Indian ad stalwarts to grace international award juries in 2012

The awards season in 2012 will have quite a few stalwarts from Indian advertising representing the country on the jury boards of reputed international advertising awards shows.

Joshi will be one of the judges in the Writing for Advertising category at D&AD, and the jury president of Press Lotus at ADFEST. He is also the only Indian in the jury panel of the Andy Awards and along with Santosh Padhi, chief creative officer and co-founder, Taproot India, will be a part of the executive jury at the New York Festivals.

Also on the D&AD 2012 jury are Agnello Dias, chairman and co-founder, Taproot India, and Elsie Nanji, managing partner, Red Lion. While Dias will judge entries in the Integrated and Earned Media category, Nanji is a part of a panel that will judge the Branding category.

Joshi tells afaqs! he has accepted the invites to judge these shows as they are all reputed and significant. According to him, this is a chance for him to catch up on global creative work and is a learning experience.

"I need to update myself on the creative work that is happening globally. And judging international award shows helps me get a holistic sense of the kind of work that is happening around the world. Moreover, I have a regional responsibility and hence, I need to get a hold on the work being done outside India," he says.

Joshi adds that he considers D&AD to be a very prestigious and unique award show and he accepted to judge the Writing for Advertising Category since he thinks the times are changing, writing is going through a lot of change and writers are having to write differently for various media than before, and it would be interesting to see such examples.

He also has a word for Andy's where he expects a rigorous judging process that is to last for six days. The fact that there is one jury panel comprising very accomplished people that judges every category will help him to get a complete sense of work done across categories, he says.

Incidentally, this is the second year in succession that Padhi will feature on the executive jury of the New York Festivals. The executive jury that Joshi and Padhi will be a part of boasts some of the most accomplished chief creative officers in the advertising world who will participate in a live judging session to determine Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Grand Award winners through four rounds of judging.

Padhi tells afaqs! that he looks forward to be a part of the judging process after a fruitful experience last year.

"It was cut-throat judging last year. I was amazed and lucky to be a part of a group of creative champions whose work I have followed over the years. It was a great learning experience," he says.

Padhi will also be on the jury panel of Saudi Arabia's Okaz Creative Advertising Awards, and has been invited to join the ADC Advertising jury for the 91st ArtDirectorsClub Awards in New York.

Among other Indians on international juries are the ones on the 2012 New York Festivals Grand Jury -- Shikhar Mohan, head -- brand, HCL Infosystems (Avant-Garde category), Vasudha Misra, creative director, Draftfcb Ulka (Commercials category), Amod Dani, associate executive creative director, Leo Burnett India (Integrated Mixed Media category), and Deepak Singh, group creative director, DDB Mudra (Print Advertising category). The Grand Jury consists of more than 250 of the world's respected and award winning creative directors and industry professionals who will determine the shortlist through two rounds of online judging sessions in over 65 countries.