Top winners at the 2018 NYF Advertising Awards

The New York Festivals Advertising Awards are part of a larger awards scheme that has been around for quite a long time and become one of the major international award shows worldwide. According to them "enlisting award-winning creative leaders from all regions insures that NYF’s Executive Jury offers a 360-degree global perspective of the industry today. The advantage of judging on a panel with 32+ likeminded peers who are at the same career level provide the jurors the space for passionate, opinionated discussions. And reviewing all media across all competitions allows jurors to focus on the creative work and gives them the opportunity to review and debate the year’s advertising efforts."

First Prize Winner Outdoor. Client: State Street Global Advisors. Agency: McCann, New York. CD:  Eric Silver, Sean Bryan, Tom Murphy, Rob Reilly, Joyce King Thomas AD: Lizzie Wilson. Copywriter: Tali Gumbiner Photographer: Federica Valabrega. Digital Artist: Kristen Visbal (Lürzer's Archive Vol. 4-2017).

First Prize Winner Print. Client: JBLCheil Worldwide, Hong Kong. CD: Paul Chan, Lili Jiang, Ivan Au. AD: Ivan Au, Toby Hong. CW: Paul Chan, Lili Jiang, Keith Liu. Illustrator: Illusion, Bangkok. Digital Artist: Illusion, Bangkok. (Lürzer's Archive Vol. 4-2017).

First Prize Winner Print. Client: Ikea. Agency: Åkestam Holst, Stockholm. CD: Magnus Jakobsson.: Hugo Wallmo, Evelina Rönnung. Copywriter: Magnus Jakobsson. (Lürzer's Archive Vol. 2-2018).

First Prize Winner Outdoor. Client: Volkswagen. Agency: DDB, Berlin. CD: Gabriel Mattar, Myles Lord, Tom Hauser. AD: Ferdinand Povel. Copywriter: Ricardo Wolff, Tim Mitreuther. Photographer: Sven Schrader. (Lürzer's Archive Vol. 3-2018).

Here are some comments by individual member or the 2018 jury:

2018 Executive Jury member Nicky Bullard, Chairwoman & Chief Creative Officer of MRM Meteorite UK said, “I thought it felt quite grand actually walking into the room, it felt like we were in the United Nations…at first it’s quite daunting just sitting in the dark, doors get shut, ‘oh my god we’ll be here until 9 o clock at night’ You do feel like you’ve been locked away but it’s actually brilliant for focus.”

Swati Bhattacharya, Chief Creative Officer for FCB ULKA India had this to say about the jury, “When you look at the lineup of the jury, you want to belong to that list. Everything that gets spoken or felt in the jury room will add to my life as a CCO and also to my craft as a writer.”

“The NYF is one of the most respected awards in the world. The Executive Jury is a selection of the most known and highest awarded worldwide creatives,” said Doerte Spengler-Aherns, Chief Creative Officer, Jung Von Matt /SAGA Germany.

“I consider the New York Festivals to be one of the major creative festivals in the world, so naturally it’s an honor and a privilege to be part of the jury. But beyond the prestige, I think that one of the most interesting things about the festival is that fact that the members of the jury get to judge all the categories. This gives us an overview of international creativity, but also and above all, the possibility to assimilate the rules of each category and therefore best judge the pertinence of the ideas.”— Jean-Francois Sacco, Co-founder/Chief Creative Officer, Rosapark France.

“New York Festivals has this 3-tier process that makes you judge the merit of each idea in the three aspects… the 3 aspects are very important. First of all, the idea itself needs to be surprising, needs to be different, needs to be new, but that’s usually as far as awards shows go. The next thing that you judge is relevance, and relevance it tricky because it could be relevance of the idea to the problem or the idea to the product or the idea to the brand… but once you establish what relevance is going to be for you it’s really useful. Execution and craft and the way things are done is the difference between success and failure. If you have the best design and best idea and you build it badly, your building will fall. So, I really like how it makes each of us think,” said Jose Miguel Sokoloff, Global President/Chief Creative Officer, UK MullenLowe Group UK. 

“I like breaking the judging system down into the three categories. It forces you to think about if you are unclear or say like a certain aspect of a case or idea, it allows you to tailor your feelings towards what you like about it… and that is a really nice way to judge,” commented Graham Lang, Chief Creative Officer, Juniper Park/TBWA Canada.

 “The judging system is quite creative, and the quality of discussions is very very high because all the people are above the CCO level, and they know very well what the point is of the work,” –Masaru Kitakaze, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Hakuhodo Japan

Executive Jury member Matt Eastwood, who has served on multiple years had this to say, “The thing I have always loved about New York Festivals is that the jury gets to judge everything. And that’s quite rare in a show, it takes a lot of effort and a lot more work. But I think it’s really good and the thing that I like is I feel the responsibility as a juror that we are curating a show and have access to all the work, and to be able to curate that, and to say as a collective that this is the best work of 2017. I think that’s really good.”