A trio of young advertising professionals have taken the helm for the 2010 ICE Awards.
Sarah Fitzgerald, media planner at Cossette East, and Tyler MacLeod, account supervisor at Extreme Group, have been appointed as co-chairs for the ninth edition of the ICE Awards, a program that recognizes work from the Atlantic Canada region. David Sayers, copywriter at Bristol, will serve as creative chair.
In previous years, the ICE Awards has been led by a rotating cast of East Coast agency heads. But 2009 co-chair Mark Gascoigne, president of Trampoline Branding, said he and other senior executives felt younger staff could bring a fresh approach to this year’s event.
“I think they’ll probably be more willing to take some risks,” said Gascoigne of the new ICE team. “I think they’ll have more going on around the edges [of the program].”
Gascoigne added that Fitzgerald, MacLeod and Sayers will be working from a template established by previous ICE organizers, one that provides clear direction regarding such components as entry dates and judging.
“The outgoing group has put the pieces in place for a successful event, so I don’t think we’ll stray too far from what’s been working the past couple of years,” MacLeod said. “But we want to inject a different energy.
“It will be interesting to present the show from the standpoint of younger people who are maybe getting started in the business and showcase some things that may be of more interest to them.”
Fitzgerald said she hopes to help raise the profile of the media industry in the Atlantic region.
“It’s great for me to be involved in the creative show and perhaps push the media envelope a little bit here,” said Fitzgerald. “Media is still kind of a second thought in this region sometimes, whereas in the rest of Canada it’s a bit more at the forefront, especially in terms of innovation.”
The 2010 ICE Awards gala event will take place in Halifax in late October.
