By Darren Gilbert

The New York Festivals International Advertising Awards has been honouring the world’s finest creative advertising since 1957. Every year, judges review submissions in the most current and relevant categories to award creativity across all media.

Last year, you judged at Cannes. Are you expecting the judging process at New York Festivals to be any different to what you experienced last year?

It’s very different, yes, since it’s all done online.

The upside of that is you get far more opportunity to really consider the work in your own time. The downside is the lack of interaction with other judges.

Do you believe awards shows and winning awards are important?

Yes, they set a standard for what constitutes truly outstanding creative work, a standard set by the best in the business.

The world’s best work deserves to be recognised, rewarded and most importantly, socialised – as inspiration for what is possible.

What challenges do you expect to face when judging awards at international level?

The key thing is to be mindful of cultural and social nuance. A lot of great work is made great by its social or cultural context. To judge the work fairly, judges need to know these where appropriate.

Also key is that the bar is has high as it can be. As a judge, you are helping decide what constitutes the best our industry has to offer, work which will set the standard going forward.

As such, it’s a judge’s responsibility to be as rigorous as possible.

How does the local ad industry compare, creatively, with the work that you have been exposed to overseas?

In terms of the quality of our ideas, we are definitely on par with the rest of the world. In fact, well ahead of many more established countries.

Executionally, however, we sometimes fall behind, which is understandable given the budgets we work with by comparison to the big players.

What are your predictions for the local ad industry in 2017?

Things are tough, and they’re not going to get less so anytime soon.

Budgets are continuing to shrink, and it’s my firm belief that our core strengths – idea generation and top-quality execution thereof – are grossly undervalued.

We’re going to have to think very smartly about how to survive and thrive in the current world economic climate.

That said, it’s our job to think smart. So if we’re as good as we say we are, we’ll find a way.

For more information, visit za.havas.com or www.newyorkfestivals.com.