The annual marketing and advertising competition BalticBest will take place on 24th of August in an online format. We are delighted to introduce you the jury members.
Irina Piiskoppel, Head of Digital, Tank Creative Agency (Estonia)
Irina is Head of Digital at Tank Creative agency. Her job involves working on digital strategies and consulting; more thoughtful and innovative digital solutions according to the client’s needs and goals; supporting and developing creative team (trainings and workshops); keeping customers and the team up to date with the latest online trends and digital opportunities. She has experience in digital marketing for more than 12 years, previously at Vizeum and Havas.
Anna Celmina, Head of Strategy, MAGIC (Latvia)
Experience with 50+ different brands from large telcos to up-and-coming startups. Some of the names you’d recognize: LMT, Circle K, Stenders, Rail Baltica, Air Baltic, LoyLogic, Spice.
Managing a team of 4, winning new businesses, and offering 10+ strategic products, such as brand foundations, brand role, loyalty branding, sustainability strategy, brand architecture, campaign strategies, new product launch strategies, etc.
Lucija Lepsina, Copywriter at Agencija 101, Global Young Cannes Lions GOLD Winner in DIGITAL 2021 (Slovenia)
Awarded young creative, bringing enthusiasm, curiosity and creativity to everything she does. She has already won several top awards, including Global Young Cannes Lions GOLD Winner in DIGITAL 2021, Slovenia Young Lions GOLD 2020 and Slovenia Young Lions BRONZE 2019.
Rolands Puhovs, Managing Director of branding agency White Label (Latvia)
In White Label, Rolands creates brands and campaigns based on their Strategy of No. Before White Label, Rolands was the managing director of Not Perfect Y&R in Riga.
Magnus Lužkov, the Head of Optimist agency (Estonia)
Optimist won the Baltic Agency of the Year title in 2021 and has won the Estonian Agency of the Year title at Kuldmuna competition multiple times. Optimist has recently won awards at Clio, Eurobest and EPICA Awards.
Rimantas Stanevicius, a board member of the Lithuanian Design Association and ADCE – Art Directors Club of Europe (Lithuania)
Rimantas describes himself: “Psychology and HTML. Accordion and triathlon. Bee-keeping and Mandarin. I am a cocktail of everything. I would like to call myself a multi-potentialite (at least a superficial one), who had found a perfect medium for his curiosity thrive. Almost twenty years in advertising means almost twenty years of learning, practicing and fostering creativity.”
Mark Tungate, journalist and author (France)
Mark Tungate is a British journalist and author based in Paris, he is also the Editorial Director of the Epica Awards.
His books include “The Escape Industry: How Iconic and Innovative Brands Build the Travel Business”, “Branded Beauty: How Marketing Changed the Way We Look”, “Luxury World: The Past Present and Future of Luxury Brands”, “Adland: A Global History of Advertising”, “Fashion Brands”, “Branded Male”; and “The Epica Book”
Marko Matejcic, Global Product Strategy Director, Mediacom (Croatia)
Strategist with 12 years of experience in both digital and traditional advertising. IAB Europe Digital Strategy Person of the Year 2022. Only winner of Cannes Lion 2021 in Data Technology category. Festival of Media Global 2021 Grand Prix winner for Campaign of the Year. Winner of Euro Effie Award for Marketing Innovation and IAB Euro Mixx for Effective use of Data.
Jurate Zuolyte, Editor of “M360.lt” and DELFI Kultūra (Lithuania)
Jurate is the editor and journalist experienced in working in the online media industry and PR. She is a strong media and communication professional with a Master’s degree focused in Culture management and culture policy from Vilniaus Dailes Akademija.
Giorgi Avaliani, Co-founder of Holy Motors (Georgia)
One of the loudest voices of the flourishing Georgian creative industry, Giorgi began his career at Leavingstone, Tbilisi with focus on social media, viral stories, digital experiences, and fun in all forms and sizes. After scoring a wave of “firsts” for the agency and the country – the first Cannes Lion, the first Webby Award, the first Awwwards SOTD, the first Eurobest Young Creatives Gold Medal, and the very first spot for Georgia on the Cannes Lions jury, he moved on to launch his own creative studio Holy Motors with Nick Kumbari, acclaimed art director, in 2019 – diving deeper into creating memorable brands from scratch.
Apart from chasing wild ideas, running an illegal chacha brand “Bodishi” (meaning “sorry” in Georgian), teaching at Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, he loves challenging tradition with modern twists – his controversial pink version of the national costume received a lot of publicity during the Frankfurt Book Fair, and together with his friends he invented the birthday of khinkali (a beloved Georgian dumpling), now celebrated every year on October 10 (simply because khinkali is 10/10).
Gašper Meden, Marketing magazin (Slovenia)
Gašper Meden is a journalist based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He’s writing and reporting for print and digital issues of Slovenian marketing publication Marketing magazin of which he also manages its social media. Has a thing about technology, media and everything in between.
Tigran Gevorgyan, Copywriter @Doping Creative Agency (Armenia)
Tigran is a Copywriter at Doping Creative Agency. He has 6 years of experience in the field, having worked with brands like Mercedes-Benz, UNFPA, Volvo, as well as state agencies such as Armenia’s Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Health
He teaches Copywriting at Russian-Armenian University, Faculty of Advertising and Media. Tigran is also a member of the Republican Commission on Social Advertising that reviews and licenses nation-wide social campaigns.
He was a copywriter for the award-winning “My name is Enough” campaign that struck multiple Golds and Grands Prix at Red Apple, Eventiada, TAF, Silver Mercury, Gerety, Red Jolbors and other festivals.
Gerður Huld Arinbjarnardóttir, Founder/CEO @Blush (Iceland)
Gerður is the youngest person in history who has received the Marketing Person of the Year title in Iceland and her company Blush was named the best Icelandic brand in 2022.
Gareth Pretorius, Creative Director, Circus Advertising (Mauritius)
A cultural chameleon with over 15 years of experience across 50 brands in 6 different countries, Gareth is quick to comprehend and adapts easily to any situation.
Most recently he has taken on the managerial role of developing the internal Audio Visual department, growing simple content production into a full 360 offering which now includes motion graphics, animation, 3D and VFX, while winning awards, increasing revenue contribution by 186% and quadrupling the staff contingent.
Brendan Ihmig, Branding, Marketing and Business Development consultant (Namibia)
Brendan has 20+ years of experience in marketing with the last 10, focused primarily on digital strategy and activation. He founded PointBluntPro in 2000 to provide multimedia services which included the digitalisation of Namibian brands and the activation of a social presence for various local businesses and organisations.
He has had experience starting business ventures, founding professional associations, and serving on numerous boards over the last two decades. Brendan is currently a branding, marketing and business development consultant based in Namibia.
