Susan Credle, global chief creative officer of FCB, has been named chairperson of the 2017 AMP Awards for Music + Sound. Credle will help lead the AMP Awards’ new Curatorial Committee, which will be tasked with ensuring that all finalists meet the criteria for their respective categories. The Curatorial Committee also selects the competition’s prestigious Best in Show winner. The AMP Awards competition is sponsored by the Association of Music Producers.
“Music is manipulative. It can bring tears to your eyes. Make your heart pound. Terrify you. Music is the emotional igniter of ideas,” said Credle. “As Chair of the AMP Awards, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to reflect on the impact music has on our industry.”
Credle was the unanimous choice of the AMP Awards Board of Governors, an honorary group made up of past AMP Awards chairs, to serve as 2017 chair. “They recognized her role as a visionary creative leader who’s always been passionate about the power of music and sound in advertising and highly respectful towards the companies and individuals who work in the craft,” said Jason Menkes, president of AMP, who is also partner and EP at COPILOT Music + Sound in New York. “We’re honored that someone of Susan’s stature has agreed to serve in this role as we mark the AMP Awards’ fifth anniversary, and we’re excited about the insight and experience she’s going to bring to our judging process.”
Credle was named to her current post at FCB in June of 2015. Prior to that she was chief creative officer at Leo Burnett in Chicago, a post she accepted in 2009 after having spent over two decades at BBDO in New York. Among the work she’s been responsible for are Allstate’s “Mayhem” campaign while at Burnett and the iconic M&M’s anthropomorphic “human” spots while at BBDO. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, she recalls being drawn to the ad industry after watching director Ridley Scott’s legendary “Share the Fantasy” spot for Chanel. Parallels are often drawn between the fictional Peggy Olson from “Mad Men” and Credle’s career arc, as she started out as an intern at BBDO and moved up the ranks to become EVP, executive creative director.
An important voice representing gender diversity in advertising, Credle has received numerous industry accolades, including the Chicago Advertising Federation’s Chicago Ad Woman of the Year in 2013, and Business Insider’s Most Creative Women in Advertising lists and induction into the AAF’s Hall of Achievement.
The AMP Awards – which includes the annual AMP Hall of Fame induction ceremony –brings together professionals from the music, advertising, marketing and entertainment worlds to celebrate the best of the best. Prior inductees into AMP’s Hall of Fame have included Volkswagen, Coca- Cola, McDonald’s, Budweiser, Nike, Chevrolet and Pepsi.
The AMP Awards Call for Entries closes on Feb. 24, 2017. To upload entries, click here to access the AMP Awards portal. The awards presentation will be held on Tuesday, May 23, at the Diamond Horseshoe at the Paramount Hotel in the Theatre District.
The AMP Awards are the only U.S.-based, not-for-profit competition in advertising and branding dedicated to honoring achievements in music and sound in all media. This year’s awards also marks the 20th Anniversary of the founding of its sponsoring organization, the Association of Music Producers, which was founded in 1997 to promote the work of advertising’s music and sound companies and audio mixing and recording facilities.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More