HK4As Kam Fan Awards announces judging panel

Of the nine creative judges this year, seven are from overseas cities including London, Toronto, Thailand and Australia.

Leading the creative committee chairman, Spencer Wong said: “Resetting the Kam Fan Awards to a very high standard might see less awards given out, but we see it as a good and strong signal to the industry, as it makes the competition more intense - attaining the honours all the more precious."

Wong stressed that the Kam Fan Awards would retain the strict rules against scam ads. 

According to the HK4As, "as expected, the number of entries is not as high as the previous years". However, some interesting focuses this would be the "Use of Budget" and "Consumer Insights & Strategic Thinking" media campaigns. These categories might "reflect some messages for this year's outlook".

The HK4As Kam Fan Awards began in 1984, and this year will be held on 6 November at the Hong Kong Convention Centre.

The creative judges are:

Ben Walker, creative director, Wieden & Kennedy, London
Sam Ball, creative partner, Lean Mean Fighting Machine, London
Lance Martin, executive creative director, Taxi2, Toronto
Pinit Chantaprateep, deputy chairman, chief creative officer, JWT Thailand
Kim Shaw, co-publisher and editor, Campaign Brief Asia, Australia
Koshi Uchiyama, creative director, GT inc. Tokyo
Hwee Beng Poh, executive creative director, DraftFCB, Shanghai
Tan Khiang, film director, WOWWOWTANK, Hong Kong
Iris Lo, creative veteran, Hong Kong

The media judges are:

Timothy Cheng, head of eBusiness, Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited
Maggie Choi, managing director, OMD Asia-Pacific
Randy Lai, vice-president of leadership marketing, supply chain management & business strategy, McDonald's Restaurants (Hong Kong)
Alice Lam, media veteran, Hong Kong
Vivian Lee, marketing director, Ocean Park
Chris Ryan, managing director, wwwins Consulting Hong Kong
KK Tsang, CEO, GroupM Hong Kong