Chris Northam, SVP, ECD, Head of Creative at R/GA New York Named 2019 MADC Stars Jury President

The MADC has announced Chris Northam, senior vice president and executive creative director of R/GA New York, as jury president of the 2019 MADC Stars Creative Showcase. The jury – to be announced at a later date – will be built of highly awarded Australian creatives working in NY, and led by Northam to award the best work the Melbourne creative community has to offer.

With a 19-year career spanning two continents, Northam has been recognised at every major global award show, including the Emmys. After starting his career in Sydney then relocating to Melbourne in 2005, the MADC was the first award show his work was ever recognised at over 10 years ago.

Says Northam: “The MADC had a big impact on me. Just before I moved from Sydney to Melbourne a “big ad” emerged from my new home. And everyone, I mean everyone, was talking about it. Its impact was BIG. Within weeks of starting at GPY&R I was sitting with my new colleagues at MADC, celebrating as their Big Ad won big. But other big ideas from other agencies were winning big too. Simple ideas. Strange ideas. Beautiful ideas. Impactful ideas. And before night’s end I had met every writer, director, art director, creative director, account director, photographer, producer, coder that had collaborated to make all these beautiful ideas a reality. This tight knit mob of mad men and women welcomed me into their little community of creativity – all I owed in return was to impact the work and the creative community.

“Today, I’m senior vice president, executive creative director – head of creative at R/GA New York. I owe my hilariously bloated American title to everything I learned, made and celebrated at MADC. And now I have the great honour of leading a jury of NY based Aussie creatives in selecting the next wave of big ideas that have made an impact in Melbourne, Australia and the world. And will hopefully make an impact on the next crop of MADC first-timers, as it did me years ago.”

Says Adrian Bosich, president, MADC President: “Key to the show is the international jury consisting of expats who have all worked in the local market, most of whom have benefitted by the MADC Stars in the past. These judges are removed enough from the market to be objective, but know the Australian advertising landscape, and Chris is the perfect person to lead this jury. Something I loved about last year is that in addition to globally awarded work being recognised, we unearthed some really interesting hidden gems.”

The MADC acknowledges its key sponsors: Guilty, Alt.vfx, Electric Dreams and Coco Productions; along with its agency supporters: AJF, BWM Dentsu, By All Means, CHE Proximity, Cummins&Partners, DDB, Deloitte, Fenton Stephens, Havas Melbourne, Leo Burnett, M&C Saatchi, Marmalade, McCann, Monkeys, Ogilvy, Royals, Saatchi & Saatchi, SDWM, Taboo, TBWA, Thinkerbell, VMLY&R, WhiteGrey and Wunderman Thompson.

Entries are open from now until Sept 25th, with late entries accepted until Oct 18th (late fees apply). With judging occurring soon after, no extensions are possible beyond this date.

Save the date for the MADC Stars Creative Showcase on November 14th – tickets on sale soon.

Enter now at madc.awardsengine.com, and keep up to date with all MADC news here.