Marketing reaffirms its commitment to gender equity with 50-50 pledge
At the Marketing Awards in June, we announced the chairs for the 2014 Marketing Awards. We were proud of ourselves for being so ahead of schedule, locking down a dynamic duo of Luc Du Sault and Christina Yu to take over from the equally excellent Dean Lee and Joseph Bonnici.
Nancy Vonk
But sometimes, in really wonderful ways, life gets in the way of the best laid plans.
Around the time many Canadian agencies will be finishing up their submissions for the 2014 Marketing Awards, Christina Yu should be bringing her new baby twins home from the hospital.
And while Christina bravely (naively?) offered to still serve as jury co-chair through the online judging in March and for the live judging in early April, we decided to let her off the hook.
We were sorry we wouldn’t get to work with Christina, but had a great back-up plan in place—one of the true legends of Canadian advertising, Nancy Vonk.
“When David Brown from Marketing called me up in early November, the last thing I was expecting to hear was that a) Christina Yu is having twins and b) he wanted me to step in to co-chair this year’s jury,” said Vonk, who first chaired the Marketing Awards in 1998.
Luc Du Sault
“But I was naturally thrilled for Christina and happy to chair this show along with the awesome Luc Du Sault. LG2 is doing some of the best work anywhere, as last year’s Marketing Awards made clear.”
For his part, Du Sault was thrilled when we suggested Vonk step in for Yu.
“It’s an incredible honour to co-chair the marketing awards with Nancy. We’ll do our best to make it solid.”
Both Vonk and Du Sault were on the jury in 2013, so they take on the assignment with the experience still fresh in their memories. They’ve already reviewed the categories and made a few suggestions to improve things for 2014. Look for the awards site to be up by mid-December with the call for entries set for early January.
Next on their to-do list is picking their jury.
“Essentially, a great award show depends on a having a great jury. We’re going to make sure we get the right people around the table,” said Du Sault.
Since 2011, thanks to Cloudraker’s Christina Brown who co-chaired that year, Marketing has been committed to gender equity for its awards show juries, a goal that is underscored this year thanks to the ADC’s 50/50 initiative spearheaded by Ignacio Oreamuno and backed up by both Vonk and Du Sault.
“There continues to be a mass exodus of women from this business as they hit their mid-30s,” said Vonk. “This hasn’t changed since I got my first job in the 80s. No matter how many come in, it’s not a career women stick with.”
More women on awards show juries is obviously not a panacea, but it’s an important step forward that will benefit the entire industry, said Vonk.
“It’s good for the shows because more female input on what’s best is a very good thing. And more women will get the invaluable experience of spending a few intense days with other super-talented people in the industry. It was a career-maker for me.”
Look for the Marketing Awards website to go live by mid-December with the call for entries planned for early January and an entry deadline of mid-February.
