2019 AME Grand Jury Perspective: Matthieu Etienne

Introduction

The AME Awards honors campaigns that are not only creative, but campaigns that hit the bullseye for brands, triumphing in both creativity and effectiveness. AME’s Grand Jury are the genius minds behind many of AME’s award-winning entries.

AME’s Grand Jury is the powerhouse behind the prestigious AME Awards, their high standard of excellence ensures that AME’s 25-year legacy is upheld and respected globally both by winners and industry reports measuring creative distinction. Their dedication result in truly award-worthy work being recognized.

Matthieu brings 7 years of experience in developing social media strategies and activations for global brands such as AXA, BNP Paribas, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Orange and more to the 2019 AME Awards Grand Jury. As Head of Social Media at Publicis Paris, he leads social media experts to deliver business outcomes through creativity. 

His work has been recognized by +45 awards at the Art Directors Club, Cannes Lions, D&AD, London International Awards, New York Festivals, One Show. Matthieu’s also a speaker at marketing and business schools, and a regular jury member at international advertising festivals. 

Beside his job, Matthieu runs an advertising blog dedicated to creative agencies called "LLLLITL” which has been awarded as the “Best Marketing Blog Of The Year” at the Golden Blog Awards. 

Keep reading to learn more about Matthieu including his thoughts on what makes a campaign award-worthy, his favorite all-time ads and why effectiveness competitions are important and more.

Interview

AME Awards: As a strategic creative, what stand-out attributes do you recognize in award-winning creative and effective advertising… What do ads that have taken the brief and turned it into campaign that transforms opinions, evokes action and raises the bar for the brand have in common?

Matthieu Etienne: As an AME Awards jury member I will be very demanding on the campaigns’ capacity to be true to only one brand’s DNA and purpose. Creating a great campaign is hard, but it is even harder to create a campaign no competitor could have done. In other words, when you are the only brand who could have executed it, it’s impressive, powerful… And efficient.

AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards important?

Matthieu Etienne: Festivals like the AME Awards reminds us of our essential mission: making our clients’ products and services successful. What I find encouraging in such festivals, is that campaigns awarded for their efficiency are actually part of the most creative ones! They highlight the most important notion of our industry we should never forget: creativity does lead to business results.

AME Awards: Why did you agree to participate on this year’s AME Grand Jury and What do you hope to learn by viewing entries into this competition?

Matthieu Etienne: I’m glad to be part of the AME Awards’ 2019 jury as I had the chance to be part of many advertising juries in the past, but rarely where they based on this, yet so essential, criterion. I’m sure I will learn a lot from all these campaigns, it’s always a good fuel of inspiration and I will have a specific look at social media ideas.

AME Awards: What is your all time, favorite most creative and effective ad and/or ads and why in your opinion did they triumph?

Matthieu Etienne: As we are talking about business results, I love this Adobe “Click Baby Click” commercial because it highlights this essential idea of always questioning, understanding and mastering the keys of a business success.

And even if it may not seem a very original example, what REI did with their “Opt Outside” activation is actually part of my favorite retail activation of all time. I don’t know if they did a big jump in terms of sales, but I love the idea they did the complete opposite of their competitors, the complete opposite of business logic, to actually catch everybody’s attention.

At first sight, closing its physical and online stores may appear as total non-sense in terms of business, but actually it’s not. It’s bold, creative and people love it. Now it comes back every year and the movement is growing, they actually created a Black Friday competitor, what an achievement!