SPIKES ASIA 2013: Last four Jury presidents announced!

The Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity has announced the remaining jury presidents set to lead the Craft, Creative Effectiveness, Digital & Mobile and Design juries at this year's Festival and Awards.

Masaru Kitakaze, Executive Creative Director, Corporate Officer, Hakuhodo, will preside over the Digital & Mobile Jury. Kitakaze’s work in the digital field has seen him receive numerous international awards across a variety of categories including gold Cannes Lions in the Cyber, Film and Design categories in 2012. Subsequently, Hakuhodo was named the Most Awarded Agency in Digital in the World 2012 by the Gunn Report, a first for a Japanese agency. Beginning his career as a TV gossip show infomercial planner, Kitakaze went on to become a radio commercial writer and graphic copywriter. Most recently his role has been as creative director for TV commercials, for which he has won countless Japanese advertising awards.

Commenting on his position at the Festival, Masaru Kitakaze says, “My basic stance for the judging process is to find the best work. In a nutshell, my aim is to uncover the future hidden in the creative and evaluate it. I look forward to seeing how much of the future we can discover in judging the Digital and Mobile categories at Spikes 2013.”

Lo Sheung Yan, Chairman, Asia Pacific Creative Council, JWT - known as Mayan among his peers - will lead the Craft Jury. Mayan joined China’s advertising industry in 1996 with JWT where he helped garner many prestigious regional and global advertising awards and saw JWT named Network of the Year at Spikes Asia in 2009. He also helped lead China to take its very first Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2011 for the Samsonite ‘Heaven and Hell’ ad, before becoming the first Chinese jury president at the Festival, where he presided over the Outdoor Lions jury in 2012.

About his appointment Mayan says, “I am thrilled to sit on this panel as we all know that the craftsmanship in Asia is just world-class. It won’t be an easy job since there will be lots of great work entering into this prestigious award show in our region. I must keep calm and not get too excited. Thank you for this opportunity.”

The Creative Effectiveness jury will be headed by Jarek Ziebinski, President, Leo Burnett Asia Pacific. Since his arrival in the region in 2009, Jarek has led Leo Burnett Asia Pacific to achieve its highest rate of growth in the last decade. The network has become one of the most awarded agency networks in the region and according to the industry’s New Business League by R3, one of the top performing networks across 2010, 2011 and 2012. New York based publication, The Internationalist, recently selected Jarek as an agency innovator, recognising him as a champion of multinational strategy and an advocate of responsible brand building. Jarek is also a member of the Leo Burnett Worldwide Executive Leadership Team, playing an active role in the success of the global company.

Jarek Ziebinski says of his position as president, “Creativity is our business and to me, the ultimate accolade in our industry is the Creative Effectiveness Award, which represents excellence in creative communications that deliver outstanding results in the market place. I am honoured by the invitation from Spikes Asia to preside over the Creative Effectiveness Jury this year. I strongly believe that creativity is the key competitive advantage in business today, as it has the power to impact the way people think, feel and behave. It is indeed a privilege to be given the opportunity to do my part to drive creative effectiveness excellence at such an important show in Asia Pacific.”

Chairing the Design Jury will be Derek Lockwood, Worldwide Director of Design at Saatchi & Saatchi Design Worldwide. Derek’s work sees him engaging with a variety of clients from all over the world and working within his agency group to help build the design expertise required to meet the growing demands of the business. With over 25 years experience in the industry, Derek was a founding partner of the Campaign Palace in New Zealand and Design Director for Fahrenheit-212 before heading up the Saatchi global design group some eight years ago. He sits on the Worldwide Creative Board at Saatchi & Saatchi, was on the inaugural Cannes Lions Design jury in 2008, and has lead numerous successful and award-winning projects from retail design, branding, graphic design, book publishing, product design and business communication projects.

On his role, Derek says “What better way to spend a week than with a group of passionate design experts reviewing and celebrating world class design in an inspirational and creative atmosphere. Roll on September!”

Commenting on the line-up Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals says, “This completes a fantastic group of presidents, all experts not only in their fields but in the Asia-Pacific region too. It’s important to have strong leaders such as these to lead the juries and honour the stand out work from this year’s entries. We look forward to working with them in September.”

Spikes Asia is now accepting both entries and delegates for the 2013 edition of Spikes Asia, taking place from 15-17 September.