Each year, the Global Awards recruits some of the world’s most prominent award-winning industry creatives and thought leaders to serve on the Global Awards Grand Jury. A founding partner and Group Creative Director for independent creative agency, Showpony Advertising, Parris has over 25 years of experience across iconic brands like Budweiser and Bridgestone. He has a particular passion for effecting positive behavioural change in the public heath sector. His work in this area has been recognised and awarded at leading industry shows including Cannes, NY Festivals and the Global Awards.

Global Awards: This is more of awards and advertising question.  There seems to be varying opinions about the nature of the content awarded top honors at Healthcare Awards show 5-10 years ago, and what tends to win in today’s competitions.  There are some people that believe the bar is being raised, and there are some in the industry that believe the everyday work is getting outshined by causes.  What are your thoughts?

Parris Mesidis: The bar is getting raised AND everyday work is getting outshined by causes. Why? Cause-related advertising necessarily has an appetite for taking risks that 'commercial advertising' is way to comfortable to stomach. If you have a serious public awareness issue to communicate, usually with little or no funds, it takes something exceptional to make any real impact. And while we agency folk aren’t averse to throwing dollars at a problem, this particular equation of austerity and genuine social need seems to be the perfect formula for generating bold, innovative work. Very few ‘everyday' brands are prepared to be that ballsy because the metrics on investment and return are so drastically different.

Global Awards: As you make your way through life, you encounter inevitable health issues with friends and family. Are there any diseases, issues, conditions that you have a yearning to work on?  Why?

Parris Mesidis: Smoking cessation is something that I’d really like to have a crack at for a few reasons. Frustratingly, some of the most important people in my life are still caught in the smoking trap. Also, there’s some scary stats reporting a rise in smoking rates amongst a much younger audience, particularly women. And finally, I just don’t think we’re getting our messaging around this issue right. We’ve been at it for decades but our approach hasn’t really evolved. We still insist on telling smokers that 'quitting is one of the hardest things they’ll ever have to do’ and that they, ‘owe it to their families' etc. Superficially these seem like powerful prompts for behavioural change but in fact they can compound the negative behaviour. We need to flip perceptions, and actually take ‘fear’ and ‘self blame’ out of the equation. 

Global Awards: How has big data and AI helped advertisers hit the target for brands?

Parris Mesidis: While Big data and AI has allowed advertising and media agencies create personalisation at scale, the research consistently shows that any resulting increases in the effectiveness of the advertising are incremental at best. The point here is that a lot of operators are treating their investment in big data AI as a substitute for spending on creative strategy and execution. What big data and AI are is incredible targeting amplifiers, their effectiveness is linked directly to the quality of the creative that they’re pushing.