Inside the Jury Room: “Healthy Debate” Reigned as the Europe Jury Put Forward the Region’s Finalists
Last Friday’s (October 20th) Immortal Awards judging session was the seventh of the year, thanks to DEPT.
This is because last week’s jury gathered the best creative leaders of the industry with the goal to decide which projects from the entirety of the European region would go on to become Finalists.
From the long and complicated discussion, seven projects emerged as the ones that would go on to battle the Finalists chosen from the rest of the regions: North America, LATAM, MEA, ANZ and Asia. You can check Europe’s best seven here.
The Europe Jury Room was made up of: Harjot Singh, global chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup; Nic Taylor SVP and head of agency at LEGO Group; Tanja Grubner, global innovation, brand and communications director for Essity; Sandra Bold, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson Benelux; Mike McGee, co-founder and chief creative officer at Framestore; Helen Rhodes, executive creative director at BBH London; Liza Enebeis, partner and creative director at Studio Dumbar/DEPT®; and Wayne Deakin, global creative principal for Wolff Olins
During the discussion over the entrants from each European country, plenty of themes arose - inclusivity, and its authenticity, on many fronts was discussed in great length. The parameters on which the work is being judged came up plenty of times as well, with the jurors debating what should be most highly awarded when deciding if a piece of work will survive the challenge of the ages. Is the work’s memorable aesthetic more, or equally important to its effectiveness, and when a project 'stirs conversation’ can that put it in the hall of fame.
Liza Enebeis said: “There were very healthy debates. I was very happy that we’re not all in one line, because that means that the work was worth talking about. If you don’t discuss it means nothing.”
She continued: “It’s interesting to see Europe represented - there were a lot of cultural differences. It’s not one huge amalgamation. The different cultural backgrounds and contexts here provided for very varied reactions, especially regarding work that might be far from people’s own background.
“I think one of the questions that kept coming back was ‘Is the work relevant and what is the criteria that we’re judging?’. Yes, something might be well crafted, but who does it speak to?”
“A big positive trend, which I hope continues, is that we are getting more reflective in being inclusive and diverse in our work as an industry. Don’t get me wrong - there’s still a long way to go! But it’s good to see more and more inclusive elements in the work. From casting, to people making the production, to subject matter - we saw a lot of work that felt it reflects what the world looks like rather than the highly unrealistic world of advertising we saw just a decade ago,” added Wayne Deakin.
He was also happy to see a focus put on the more traditional skills in the industry: “There’s not been much of this in the past, as digital and emerging technologies got all the love and attention. But as someone who started in the world of print it’s nice to see more of a focus on traditional skills again. Don’t get me wrong, we need innovation and digital but underneath this we need to value the quality of traditional craft skills as it just makes any medium touched so much richer.”
Thanks to our wonderful Immortal Awards partners
Brill Building | Company 3 | Framestore | JSM Music | Motherland | Screen Scene | Zauberberg Productions | Zulu Alpha Kilo
ARC Edit | Chelsea Pictures | Gramercy Park Studios | Heckler | Howatson+Company | Park Pictures | Revolver Films
