Kyoorius Advertising Awards 2014 announces jury

From India, jury members include O&M's Abhijit Avasthi, Taproot India's Agnello Dias, JWT's Senthil Kumar and DDB Mudra Group's Sonal Dabral.

Kyoorius, a not-for-profit initiative by Transasia Fine Papers, and D&AD have announced the categories and jury for the Kyoorious Awards 2014.

Kyoorius Awards have been extended to include Kyoorius Advertising Awards and Kyoorius Digital Awards, alongside the existing Design and Student components. The Kyoorius Advertising Award recognises, honours and awards the 'most outstanding' creative work in the Indian visual communications sphere.

According to the press statement, advertising continues to be a crucial medium for companies to communicate with customers and communicate their brand. However, it has become increasingly complex, since agencies have to create unique messages for multiple channels and platforms to resonate with customers. This called for a critical assessment when defining awards categories - Kyoorius Advertising Awards are comprehensive and structured to recognise individual components as well as entire ad campaigns.

Merit involves beating one's own best work and setting new benchmarks for creative excellence. This is why it is the jury's prerogative to award one or multiple Blue Elephants in any one category, whereas none in another, if entries are not up to the mark.

For the Advertising Awards, international jury members include Rosie Arnold (deputy executive creative director, BBH) as jury foreman, accompanied by Graham Kelly (regional executive creative director, Isobar) and Woon Siew Hoh (regional creative director, Hakuhudo).

Amongst jury from India, members include Abhijit Avasthi (ECD, Ogilvy & Mather), Agnello Dias (chairman and co-founder, Taproot India), Senthil Kumar (NCD, JWT) and Sonal Dabral (chairman and chief creative officer of DDB Mudra). There are more executives from India expected to join the list.

"Together with D&AD, Kyoorius has chosen this specific mix of the top international, regional and Indian creative minds to ensure that work is compared against industry best practices, while keeping the Indian context in mind," the statement read.

Further, Kyoorius and D&AD aim to create a truly neutral and ethical platform that recognises the best of the advertising industry solely on the basis of merit. Unlike any other advertising award, all jury members gather in India to review, discuss and elect the best of the best over an intensive three-day session. All voting is private, never by a show of hands.

Kyoorius Advertising Awards' entry fees are fed back into the industry. Funds are used to develop Kyoorius FYIdays, an initiative aimed at stimulating creative professionals and educating students - India's future creative superstars.

The call for entries opens on March 20 and closes on April 21, 2014.