The CASSIES awards are valued in the marketing communications industry not only for their demanding submission process and rigorous judging, but also for honouring the client-agency relationships by accepting only joint submissions by the agency/client teams.
This core principle is also reflected in the CASSIES judging panel. As a tradition, it features two co-chairs – one representing the agency side and one representing the client side. This year, it’s an all-female duo of seasoned industry professionals: Judy John, Leo Burnett’s CEO and Chief Creative Officer NA, and Anne-Marie LaBerge, SVP, Global Brands & Communications at BRP. The notable judging panel will be announced later.
This year, the co-chair duo of Leo Burnett’s CEO and Chief Creative Officer NA Judy John and BRP’s SVP, Global Brands & Communications, Anne-Marie LaBerge will lead a panel of 16 top industry professionals, who represent clients, agencies, creative, strategic planning, research, and other disciplines from across the communications industry.
The 2018 CASSIES judging panel includes:
- Barry Campbell, VP Client Management, Marketing & Fraud Programs, Interac
- Cathy Collier, CEO, OMD
- Cheryl Grishkewich, VP Control Brand Marketing, Loblaw
- Cosmo Campbell, EVP, CCO, DDB Canada
- Denise Rossetto, CCO, BBDO Toronto
- Emma Eriksson, VP Marketing, General Mills
- Flora Horvath, Director, Marketing, Customer Communications, Experience & Brand, SaskTel
- Matt Kohler, VP Marketing, Clorox Company of Canada
- Megan Towers, Director of Strategic Planning, john st.
- Mélanie Dunn, President and CEO, Cossette Canada
- Samantha Taylor, SVP Marketing, Indigo
- Sébastien Paradis, President and CEO, Brasseurs du Nord – Boréale beer
- Simon Cazelais, President, Bleublancrouge Montreal
- Stéphanie Binette, CMO, L’Oréal
- Subtej Nijjar, Partner, Union
- Valya Kruk, CSO, Grey Group
Over the last few years, the awards program organizers have seen a steady trend of stronger entries from across the communications spectrum and expect the trend to continue this year both in quality and quantity of entries.
“After a record level of entries last year we anticipate even more interest in the 2018 CASSIES, especially with the new category, “Strategic Thinking“, which will award cases that demonstrate a transformational level of thinking to drive clients’ top and bottom lines”, said John Bradley, Head of Industry Recognition at the Institute of Communication Agencies. More about the CASSIES categories here.
Before the contender cases get in front of the judges, they will go through rigorous selection process by the Benchmarking Panel, who will evaluate the cases’ eligibility and ensure that the bar for being considered for a CASSIES award remains as high as ever.
This year’s Benchmarking Panel consists of senior industry professionals from agency, client, research and academia backgrounds, who have been CASSIES final judges in the past: Moya D Brown, Vice President of Marketing, Campbell Company of Canada; Marilyn A. Cresswell, Professor, Humber College; Florence Girod, VP, Strategic Planning, Cossette; Yann Jodoin, Senior Vice-President – Client Strategy, Marketing and Branding, National Bank; Christine Kalvenes, CMO, PepsiCo Foods; Jill King, ICA Board of Directors; David Leonard, CEO, McCann; Jo-Ann McArthur, President, Nourish Food Marketing; Stephanie Nerlich, Managing Director, Chief Marketing Officer, MDC Partners; Jill Nykoliation, CEO, Juniper ParkTBWA; Serge Rancourt, Founder, No Fixed Address Inc.; Diane Ridgway-Cross, EVP, Managing Director, McCann; Valérie Sapin, Director, Marketing and Innovation, Gaz Metro; Mark Tomblin, Chief Strategy Officer, Juniper ParkTBWA; Alvin Wasserman, President, Wasserman and Partners Advertising; Manoj Raheja, Partner, Sklar Wilton & Associates.
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