Liszt Academy wins again with low budget image film

It is unique in domestic terms, and rare indeed even among multinational corporations, for the jury of the Red Dot Communication Design Award – considered the ‘Oscar’ of prizes within the global communications profession – to honour the communications activities of the same institution in two successive years. Following last year’s award for the Liszt Academy image renewed in autumn 2013, this time the spot titled Liszetry that debuted in January 2015, and which just a few months later picked up a respected Silver Hugo prize as best in category at the Chicago Film Festival, was ranked among the best at the competition judging global communications trends. The Red Dot jury were tasked with selecting the 568 best in 17 categories from among nearly 7500 entries. This international panel comprising 27 members gave the award to the Liszt Academy Lisztery image clip in the Film & Animation category, Corporate/Image film sub-category. Former winners of the category (termed TV, Film & Animation until 2014) include BMW, Universal Music Taiwan and the Hamburg Philharmonic. Representatives of the Liszt Academy collect the prize at the annual Red Dot ceremony held in Berlin on 6 November 2015.

Imre Szabó Stein, Liszt Academy communications director, emphasized that the value of the award was all the greater since it was achieved with a true ‘no frills’ production: the total budget for the spot, which has been aired on several Hungarian TV channels as well as the BBC, Mezzo and YouTube, was just over HUF 4 million.

“We wanted to have a go, and prove, that it would be possible to come up with a competitive creative work built on a striking concept using classical film techniques but, given that this is a state institution, made on an absolutely low budget. It is commonly recognized that the Liszt Academy organizes its concerts on a far more modest budget than the Opera House or Müpa Budapest, but the low budget characteristic is justified not only by this fact but, I am convinced, in this way it is a true challenge to achieve a result,” the head of communications said. Imre Szabó Stein is sure that the double win shows that not only did the Liszt Academy shift into the international spotlight because of all the attention surrounding the reopening, but that it is also capable of keeping itself positioned centre stage on its own merits.

The Liszt Academy Concert Centre (the concert organizing arm of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music) ad spot released in January 2015 was designed to express – true to the strategy formulated with regard to the reopening of the Liszt Academy –  that unique pairing of venue and young talent, patina and progress, the catharsis that can be experienced through music, in just 40 seconds and in the film language of young people and youthful culture consumers who as an integral part of their lifestyle have not yet attended classical music concerts, yet are open to new and original experiences. As such, the clip (director: Dávid Géczy) focuses not on the Liszt Academy as a whole but exclusively concert centre activities. (The short film representing in four minutes the identity of the distinguished institution celebrating its 140th anniversary was completed for the formal reopening of the palace of music on Liszt Ferenc Square in October 2013, and its second spot released in May 2015 focuses in a groundbreaking way on the traditional values of the university, rather in the way of a counterweight to Lisztery, under the title Liszt Academy – 140 Years of Music, which constructs the building of the Liszt Academy from the notes of the music of Ferenc Liszt.)

The latest Red Dot gives the Liszt Academy’s image and communication hallmarked by Imre Szabó Stein its eighth important professional accolade. In April 2015, an international jury at the Chicago Film Festival found the spot worthy of a Silver Hugo prize as the best in the ‘television advertisements-institutional/corporate identity’ category (no other prizes were presented in this category). Prior to winning the first Red Dot in 2014, the Liszt Academy won first prize at the Creative Craft Award announced by specialist publication Kreatív magazine for its image including the programme magazine, individual concert guide series, business cards and logo series, while at the design competition organized for the 55th time by Communication Arts, the world’s leading visual communications magazine, the Liszt Academy logo was chosen as one of the best. Also in 2014, the individual evening concert programme series attracted a Bronze Penge as category winner at the Arany Penge (Golden Blade) competition, and the Liszt Academy programme booklets and trend-setting concert magazine reached second place at the Media Design competition in 2013. According to Imre Szabó Stein, beside the long list of domestic and international honours won by the students and professors of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music year after year – not forgetting the international prizes recognizing the quality of the reconstruction work – the prestigious communications prizes are absolute proof that the renewed Liszt Academy is now ranked among the best not only in terms of music teaching but also on the international communications map, making it worthy of its outstanding founder and its 140-year history. 

Communications director Imre Szabó Stein, creative producer of the film, and Róbert Gács from the Liszt Academy’s agency Allison Advertising, came up with the unconventional creative concept of the film. Dávid Géczy was director. Besides pulling in major prizes, Lisztery has also registered a significant number of downloads and elicited considerable media attention both in Hungary and abroad (in a worldwide case study, the BBC cited the Liszt Academy as an example of an institution running low budget but extremely effective campaigns). The spot features music composed by graduate of the Liszt Academy Bence Kutrik, performed by the Musiciens Libres chamber ensemble, specially augmented for this occasion and numbering several Junior Prima prize winners; furthermore, members of the audience in the music palace on Liszt Ferenc Square were also actively involved in the film shooting in December 2014.