Jonathan Harries,Nikki Mendonca and Filip Nilsson to chair at Eurobest 2010

Cristina Blanaru Creativity, Marketing

Jonathan Harries, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Draftfcb, will lead the Direct and Promo & Activation Jury at Eurobest 2010, while Nikki Mendoca from OMD EMEA will chair the Media Jury and Filip Nilsson  from Forsman & Bodenfors will be the president of Craft Jury, festival’s organizers announced.

Jonathan Harries is the Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of Draftfcb and, from this position, responsible for implementing Draftfcb’s fully integrated creative model at its offices around the world. As he likes to point out, “there is no new media and old media. Only right media and wrong media”.

The Direct & Sales Promotion Jury President started his career as a trainee at LS-Foote, Cone $ Belding in Johannesburg (South Africa) more than 30 years ago. Because he was earning poor money ($50), he dedicated himself to copywriting and ended up as Vice Chairman of Grey, at the time South Africa’s largest and most award-winning agency.In 1986, he emigrated to the US and worked at Leo Burnett, than became Executive Creative Director at Hal Riney & Partners Chicago. Six years later, he moved to Foote Cone and Belding as Executive Creative Director. He became Chairman & CEO of the Chicago office and after the merger with Draft, Vice Chairman & Global Chief Creative Officer Draftfcb.

Nikki Mendonca is the president of Media Jury and also President of OMD EMEA since 2007. OMD EMEA invests currently more than $15 billion across all media platforms through over 60 offices and is responsible for leading the communications strategy and implementation for world class corporations including McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Vodafone and Renault/Nissan.

“Post recession, media creativity and innovation is more important than ever before as it remains a critical part of how we differentiate a brand’s product and/or service in a very cluttered, over supplied world,” Nikki Mendoca said.

Mendonca was promoted to the role of President of OMD EMEA network in August 2007 after having run business development for both the OMD and PHD brands across the region. Previous to joining OMD Europe in 2002, Nikki Mendonca ran the Strategic Marketing Division at Capital Radio Plc (responsible for the commercial research and marketing of all 19 radio stations owned by the group) and, previous to that, she worked at Leo Burnett, running the media divisions of Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and Grand Met and at CIA Media Network, trading TV airtime for Wrigley’s.

Last but not the least, Filip Nilsson, Executive Creative Director of Forsman & Bodenfors, is this year’s Craft Jury President at Eurobest. Under his leadership, F&B has been the leading Scandinavian agency for 15 years and came third in the 2010 Cannes Lions Independent Agency of the Year ranking. His agency has in the clients’ portfolio many Swedish icons like IKEA, Volvo and Swedish Television.

“The communication landscape becomes more complex every day. Brilliant craft has a unique ability to cut through all that complexity and therefore it has never been more relevant. I can´t wait to start judging”, he said, commenting his appointment as jury president.

Nilsson has been a jury member in most big international award shows, including The One Show and the Titanium in Cannes Lions. He has also been the President of the Swedish Golden Egg jury.

The 3 Jury Presidents “are world class, highly respected and very influential.It’s fantastic to have them onboard at Eurobest leading the judging process”, Philip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions, organisers of Eurobest, remarked

Launched in 1988, Eurobest is Europe’s leading annual awards competition for creative excellence in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Interactive, Mobile, Media, Direct, Sales Promotion, Design, Craft, PR and Integrated advertising. The awards, which are judged by Europe’s top creatives, form part of a two-day Festival themed to identify and engage specific topics that are relevant to the European market.

Launched in 2008, the Festival has been held in Stockholm and Amsterdam. Organised by the same team behind the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the Dubai Lynx International Advertising Festival and Spikes Asia, the Eurobest Advertising Festival is a purely European event.

Now in its 23rd year, the Eurobest Awards form part of the Eurobest Festival, which takes place at the Handelskammer in Hamburg on 7 & 8 December 2010, providing two days of inspiration, debate, learning and networking.