The 26th International Festival of Creativity Golden Drum announces the finalists of this year’s competition before opening its doors on Thursday, 17 October. Altogether 1150 creative solutions have been submitted to the competition, 883 to the official Golden Drum competition and 267 to the Young Drummers Competition. 204 entries have made the cut to the shortlists of the competition sections WHY and WHAT. The winners will be announced on the Friday Grand Award Ceremony, starting at 20.30 in Hotel Slovenija, Portorož.
The submitted entries in the competition section WHAT reviewed a jury led by a “Woman to watch”, Tiffany Rolfe, Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer at R/GA in USA, who leads creative teams that work at the intersection of business and culture to deliver transformational work to global clients.
Ten jury members joined Tiffany evaluating the entries following the criteria of the best solution and its most efficient implementation of individual works moving frontiers: Yasmina Baz, Regional Creative Director, Leo Burnett Beirut, Lebanon, Michal Belej, Associate Creative Director, Istropolitana Ogilvy, Slovakia, Karolina Galácz, Creative Director, DDB Budapest, Hungary, Eric Groza, Creative Director, TBWA\Moscow, Russia, Gürkan Gürel, Creative Director, Tick Tock Boom, Turkey, Bartek Klimaszewski, Creative Director, McCann Worldgroup, Poland, Marin Kostov – Muro, Executive Creative Director and Partner, All Channels Communication Group, Bulgaria, Cătălin Rusu, Chief Creative Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Rusu+Bortun Bucharest, Romania, Eric Schoeffler, Chief Creative Officer Group Germany and Executive Creative Director Europe, Havas, Germany and David Suda, Creative Director, WMC/GREY Prague, Czech Republic.
“We had an amazing body of work this year. Our jury of creative talent from this part of the world and beyond brought great insights and perspectives to the choices we made for the shortlists, which led to many great conversations. In the end we chose work that both pushed their regions forward, as well as the whole industry. We felt very good about our choices and we hope they inspire people as much as they did us.”
Tiffany Rolfe, President of the WHAT Jury
The competition section WHY Jury President, one one of the most awarded and influential advertisers of his generation in Brazil, Álvaro Rodrigues, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Creative Officer at Fullpack in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, unfortunately wasn’t able to travel and join the jury on location. Álvaro appointed to his place Mikołaj Sadowski, Chief Creative Officer and Partner, 180hearbeats + Jung v Matt, Poland, the Golden Drum independent agency of the year 2018.
Joining him, questioning the end goal of any intervention in the communication landscape: Roy Cohen, Global Creative Director, McCann Worldgroup, London, UK (replacing Riccardo Fregoso, Executive Creative Director and President Creative, McCann WorldGroup, France), Mihai Costache, Group Creative Director, MullenLowe Romania, Ruxandra Drilea, Senior Creative, Publicis Romania (replacing Mihnea Gheorghiu, Global Creative Director, Publicis Italy), Christian Gosch, Managing Creative Director, Serviceplan Austria, Burçak Günsev, Head of Customer Engagement and commerce, Ogilvy Istanbul, Turkey, Eran Nir, Chief Creative Officer, GITAM BBDO, Israel, Sašo Petek, Creative Director, Agencija 101, Slovenia, Artem Sinyavskiy, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Marvelous, Russia and Ivan Westerveen, Creative Director, Saatchi&Saatchi Belgrade, Serbia.
“We’ve got lots of great stuff this year. Our region has been very creative lately and you can definitely feel that looking at the shortlists! The amount great pieces resulted in very long discussions but I believe we ended up with a list that made us all happy :)” – Mikołaj Sadowski, President of the WHY Jury
