HBO 'Voyeur' Collaborator Calls Cannes Prizes Unfair

Big Spaceship CEO Says Shop Deserves More Credit

By: Rupal Parekh, Published: Jun 25, 2008
Last week in Cannes, BBDO's campaign for HBO brought home the Omnicom Group-owned agency and its creative chief, David Lubars, a lot of hardware. Now "Voyeur" is offering a tense look inside the often uncomfortable relationships between ad agencies and digital specialists when it comes to the question of who takes credit for award-winning work.

In an interview, Michael Lebowitz, co-founder and CEO of Big Spaceship, one of the shops instrumental in executing "Voyeur," criticized both BBDO and the awards system for not giving due credit to his firm for its role in a campaign that crossed from outdoor to digital to film. The campaign picked UP a number of awards at festivals this year, and in Cannes it earned two Grand Prix trophies in the outdoor and promotion categories, five Golds, a Silver and a Bronze in media, cyber, design promotion and film, with the bulk of the credit attributed to BBDO, New York.

Game has changed
Mr. Lebowitz said the fact that the festival rules permit a single winner for an award reflect "an awards structure that hasn't adapted" to a changing agency landscape. As the digital world allows marketing campaigns to become more complex and touch consumers in more and more ways, agencies are often not the lone source of creativity that they were in pre-internet days. Increasingly, agencies are becoming a kind of hub that marshals other resources, from digital experts to production companies, on behalf of clients.

The awards system hasn't kept up with the change. Nor, in Mr. Lebowitz's opinion, has BBDO.

"I don't think that BBDO is completely innocent in this," he said. "I tremendously admire what BBDO did ... they shot an incredible piece of film. But to qualify us as a production company is to sell short the tremendous amount of insight it takes to take a traditional piece of media and put it out into the world in a natively digital way. Certainly, a lot of people came up to me and said 'sorry' when I was in Cannes."

Lubars defends agency's role
In an e-mailed statement, Mr. Lubars said his agency, as "the source of the idea," deserves the credit it received.

"Ideas are timeless," the statement read. "Ideas are what inspire people. Ideas are the root of all execution. On 'Voyeur,' BBDO thought of the idea, shot the idea, then brought in Big Spaceship to do what they do. They did a great job (and we've made every effort to acknowledge them). What's the issue? Maybe Cannes should consider the idea of a Palme d'Or for digital production." The issue -- and this is something that was discussed at the bars and beaches of Cannes -- is how to update an antiquated system set up to make old-fashioned ad agencies look good. Many expressed frustration that, despite changes to the agency landscape that created a division of labor wherein lots of people now do the work, the awards -- which in Cannes, anyway, don't allow for multiple winners to share the same award -- continue to make it seem as if the ad shops are king. Formed in part because of this issue, the Society of Digital Agencies, of which Big Spaceship is a member, is expected to issue a rallying cry today urging the ad industry to better recognize the collaboration between big established agency players and lesser-known, nontraditional shops.

'A larger problem'
"This isn't about digital agencies getting credit," and "it's not just about BBDO and Big Spaceship," said Mr. Lebowitz. "It's a larger problem, and it's about shifting the tenor of the industry overall."

"We are in a brave new world, a networked world, and you will never find a single agency that can handle all the various works of executions," he said. "Anything that runs against innovation and collaboration succeeding should ultimately be choked out."

Whether Cannes organizers will listen remains to be seen.
9 Comments: By alig1 June 26th, 2008 05:00:06 am

I completely agree with Lubars. If digital production companies feel they 're more than this, then why take on agency ideas? If it's so easy to come up with fresh ideas for brands, go to clients direct and see how you get on. The problem for many digital production companies is they are young, naive and full of arrogance. You wouldn't hear any of this from traditional production people. The digital boys are confused and unsure of themselves. Are we production or are we an agency? Kind of like a teenager. If they are going to play with ad agencies, someone needs to update them clearly on their role so they don't keep having all these unnecessary tantrums.

By kirk June 26th, 2008 09:09:48 am

To even things up, I completely agree with Big Spaceship. The big agencies continue to exhibit naive faith in what they quaintly call their "big ideas." But ideas, as the previous comment obliquely points out, are neither unique nor powerful until they get executed. Ultimately, it is the execution that counts. And most agencies have no idea how to execute online or at any length or in any depth. I'm not sure how big an idea it was to note that HBO allows viewers to be voyeurs in the lives of a host of characters. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was a pretty ordinary idea. But Big Spaceship's execution made it worth looking at online. And they deserve a lot of credit for that.

By keren.hauptman June 26th, 2008 09:17:53 am

I also agree with Lubars and congratulate him on a well written response. And I agree with the above statement, too.

I would also caution Big Spaceship for this digitalcentric egotism.

BBDO doesn't need you. You're biting the hand that feeds you.

BBDO will simply get the idea to create an in house digital production house, hire high caliber talent, and execute the idea. You're a production house. Instead of producing whiny "he got a bigger piece than me", do what Lubars suggested and lobby for a separate award category.

By keren.hauptman June 26th, 2008 09:20:07 am

Sorry, would like to add one more thought.

Why take concepts to Big Spaceship if they''re going to hurt the agency?

I'm sure there are plenty of digital houses out there that will do great work, without the whining.

Big Spaceship is going to come crashing down to earth real soon.

By davidvshih June 26th, 2008 10:27:09 am

Which can claim more credit? The paintbrush that rendered the painting or the artist behind it? In an industry where ideas are still king, BBDO had the idea and Big Spaceship executed it perfectly. BBDO had the idea and could have gone anywhere to produce it. But without BBDO, Big Spaceship would never have had the opportunity to create--or kvetch--about how much credit they deserve.

By amadeo June 26th, 2008 10:57:59 am

I agree with BigSpaceShip. Big agencies like BBDO think they own everything. Ask Lubars who came up with the BMW films? The ad world is full of snakes. People with true artist talents (BigSpaceShip) always seems to get the shaft. Now I know why creatives say BBDOn't work there.

By lakonic June 26th, 2008 05:26:11 pm

Sniff Sniff. Thank you, Mr. Lebowitz, for validating Lakonic's completely transparent creative and production model.

By jimijank October 23rd, 2008 12:33:35 pm

"Ideas are timeless", seriously Michael? This is the kind of old school agency BS you'd expect to hear from BBDO. Ideas are important, and do lay the foundation for a concept or a campaign. But I would contend that quality of execution is often undervalued by larger more traditional agencies, probably because it proliferates what they do and keeps the value add in their court. Ideas are important but cheap and easy to generate a lot of them, and I can't say that BBDOs idea for Voyeur is really that visionary or ground breaking. I think in this case most of the credit should go to Big Spaceship. I think the real magic here is more about user experience than a clever idea.

A mediocre idea well executed can pass as OK, but a great idea execute poorly is shit.

By customedialabs June 11th, 2009 12:08:59 am

This is all interesting stuff. But what happens when a Goliath "leverages" a concept from a David without any permission? How are the Davids protected from this pretty bad situation? Do you fight back or do you just sit quietly and eat it? Is that what life in the jungle should be about? Is there no right to fight?

If BBDO talks about the idea being so important then what happens in the case of customedialabs VS razorfish ??? Check out both http://www.customedialabs.com launched in the Fall of 2007 and then look at http://www.razorfish.com launched in the Fall of 2008,.

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