ABBY Awards 2018 announces Master Jury for Creative ABBY’s

For the first time, 15 creative legends to decide the work that is worthy of an ABBY.

The ABBY - presented by the Advertising Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) - has don a new avatar in its 50th year. The coveted ABBY Awards that recognises and rewards creative excellence is poised to set new benchmarks on scale and innovation with the upcoming 2018 edition. The apex industry award, to be held between April 5 – 7 2018 at Goa, has for the first time announced the formation of a Master Jury.

The Master Jury boasts of 15 illustrious, award winning creative giants who have consented to be the filter for the creative standards of the Creative ABBYs, and the work that will be worthy of an ABBY.

The Master Jury comprises of Prasoon Joshi - chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification and CEO of McCann World group India and chairman (Asia Pacific), Agnello Dias - chairman and co-founder, Taproot, Amer Jaleel - chairman and chief creative officer, Mullen Lintas, Arun Iyer - chairman and chief creative officer at Lowe Lintas, Alok Nanda - founder and CEO, Alok Nanda & Co. (Comms.), Abhijit Avasthi - founder Sideways Consulting’s, ‎Bobby Pawar - managing director, chief creative officer - ‎Publicis Worldwide, K.V. Sridhar - founder and chief creative officer, Hyper Collective Creative Technologies, Nitesh Tiwari - filmmaker and former CCO - Leo Burnett, Prashant Godbole - founder, Ideas@work, Raj Kamble - founder CCO, Famous Innovations, Raj Deepak Das - chief creative officer, ‎Leo Burnett, Santosh Padhi - CCO and co-founder, Taproot Dentsu, Senthil Kumar - chief creative officer, J. Walter Thompson, and Swati Bhattacharya, chief creative officer, FCB Ulka.

According to the press release received by afaqs!, the Master Jury is entrusted with the task of first, as one body, screening all the entries received, across all the categories and verticals, to identify those worthy of being short listed. The Master Jury will then deliberate on which of the short lists is worthy of winning an ABBY. This Jury will help ensure that the ABBY 2018 will be the most sought-after Creative awards in the industry.

Speaking about the formation of a grand Master Jury for the iconic ABBY 2018, Ajay Kakar, chair of the Awards Governing Council, says, “We want the ABBY to be the gold standard, recognising creative excellence for brands. It is a fact that an award is as good or reputed as the Jury that judges it. So recognising this, we created a Master Jury, for ABBY 2018. With the most credible jury that comprises of role models and thought leaders from the industry, who will lead the deliberation process. The Master Jury will set standards for not only the quality of the work that wins at ABBYs 2018, but also the standards that will inspire the industry, hereafter.”

He adds, “Adjudged by such a versatile and visionary jury means that only the most creative campaigns will emerge victorious, making the winning of an ABBY a career defining moment. We look forward to an inventive, pioneering and inspiring ABBY Awards 2018.”

The 2018 edition of ABBY will also see a number of categories and sub categories being rationalised, to ensure relevance and effectiveness. “We recognise that digital is not a medium, but a technology that supports communication. Keeping this and such realities at the core, as against the past years, the categories and verticals have been brought down from 15 categories and 8 verticals i.e. 120, to 8 categories and 8 verticals i.e. 64,” Kakar elaborates.

The Agency of the Year Award will also be reinstated in this edition of ABBY. During Goafest 2018 Creative Agency of the Year, Design Specialist Agency of the Year, Digital Specialist Agency of the Year, Direct Specialist Agency of the Year, PR Specialist Agency of the Year, Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist Agency of the Year, and Media Agency of the Year will also be announced.

All work released for the first time, between February 1, 2017 and February 15, 2018 will be eligible to enter the award show. The last date to receive entries will be February 26, 2018.