Creative agencies – and I include advertising, media and PR in this collective terminology of ‘creative agencies’ – have had a long-standing love-hate relationship with their clients. Agencies believe they often struggle with getting creatively sound ideas off the ground, as they are unable to take flight without the client’s endorsement.

Clients, on the other hand, are cautious about the ever-enthusiastic ‘creativity’ that is unleashed on them, when all they really want is a clear solution to their objectives.

The process of formulating a result-oriented solution is a complex one that requires a combination that has an equal measure of business acumen, applied creativity, risk-taking and trust. Of these four essentials, ‘trust’ is certainly paramount, without which any great work, neither award-winning nor result-oriented, can ever be achieved.

The PR business today has evolved to emerge as a solution-provider for achieving client objectives and is no longer perceived just as a ‘press-release’ dispatch centre. Therefore, creative ideas stem from this part of the communication business, with some very tangible proof of effectiveness across mediums that are no longer limited to only print. The work PR agencies do today is spread across many disciplines and channels, driving both conversation and conversion.

What this essentially means is that with so much creative and effective content being built, creators are actively looking for recognition. In 2015, the Cannes Lion awards received a historic 2,000 submissions in the PR category and more than half of the winners of Cannes Lions were led by PR agencies or featured them in integrated teams. Interestingly, this was also the year that Lebanon and the UAE debuted in this category at Cannes Lion.

But can an award-winning PR campaign impact the business of a brand? And does the client really care? I think the answer to that is to go back to the objective of why the campaign was created to begin with: what was the idea before the ‘big idea’?

The success of an award-winning PR campaign if evaluated through very clear criteria, such as ensuring the longevity of the impact created for the brand, organic consumer engagement, measured change, earned trust and authenticity, and achieving business outcomes. These should eventually lead back to the objective of the brand. This would unify the client’s belief with the agency’s vision in devising the creative campaign, which would result in a real partnership between the two, where creativity and objectivity could go hand in hand.

In that respect, PR agencies and clients both have equal rights on a well-deserved campaign award, because the reality is you need committed clients to grow – not just your business in terms of bottom line, but also to encourage greater growth of creative output. A client that is convinced about the ‘big idea’ and has faith that the agency will deliver the objectives, while simultaneously focusing on the creative delivery, is an equal partner in the vision and execution of an award-winning campaign.

There was a time when industry awards were attended only by members of the fraternity. Today, they are widely attended events, avidly followed by the marketing and communication team from the client’s end. Industry awards have become a benchmark as a measurement of creativity for even clients today, because they are increasingly witnessing the benefits of creatively led campaigns as business drivers.

Intelligent clients understand that it works in the greater interest of their brand to challenge their agency in the realm of creativity instead of shooting down the idea due to lack of ‘budgets’ or a fear of it being ‘too out there’. Often, some of the best ideas are the simplest and relatively cost-effective to execute – that’s where creative brilliance comes in.

Visionary clients partner with creative PR agencies because they understand that it’s not just the number of press releases you put out there that matters, but the number of positively placed impressions you make for their brand. Industry awards, in many ways, are a disciplined outlet for encouraging creativity in the industry and probably one of the only legitimate ways for a brand to leverage an advantage over the competition in terms of marketing and communication.

Clients and agencies, when working in a near-perfect partnership, collaborate together in creating an award winning campaign to not just deliver brand and business objectives, but also to become a source of inspiration. At the end of the day, a bona fide industry award serves as an authentication of quality work – of which both are equal contributors.

Having said that, in my personal opinion, ideas never ‘belong’ to anyone except to the message it was meant to deliver. Awards of course are a different matter!

The views expressed by the author are his own and do not necessarily represent those of Gulf Marketing Review. This article appeared in the April 2017 issue of GMR.