Google, Ad Club of New York seeking young innovators, $5k up for grabs
The Advertising Club of New York, with support from Google and The Drum, is on the hunt for young, talented minds for its 4th annual Young Innovators Award. This global award recognizes excellence and innovation by individuals who are exhibiting achievement in advertising, marketing and media. In addition to an important industry accolade, the award comes with a $5,000 prize.
“Through this award, we look to celebrate excellence and forward thinking by fresh, young minds,” said Gina Grillo, CEO of The Advertising Club of New York. “We are looking for the disruptors, anywhere in the world, who will change the way we do business.”
Disruption is a key component to the Young Innovators Award. Original ideas or strategies, developing a new use of existing tools — with an eye towards making an impact on a company or client’s business goals is the main criteria. Past winners of this prestigious award have come from not only New York City, but New Zealand and Amsterdam.
Last year’s winner, Adam Wiese of Giant Spoon of New York City, put forth strong ideas for HP, reigniting the storytelling process, including a video that was named The Drum’s “Ad of the Week” in September 2015.
2014’s winners, Stefan Apswoude and Willem Droog, hailed from Amsterdam and came up with “ReOrganic”, a platform under the Organic fashion brand that enabled people to donate used clothing to fashion schools across the US, with the intention of allowing young designers to use the materials to bring their ideas to life. The goal was to recycle these fabrics to eliminate unnecessary landfill disposal.
In 2013, New Zealand-based Aussie Nelson Raymer created “Donate Your Desktop”, an app that allowed people to “rent out” their desktop background to advertisers, with 75 per cent of the revenue from ad placements going to a charity of their choice.
“The fact that we have had winners from around the globe underscores the importance of how technology is ‘borderless’ and innovation can make a significant impact, whether that’s for a charity, an individual or a small business,” said Scott Falzone, telecom industry director, Google.
Entries are free of charge — and people can either self-nominate or nominate their peers. Nominations are open until Friday, November 4th. Public voting will end Sunday, November 20th and the winner will be announced on Thursday, December 1st.
Finalists will be determined by a public voting system — then, a jury comprised of top digital and advertising professionals will then determine the winner, who will be honored at an upcoming Advertising Club of New York event and also receive a guest spot in the club’s Q1 2017 AdThink program, a highly-engaging “Shark Tank” style event.
Additionally, The Drum will highlight nominees, and their work.
“It’s an exciting time for technology and legitimate disruption,” said Doug Zanger, North America editor for The Drum. “We’re looking forward to working with The Ad Club and Google in sharing some of the stories of people and companies who are really getting at it and changing the course of what we do in this industry.”
To nominate yourself or a colleague/peer for the Young Innovators Award, please visit our entry page.