Jury Duty

I was honoured to be spending last weekend in the Dublin offices of Irish International BBDO as one of the judges for the 2007 Irish Creative Advertising and Design (ICAD) awards.
The process of narrowing down the entries was carried out over 2 day with Saturday spent choosing the awards short-list and those for exhibition only and Sunday spent in some heated debate over who should go home with a Gold, Silver or Bronze Bell or none of the above if the standard was not there.
As part of the New & Mixed Media Jury we had to look at work in the following categories:

Below the line
Ambient Media
Direct Mail
Sales Promotion
SMS/Mobile Campaign
Miscellaneous

Interactive Advertising
Banners
Viral Commercial
Viral Commercial Campaign

Interactive Design
Website
Interactive Kiosk & Installation
Electronic Publication Design (DVD, PDF etc)
Miscellaneous

Experimental New & Mixed Media

I found the whole process very interesting to see from the inside. I had heard rumblings in previous years about awards for the boys and how it was more who you knew then the standard of your entry however the reality was very different. The agency who submitted an entry was not revealed, and one judge on each team was brought in from an international agency to ensure impartiality and oversee the process. Of course Ireland being a small country its impossible not to have some connection somewhere but where that happened the particular Judge was asked to leave the room for the duration of that piece being marked.

The winners will be announced at the end of November at the awards event in Dublin and an exhibition will follow.

Oh I must mention ITSA4 restaurant in Sandymount. We were kindly treated to dinner there on Saturday night and I have to say it was some of the most delicious food I have ever tasted. Recommended.