Epica launches its 30th anniversary celebration: bigger jury, birthday campaign and Amsterdam ceremony

Cristina Blanaru Creativity, Festivals & Awards

The Epica Awards officially kicked off its 30th anniversary celebrations this week with news of an ever-growing international jury, social and traditional media campaigns and additional categories.

Epica will hold its next jury meeting, creative conference and 30th prize-giving ceremony in Amsterdam from November 14-17. As part of the celebrations, Epica will post and tweet introductions from the 29 issues of its annual Epica Book, with the hashtag #EpicaAwards30

The introductions have all been written by great creative minds, from John Pallant of Saatchi & Saatchi in 2004 to Matt Eastwood of J. Walter Thompson this year. Award winning campaigns from the past will also be posted and tweeted.

At the same time, Epica unveiled its own ad campaign, created by Paris-based agency Altmann+Pacreau. The campaign stresses that Epica is the only global creative prize judged by an independent jury of journalists. New to the jury this year are Adformatie (Netherlands), Horizont (Germany), The Arabian Marketer (UAE), M+AD (New Zealand), MarkLives.com (South Africa), Sostav UA (Ukraine), Media and Marketing MAM (Czech Republic) and MarkMedia.ro (Romania).

Additionally, Epica has introduced two new categories this year: Events (previously part of PR) and Brand Identity. It has also divided the Branded Content & Entertainment category into four: Films & Series; Branded Games; Native Advertising and Product & Brand Integration.

After Berlin in 2015, the Epica ceremony returns to Amsterdam this year. The event on November 17 will once again be preceded by the Epica Creative Circle. The theme of the conference is “From Advertising to Artvertising.” Speakers already lined up include Barry Wacksman, EVP global chief strategy officer of R/GA and Stéphane Xiberras, president and chief creative officer of BETC.

Epica editorial director Mark Tungate said: “We’re delighted to return to Amsterdam after our successful visit two years ago because it represents creative excellence, with a large number of outstanding agencies.”