These were the people who guffawed in derision when the ad industry announced it was moving the Loeries from Sun City to Margate.
They were quite unbelievably wrong.
But, something all marketers should appreciate, is that the new Loeries organisers have done marketing an enormous favour. By including an "Everyone's Loerie Award" category in which consumers can vote for their favourite commercials, the Loeries Awards are being put in perspective.
Mainly because it is a pretty fair bet that, as was the case this year, the favourite commercial of consumers wasn't the favourite of the jury.
It is critical for the reputation of both advertising specifically and marketing as a whole that the Loeries, Cannes, London International and other awards made on the basis of peers judging peers - that this process - is put into perspective.
That the message put across to the consumer, who after all is the target at which all advertising is directed, is that ad awards are not necessarily about efficiency, effectiveness or sales success.
Without this, the message to the consumer is extremely negative in terms of the important role advertising plays in the economy of this country.
So, well done to the ad industry for starting to put things in perspective. And hopefully the new marketing association will engage with the ad industry in terms of putting ad awards into a marketing perspective. And hopefully, too, they have taken note of the fact that The Loerie Awards can get on extremely well without any help from marketers. Especially those who saw the Loerie Awards as nothing but a cash cow.
