THE PHILIPPINES, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 – Two thought leaders in the Asia Pacific region, DDB Singapore Executive Creative Director Joji Jacob and Colenso BBDO Auckland Planning Director James Hurman will be among the judges this year’s Araw Awards, the country’s most coveted advertising honors. This was confirmed by AdCongress 22 creatives committee chair Merlee Jayme, chairman and chief creative officer of DM9 JaymeSyfu.
The selection stresses the award show’s focus on creative effectiveness. For the first time, Araw Excellence Awards for Best Strategy, Best Idea and Best Performance will be awarded in addition to metals.
Jacob runs Singapore’s largest creative department as ECD of both DDB and RAPP Singapore. The agency has become the city-state’s most awarded since he took over in 2009. As creative director and copywriter, he has Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show and a host of other international, regional and local awards under his belt.
Recent wins include the Starhub “Musical Fitting Rooms” which won four lions this year at Cannes, including Gold, and the ADFEST 2011 Best of Press “Coin Landscapes” for Penguin Books.
Hurman is planning director at Colenso BBDO, best known for its work for Yellow Pages. Under his leadership, Colenso BBDO has been recognized as the Most Effective Agency of the Year at the New Zealand Effies in the past two years. The ‘Yellow Treehouse’ campaign earned the agency the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Platinum Award for the most effective marketing effort in the Asia Pacific region in 2009.
Author of the book “The Case for Creativity”, Hurman has planned campaigns that won D&AD Pencils, Spikes Grands Prix, Webby Awards, Gold Cannes Lions, and two Integrated Lions. He is a writer for the creative business magazine Idealog, a teacher at the Auckland University of Technology and will be a speaker at Spikes Asia 2011.
Both Jacob and Hurman were members of this year’s Cannes Lions jury, in the Press and Creative Effectiveness categories, respectively.
Other Araw Awards judges will be revealed soon. Online submission of entries will open shortly at www.arawawards.com.
In photo: Joji Jacob and James Hurman
