South African cinema advertising broker Cinemark reports that the Spikes Asia Advertising Festival, the regional event for creative excellence in advertising and communications, has appointed Akira Kagami and Jon Wilkins as the final two of six jury presidents.
Partnered with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Spikes Asia takes place in Suntec City, Singapore from 19 to 21 September.
Akira Kagami, who is the Executive Advisor and Global Executive Creative Advisor of Dentsu, has been named as the Craft Jury President.
Jon Wilkins, the Founding Partner of Naked Communications, has been appointed as the Media Jury President.
“With an in-depth knowledge of the region’s communications industry and work, both Akira and Jon’s experiences are paramount to leading the juries whose decision will ultimately be influential to these awards and to the business,’ said Terry Savage, Chairman of Cannes Lions, joint organisers of the Festival along with Haymarket.
Known to many as “the big guy from Dentsu’, Kagami is a landmark in the creative crowd. Being employed for 30 years by a varied agency like Dentsu has given Akira the opportunity to work on almost every category imaginable. This depth of experience has led him to his most recent mission and role: to go beyond his responsibilities as a specialist in creative and to create a catalytic scheme for global communication design.
Along the way Kagami has picked up numerous awards at Cannes Lions, Clio, and One Show, as well as three Grand Prix at AdFest. He has served on the jury at Cannes Lions, Clio, One Show, D&AD, Spikes, and many other international awards, as well as being jury chair at Cannes Lions and AdFest. This year, he will receive the New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award.
Says Kagami: “Our world is changing at a tremendous speed. While our attention is caught by new developments in media, we can easily dismiss the significance of Craft. But whatever the changes in media, there will always be a need for Craft. I hope that this year’s Craft category will feature work that is contemporary yet traditional, Asian yet universal, at a level never seen before.’
Jon Wilkin’s early career was in TV, working at Granada TV, being part of the newly formed MTV Europe, and also a stint in the International marketing function at Disney. He then crossed the divide to BMP DDB where he worked across local and global accounts, and was part of the team that started what has become Tribal DDB. At BMP he was put on the main board as media strategy director. In 1997 he left to work at PHD. The agency won Agency of the Year in 1998 and 1999 and was widely recognised as being leader within communications strategy. Jon was promoted to joint Managing Director in 1999.
In August 2000, Wilkins started Naked Communications along with John Harlow and Will Collin. Naked are a multiple award winning creative communications agency, with offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Oslo, Sydney, Tokyo, Melbourne, New York, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Auckland with plans afoot in South East Asia, China & India.
Naked, as a business, advise clients including Nokia, Coca Cola, Unilever, Kimberly Clark and Johnson and Johnson to name but a few.
In 2009 Wilkins was promoted to the Board of Photon as Director of the Integrated and Digital Division. In January 2010 he moved to Sydney where he continues to be Global Chairman of Naked focusing on growing the Asia Pacific business alongside his Photon role.
Says Wilkins: “It’s never been a more exciting time to work in media, the rules have fundamentally changed, and innovation and engagement are the name of the game now. If you factor into the mix Asia is the most exciting part of the world to work in, with dynamic growth across the length and breadth of the region – it all contributes to the heady cocktail that is Spikes 2010.’
To register to attend and for further information on Spikes Asia, please visit www.spikes.asia/ Register before 1st of August and enjoy an Early Bird Discount.
