Category for the 2025 Awards. What drove this?
If you look at the raw data, there are about 15 million people in the creator economy and the latest research suggests that the spend on creators and influencers could hit a trillion dollars by 2030. That's a fast-growing economy and if you're going to ignore it, do so at your peril.
Brands are now skipping agencies to work directly with creators. What will this do to talent? Where could the next talent pipeline come from?
If you think back to some of the true greats, such as John Hegarty, many of them didn't come from traditional universities. Most of them started off in the post room and worked their way up or joined as junior runners on shoots. Somewhere along the way, the industry became a little homogenous as classic routes into the industry developed. If you were from Oxford or Cambridge, you became an account man. If you were creative, you had an art school background. One of the most interesting programmes that we run — Shift — disrupts that.
Shift is a three-month, industry-led night school for self-taught creatives entering the advertising, design and creative industries from non-traditional avenues. It is a talent-first program. And what we're seeing is that the graduates who emerge from this three-month course can easily sit beside those who've been in the industry for longer because of the quality of divergent thinking.