Next to Watch 2017 will receive the pieces presented at this year’s Festival, designed to honor and acknowledge the value of its participants
Sitges Next –the festival dedicated to promoting innovation in the communication of brands, agencies, start-ups and technological creators– will be commencing entries next week with a new format to reward the most innovative work in brand communication. Sitges Next will be held in Sitges on May 5th and 6th, with a program bringing together conferences, presentations and workshops by current guiding lights in creativity, new technologies, data and digital artists and which is being worked on by the Festival’s new curator, creative director Helena Marzo.
This year Sitges Next is adding Next to Watch 2017, a list that will acknowledge the best works of innovation in communication from around Spain allowing us to discover, compile and bring value to diverse examples of creativity and innovation. Agencies, studies and advertisers can compete to be able to be included in this list, which will serve as the only list of winners included in the Festival.
A jury consisting of different experts will select the best pieces from among all those presented. The period to enter the competition begins on Thursday, February 23rd and ends on April 20th.
For Helena Marzo, the Next to Watch list is a formula that “will allow us to discover who innovates with a more open look and bring value to exploration, regardless of format”. Marzo stressed that “Sitges Next is an event to delight in exploration” and adds that Next to Watch was the best conclusion after consulting the opinions of jury members from last year’s Next, like Rafa Soto and Isahac Oliver. Marzo pointed out that “after an in-depth evaluation, we reached the conclusion that a system of categories and medals isn’t the best way to address innovation in communication. It’s not customary to use these terms to acknowledge innovation applied to, music, art or education, for example”.
Over the upcoming weeks, Sitges Next 2017 will be announcing the first names that will be included in its lineup. Under the slogan Explore. Connect. Change, the Festival aims to be a cross-sectional event for those actors who wish to contribute to the transformation of advertising communication in years to come.
Sitges Next will offer two days to analyze and promote the work of all those who are creating the new languages that is required in relationships between brands and public, and to inspire and guide the discovery of the creative and technological possibilities that can open up innovation. The Festival is organized by the Sitges Town Council and is supported by an advisory board consisting of the Catalonian Generalitat Autonomous Government, the Col·legi de Publicitaris i Relacions Públiques (College of Marketing and Public Relations), Mobile World Capital and the Blanquerna School at the Ramon Llull University.
