Festival of Media Awards 2009 People's Award open to public vote

Entries from the Festival of Media's 19 campaign categories will be hosted by Cream at www.creamglobal.com/peoplesaward. Cream is a global information resource that catalogues and analyses innovations in media and marketing.

Planners, strategists and marketers are invited to register and select their five favourite campaigns. The five most popular will then be presented to delegates at the Festival of Media in Valencia on 21 April for a final vote from senior world media executives.

The winner will be announced at the gala dinner that concludes the Festival of Media.

“The People's Award was designed to reflect the new paradigm of two-way communication. If consumers can create advertising for blue chip brands then every planner and strategist can be invited into the Festival of Media Awards jury room to make their own selection of the very best media work from around the world,” said awards director, Alastair Ray.

“Anyone who cares about great advertising ideas, brilliant consumer insight and incisive communications strategy will want to contribute to selecting the winner of this unique accolade.”

The Festival of Media Awards shortlist was created from more than 650 entries and selected by a jury of senior media agency executives, global and regional clients and experts from the wider field of communications. They include Laura Klauberg from Unilever, Jack Klues from VivaKi and Sam Balsara from Madison.

Starcom MediaVest tops the contenders list with 18 nominations followed by Mindshare on 13, MediaCom on 11 and Havas on seven. The shortlist includes entries from 29 countries with regional campaigns from EMEA and the Americas also nominated. The top market is the United States with 33 nominations followed by the UK, Canada, Germany, China and India.

Winners for the 19 campaign categories and 10 media owner categories will be selected on 18 and 19 April when the jury reconvenes in Valencia prior to the Festival of Media. The campaign category winners will be announced on 19 April and the media owner winners will be revealed on 20 April.

The jury will also award The Creativity Award, The Effectiveness Award, The Partnership Award and Media Owner of the Year. The Agency of the Year and Media Agency Network of the Year will be revealed alongside the winner of the People's Award at the Festival Gala Dinner on 21 April.

The Creativity Award is sponsored by the Economist and The Effectiveness Award is sponsored by Cream. The Agency of the Year Award is sponsored by the Financial Times and the Media Agency Network of the Year is sponsored by DDS.