Women are responsible for 80% of the purchase decisions, so it makes sense that it is necessary to know what potential purchasers will perceive as good creative advertising.
This is the reason why the Gerety Awards were born, and this week we have been talking to its co-founder, Lucía Ongay.
The name of the Awards refers to the French name Gerety, the editor that created the slogan ‘a diamond lasts forever’ in 1948.
The Gerety Awards have a jury to select the best of the advertising industry, those who better echo with the feminine audience, creating a referent that adapts itself to the market while redefining the traditional standard subduing the advertising world.
But how did this idea come to life? Lucía Ongay and her partner Joe Brooks had been thinking about it for a while but it was not until they went to an industry event in Paris that they said eureka: ‘We were on top of a ladder, below us there were the guests, most of them middle aged white guys in black suits. And we thought we needed to do something about it. At this point in time people were already talking about the lack of visibility and representation of women in the advertising festivals’ juries. However, it was a lot of talking but no action, so we decided to do it ourselves’.
Its first edition took place in 2019 and the next year the pandemic happened, the biggest difficulty they had to face up until now. Nevertheless, they were flexible enough to adapt and carry on with the festival during a year when most festivals were being cancelled. By working hard and putting a lot of effort they achieved their goal and added new ideas, such as the Gerety Talks and the Gerety Jury Insights, immovable activities of the Awards.
When the idea started to take shape and they started talking to people from the industry many of them were not sure they would be able to find enough women to be part of the jury… ‘I want to make clear that this was never a problem! On the contrary, in just a few days we had a long list of professionals who had done and were doing amazing things, and the list grows each day…’.
Their goal, unlike other festivals, is to determine what campaigns connect more with the feminine audience, as well as showing the amazing talent of the women in our industry. With these awards they help to show how important the female gaze is in advertising.
Lucía told us about how well received the first BBQ Session was during its launch in Cannes. Last June, and after two years since the beginning of the pandemic, she opened up about how great it felt to hold the event once more and to see how much the Awards have grown, in addition to how many wonderful women have already been part of its jury.
Besides the awards, one of the most powerful powers that they have been working on are the Gerety Talks or, as Lucía Likes to call them, the ‘pandemic idea’. When we were all locked up in our houses, desperate for content and entertainment, they realised that their jury was a diamond in the rough and took advantage of it by talking about the amazing stories and talent of the members. At all times, they have avoided talking about ‘how difficult it is to be a woman in the advertising world’, and instead preferred to talk about their careers, achievements, campaigns and every other amazing thing they have done and are doing to this day.
This September we will find out the winners of this year’s edition. Lucía claims that just like previous years this edition will have a very diverse group of shocking winners with very different styles and origins. She also commented that they would not like people to ‘associate the fact that there is a jury conformed only by women with the idea that the only acceptable projects are those related to sanitary towels and female empowerment’ for the next editions. ‘We want our jury to evaluate campaigns about cars, beer and all types of products and brands that they buy and consume as well’. Meaning, creative campaigns that can be found in any other festival.
From the APCP we have always supported this extraordinary project and shared their perspective. For this reason, this 30th September, during this year’s edition of Advertising Film Productions in Valencia, you will have the opportunity to learn more about the Gerety Awards.
By Alba Polo.
