Ad Awards finalists announced

FINALISTS of the 2012 PANPA Advertising awards have been revealed.

A record 320 entries were received this year. Congratulations to all those on the shortlist!

DOWNLOAD THE LIST OF THE FINALISTS

Winners will be announced online on May 10.

Entries were received from Singapore, Fiji, Hong Kong, as well as the New Zealand and Australian markets.

The competition – revived in 2008 – recorded major increase from publications with circulations of less than 10,000 this year.

More entries were received for the digital and integrated categories, especially from regional and metropolitan papers.

Regrettably, no publisher put forward entries for the mobile or tablet platforms, indicating there is still work to be done in terms of creating effective advertising solutions in-house for these areas.

Executive excellence categories have had their biggest year in terms of entry numbers. Judges of these entries commented on the excellent standard of nominee.

Former PANPA chief executive Mark Hollands said: “The quality of the work is increasing every year.

“It is important to remember that these awards are for in-house work only – and any entry that has had input from a creative agency is disqualified.

“The awards attract many titles that do not rely on agency bookings for their revenue. For those newspapers and web teams, you have to work extra-hard to win a dollar in a competitive market.”

Mr Hollands said he was grateful to the 36 judges who took part this year.

“We have attracted more judges from world-leading creative agencies, so I believe the standard of judging this year has been better than ever.”

He predicted an increase in digital solutions in the next few years.

“I would have hoped for greater progress in this area, especially among the metro and national titles,” Mr Hollands said.

“There is pent up frustration – in newspapers here and overseas – about the general attitude of agencies towards news publishers and their digital properties.

“Some newspapers have gone so far as to set up their own digital agency for their clients, believing that clients were not being well-served by agencies that do not understand the digital market.

Thank you to our judges: Damian Schaller, Herbert Kieleithner, Tom Cooper, Robin Vessey, Adam Coutts, Jasmine Rezek, Scott O’Brien, Rick Slowgrove, Liana Ansell, David Gifford, Allison Whitelaw, Matthew Green, Mark Watson, Brenda Porter-Smith, Monty Noble, Martin Lane, Kimmi Siu, Mark Jones, Stuart Cameron, Glen Wiggs, Caroline New, Jenny Stiles, Lisa Mah-Chut, Julie Rutledge, Mark Challinor, Richard Lindley, Grant Booker, Craig “Moose” Moore, Ray Black, Nancy Hartley, Jay Gilardi, Paul Swann, Steve Dodds, Mitch Crowe.