Gerety Awards announces global shortlist and agencies of the year

Shortlisted entries from South Africa include The Abused News for Powa (People Opposing Women Abuse) by Joe Public United Johannesburg.

Uma Rudd Chia, ECD and co-founder of KVUR and ambassador for this year’s Singapore executive jury, said, “The advertising world and the parameters that define creativity have always been very male skewed. Gerety Awards brings a nice balance to this by having an all-female panel to judge creative work from a uniquely female lens. This year, the Singapore panel was made up of women creative leaders of different races and cultures which brought about a diversity of thinking to the decision making process. It was nice to see how while we all had our unique takes, favourite pieces and differences of opinions. We all collectively agreed on the best work - goes to show that good creative work transcends individual differences.”

Sessions were held around the world with international executive juries of agency and brand leaders. The judging was followed by jury insight panels. The free to watch events were billed as creative awakenings with each panel, including some of this year's judges from the different jury locations in London, Berlin, Budapest, Milan, Singapore, Lagos, Toronto, Santiago, Los Angeles and Paris.

2021 Agency/Production Company of the year by country winners

• UK Agency of the Year: MRM London
• U.S. Agency of the Year: McCann New York
• French Production Company of the Year: Quad Group
• Hungarian Agency of the Year: White Rabbit Budapest
• Nigerian Agency of the Year: Publicis Insight
• Canadian Agency of the Year: Taxi Toronto
• Canadian Production Company of the Year: Grayson Music
• Italian Agency of the Year: VMLY&R Italy

Agency of the year by country is chosen by the local juries from the portfolio cut and requires a single film no longer than five minutes in length that includes up to three pieces of work from the past 12 months.

• Most shortlisted campaign: “Not For Lease” for Roncesvalles BIA (Business Improvement Association) by The Local Collective in Canada
• Most shortlisted network: across 17 different offices is McCann Worldgroup
• Most shortlisted country: with 35 entries on the shortlist from 17 different companies is the USA
• Most shortlisted category: across different media is the Works for Good Cut with a total of 47 entries.
• Most shortlisted production company: Biscuit Filmworks Los Angeles

The grand jury includes  Odette van der Haar, CEO, The Exponential Company and presenter of Business Beat South Africa and Kate Stanners, chairwoman and global chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi London. They will now choose the final winners which will be announced Monday, 6 September. It will include gold, silver, bronze, grand prix and overall network and agency of the year awards.

Refining the current shortlist the grand jury will be creating a winners showcase across multiple creative disciplines that are determined based on scores achieved across the board – regardless of the product advertised or medium submitted. This ensures that only the very best work that resonates with the world’s most powerful consumers is awarded.

See the full shortlist here.