The Media Federation of Australia (MFA) has introduced a new tier of judges for the prestigious 2023 MFA Awards, with seven senior marketers joining the judging room as Signature Judges.
The 2023 MFA Awards Signature Judges are:
Brent Smart, Chief Marketing Officer, Telstra
Jenni Dill, Chief Marketing Officer, Arnott’s
Lisa Ronson, Adjunct Profession, Deakin Business School & Former CMO, Coles
Martin Brown, General Manager, Nestlé
Mel Hopkins, Chief Marketing Officer, Seven
Mim Haysom, CMO/EGM Brand & Marketing, Suncorp
Sarah Sorrenson, Director, Digital Marketing, Media & Commerce, Unilever
The presence of the Signature Judges will provide a strong advertiser voice in the judging, to ensure focus remains on proven effectiveness. The move further bolsters the MFA Awards program’s rigorous judging process, which includes automatic conflict filtering, independent auditing, blind voting and proof of media contribution.
The Signature Judges will join a judging cohort of more than 100 experienced professionals drawn from the whole spectrum of the industry: marketers, media agencies, media owners and tech companies.
The MFA Awards celebrate work by media agencies that lives up to the industry purpose of ‘We Are The Changers’, demonstrating best practice media thinking and long-term business growth for clients, and will be held at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on 21 September.
MFA Awards chairs Sophie Price, chief strategy officer at EssenceMediaCom, and Chris Colter, chief strategy & product officer at Initiative, thanked all seven marketers for committing to help identify the most effective and inspiring media thinking in Australia.
“We’re enormously proud of the rigour and effort that goes into judging the MFA Awards, and we’re thrilled to add an important layer to the process with the Signature Judges to act as champions for proven effectiveness. These leading professionals are responsible for some of our industry’s best, most effective work, so they’re highly qualified to lead the discussion in the judging room.”
Brent Smart, Telstra CMO, added: “No matter what side of the fence I’ve sat on, my motivation has been the same – to make more great work happen. And in judging the MFA Awards I look forward to seeing the innovative ways that marketers and media agencies are working together to deliver commercial impact and to celebrating the work that works.”
Mim Haysom, Suncorp CMO/EGM Brand & Marketing, said: “I’m thrilled to be joining my fellow MFA Awards judges to identify the most effective media campaigns in Australia. The best media thinking depends on finding original and unexpected ways to connect with audiences to tell the story of a brand and drive customer and business outcomes. In judging, I’ll be looking for work that demonstrates strong collaboration, resulting in the execution of great creative ideas in new and innovate ways.”
The 2023 MFA Awards sponsors are:
Grand Prix Sponsor: Seven Network
Platinum Sponsors: News Corp Australia, Outdoor Media Association, SBS Media
Gold Sponsors: Ad Standards, Meta, Nine
Silver Sponsors: Foxtel, Lion, OzTAM, Yahoo!