Inside the Jury Room: Work with "Real World Impact" Recognised at The Immortal Awards' Ireland Judging
Fresh on the heels of The Immortal Awards opening jury day on Monday 2nd October, the finest creative minds from the island of Ireland gathered at Screen Scene last week for the Irish jury day.
The Immortals landed in Dublin thanks to the support of The Brill Building, Motherland and Screen Scene, bringing 12 of the market’s leading creative minds together for a day of intense debate.
When all was said and done, the room settled upon a trio of powerful projects to qualify for the next round of judging and represent Ireland on the regional stage.
A shortlist of 17 projects, which scored highest in the online round of judging, made it to the discussions day.
It’s the second consecutive year in which the Irish jury have put forward three projects, keeping the country’s creative standard impressively high.
Those on this year’s Irish jury were Catriona Campbell, managing partner of The Public House; Steven Courtney, managing director of Motherland; Des Creedon, executive creative director at TBWA\Dublin; Eilís Fitzgerald, head of marketing communications at Three; Roisin Keown, founder of The Brill Building; Dermot Malone, founder of Banjoman; Aoife McCleary, senior creative at F&B Huskies; Ger Roe, board creative director at Publicis Dublin; Emma Sharkey, chief strategy officer at Droga5 Dublin; Allen Sillery, senior VFX supervisor and flame artist at Screen Scene; Karl Waters, creative partner of Folk Wunderman Thompson; and Liam Wielopolski, executive creative director of Core.
As a creative unit spanning brand, agency, production and post, the jury swiftly cut the shortlist down to a handful of projects that sparked fiery debate. Ultimately, the jury settled upon three projects which receive the honour of the being crowned Irish Finalists.
Those three will now compete with the Finalists from the remaining European jury days, as well as the best work from the rest of the region, for a place in the final, global round of judging – and a chance at winning a coveted Immortal Award.
On the day's judging, Catriona said, "What struck me most about our conversations was about real world impact - the work that is celebrated within the insular world of advertising versus work that breakthroughs to the everyday, that gets talked about by non-advertising people. The work that didn’t make the cut was work that we all felt didn’t have that genuine impact, lacking that groundswell that makes something truly culturally relevant. And we of course had the age old debate about the dominance of purpose-led work vs commercial work, but it all came down to our interpretation of what makes something ‘immortal’- game changing originality and flawless execution."
Karl Waters added, " There was a good mix of purpose driven and more traditional brand work. In previous years it was probably the case that purpose won through more often than not. This year’s work definitely had a mix. This shows the industry is now more willing to show up creatively both ways. We kept coming back to the strength of the idea. Amazing craft can show up even in how the idea is presented for awards. Craft is always a crucial factor, however it cannot exist in isolation of a super strong idea holding everything together. We looked for the sweet spot where both existed and we were delighted to find it in this year’s work."
Check out the Finalists here.
Check out the Finalists here.
