The Media Federation of Australia (MFA) has revealed the six senior marketers who will judge the 2024 MFA Awards as Signature Judges: Martin Brown, Lisa Robson, Ben Hill, Naysla Edwards, Nicole Smart, and Sarah Sorrenson.
Signature Judges were introduced at last year’s MFA Awards to provide a strong advertiser voice to lead judging and ensure the focus remains on proven effectiveness.
The Signature Judges will lead a judging cohort of more than 100 experienced professionals drawn from the whole spectrum of the industry: media agencies, media owners, tech companies and a record number of marketers.
Martin Brown is general manager at Nestlé and AANA chair. Naysla Edwards is VP of customer marketing and member experience, American Express ANZ. Ben Hill is chief marketing officer at Mars Wrigley. Lisa Ronson is a senior marketer and an adjunct professor at Deakin Business School. Nicole Smart is GM group media and media planning at Woolworths Group. And Sarah Sorrenson is head of Global Media at Diageo.
MFA Awards chairs Sophie Price, chief strategy officer at EssenceMediaCom, and Chris Colter, chief strategy and product officer at Initiative, thanked all six marketers for committing to help identify the most effective and inspiring media thinking in Australia.
“We’re delighted to welcome our six Signature Judges to act as champions for proven effectiveness in the MFA Awards judging room. With enormous expertise and knowledge among them, we believe they will make a valuable contribution to the process of identifying the most innovative and effective media thinking in Australia,” they added.
Brown said he was looking forward to returning as an MFA Awards Signature Judge this year: “Last year’s judging experience was enormously inspiring and a great reminder of the high calibre of media thinking being delivered by Australian media agencies. As always, I will be looking for breakthrough ideas that led to exceptional brand and business results.”
Smart, Woolworths group GM group media and media planning added: “I’m a strong believer in the power of media to drive commercial impact, which is why I’m excited to be judging the MFA Awards. In addition to effectiveness, I will be keeping a keen eye for collaboration, innovation and ideas that take me by surprise.”
This further bolsters the MFA Awards program’s rigorous judging process, which includes automatic conflict filtering, independent auditing, blind voting and proof of media contribution.
Entries to the MFA Awards are open until 3 May to MFA member media agencies, clients and media owners, with a call to showcase work that lives up to the industry’s We Are The Changers purpose, demonstrating best-practice media thinking and long-term business growth for clients. The winners will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner at White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney on 19 September.
Tickets to the 2024 MFA Awards are now available here.
The 2024 MFA Awards sponsors are:
Grand Prix Sponsor: Seven Network
Platinum Sponsors: Meta, Outdoor Media Association, SBS
Gold Sponsors: Ad Standards, OzTAM, Foxtel Media, News Corp