Eternal Creativity: Why 2024 Is Set to Be The Immortal Awards' Biggest Year Yet
On February 7th, constituents of London’s creative community congregated in the foyer of Soho’s Ham Yard Hotel, ready to take in the exclusive first showing of Little Black Book’s Immortal Awards 2023 winners reel. Suited and booted, adland’s finest rubbed shoulders, revelling in an evening of diverse winning projects from the most recent competition.
Established in 2018, The Immortal Awards has and always will be about championing and celebrating the best creative advertising in the world. Despite the plethora of change that has impacted the industry since the awards show’s inception, its straightforward guiding principles remain the same: work can be submitted by any company that has worked on it; work from anywhere in the world can win; and the complexities of traditional awards shows - including categories, media, and fees - have been stripped away entirely.
In a bid to make the awards even more accessible, it has always been totally free-to-enter for LBB members, removing unnecessary costs for an industry already grappling with dwindling budgets. The show’s unwavering principles has resulted in year on year growth, with entries up nearly 50% in 2024 and more companies and countries entering than ever before. Following the launch event in London, LBB’s April Summers catches up with awards directors Paul Monan and Emma Wilkie about last year’s competition, global showcase tour, and why every market within the creative community should have a seat and a say at the global table.
LBB> 2024 marks the Immortals Awards’ seventh year! Paul, having been involved from the very start, can you tell us how the show caters to an ever-evolving advertising landscape?
Paul> We spoke to a lot of people within the industry about what a modern award show could and should look like before we launched this thing. After discussing the idea with Sir John Hegarty (chairman of LBB), we firmly believed there was an opportunity to do something different with the Immortals; something befitting of the modern advertising industry. There are some really great older shows and initiatives out there that benchmark creativity but we had the chance to start from scratch, with no legacy format to reinvent.
Within a year or two, we realised that there was also a huge opportunity to judge the work in a different way to other global shows. Our juries are based on location, not category or medium, and celebrate the best work from a particular market or region. We judge locally, regionally and then globally, with the best work flowing through the competition from one jury to the next. Along the way, we celebrate the best work from markets all around the world, even if they don’t ultimately go on to pick up an Immortal Award. It’s important for every market to have a seat and a say at the global table. Judging this way allows us to do that and we have seen projects go on to pick up prizes at the Immortals that I don’t necessarily think would do in other competitions.
LBB> Emma, congrats on your first year as awards director of the Immortals! As someone with heaps of experience in the biz, how does the Immortals champion creative excellence and effectiveness in advertising in new ways?
Emma> Thank you, it’s been a fantastic year – I’ve loved every minute! I have indeed had the privilege to spend most of my career identifying and championing the very best creative ideas that set the benchmark for the industry, so joining the Immortals has been a great opportunity to put what I’ve been saying all these years into practice.
The Immortal Awards has been created to ensure a completely level and fair playing field. Any company, be it agency, production or brand, no matter its size or available awards budget, has exactly the same opportunity to have its work recognised. The other key element that sets us apart is that judging is done locally, then regionally and finally globally. That way great work gets recognised and celebrated along the way but to actually win an award is super tough, as it should be. It’s called The Immortal Awards, after all!
LBB> Having spent the last year working as a team, what do each of you bring to the table? How have you leveraged one anothers’ skills to grow the awards show over the past year?
Emma> Despite advertising still being shockingly ageist, I would proudly say that it’s my age! Many years of experience, knowledge and understanding of creative awards afford me a unique insight and focus on how we can make the Immortals relevant and future-facing, to best champion and support creativity in our industry. Paul is my absolute dream partner who already has six years of practical experience running the award show and clearly many other skills that I have conveniently avoided learning over the years! Communication is key and that has been a fundamental part of what makes our partnership so strong. The results speak for themselves with entries up nearly 50% on the previous year and a record number of companies and countries entering this year!
Paul> Emma joining the team towards the end of our fifth year, in 2022, was a pivotal moment for the show and also for me personally. I’ve been with LBB for a decade this year and have been working on the Immortals since day one of the show. Working alongside Emma every day has been great for the show, she has an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to our crazy little award show industry. Her experience running The Gunn Report and her innate understanding of how and why creativity is benchmarked globally is invaluable as we keep pushing forward with the Immortals. I know the show inside out and having somebody with fresh eyes and a different perspective come in and push the Immortals in different and new directions has only benefited our mission.
LBB> How does the new LBB archive make it easier than ever to enter the show directly?
Paul> The wider team at LBB have done a wonderful job of redesigning the platform over the last two years – it’s never been so easy to enter the Immortals! Companies can submit their work directly at the click of a button, from their LBB Creative Library. This puts an end to scrambling around looking for the correct version of the assets or typing out endless lists of credits. Those who use LBB frequently throughout the year - especially our Library Management members who send everything into our team to upload - will benefit from this massive time saver. Of course, all entrants can also upload everything directly into the submission form too just like they always have been able to do.
LBB> In what ways do the 2023 winners exemplify “creativity which lives forever”?
Paul> We are super proud of the body of work that won at our 2023 competition. The trio of Immortal projects are a beautiful blend of empowering, hilarious and genius that are all fitting winners. Within our nine Commendations there is work from all around the world, covering print, film, digital and plenty in between. Every project will live long in the memory of those who’ve judged and seen them.
Emma> When the global jury discussed the criteria for awarding an Immortal or Commendation it was suggested that identifying projects that a university professor in 20 years’ time would use as an example when teaching creative advertising should be the benchmark. In that way, all 12 winners exemplify creativity which lives forever and I’m sure will be used to educate future generations of creatives.
LBB> Can you tell us a bit about the 2023 Immortals jury?
Paul> We’ve taken pride in the strength and quality of our juries since launching in 2018 but last year was our biggest and - we believe - our best yet. Firstly, we introduced five new juries and gave France, the Netherlands, Spain, the Nordics and India their own dedicated days. Our ambition is to continue adding juries so that every major market in the world has its own.
Across the 17 jury days in 2023, almost 140 jurors took part in the search for creative immortality. Within that pool were many of the industry’s most revered creatives, brand leaders and production and post heads. And it’s a pretty fun jury to be on as the lens we look through differs to every other show!
Emma> Putting together our biggest number of juries yet was always going to be a logistical challenge but I could not be prouder of the 140 jurors that gave us their time and enthusiasm for the task at hand. From the local juries through to the final prize-giving global jury we had expert knowledge from agency, production and brand representatives that made for incredibly interesting and insightful discussion and sometimes heated debate!
LBB> In addition to celebrating global Immortal winners and Commendation recipients, how does The Immortal Awards champion the best local and regional work?
Paul> We make sure we’re celebrating the very best local and regional work at every step along the way. The beauty of the Little Black Book platform is that everything can be seen - the work and the credits - without being trapped behind a paywall. We run local, country based juries in an ever increasing number of markets to shine a light on the best work in that country.
For example, in the UK we have a jury day, featuring a jury composed of UK based creatives, that identifies and celebrates the best of British advertising. The projects that our jury selects are then called Finalists, celebrated in press articles on LBB and sent forward to the European round of judging to compete against other Finalists from the region. In Europe alone, we have dedicated local juries for France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Nordics, Spain and the UK. Globally, we also run these days in Canada, the US and India with a plan to ultimately include a local jury in all major advertising markets.
Emma> Our belief is that brilliant work is being made everywhere, so local work that may slip through cracks and criteria in other global competitions won't be with us. We have juries that understand cultural nuance and local creativity as they’re composed of creatives from the market or on the ground there, and they make sure this work is amplified and celebrated.
After every jury session, we run a piece on LBB that features the Finalists - whether it’s a local or regional jury day - with all credits available. We want people to be proud of receiving Finalists status, as that in itself is no mean feat when you begin to understand the ruthlessly high standards that all of our juries set.
LBB> Next up, now that the London showcase is done, comes the global showcase tour. Which countries are you visiting, and what are you hoping to achieve this year?
Paul> We’ll spend the next few months taking the winners reel to as many as we can, whilst launching our call for entries for the 2024 competition around April. The aim of the showcase is to quite simply get this incredible work in front of as many creatives as we can, showing them that there is some properly brilliant stuff being made in all corners of the world and, hopefully, inspiring them to push the boundaries of creativity in their projects this year. There’s always something on the reel that they won’t have seen before, especially the younger creatives and those who don’t get to go to the other festivals and shows.
Emma> Now the launch event is over we’ll be taking the Showcase on the road to share with a wider audience this fantastic body of creative work that has set a high benchmark for the year ahead. Numerous sessions in London are already booked and events are being planned in Dublin and Sydney as well as trips to New York, Toronto and Berlin. But we’ll go anywhere that anyone wants us, so would encourage readers to get in touch if they’d like more details!
LBB> And finally, how does the show benefit from its supporters?
Emma> Quite simply, the show wouldn’t exist without its supporters. We are hugely grateful to those companies who believe, as we do, that having no entry fees, no categories and a limit in the number of entries for every company is the fairest way to identify, applaud and award outstanding creative excellence. Thanks to their generosity we’re able to run the judging across individual countries, regions and globally as well as take the showcase on the road to inspire agencies, brands and ad makers the world over.
Paul> Last year, we were able to judge in person in more countries than ever before, hosting juries in New York, Chicago, Toronto, London, Dublin, Berlin, Dubai, Mexico City and Sydney, as well as taking the showcase to cinemas and offices in London, Berlin, New York, Dublin and Sydney. A huge thank you to all of those who support the Immortals: JSM Music, Whitehouse Post, The Lift, BIG KAHUNA FILMS, DEPT, Zulu Alpha Kilo, Framestore, Company 3, Zauberberg Productions, Brill Building, Motherland, Screen Scene, Heckler, ARC Edit, Howatson+Company, UNIT, Kruger Products, Chelsea Pictures, Park Pictures, RSA and Hogarth Studios. Our wonderful supporters keep the show free to enter, let us run our juries in person and allow us to take our showcase tour to as many creative companies as we possibly can.
