New York Festivals AME Awards Announces Social Equality-DEI Grand Jury: Aki Spicer, Chief Strategy Officer is Chairman

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New York Festivals® AME Awards® announced the AME Awards Social Equality – DE&I Grand Jury. 

Ten prominent industry executives will together judge all campaigns entered into AME’s Category Group – Creativity for Positive Impact: Social Equality – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Launched this year, the new categorywill shine the spotlight on creative work that positively affects inclusive identities in advertising, ensures representation, enables underrepresented groups to fully experience and connect with brands and is inclusive and respectful of all cultures.

Aki Spicer, Chief Strategy Officer for Leo Burnett/Chicago, and AME Advisory Council member will preside over the judging session and ensure that entries into the new category Social Equality are judged fairly and thoughtfully.

“I am actually excited to gather with this special industry peer-group and connect on what creative excellence looks like in the space of inclusion. And personally, I am voracious for great creative cases to share with my clients and teams – looking forward to taking in the potential greatness!”—Aki Spicer, Chief Strategy Officer, Leo Burnett Chicago

“All of us at AME are thrilled that Aki Spicer is heading up this jury panel, said Gayle Seminara Mandel, Executive Director, AME Awards. “His stellar reputation and the breadth of his creative and strategic expertise will provide the atmosphere of open examination and cooperative creative discussions that will lead to celebrating diverse and inclusive work that fits the parameters of this new and timely category.”

Aki Spicer brings his strategic perspective, data-centric, and radically-collaborative approach to the jury panel. As Chief Strategy Officer at Leo Burnett/Chicago, Aki is bridging the gaps between timeless branding and timely behaviors at one of the most storied agency brands in the world.   

He advances the Leo Burnett’s “Humankind OS” – a strategic process that strives to frame the business problem, brand purpose, and resulting creative solutions thru a lens of human needs for brands like Samsung, Messenger, US Cellular, Kellogg’s and more. Aki has been leading the charge of forging Multicultural Intelligence, an end-to-end strategic OS to help Publicis agencies and their brands meet multicultural consumers with more insight, understanding and creative relevance. 

Aki was previously Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Digital Officer of TBWA/Chiat/Day NYC, and prior to that he was Director of Digital Strategy at Fallon Worldwide servicing clients like Nissan, Hilton, Adidas, Apple, GM, H&R Block and Netflix.

“We’re extremely grateful to these creative and strategic innovators who are sharing their time and industry experience on this important panel,” said Seminara Mandel. “Their support allows the competition to recognize creative and strategic work that truly embodies diversity and champions equity and inclusion.”

2022 AME Social Equality – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Grand Jury:

Grand Jury Chairman – Aki Spicer, Chief Strategy Officer, Leo Burnett/Chicago

  • John Antoniello, VP Senior Group Creative Director, Razorfish
  • Rogério Colantuono, Executive Strategy Director, TBWA\Health Collective
  • Lucien Etori, VP, Executive Strategy Director, R/GA New York
  • Sabena Gupta, Global Brand Marketing Lead, Amazon
  • Chelsea Jenkins, Director of Cultural & Inclusive Marketing, Kellogg’s
  • Janis Middleton, EVP, Executive Director of Multicultural and Inclusion Strategy, Guided By Good
  • Paola Ortega, Strategy Director, BBH
  • Danny Robinson, Chief Creative Officer, The Martin Agency
  • Marialejandra Urbina, Executive Director of Planning, Dieste

The 2022 AME Social Equality DE&I Grand Jury will utilize Publicis’ Creative Inclusion Progress Scorecard as judging criteria, this scorecard will honor work that effectively drives inclusion from representation to resonance.

Jury sessions are parsed in the annual AME Report, that honors and provides rankings for agencies and brands from 30 countries.The deadline to enter the 2022 AME Awards competition is May 20th, 2022.