JURY CHAIRMAN

STEVE HATCH | MANAGING DIRECTOR | MEDIAEDGE CIA UK

First off I want to say thank you. Thank you to the great jury of Gavin Duke (International Managing Partner at Mediacom), Ailsa Lochrie (Worldwide Marketing Director at Mindshare) and Nick Vale (Head of Communications Planning at MEC). Thank you to the hundreds of individuals across the media companies who played their part in creating the submissions. And, finally, thank you to our two brilliant winners and our Crème de la Crème. You inspired us and did us media people proud.

That said, in judging this year's awards, it became increasingly difficult to define what a media person actually is and what they actually do.

It's certainly not just the smart buyer of media (though that's part of the offer) or the whip sharp analyst of ROI (though they do that, too) but judging by these great examples, perhaps a workable description would be 'an expert in attraction'. They're creators of ideas that add value and draw people towards brands, producing not just awareness but actions and reactions.

And it's how they create attraction that most impressed us. From the activation of large scale global media properties such as 24 for Rexona in the USA , and the 'world's biggest bikini shoot' for Venus in Australia, to any other of the ideas shown here. In all, the jury was hugely impressed by the level of consumer engagement at the heart of many of the ideas.

This is undoubtedly true for our two winners and this year's Crème de la Crème.

On the surface our two winners (Nike Point-to-Point from Mindshare China, and P&G Fairy 'Mom, sit with us' from Mediacom Israel,) couldn't look more different. But look deeper, and what you find are two ideas fuelled by great audience insight combined with perfect execution that got people doing things. Both great ideas and worthy winners.

So that must mean our Crème de la Crème is something special? Well it is. The entire jury were bowled over by the mastery of technology, the hugely engaging content and the sheer sense of fun that shone through in Eurostar's 'New London'. The fact that it had great business results, creating not just engagement but a new type of traveller made it all the more persuasive. Congratulations to Stephanie Jolivot, Huges Cholez, Franck Botbol, Serge Pauchard, Julian Gangnet, Laure Mallet and Jean Nasr of Mediaedge:cia Paris, our masters of attraction - and this year's winners of the Media Crème de la Crème.