It is quite remarkable for one observation to be so consistent across so many awards jurors. At MAD STARS it was this – the value of its diverse jury. Alex Abrantes, CCO, North America at Iris Worldwide, and jury president of Film, Diverse Insights, Branded Entertainment, Game, Music, Sports, PIVOT (AI Stars), was impressed by the richer background, different points of view and different perspectives the diversity in his MAD STARS jury provided. “It’s the most important thing to have a really diverse jury from different backgrounds, different parts of the world,” he said. “It’s really hard for us to judge sometimes when we don’t have the whole context.” Mateusz Mroszczak, CCO of VML Singapore, added, that it was a “quite atypical jury” – people from a very creative background but also people on the client side or ex-agency and. now client side. “The jury itself is much more diverse than a lot of jury rooms around the world where you would have 12 creatives with exactly the same titles from different networks and different holding companies; a much more interesting jury – people who believe in creativity but have a very different angle and a different lens on things.”
Will that mean that MAD STARS will produce Grands Prix winners that have not been seen at all the awards preceding it? It will be interesting to find out.
By their own admission, the Outdoor, PR, Brand Experience & Activation, Media, Place Brand and Commerce judges were a tough jury. A like-minded jury who found that most of the pieces they remembered and liked from the online sessions made the cut, noted Kim Ragan, ECD, Colenso BBDO. This testament to online judging didn’t play out as well in the group judging Interactive, Mobile, Data Insight, Social & Influencer, Integrated and Innovation, and led by Alejandro Di Trollo. Pancho Gonzalez, CCO at Inbrax Chile in particular, noting that the online process of judging alone was a challenge, given cultural nuances often have an important role in great work, and there was some work that was left behind in online judging that he feels should have, or may well have, made it through to the final rounds. At MAD STARS, work cannot be brought up into the on-site judging once online has cut it.
The power of cultural understanding was very evident in Abrantes’ group, notably for Film and, of course, Diverse Insights, and especially for Tres Colacion, ECD, Droga5 New York, whose questions examined the work in great detail. Several entries were seen in a different light when a key piece of background information was explained by a judge from the relevant country (a note for those writing submission blurbs as well). First and foremost though, Abrantes was impressed by the quality of the work, especially in Film and Film Craft, that was “really well directed with craft rising to the top. “We got to the same conclusions separately as when in a group,” he noted.” There’s always fine tuning but as a jury the quality of the work has really pulled through.”
One of the conversations that absorbed Di Trollo’s group outside the judging room was that there was an amazing opportunity now to select the categories of the future. Patently that would include categories around AI. “We have seen a lot of AI in other categories and are only in the middle of the judging process,” stated jury president, Alejandro Di Trollo.
Also noted by many juries was that MAD STARS is reaching a much wider audience now in terms of entries, evolving from being a festival focussing on APAC to one attracting global entries far beyond it. This is a commendation for the background work MAD STARS has been doing. It is MAD STARS ambition to be seen as the international awards based in the APAC region.
Finally, there was an observation that should please creatives greatly, “The Grands Prix show that strong ideas still hold sway,” Abrantes stated.
Cover image: MAD STARS executive jurors l-r: Alejandro Di Trolio, European creative chairman, Cheil; Alex Abrantes, chief creative officer, North America, Iris Worldwide; Ashish Chakravarty, executive director & India head of creative, McCann; and Tawana Murphy Burnett, head of top accounts & agencies, Meta.
It is quite remarkable for one observation to be so consistent across so many awards jurors. At MAD STARS it was this – the value of its diverse jury. Alex Abrantes, CCO, North America at Iris Worldwide, and jury president of Film, Diverse Insights, Branded Entertainment, Game, Music, Sports, PIVOT (AI Stars), was impressed by the richer background, different points of view and different perspectives the diversity in his MAD STARS jury provided. “It’s the most important thing to have a really diverse jury from different backgrounds, different parts of the world,” he said. “It’s really hard for us to judge sometimes when we don’t have the whole context.” Mateusz Mroszczak, CCO of VML Singapore, added, that it was a “quite atypical jury” – people from a very creative background but also people on the client side or ex-agency and. now client side. “The jury itself is much more diverse than a lot of jury rooms around the world where you would have 12 creatives with exactly the same titles from different networks and different holding companies; a much more interesting jury – people who believe in creativity but have a very different angle and a different lens on things.”
Will that mean that MAD STARS will produce Grands Prix winners that have not been seen at all the awards preceding it? It will be interesting to find out.
By their own admission, the Outdoor, PR, Brand Experience & Activation, Media, Place Brand and Commerce judges were a tough jury. A like-minded jury who found that most of the pieces they remembered and liked from the online sessions made the cut, noted Kim Ragan, ECD, Colenso BBDO. This testament to online judging didn’t play out as well in the group judging Interactive, Mobile, Data Insight, Social & Influencer, Integrated and Innovation, and led by Alejandro Di Trollo. Pancho Gonzalez, CCO at Inbrax Chile in particular, noting that the online process of judging alone was a challenge, given cultural nuances often have an important role in great work, and there was some work that was left behind in online judging that he feels should have, or may well have, made it through to the final rounds. At MAD STARS, work cannot be brought up into the on-site judging once online has cut it.
The power of cultural understanding was very evident in Abrantes’ group, notably for Film and, of course, Diverse Insights, and especially for Tres Colacion, ECD, Droga5 New York, whose questions examined the work in great detail. Several entries were seen in a different light when a key piece of background information was explained by a judge from the relevant country (a note for those writing submission blurbs as well). First and foremost though, Abrantes was impressed by the quality of the work, especially in Film and Film Craft, that was “really well directed with craft rising to the top. “We got to the same conclusions separately as when in a group,” he noted.” There’s always fine tuning but as a jury the quality of the work has really pulled through.”
One of the conversations that absorbed Di Trollo’s group outside the judging room was that there was an amazing opportunity now to select the categories of the future. Patently that would include categories around AI. “We have seen a lot of AI in other categories and are only in the middle of the judging process,” stated jury president, Alejandro Di Trollo.
Also noted by many juries was that MAD STARS is reaching a much wider audience now in terms of entries, evolving from being a festival focussing on APAC to one attracting global entries far beyond it. This is a commendation for the background work MAD STARS has been doing. It is MAD STARS ambition to be seen as the international awards based in the APAC region.
Finally, there was an observation that should please creatives greatly, “The Grands Prix show that strong ideas still hold sway,” Abrantes stated.
Cover image: MAD STARS executive jurors l-r: Alejandro Di Trolio, European creative chairman, Cheil; Alex Abrantes, chief creative officer, North America, Iris Worldwide; Ashish Chakravarty, executive director & India head of creative, McCann; and Tawana Murphy Burnett, head of top accounts & agencies, Meta.
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