The Spikes, or Asian Advertising Awards, has assembled a jury panel of the world's leading creative stars for next year's awards competition, which will take place in Bali from April 25 to 27 as part of a three-day advertising festival recognising the best in creativity.
Led by DDB Worldwide chairman and global chief creative officer, Bob Scarpelli, the 16-strong global jury will review work from across Asia-Pacific in an effort to find the region's best and celebrate creative excellence across all forms of advertising.
The 2007 competition will — for the first time — feature a separate interactive jury in recognition of the sector's growth.
Led by Glue London's Mark Cridge, the Spikes interactive jury features heavyweight interactive creatives, who boast extensive experience in both the traditional and digital sppace.
Next year's show also sees the introduction of a new direct marketing category to address the flourishing creativity in the region's one-to-one communications sector.
The 2007 competition is expected to be fierce, and judging tough but firm in keeping with the show's tradition. The winners results also count towards the Gunn Report and weigh in heavily in regional creative rankings. Indeed, past winners of the Spikes have often gone on to success at global award shows.
Now in its 21st year, the 2007 awards judging and show will take place on-site in Bali for the second year running. The event — a key opportunity for creatives to interact with judges and discover the secrets of great advertising — will see finalists work on display immediately after the judging.
The two-day conference, meanwhile, will host leading global creatives as speakers, while a forum after the awards presentation at Bali's Ku De Ta, will allow participants to gain unique insights on the winning work.
Visit www.mediaspikes.com for more information on the awards show and entry kits.
Mark Waites
Joint creative director and founding partner, Mother
Mark Waites — born in Leeds, where he got an education, an accent and a football team — started his career in London, where he worked for several agencies including BMP, Legas Delaney and Ogilvy & Mather.
In 1992, he moved to New York for work, with a six-month break inbetween shops to ride his motorcycle from Alaska to the tip of South America.
Waites returned to London nine years ago and became one of four people to set up UK creative hotshop Mother.
When he's not writing ads, Waites is working on screenplays, although he hasn't finished many. A short film he wrote and directed was accepted into over 60 film festivals around the world in 2003/04, and picked up 'Best short' in six of them.
He also won an Emmy award for an HIV awareness TV campaign.
Tham Khai Meng
Co-chairman Asia-Pacific and executive regional CD, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
Tham Khai Meng was elevated to the position of Ogilvy chairman in 2003. Few creatives have ever been assigned to an operational role of such scope and stature, but Tham, who boasts a 20-year career in Asia and London, has demonstrated creative innovation that has seen the network rise through the rankings.
Tham's influence over the Ogilvy network has been beneficial in the area of talent acquisition and his contribution to the industry has led to a series of high profile events that have positioned Singapore as the hub for design excellence.
The first Asian to chair the Clio's executive jury, Tham has more than 500 awards at an international level to his name.
He started his career in London and joined Ogilvy in 1999. He was elected to the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Board last year.
David Nobay
Executive creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia
David Nobay (widely known as Nobby) began his career as a direct marketer at Ogilvy & Mather Direct London and after eight months was promoted to creative group head — the youngest at the time in the entire network.
He spent the next 18 months bouncing around the world — from Hong Kong to New York — and in that time founded one unsuccessful agency and one reasonably profitable one.
Having sat on numerous award show juries, Nobay assumed the role of ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney in 2003, helping the agency win Australian Agency of the Year three years in a row. In 2005, the agency was ranked the 25th most awarded office in the world by the Gunn Report. In 2006, it scored a haul of six Lions and 29 finalists at Cannes.
Nobay also sits on the Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Board.
Paul Catmur
Chief creative officer, DDB Asia-Pacific and executive creative officer, DDB New Zealand
After a curious career spent in casinos as a craps dealer in London and the Bahamas, Paul Catmur moved into the world of advertising and took up a job at Y&R in London as the agency's copywriter.
Originally from London, six years ago, while fishing off Auckland he decided he'd had enough of the city and wanted to live in New Zealand.
He joined DDB New Zealand in November 2000, has been its executive creative director since 2002. Last year, he was named chief creative officer for DDB Asia-Pacific.
Catmur, who has judged at Cannes, Clios and AWARD in Australia, has also been the convenor of judges at Axis in New Zealand and AWARD.
He's also helped the agency bag top awards, including a gold Lion at Cannes and a silver at D&AD.
In his spare time, Catmur writes for various magazines.
Yuya Furukawa
Executive creative director, Dentsu
Kicking off his career as a CM planner — a specialist for writing television commercials — at Dentsu in Japan, Yuya Furukawa is also a script writer for television and radio programmes, a lyrical song writer and a columnist in a major Japanese newspaper.
He has, over the years at Dentsu, worked for a number of clients in a wide range of fields including Hitachi, Apple, isao.net, Ajinomoto, WOWOW, 7-Eleven,and Tower Records.
Furukawa is one of Japan's most recognised creatives and has won top international awards, including a gold Lion at Cannes and metal at New York Festivals.
He was named creative person of the year by the Japan Advertising Agencies Association in 2003.
Furukawa has judged at major international award shows, including Cannes and Clio.
Linda Locke
Regional executive creative director, Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific
Linda Locke is a highly awarded creative, with more than 300 award wins to her name, including a gold Cannes Lion. Ensuring creative standards are tested and raised by both Leo Burnett and the industry as a whole, Locke sat on this year's Cannes outdoor jury.
She joined Burnett in 1997 as chairman and executive creative director in Singapore and a year later was named regional creative director for Asia-Pacific.
Locke, who arguably is one of the most influential creatives in Asia, worked as a designer at Hardy Amies London in 1976. She went on to join Batey Advertising on SIA Cargo and Air Lanka in 1977 before moving to Leo Burnett in 1979 as senior art director.
After a stint at Saatchi & Saatchi from 1983 as creative director and chief executive officer, Locke joined Burnett Singapore.
Yang Yeo
Group executive creative director, TBWA\Tequila China
Yang Yeo set up Fallon in Singapore and Hong Kong and during his four years at the agency was awarded in various creative circles, including OneShow, D&AD, Spikes and Cannes.
Yang, who previously served in the Singapore Army with the rank of Captain and was awarded 'best marksman' during his 30 months of training, started his career in advertising in 1991.
He worked with Saatchi & Saatchi, FHS\TBWA and Ogilvy & Mather, and was hired as senior art director at BBH when the agency opened its Asia-Pacific office in Singapore in 1996.
Yang joined TBWA\China in April 2006. Based in Shanghai, he looks after both the creative departments at TBWA and Tequila. He works on brands such as adidas, Chivas Regal, Gore-Tex, Martell and McDonald's.
Steve Henry
Executive creative director, TBWA\London
Steve Henry — who is the only judge from the 2006 Spikes jury to sit on next year's panel — joined TBWA\London in July 2006.
Henry was a founder of, as well as the creative force behind Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury (HHCL) — the agency voted Campaign's Agency of the Year three times and its Agency of the Decade in 2000.
During his 18 years at HHCL, Henry worked across a variety of sectors for numerous brands which have included BSkyB, Lego, Birds Eye and Guinness Ireland.
Prior to founding HHCL in 1987, he worked at GGT and WCRS and during his career has bagged top awards, including a gold Pencil, Grand Prix at Cannes and the British Television Awards, the President's Award at the Royal Television Society Awards and the President's Award at Creative Circle (twice).
Fernando Vega Olmos
Chaiman Vegaolmo-sponce, Unilever Worldwide CD for Lowe, Chairman Lola (Lowe Latina)
In 1992, Fernando Vega Olmos became the first Argentinean to win a gold Lion at Cannes, a win that inspired him and Hernan Ponce to place Argentina on the global advertising map.
The pair teamed up to launch Vegaolmosponce in Buenos Aires in 1997.
The agency has since been ranked by the Gunn Report among the top 15 most creative agencies in the world, creating campaigns which have aired in Latin America, the US, Europe and Asia. Vega Olmos has been on the receiving end of more than 500 awards in the last two decades. In 2005, he took home a Gold Lion with Stunt City for Rexona.
Vega Olmos, who founded LOLA, Lowe Latina in August this year, has judged at top international shows, and was the only Hispanic creative to talk at the Cannes Festival in 2005.
