Jerry Mpufane will serve as jury president. Mpufane is chairperson of the M&C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg Group and has more than 20 years’ experience in brand marketing. He takes over from John Dixon who served as jury president for four years.

"The Bookmark Awards sets the benchmark for the industry by celebrating award-winning work that inspires and educates the market about the power to build brands through creative, high-impact digital executions that deliver measurable results," says Mpufane.

"This year’s expert judging line-up will have a tough job on their hands, evaluating the best work South Africa’s creatives have to offer," adds Mpufane.

Chairing the Marketers jury panel is Tseliso Rangaka, executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town. The Publishers jury panel will be chaired by SABC stalwart, Izak Minnaar, who serves as digital news editor at the broadcaster.

Chairing the relatively new Gamers jury panel is Danielle Mascher, head of development at Liquorice. Lorraine Landon, head of agencies at Google South Africa is chairing the Performers jury panel.

Luke Judeikin, co-founder and co-CEO of Superbalist.com is chairing the Builders jury panel. The Innovative Engineers jury panel will be chaired by Native VML’s integrated art director, Jade Amic.

Each jury panel oversees a number of judging categories. Bookmarks 2018 judging features two rounds – remote and onsite. The finalists will be announced on Thursday, 8 February, in advance of the onsite judging weekend. This year’s judges will evaluate over 600 entries across 74 categories.

New categories introduced to the Bookmarks this year include Influencer Marketing, Online Video, Use of CRM, Loyalty Programmes and Gamification, Artificial Intelligence, Second Screen campaign, and Craft: Excellence in use of sound.  

"Machine learning and AI are becoming more and more part of our daily lives at a rapid rate. We’re finding ourselves speaking to machines more frequently, and they are deriving meaning from every word we say or don’t say," says Innovative Engineers jury panel chair, Jade Amic.

"Our world is becoming totally customised for us, by us, without us even knowing it. It’s not only changing our lives but completely shifting industries. The fact that we have no idea what tomorrow will look like is incredibly scary and exciting at the same time. 2018 is looking to be a really interesting year."

You can purchase tickets through IAB South Africa’s booking platform here.

For more information, visit www.thebookmarks.co.za. You can also follow #Bookmarks2018 on Facebook or on Twitter.