2011 Industry Judges

Charlie Snow, Director of Communications Strategy, DLKWLowe, Convenor of Judges 2011

After spending a few years in Qualitative Research, Charlie joined the planning department of DMB&B/D'Arcy in 1994. He joined DLKW in September 2000 to head up the planning department as Planning Director, becoming Director of Strategy in February 2009. He is now Director of Communications Strategy at what has recently become DLKWLowe.  In his time, he has won the APG Grand Prix and two IPA Effectiveness Gold Awards.

Lorna Hawtin, Disruption Director, TBWA\Manchester, Deputy Convenor of Judges 2011

Lorna has been responsible for the planning across a broad spectrum of clients at TBWA\Manchester for 15 years, encompassing brand, government, and retail. Lorna has authored over 10 winning IPA Effectiveness papers including Gold for Imperial Leather and she is a member of the IPA Value of Advertising Group, whose aim is to develop effectiveness knowledge and practice amongst the UK agency and client community.

Roger Banks, Managing Director, Incite Marketing Planning

Roger is Managing Director of market research agency, Incite, where he works closely with clients in the financial services, retail, technology and FMCG sectors. Roger started his career as an Economist with FIAT, and then moved to NatWest Bank as a Senior Operational Researcher.  His first market research agency role was at BJM Research Partners, where he worked with automotive clients and built up a financial services practice. Prior to joining Incite, Roger spent 20 years with Research International in the UK (where he was MD of RI Specialist Units), USA (Vice Chairman of RI USA) and Singapore (CEO RI Asia), then back in the UK (CEO Mainland Europe, then Group CEO). He holds a BA (Econ) Hons and a MA (Econ), both from the University of Manchester. 

Clare Bruce, CEO, Nunwood

Clare is both a fully trained accountant and experienced qualitative researcher, previously working client and agency-side with a number of Europe's biggest brands. Her work motivated her to establish Nunwood, to offer inspiring and creative insight, but also ensuring that research is linked to business process, action management and bottom-line results. Over the last decade Nunwood has worked with many of the Fortune Global 500, operating in 40 countries with the marketing teams of some of the world’s most inspirational organisations. Clare developed an agency structure that embraces other disciplines, from ROI-simulation, to film, business consultancy and knowledge management. Nunwood’s success has been industry recognised with a string of recent ‘Agency of the Year’ and ‘Insight Effectiveness’ accolades. Clare maintains a hands-on role in many of Nunwood’s accounts, and is a regular speaker on the conference circuit. Nunwood recently opened its seventh global office, in Sydney, Australia, to add to other hubs in Europe, North America and APAC.

Ali Bucknall, Ali Bucknall Planning and Research

Ali has worked in Advertising and Communications as a Planner and Strategist for over 20 years.  Her experience covers a range of large and small agencies including CDP, WCRS, D’Arcy and more recently heading up Planning at Leo Burnett and Elvis Communications. She now works independently offering research, strategy, training, coaching and mentoring for agencies and client companies. She’s worked across almost every sector including COI, P&G, Orange, Fiat, McDonald’s and Cadbury. She’s won four APG Planning Awards and has contributed to successes in APG, Euro Effies and IPA Effectiveness Awards. She was a judge for the 2007 European Effectiveness Awards and has been chair for various training courses for the IPA. Ali is a full member of the Market Research Society and a member of Women in Advertising and Communications.

Matthew Dearden, CEO, Clear Channel

Matthew Dearden is Chief Executive of leading out-of-home media owner Clear Channel UK, and a member of Clear Channel International’s Executive Committee which provides leadership, direction and resources across all its businesses. Matthew joined Clear Channel in August 2010 to lead the company’s vision, strategy and plans for growth, and is responsible for managing more than 650 employees in the UK across all functions including sales, marketing, operations, finance, IT, HR, legal and development. Prior to joining Clear Channel, he was Marketing Director for BT’s Consumer business where he was responsible for acquiring and keeping over 10m customers. During his six years at BT, Matthew also held the roles of Director of Voice Services, Chief Executive BT Directories and General Manager of Directory, Operator & Emergency Services.

Karen Fraser, Director & Head of Strategy, Credos & The Advertising Association

Karen is Director of the advertising industry’s new think-tank, Credos. Credos aims to understand advertising: its role and its value to UK society and the economy. Karen is also Head of Strategy at the Advertising Association, an organisation which promotes and protects advertising in the UK. Prior to this, Karen founded Fraser Consultancy and the Ethical Reputation Index, an independent tracker of consumers’ ethical opinions. In 2007, her work on 'Conflicted Consumers' was chosen for the Harvard Business Review: Breakthrough Ideas List 2007.

John Kearon, Founder, CEO, and Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer Group

John Kearon is the Chief Juicer and Founder of BrainJuicer Group, founded in 1999, the invention of which made him Ernst & Young’s ‘Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2005. BrainJuicer has twice won the ESMOAR award for best Methodology in 2005 and 2007, and John was recently awarded the Advertising Research Foundation’s Gold Award for Great Mind/Research Innovator of 2008. Prior to BrainJuicer, John had founded innovation agency, Brand Genetics, which invented new products and services for large blue-chip companies. John started his career over 20 years ago as a graduate of Unilever’s management programme rising to be a Senior Marketer at Elida Gibbs before moving into advertising, as Planning Director of one of Publicis’ UK advertising agencies.

Andrew Melson, Managing Director and Founder, Agency Insight

Andrew has 25 years experience working with agencies and clients. He started his career at JWT in account management working on clients such as Kellogg’s, Andrex, Nestle, Shell, Unilever and RAF Recruitment. He then switched to the creative side, setting up his own agency, BMP Business, which he ran for seven years before selling to Omnicom. 16 years ago he set up Agency Insight and advises clients such as Diageo, Adidas, Johnson and Johnson, Innocent drinks, Toyota and Nikon on all issues relating to business and brand strategy and the using and choosing of agencies across the marketing mix. He sits on the ASA CAP committee and is a contributor to Market Leader.

Doug McConchie, Head of Consulting, Bellis-Jones Hill

Doug works across the public and private sector driving for greater efficiency and performance improvement using best practice methodologies supported, where needed, by industry leading software. Prior to joining Bellis-Jones Hill, Doug was Managing Director of PIMS ‘Profit Impact of Market Strategy’. Doug has been instrumental in examining different frameworks on return on investment of marketing expenditures helping organisations capture data around the drivers of advertising and promotional success and better understand their impact on business results. He has worked closely with the IPA on a number of policy initiatives, benchmarking approaches and took part in the development of the IPA Databank. 

Roger McKerr, Founding Partner, Davies+McKerr

Roger has over 20 years experience across both qualitative research and creative agency planning. Whilst he has successfully delivered hundreds of research projects, he also has first hand agency planning experience in advertising, design, direct marketing and digital communications. He is seen by many clients as a point of strategic continuity on their brands and is regularly asked to go beyond the core research function to input on strategic brand discussions at a broader level. Prior to co-founding Davies+McKerr in 2005, Roger spent 15 years as an account planner in leading London creative agencies, most notably as Planning Partner at HHCL – Campaign magazine’s Advertising Agency of the Decade for the 1990s.

Ruth Saunders, Managing Partner, Galleon Blue

Bringing over 20 years of experience in marketing and brand strategy, Ruth helps clients develop and implement innovative marketing and brand strategies that deliver tangible business growth. She works across a range of B2C and B2B industries – including financial services, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, telecommunications, retail, media and healthcare. Prior to founding Galleon Blue, Ruth began her career as a Marketing and Branding Consultant at Prophet and McKinsey, strategic advertising planner with Saatchi & Saatchi and Mustoes, and Marketer and Market Researcher with Procter & Gamble and Mars.

Kate Waters, Strategy Partner, Now

Kate is the strategy partner in Now, a communications agency she founded earlier this year with Mark Lund and John Townshend. Prior to this she was a director at PR agency Blue Rubicon, Planning Partner at Partners Andrews Aldridge, the direct & digital specialists within the Engine Group, and Head of Planning at Partners BDDH, now Euro RSCG. She is a founding member of the IPA’s Taskforce on Behavioural Economics, a recent Chair of the IPA's Professional Development group, and a committee member and regular trainer for the Account Planning Group.

Laurie Young, Consultant

Laurie is an internationally recognised specialist in the marketing and selling of services. His career has included senior positions with BT, Unisys and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, as well as founding and then selling his own company. Laurie now divides his time between consultancy work (including teaching on the Executive Education Programme of Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania), teaching and writing. As a consultant he has assisted senior executives with the resolution of strategic marketing issues, brand strategy, new service design and client care programmes. Recently he has Chaired Fujitsu's ‘Customer experience management’ panel and is on the Innovation Board of Allen & Overy. Over the years his clients have included Russell Reynolds Associates, Deloitte, Phillips, Lucent, Ericsson, Ingersoll Rand, Microsoft, BBC, Cable & Wireless, American Express, Nokia and BDO Stoy Hayward. Laurie has had six books published to date, the latest of which, Marketing technology as a service was published on 16^th April 2010.