I’m not a big fan of industry award shows. But The Andy Awards are bringing a new twist in 2010 that’s well worth noting. Via Elect the Jury, the Andys aims to provide “the first globally crowd-sourced group of judges, that truly represents where we are headed as an industry.”
As you can see in the graphic here, I voted for Jureeporn Thaidumrong, David Byrne, Jeff Benjamin, John Jay and Rob Schwartz. There are lots of other people to vote for and learn about. In fact, one of the best features of the site is the directory of nominees and their attendant bios. For instance, here’s the bio of my first selection:
Some refer to Thaidumrong as Jeh Judee which, in Chinese, means big sister because of her 18-year experience in the ad industry. Beginning as a copywriter, she worked her way up through DY&R, LeoBurnett, Results Advertising and then on as ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi. In 2005 she started Jeh United and garnered instant success that made Thaidumrong one of the most powerful women in the Asian Advertising Industry. She had won the first Gold Cannes Lion for Thailand from the work of Tabasco, “Cigarette” and Thailand first Silver Pencil D&AD from Streamlight Torch, “See What Really Out There”.
Naturally, many of the usual suspects are listed, but there are some outside the box characters, as well. Although no ad bloggers, which seems like an oversight.
