Inside the Jury Room: How The Immortal Awards' North American Finalists Impressed Judges

On November 14th, The Immortal Awards hosted its North American jury day, in partnership with Whitehouse Post. Held in person at the post house’s New York headquarters, the jurors evaluated the combined Finalists from the US and Canadian rounds of judging, whittling down the 13 projects to six North American Finalists.​

These six Finalists will be put forward to the global round of judging, which takes place in New York in December, held in partnership with JSM Music.

This year’s North American jury was comprised of Chris Beresford-Hill, global CCO at BBDO; ​Andy Bird, founding partner and CCO at Le Truc; ​Danilo Boer, global creative partner at FCB; ​Tim Gordon, CCO at Zulu Alpha Kilo New York; ​Sam Gunn, partner and editor at Whitehouse Post; ​Julia Lafferty, head of production at 72andSunny New York; ​Lisa Mehling, owner at Chelsea Pictures; ​Tom Murphy, North American CCO at VML; ​Andrea Ogunbadejo, president at Eva Nosidam; Sharon Cha, producer at JSM Music; Aaron Starkman, global CCO at Rethink; and Susan Irving, CMO at Kruger.

Watch some of the jurors reflect on their experience here:

The projects the jury selected as Immortal Awards NA Finalists were:

Nutter Butter - ‘Nutter Butter, You Good?’

Dove - ‘Most Likely To’

Uber One – ‘Cox Goes to College’

Rakish Entertainment, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Chicago Hearing Society – ‘Caption with Intention’

IKEA – ‘u up?’

SickKids – ‘The Count’

During the judging process, several big conversations emerged as the Finalists were debated. This included discussions as to how much weight should be put on originality, when it came to analysing the potential Immortal status of projects. The group’s consensus was that work which pushes brands into new spaces or takes on new challenges should be rewarded, but that more familiar projects could be just as ‘Immortal’, if the work was crafted to a particularly high standard.

A Finalist at the centre of these talks was Uber One – ‘Cox Goes to College’. While a comedic film isn’t the most revolutionary piece of marketing – especially when judged alongside the inventive tech-focused projects like IKEA – ‘u up?’ and ‘Caption with Intention’ – it was deemed to be deserving of North American Finalists status thanks to its excellence in execution.

“Craft and execution can elevate something from feeling slightly familiar to feeling unique in its own way, even if it’s something that is a more familiar medium,” explained Tim Gordon, CCO at Zulu Alpha Kilo New York. “With Uber Eats, everything was immaculately done, from casting to supporting casting, execution, the humour and writing. It’s not over-written and it has all these great elements where you’d happily watch it again, and that’s a great sign. If you’d happily watch something again – no matter what medium it’s in or how familiar it feels – that elevates it.”

Aaron Starkman, global CCO at Rethink agreed: “Uber One has a familiar construct, but here’s what makes it stand out: It was just done so well. Oh my God, every single frame, every casting choice, every moment and every joke hit. It’s one of my favourite pieces of the year because they nailed every single moment of it. We’ve kind of seen the structure before, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone nail it this way. They got the most out of a celebrity, but the best parts were the non-celebrities they cast. It’s a direction masterpiece, a performance masterpiece – it’s the perfect time, just bliss. You just want to keep on watching and watching. I loved it, and for that reason, I think it’s Immortal.”

Other work that managed to move the jurors emotionally was also supported strongly in the jury room, including Dove’s ‘Most Likely To’ campaign out of Canada, and SickKids’ ‘The Count’, which Aaron described as “incredible”. He said, “It did such a wonderful job at just making us all cry. It was crafted beautifully and we all felt it.”

Returning to the originality conversation, one Finalist that consistently stirred intrigue and debate throughout the judging process was ‘Nutter Butter, You Good?’. Being a distinctly impenetrable social media campaign by design, the talks teased out the work’s unique qualities, and even set something of a standard for what the room considered ‘Immortal’.

Chris Beresford-Hill, global CCO at BBDO explained, “The reason why Nutter Butter truly deserves its place in the history of The Immortal Awards is because two or three years from now, we’re going to be pushing a client, talking about why we need a different social media strategy, and we’re going to say, ‘We have to do a Nutter Butter thing!’. The work that really stands the test of time is the work that makes you say, ‘I need a Tide ad’, or makes a client say, ‘I want a CeraVe’. Soon, we’re going to say, ‘We need to do a Nutter Butter’.

“It’s fresh and bold now, but in the future, it’s going to be a reference point for going all-in and owning a brand’s social media channel with fearless creativity.”

Tim added, “The idea unto itself is wonderful and unhinged. It’s perfect for the medium in which it’s executed, and it’s executed phenomenally well. And then it has that element where people are saying, ‘I want a Nutter Butter [campaign]’ or ‘have you seen this?’ – where there is a before and after this campaign. It commits completely to what it is, which is solely and singularly an original idea, even if it’s drawing from internet culture.”

He continued, “This is an idea that people were talking about outside of the industry, that was picked up by all the mainstream media – and not their marketing arms, but written about as if it were pop culture. There’s no higher order to what we do, than to infuse ourselves in culture. So for as wonderfully unhinged as it is, it’s sort of perfect.”

Breaking through the zeitgeist and driving culture beyond the marketing world was also a significant supporting factor for ‘Caption With Intention’, which received almost unanimous praise in both US and North American judging sessions, thanks in part to its real-world impact. FCB’s global creative partner, Danilo Boer, was in the room and shared that hearing the reception to his agency’s project was “really powerful” following a six-year journey with the work.

"There are so many brains and so much passion behind that work – and it’s something that’s actually changing society and the world,” he said. “I think it really defines what ‘Immortal’ is and how advertising ideas can extrapolate the day-to-day and become part of the fabric of life. I feel blessed to see jurors like it, feel emotional about it and support it, understanding how meaningful that can be.”

The North American Finalists will be judged against all other regional Finalists at the final global round of judging on December 3rd. To keep up with all The Immortal Awards news, see here.