• Oriel Davis-Lyons, Spotify creative director chair a 121 man jury

The newly elected president of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN and the chief executive officer of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko, has been announced one of the thirty-six new jurors to make up one hundred and twenty one members jury for 2020 Cresta Awards.

This announcement made Babaeko the first Nigerian and West African adman to be so nominated in jury dominated by creative minds from advance markets across.

 Meanwhile, Oriel Davis-Lyons, a serial winner of more than 100 awards in his agency career, has been announced by 2020 Cresta Awards organizers as a key thought leader for the competition this year.

Announcing his nomination on his Facebook handle, Babaeko said, “Proud to be part of the Grand Jury for Cresta Awards 2020”.

Babaeko is an unusual mix of creative and businessman. His X3M Ideas Group, which he founded in 2012, has become a yardstick for a new generation of Nigerian creative entrepreneurs.

After pulling in top talents and clients, he has expanded to South-Central Africa, via Lusaka and Johannesburg, where he has opened independent offices for X3M Ideas.

Prior to X3M (which includes X3M Music, Zero Degrees Productions and Media 100 Limited), the dreadlock creative adman was the creative director at 141 Worldwide. Steve began his advertising career at M&C Saatchi and later moved to Prima Garnet Ogilvy.

For more than 23 years he has been helping to create iconic marketing campaigns. They include the “Proudly Nigerian” campaign for British American Tobacco, the “Now You’re Talking” campaign for Etisalat, and the “You Need A New Bank” campaign for Diamond Bank.

He has judged at the New York Advertising Festival, the Loeries and Cristal Awards. He has also been a speaker at the Cannes Lion Festival. He was listed in Adweek as one of the Top 100 Creatives in the World 2019.

Oriel Davis-Lyons, Creative Director, Spotify

The Cresta Jury is recruited from across the globe and consists of some of the world’s most experienced and successful creatives.

According to the organisers in s statement posted on its website https://www.cresta-awards.com/jury, the statement read, “Unlike many awards, our jury is semi-permanent with many members serving for a number of years. This helps give our awards a consistency of assessment that is a hallmark of Cresta.”

“ All jury members vote independently online, with arithmetical averaging being used to identify the highest ranked work. Jurors are able to vote without group pressures, politics, or other deviations from giving a clear insight into their individual expert creative opinion. As part of the evolution of Cresta we are developing and applying new processes to help the juror selection be more representative and supportive of diversity and gender in the industry worldwide,” the statement read.

Cresta President Alan Page in statement said, “We discussed long and hard as to who might best encapsulate our 2020 quest for creative standards,” said “We were delighted when our choice of Oriel for the role met with his interest and then agreement.

“With a career ranging from working at great agencies such as Colenso BBDO in New Zealand, to R/GA and Droga5 in New York, to now having moved to a world-leading client, Oriel represents the international and creative discipline diversity that we aspire to in these awards.’

Davis-Lyons commented: “This year, more than any other, it is important to recognize the work, the agencies and the brands that understand their role and responsibility to shape the kind of world we want to live in going forward. People are questioning everything about what we used to call ‘normal’. They want to create a society that ismore equitable and more humane and we need to hold up the work that is trying to achieve that.”

He added: “Creativity is vital right now because we are facing scenarios that have no precedent and we are tasked with finding answers to questions we have never had to ask before. Both for the brands we work for but also within our own walls. And all we have is our ability to adapt and imagine something new and better. So, I am hopeful that we will look back on this time as the most creative and most progressive our industry has ever been.”

While several awards have decided to not proceed in 2020, Cresta believes there has never been a more important time for awards to support the creative industry in demonstrating its value and its values.

To help ease the current financial challenges for entrants and to ‘level the playing field’, Cresta is waiving all fees for this year. “We just want to see the best work entered, and give our jurors the chance to promote outstanding creativity that makes the case for this industry in its cultural, social and economic value,” said Lewis Blackwell, the Cresta Awards CEO. “We have seen some great work come in so far and it looks like being a fascinating challenge for the jury.”

This year’s deadline for entering is already closed.