ADCOLOR announced the nominees and honorees for the 14th Annual ADCOLOR Awards. Since 2007, the awards have highlighted and honored the achievements of diverse communities in the advertising, marketing, PR, media and entertainment industries. They recognize those who go above and beyond to make a difference and embody the organization’s call to “Rise Up, Reach Back.”
Of note this year, ADCOLOR, in partnership with Adweek, will be honoring the founders of Black Lives Matter with the 2020 Beacon Award. The award honors individuals of note who use their considerable platform to change the status quo in the quest for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We are honored to present the second-annual Beacon Award to Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, the founders of Black Lives Matter,” said Lisa Granatstein, Editor and SVP of Programming at Adweek. “This is truly the year of BLM. We are blown away by how this remarkable group has transcended its early beginnings as a grassroots organization and become one of the most powerful political and cultural movements in U.S. history.”
ADCOLOR and The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) also teamed up this year to create a new award category: The AAFCA + ADCOLOR Creative to Watch Award.This award honors a creative of color whose career in its early stages demonstrates a vision and commitment to diverse and inclusive stories that reset and disrupt the industry across multiple platforms. The winner of the inaugural award will be announced at a later date.
In addition to the ADCOLOR awards, the organization today announced its 2020 class of ADCOLOR FUTURES. Building on the motto of “Rise Up, Reach Back”, the ADCOLOR FUTURES program identifies and nurtures the next generation of leaders who have one to three years of experience in their industry.
The program provides training, mentorship and empowerment to these young professionals with the goal of supporting the talent of tomorrow, today.
The full list of nominees, honorees and FUTURES can be found below.
2020 ADCOLOR NOMINEES
Ad of the Year
Campaign: “The Look”
Client: Proctor & Gamble
Agency: Saturday Morning
Campaign: “True Name”
Client: Mastercard
Agency: McCann Worldgroup
Campaign: “Most Searched”
Client: Google
Agency: Brand Studio
Campaign: “All for 1”
Client: Nike
Agency: Paper
Campaign: “1619”
Client: New York Times
Agency: Droga5
Rising Star
Justin Hutchinson, Partnership Coordinator, ThreeSixtyEight
Nayantara Dutta, Senior Content Strategist, McCann Worldgroup; Founder, Unapologetically Muslim
Abu Ngauja, Manager, Talent Experience & Belonging, The Martin Agency
Rockstar
KR Liu, Head of Brand Accessibility, Google Brand Studio
Supriya Venkatesan, Director of Content Strategy, Critical Mass
Chantel George, Account Executive, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Innovator
Tamika Newhouse, Founder, AAMBC Inc.
Kudzi Chikumbu, Director, Creator Community, Tik Tok
Steph Loffredo, Associate Director, Social Marketing, Huge
Change Agent
Darla Price, EVP, Executive Account Director, McCann Worldgroup
Judy Jackson, Global Head of Culture, WPP
Chanel Cathey, Founder and CEO, CJC Insights LLC
ADCOLOR in Tech
Andrea Belalcazar, Program Manager, Infra Diversity & Inclusion, Facebook
McKenzie Thomas, Product Marketing Manager, Google
Ty Heath, Global Lead, B2B Institute at LinkedIn
Most Valuable Partnership
AT&T & 360 Agency
HBO & The Atlantic
Google & Creative Theory
2020 ADCOLOR HONOREES
Beacon Award presented by ADWEEK
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Black Lives Matter
Alicia Garza, Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter
Opal Tometi, Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter
AAFCA + ADCOLOR Creative to Watch Award
To Be Announced
Legend Awards
Soon Mee Kim, EVP, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader, Porter Novelli
Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, Executive Vice President, Entertainment Diversity, Inclusion & Communications, CBS Entertainment
Alvin Bowles, VP, Global Marketing Partnerships, Facebook
Catalyst Awards
Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, The Recording Academy
ColorComm, Inc., Woman of Color in Communications
Advocate Awards
Damon Jones, Chief Communications Officer, Proctor & Gamble
Don Lemon, Anchor, CNN
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Renetta McCann, Chief Inclusion Experience Officer, Publicis Groupe
Warrington Huddlin, Founding President, Black Filmmaker Foundation
ADCOLOR |One Club Creative Awards
Ivellisse Morales, Founder & CEO, bombilla
Soham Chatterjee, Senior Creative Copywriter, Leo Burnett
Mr. ADCOLOR
Bryan Stromer, Founder & Co-Lead, Disability in Marketing, Microsoft
Ms. ADCOLOR
Deborah Renteria, Manager, Multicultural Marketing, HBO
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“While we can’t gather anywhere physically this year, going virtual allows everyone everywhere to be a part of the 2020 event,” said Tiffany R. Warren, Founder and President of ADCOLOR. “With ADCOLOR Everywhere, we are reimagining how the industry does online events and aim to provide the same energy and premier experience we typically offer in-person. It’s shaping up to be something truly memorable, as is evident from the outstanding list of nominees, honorees and FUTURES announced today.”
The host for this year’s ADCOLOR Conference is TV host and producer, Dana Blair. Blair is one of Hollywood’s most personable on-air talents, having covered everything from pop culture and celebrity interviews with Essence, People and The Recording Academy to social justice pieces for BET.
Her one-on-one interviews have included the likes of Shonda Rhimes, Will Packer, Mary J. Blige, Angela Bassett, Denzel Washington, among many other top entertainers and powerhouses.
Comedian, actress and writer Aida Rodriguez will then close out ADCOLOR Everywhere as the host of the 14th Annual ADCOLOR Awards on September 10th. Rodriguez made history as the first Latina to appear in two comedy specials airing in one month on both HBO and Showtime and is currently developing a half-hour scripted series with Warner Media.
She was featured in the film The Comedian and has appeared on Tiffany Haddish’s breakout Netflix series They Ready, Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, TRUtv’s Laff Tracks, Nickelodeon’s Moms’ Night Out and Parental Discretion.
As previously announced, ADCOLOR’s 2020 event, which includes the ADCOLOR Conference, ADCOLOR FUTURES program and the 14th Annual ADCOLOR Awards, will be going virtual this year due to the ongoing novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The online event, which is the first in the organization’s history, will be rebranded as ‘ADCOLOR Everywhere’ and held from Tuesday, September 8th to Thursday, September 10th.
Registration for ADCOLOR Everywhere will open on Wednesday, August 12th at adcoloreverywhere.virtualeventsite.com. Please follow @adcolor on social media for additional updates and information.
