2018: welcoming refugees

Academic Jurors

Jo De Bruyn, HoGent, Belgium

Jo De Bruyn, lic. German Phil (RU Gent) and post-univ. courses Marketing and sales Ehsal (Brussels), has a wide experience in marketing & communications. He started In different Belgian communication agencies as a direct marketing expert & client director. In 1996 he founded In Concreto, a no-nonsense communication agency specialized in action marketing. From 2014 Jo is also leading the DM Institute, a community of 300 direct and digital marketeers in Belgium in order to inspire each other with clear cases and workshops. From 2015 Jo is also lector for Direct & Digital Marketing courses for all the marketing communication students of HoGent. He is an interactive coach in order to create the right atmosphere to give each other deep insights and creative, inspiring point of views. His motto: All communication should add to your business-goals.

Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, Aarhus University, Denmark

Jessica is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management, teaching marketing management and integrated marketing communication and researching social marketing and health and sustainability issues in marketing and consumer behaviour.

 Industry Jurors

Katarzyna Dragović, Director Szkola Mistrzow Reklamy, Poland

In advertising since 1993 (DMB & B, J.Walter Thompson, McCann-Erickson, EURO RSCG), from copywriter to creative director. Winner of Polish and international advertising awards: Clio, Epica, Kreatura, Effie, Złote Orły. Jury member of Polish and foreign advertising festivals: New York Festivals, Kreatura, Golden Eagles, KTR, POPAi, Kodak Film Festival. Ambassador of the Golden Drum international advertising festival. Publicist in Polish and foreign industry publications: New Moment, Magazine For Art And Advertising, Impact, Pro-Creation, Brief, Media & Marketing. Communication expert for government organizations. Co-author of the book "Directing of TV commercials". Lecturer at Miami Ad School Warsaw, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Lodz Film School, Warsaw University, Warsaw School of Economics. Founder and CEO of Szkola Mistrzow Reklamy (Advertising Masters School) - the only Polish portfolio school.

Hugo Olivera, Creative Director Full Circle Karma, Spain 

Currently, trying that “the digital” and “the traditional” coexist in harmony while being in front of his own agency: Full Circle Karma, Hugo has previous experience of five year in CP Interactive followed by McCann Erickson Madrid. During these years, he has led teams that have obtained multiple awards in national and international festivals, and he had the opportunity to participate as a jury member in some of the most important advertising festivals, such as Cannes, El Sol, or New York Festival.

Client Jurors

Luana Gard, Senior campaigner at Amnesty International, Italy  

Fotis Filippou, Deputy director campaigns at Amnesty International, Greece  

Fotis Filippou is Campaigns Director for Europe at Amnesty International, overseeing the organisation's campaigns in the region. Over the last 11 years Fotis has managed campaigns and communications initiatives in Europe on a range of issues, including on the rights of refugees and migrants, the rights of minorities such as the Roma, LGBTI rights, children’s rights and freedom of expression among others. Fotis has a Master in Marketing and Corporate Communications from the IE School of Human Science and Technology in Madrid, Spain and a Master in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, in the UK, after completing a BA in Balkan and Slavic Studies at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Jury Chair

Sandra Alvarez, Managing Director Sparkfoundry

I have the pleasure of managing a remarkably talented team of  media planners alongside data, content, social research and digital specialists as the Managing Director of Spark Foundry, Ireland. I am a frequent guest lecturer in Trinity College Ireland, Dublin Institute of Technology and Dublin Business School on psychology, business, marketing, media planning, digital planning and human behaviour. I currently hold a Board position in Core and, in the past, held a Board position in Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (2014 and 2015). I have been a judge at international media festivals such as the Effies and Festival of Global Media. I have worked and work with global and Irish iconic brands such as Mondelez, Volkswagen, Irish Times and Procter & Gamble. The work I have led and co-created with my partners has won over forty different awards on best use of media, advertising effectiveness and creativity in mediaAcademic Jurors

Monique Gerritsen, EPHEC, Belgium

Monique Gerritsen holds a Masters in Economic Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain (KUL). She started her career in 1981 at the J. Walter Thompson communications agency. For 20 years she worked as Client Services Director and as a member of the Management team in several international communications agencies (JWT, Grey Worldwide, McCann Erickson and Young & Rubicam) and managed clients in different sectors on a national and an international level. Guest lecturer at the EPHEC since 1999, she started to teach in 2002 and helped to found the communication option in the Haute Ecole EPHEC’s Marketing section. Representing Ephec she is an edcom Research Committee and Board member. Mrs. Gerritsen has also a 8 years’ experience in direct search & recruitment and is since 2011 Co-President and Coordinator of the Belgian Commercial Film Producers Association and she also works as an HR consultant at HC Consulting (office), is a freelance communication consultant and has been a member of the EFFIE Awards’ Organisation Committee for 17 years.

Sieglinde Martin, FH Wien   

Sieglinde Martin graduated at the Vienna University of Economics with her prize winning thesis on “Education and Further Education at Universities”. She visited continuous further education in the field of business leadership, marketing and communications, e.g. at the Kellogg University, Chicago and University of Peddington, UK. In addition she is trained as systemic coach and NLP practitioner. Sieglinde Martin is Head of the Institute for Communication, Marketing & Sales at the FHWien – University of Applied Sciences of WKW in Vienna. Further she was the Academic Head of the Program “Professional in Advertising”, a cooperation project between the Werbe Akademie & FHWien of WKW (2007-2010) and Head of the Academic Board (2008-2012). Previous to her academic functions, Martin worked for nearly 20 years in various leading marketing and sales management positions in international companies, such as Microsoft, Xerox, Mondi Business Paper and Philips. She launched several international marketing projects and advertising campaigns on an integrated approach and gained a lot of intercultural experiences.

 Industry Jurors

Barry Ferguson, Group Strategic Planning Director at Carat UK

Barry has nearly 20 years of communications and advertising experience having worked at New PHD, Capital Radio (Global Radio), OMD, Gamesys, MediaCom and Carat. He is rare in that he has worked on all three sides of the communications industry; he has been a client, a planner and has also worked on the media owner side. As such he has a full perspective of how the industry operates. As you would expect he has worked on hundreds of campaigns for dozens of clients. He has significant experience of both implementation and strategic communications planning but has a specific interest in the psychology of planning, and so any brief with a behaviour change requirement is greeted with a warm smile. He is married with two children and certainly qualifies as a ‘fun’ Dad - “I’m not sure who is more grown up, them or me”. He is a strategy games nut and peers consider him to be an expert at Chess, Backgammon and Poker.

Istvan Simon, Co-founder of Mama said no

When he was a student at FH Wien, Istvan and his team were one of the Finalists teams of the Ad Venture Students Competition 2008. In the beginning of his working career he was a Senior Account Manager at DDB Vienna. After that, he had a two years’ experience as a Creative Strategist and Creative Concepter at Vice Austria. Nowadays, Istvan is the Co-Founder and Creative Director at Mama said no® working with big clients like Alfa Romeo and Stiegl. He is very excited to see the finalists of this year's competition and to give his valuable insights and advice on their work.

Client Jurors

Emily Nevins , Director of Campaigns, Amnesty International

Emily Nevins has spent over a decade with Amnesty International’s International Secretariat, serving as Global Campaigns Director since 2012. She steers the organization’s global campaigns agenda (currently I Welcome, focused on refugee rights, and Brave, focused on protecting human rights defenders), as well as previous campaigns to end Torture and to protect Sexual and Reproductive Rights. She also oversees Amnesty’s Individuals at Risk campaigns, Digital Campaigns, Youth Engagement, Activism and Rapid Response Campaigns. Prior to Amnesty, she worked with Friends of the Earth and at a London-based race equality organization. Emily holds a Masters Degree in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Westminster, London, and a BA Music from DePaul University, Chicago.

Philip Doyle, Communications & Campaigns Director - Amnesty Austria

Many years’ experience in steering, implementing and developing international advocacy and communication initiatives and campaigns in the field of Human Rights - working for global NGOs and movements such as Amnesty International, SOS Children's Villages and Clean Clothes Campaign.
Strategic Communications Adviser for international positioning, advocacy and fundraising initiatives.
International capacity building for advocacy experts Africa, Latin America, Eastern & Western Europe on strategic communication and campaigning.