WARC Awards for Effectiveness: 2023 Cultural Impact

Jury Chair
VP, US Marketing, Brand Content and Engagement, McDonald's

Jennifer “JJ” Healan has spent her career building some of the world’s most iconic brands, creating a place for them in culture through industry-leading work. Under Jennifer’s creative leadership, McDonald’s was named #2 on AdAge’s Marketer A-List in 2020 and 2022, and in 2021, made Fast Company’s Brands that Matter list. She worked at The Coca-Cola Company for 15 years, both in North American and Global roles, where she led all advertising, content and creative excellence for the legacy brand.

New Business Director, Noble Graphics Bulgaria

Samuil Petkov is the New Business Director of the most awarded agency in Bulgaria: Noble Graphics. He is a former strategist and account manager with a track record in numerous campaigns for local and international brands. Now he is responsible for the business development of the company and its growth. He is currently serving as a member of the Global Growth Council in Talent formed by the ANA and Cannes Lions and additionally works as a university lecturer and a festival director of Noble Academy.

Director of Brand Strategy, DNA

Lauren Sooudi is the Director of Brand Strategy at DNA in Seattle. She brings 14 years of agency experience to discovering strategic opportunities for her clients and creating more relevant roles for brands in culture. Over the years, Lauren has developed a passion for championing female leadership in her industry. She has initiated female professional empowerment committees in agencies, negotiated parental leave policies and developed “Sorry Like You Mean It” – a first-of-its-kind study that aimed to understand why women over-apologise.

CEO, Ogilvy Africa

Currently based in Nairobi, Vikas runs Sub-Saharan Africa for the Ogilvy network covering 39 countries. He has built and managed creative, media, PR, content, digital and consumer engagement companies over the years. A strategist by training, Vikas believes in an ‘omni-channel’ approach to marketing. Case studies authored by him have won over a hundred local, regional and global effectiveness awards including several Agency Of The Year titles.

Strategy Director, Imagination

Jess’ expertise spans across digital, film and experiences. She specialises in applying human-centred design across a broad spectrum of experiences, including innovation centres, spirits destinations, and more. Since joining Imagination New York in 2018, Jess has led strategy on global Mastercard business, including the seven global Mastercard innovation centres, the Priceless.com redesign and the B2B Global Event Strategy.

Executive Creative Director, George P. Johnson

Adrian has created multiple award-winning, unique brand interactions, and experiences across Australasia, the US and the UK, working in multiple mediums to deliver creative campaigns for the most complex business and brand challenges. His passion has always been for crafting and creating effective and highly engaging, insight- and strategy-led concepts and executions connecting brands with people, that don't just inspire one-off results but create positive, ongoing interactions.

Founder and CEO, Creative Culture

Mélanie is the Founder and CEO of Creative Culture. Her passion for cultural diversity and intelligence has strongly influenced her life and career decisions. With over 18 years of industry experience in cross-cultural communications and strategy, Mélanie has advised international brands, including Barclays Wealth, GSK and Johnson & Johnson. Mélanie is very active in promoting DE&I and has developed innovative initiatives to allow brands to successfully lead their inclusion ambitions in complex, multicultural environments.

Brand Planning & Engagement Leader, Pernod Ricard

Passionate about understanding what motivates people to behave as they do, Pascal’s mission today at Pernod Ricard starts with creating brands with a sharp purpose and an identified sustainability and responsibility objective. To activate that purpose creatively, he is in charge of developing a programme to enhance effective creativity and to efficiently partner with creative agencies. He drives the global brand-planning process with all affiliates, and organises efficient communication about brand activities so markets can plan local implementation.

Chief Innovation & Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe Middle East & Turkey

As Chief Innovation & Growth Officer for Publicis Groupe in MENAT, Jennifer leads two practices delivering impact today and building tomorrow's vision. In the past, Jennifer has shaped the future of some of the most valuable brands in the world, leading the strategy formulation and implementation - in big agency networks as well as start-ups and tech companies. Her experience spans brands such as Apple, IKEA, KFC, Coca-Cola and Nissan and includes being part of dozens of award wins across Cannes Lions, Effies, Dubai Lynx and WARC.

Group CEO and MD, DDB Mudra Group

Aditya started his journey with Mudra in 2003 as a strategic planner, taking on various responsibilities over the years including that of the Chief Strategy Officer, a role in which he helped shape India’s most successful independent advertising agency into an Omnicom-owned, integrated marketing communications group. He has overseen globally recognised DE&I initiatives like ‘The Phyllis India Project’ which builds and develops a community of women leaders; and ‘Open Pride’ which focuses on an inclusive work environment for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, TBWA Hong Kong Limited

Terence has over two decades of experience in the marketing and communications industry. The scope of his strategy work includes business planning, product innovation, segmentation, brand repositioning, brand experience and go-to-market strategies. Through TBWA’s Disruption® philosophy, he has led strategy for businesses in APAC across diverse categories and the result has been a sustained growth of both business and brand health at the local and regional level. Effectiveness organisations such as the IPA, Effies, Tangrams and WARC have consistently recognised his achievements with various awards over the years.

Global Chief Experience Officer, Edelman

As Edelman’s Global Chief Experience Officer, Taj works to create experiences that make a difference in product, culture and community. He oversees a team that combines creative, design, and technology to create innovative brand experiences. Prior to his time at Edelman, Taj led a creative team at Microsoft that created digital products and community experiences for mixed reality. Taj was recently recognised as one of the luminaries featured in the 2022 AdWeek 50 – honouring media and marketing's indispensable behind-the-scenes stars.

VP, Strategy, Mccann Lima

Currently the VP, Strategy at McCann Worldgroup based in Lima, Peru, Laura Zaferson is a communicator, marketer and educator with broad experience. Prior to her current role, she was VP, Planning at Publicis Groupe and worked for global networks such as GREY, DDB, LOWE and JWT. While developing in the advertising field she was part of a solid Planning Department at CircusGREY, and has supervised the Movistar Team at DDB, managed Unilever mainstream brands at Lowe and handled Belcorp’s regional team at JWT.

Chief Strategy Officer, FCB Canada

Currently the VP, Strategy at McCann Worldgroup based in Lima, Peru, Laura Zaferson is a communicator, marketer and educator with broad experience. Prior to her current role, she was VP, Planning at Publicis Groupe and worked for global networks such as GREY, DDB, LOWE and JWT. While developing in the advertising field she was part of a solid Planning Department at CircusGREY, and has supervised the Movistar Team at DDB, managed Unilever mainstream brands at Lowe and handled Belcorp’s regional team at JWT.