As Epica extends entry deadline to October 14 to celebrate excellence in advertising, marketing and media, its Editorial Director Mark Tungate talks to IMPACT about the upcoming awards and India’s role in it
The Epica Awards is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with a bigger international jury, social and traditional media campaigns and additional categories. To be held from November 14-17 in Amsterdam, the Epica Awards unveiled its own ad campaign, created by Paris-based agency Altmann+Pacreau. The campaign stresses on the fact 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), Marketing & Media (Czech Republic) and MarkMedia.ro (Romania).
While preparations for this year’s upcoming awards ceremony on November 17 are on in full swing, the deadline has been extended from the previously set date, September 30. As Mark Tungate, Editorial Director of Epica, says, “We created momentum with an early announcement of the deadline as September 30, but now our last date for entries is October 14.” The new deadline will give more time to interested applicants to send in their work to what is clearly one of the most prestigious award ceremonies in the media and marketing world.
Coming to the response from India at this year’s awards, Tungate says, “About 4,000 pieces of work across several categories will be judged this year at Epica. India has a very high level of creativity so we are expecting a lot more entries to still come in from India as the deadline has also been extended. There are some very good pieces of work from India, especially film, as there is a natural flair for story-writing in your country. So there is every chance that India could win. Interestingly, we usually get the most enthusiastic response for PR and Print from India.”
“We get maximum entries from Europe and also the US, Middle East and Lebanon, but last year, Japan won the Film Grand Prix for Shiseido’s High School Girl campaign that is hugely popular on YouTube. So, Asia too is an integral part of Epica,” adds Tungate.
With this being the 30th year of Epica, the award organizers are visibly excited about this milestone. There are several new elements to make this very special time for Epica an unforgettable one. Epica will post and tweet introductions from the 29 issues of its annual Epica Book, with the hashtag #EpicaAwards30 , in which the introductions have all been written by some of the finest 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.
Epica has also introduced two new categories this year: Events (previously part of PR) and Brand Identity. It has also divided the Branded Content and Entertainment category into four: Films & Series; Branded Games; Native Advertising and Product & Brand Integration. The award event on November 17 will once again be preceded by the Epica Creative Circle. The theme of the conference is “From Advertising to Artvertising”.
This year, Epica has also launched the Design Grand Prix wherein the winner will be chosen from one of Epica’s four existing design categories: Graphic Design, Publication Design, Packaging Design and Product Design – as well as the new category, Brand Identity.
Tungate says, “The design categories have become more and more popular over the years, and it struck us as unfair that none of these entries stood a chance of winning a Grand Prix. Finally, in our 30th year, we’ve put that right. We had the Grand Prix prize for Film, Press, OOH and Digital but now we have one for Design as well.” Epica’s jury includes a number of magazines that cover design, including Creative Review in the UK, Brain in Japan, Adobo in the Philippines and +Design in Greece.
Looking back at some of the highlights over 30 years of Epica, Tungate says, “Awards always reflect industry trends. There has been a visible shift from traditional categories to non-traditional categories like Digital. One of the most successful and popular campaigns in Epica’s history was the 2013 Small World Machines Coca-Cola campaign by Leo Burnett, Sydney, where they showed unbridled love between Indians and Pakistanis who want peace and open dialogue between the two countries.”
