Whilst the sights of ad land were set squarely on the south of France last week, that's not to say the Cannes Lions was the only awards show of note to offer up some notable news.
International Music + Sound Awards
Founded in 2011, the International Music+Sound Awards champion the music and sound talent and skill behind media productions across the globe. 2015's winners will be picked from a list of finalists that were named earlier this week. They will be announced this Thursday (July 2) via the official MAS Twitter feed (@MASawards) one category at a time from 5pm, with a complete list going live on the official MAS site that same day at 7pm. Categories are divided into the following groups across the different media disciplines: best original composition, best sound design, best sync / use of existing music and best re-record / adaptation.
Winners of the 2015 MAS awards will be announced this Thursday via the official MAS Twitter feed
Co-founder, Dan Neale, comments: “This is our third year of running the international competition, and it is with huge pride that we have seen more entries than ever, and more people engaging with our mission - which is to celebrate the achievements in music and sound that are often overlooked by other awards. We want to make a stand on a global scale for writers, sound designers, artists and sync professionals, and the noise grows louder each year.”
The Asia Recruitment Awards
The Asia Recruitment Awards is the only regional awards event in Asia that recognises excellence in recruitment and talent acquisition, and attracts a who’s who of multinational and local companies competing to be recognised across 16 corporate categories, as well as the highest caliber recruitment agencies competing across eight categories. This year, JWT went home with a sizeable payload, with the judges impressed by the agency's unique high-engagement approach to on-boarding that combines technology and human interaction to ensure the changing needs of new employees are anticipated and met during their first year. Judges were also impressed by JWT's candidate experience strategy, which aims to improve their experience during the recruitment process; this represents a shift away from recent database-reliant recruiting trends, by being highly personalised and high-touch. As a result, the agency bagged gold and silver awards at the ceremony last week.
JWT bagged gold and silver at the Asia Recruitment Awards last week
Tom Doctoroff, CEO of JWT Asia Pacific, said: “In an era where new possibilities of communications are make possible every day by technology, Talent is everything. Recruiting people and motivating them to push out the boundaries of what an idea can be is our great challenge. And even greater opportunity.” Carolyn Moore, JWT Asia Pacific’s regional human resources director, added: “The J. Walter Thompson Company has been synonymous with high-quality award-winning branding and advertising work for over 150 years, and now we are recognised very much as a leading employer in the APAC region.”
BBH NY's Griffin Farley Search for Beautiful Minds
Last week marked the start of BBH NY's 3rd annual search for new applicants to “Griffin Farley Search for Beautiful Minds” for aspiring advertising planners. The annual program, led by BBH NY Chief Strategy Officer Sarah Watson, was created in memory of late BBH New York Strategy Director Griffin Farley, who lost his life to cancer in 2013. Griffin was known as a champion of nurturing young talent, and the event was born as a way of carrying on his legacy. 2015 will mark its third year. The program involves a three-day mentorship program for aspiring advertising planners, offering unprecedented access to top senior executives in the business.
Last week marked the start of BBH NY's 3rd annual “Griffin Farley Search for Beautiful Minds”
Chosen applicants to the program (which is unique to BBH) participate in a weekend boot camp that includes up to 15 speakers from the industry, and approximately 20 mentors from multiple agencies, helping them through a project showcase after which they pitch their ideas to top strategists, and are judged on them. It's a collaborative effort, with last year's event held at Google Headquarters in NYC. Connections made throughout the weekend can extend throughout a career, and past participants still connect regularly to support one another in their career goals.
Pause Fest 2016
Australia’s premier digital event is now open to expressions of interest (entries) for its 2016 iteration. Now in its 6th year, Pause Fest will run for a whole week from Monday 8 February to Sunday 14 February 2016 in and around Melbourne’s Fed Square. The 2016 theme is #PauseDiscover – meet your future self. Created to explore and develop the best in creativity, tech and digital, and the interactions between them, the programme is made up of “Content you can’t Google.” According to company founder George Hedon: “Pause Fest is based on the principal that innovation happens when different realities and skill sets collide. We create that space.”
Pause Fest, Australia’s premier digital event, is now open to entries for its 2016 iteration
The remit for the event is wide. In short, they're looking for those who want to be part of supporting and developing the tech and digital community locally and internationally. Who want to be a part of building the world’s future economy. So if you have an idea, a product, a brand or provocation that fills this remit, and you think should and could be a part of the Pause story, they want to hear about it. Pause has doubled its capacity every year and 2016 offers participants the chance to share the stage with Startup Victoria, Designworks, Bschool, Guardian Australia, DT Digital, Art Centre Melbourne, Tractor and auDA, amongst others.
