MUMBAI: The highly coveted ABBY Awards that recognises and rewards creative excellence is poised to set new benchmarks on scale and innovation with the upcoming 2018 edition. The apex industry award has for the first time announced the formation of a master jury. 

It boasts of 15 illustrious, award winning creative giants who have consented to be the filter for the creative standards of the creative ABBYs.

The master jury is entrusted with the task of screening all the entries received, across all the categories and verticals, to identify those worthy of being short listed. It will then deliberate on which of the short lists is worthy of winning an ABBY. This jury will help ensure that the ABBYs 2018 will be the most sought-after creative awards in the industry. 

ABBY 2018 chair of the awards governing council Ajay Kakar says, “We want the ABBYs to be the gold standard, recognising creative excellence for brands. It is a fact that an award is as good or reputed as the jury that judges it. So recognising this, we created a master jury for 2018. Adjudged by such a versatile and visionary jury means that only the most creative campaigns will emerge victorious, making the winning of an ABBY a career defining moment.”

The 2018 edition will also see the number of categories and sub categories being rationalised, to ensure relevance and effectiveness. Ajay Kakar elaborated, "We recognise that digital is not a medium, but a technology that supports communication. Keeping this and such realities at the core, as against the past years, the categories and verticals have been brought down from 15 categories and eight verticals i.e. 120, to eight categories and eight verticals i.e. 64. 

Another highlight will be the reinstatement of the Agency of the Year award. This year will see the announcement of the creative agency of the year, design specialist agency of the year, digital specialist agency of the year, direct specialist agency of the year, PR specialist agency of the year, branded content and entertainment specialist agency of the year and media agency of the year.