CANNES – The only global creative awards judged by journalists officially launched its 31st year this week, revealing the ceremony venue, new categories, conference speakers, additional jury members and the jury president.
Epica will hold its next jury meeting, conference and ceremony in Berlin from November 13-16. The 2017 jury president will be Spencer Baim, Chief Strategic officer at VICE Media.
The awards ceremony itself will be held at the Meistersaal, a historic concert hall built in 1910, on November 16. This will be preceded by the annual conference, whose theme this year is The Creative Singularity: How Technology Drives Creativity. Confirmed speakers so far are Richard Wilson, Co-founder of Stop Funding Hate; Preethi Mariappan, VP Executive Creative Director of Emerging Experiences EMEA Sapient Razorfish; Sascha Martini, Managing Director R/GA Berlin; and Patrick Lara, Managing Director, Publicis Conseil.
Epica also unveiled its own ad campaign, this year created in-house. The eye-catching campaign features the words “We are watching you” composed of letters cut out from the names of the magazines and sites on the Epica jury.
New to the jury this year are The Economic Times, India (via its specialist marketing reporter) and Marketing Directo, Spain.
Last but not least, Epica has introduced two new categories this year: Music Video; and Online and Mobile Services (which covers advertising for digital brands such as Airbnb and Uber).
Epica editorial director Mark Tungate said: “We’re delighted to return to Berlin, which is one of the world’s most exciting and creative cities. As it’s a hub of startup talent we thought it would be appropriate to explore the merging worlds of technology and creativity in our conference, hence the theme The Creative Singularity.”
In photo is Spencer Baim, Chief Strategic officer at VICE Media.
