Claudia Bayer Interview(s)

It's always exciting to see campaigns that you wouldn't otherwise see in Germany. I have not only rethought my previous favorites from last year once.

I even see that as a great advantage. Why is that? Because jury work should not only be there to evaluate campaigns. In my view, it should also encourage clients and agency representatives to gain a different perspective on things and perhaps target groups and perhaps encourage them to step out of their KPI comfort zone and dare to do something bold in future.

Especially in times when budgets for creative competitions are being slashed, it is a good opportunity for smaller companies in particular to measure their work and thus themselves. And, at best, to get into the relevant set of jurors who work full-time on the client side.

The perfect PHNX Award winner is a campaign that is unseen, bold and forward-thinking. However, it should not forget that a good dose of humor is always part of it. And if humor doesn't fit at all, the campaign should have a damn good storyline. If the campaign is then understood internationally and, in the best case, could also be implemented, it is perfect.

Unfortunately, artificial intelligence. The whole world is talking about it, everyone is trying their hand at it, prompting images, texting heads, underlines and copies, forgetting that AI can do a lot, but is never emotional. And that is exactly what is needed to turn a pure message into a message that touches people. My appeal: try it out, it's the right thing to do and important to keep up with the times. But don't forget your creativity. You need it today more than ever!

I really can't do that. Because who should I name? The ECDs in the agencies whose campaigns have won the most awards? They usually didn't do the campaigns, but their teams did, right down to the junior level. So I can name teams: 1. Saatchi & Saatchi Düsseldorf - the team that worked on Oreo; 2. Ogilvy UK - the team behind the Dove campaign "Cost of Beauty", which addresses an internationally valid problem: the influence of social media on the eating habits of children and young people; 3. the teams from MRM Wordwide, who work on Mastercard and always have creative technical ideas on how to make people's lives easier.