Scott Donaton, sr. VP and head of marketing for Hulu, has been named as the 2022 AICP Next Awards judging chairperson. In this role, Donaton has assembled the presidents of the Juries that, in turn, will select judges for all Next Awards categories.
“Scott brings unique perspectives to his role as chairperson,” said Matt Miller, president and CEO of AICP. “Having known Scott for many years and through the different chapters of his career, I’ve always marveled at how thoughtful, insightful and articulate he is about all facets of the industry. I can’t think of anyone who understands what it means to be ‘Next’ better than he, and I’m looking forward to his leadership of this year’s AICP Next Awards.”
At Hulu, Donaton has oversight of all marketing strategies across the Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) and Live TV businesses. He was previously Hulu’s head of creative, where he oversaw the company’s creative studio, Greenhouse. In that role, Donaton drove deliverables across every touchpoint of the consumer experience, and launched the industry’s first-ever branded entertainment function that designs and delivers creative opportunities for advertising partners in streaming television.
Prior to Hulu, Donaton served as the global chief creative & content officer at Digitas, leading the agency’s worldwide creative practice. He also served as head of content for The Americas for Publicis Media and was chief architect of the Digitas NewFront presentation. He came to Digitas from UM, the media arm of IPG, where he was global chief content officer and head of UM Studios; there he led a team of content strategists and producers who developed creative programs and experiences for clients including Chrysler, Coca-Cola, J&J, BMW and Sony. Prior to UM, Donaton founded Ensemble, an Interpublic Group content studio, where he served as CEO from 2009 until 2013.
Donaton coined the phrase “Madison & Vine” while covering the media beat for Ad Age, where he later served as editor and publisher, and is the author of a book by the same name. It helped launch the branded-content revolution by declaring the entertainment and advertising industries need to converge to survive. He left Ad Age to become publisher of Entertainment Weekly before segueing into the agency world.
Donaton has a rich history with the AICP Next Awards, having served as the jury president for the Branded Content and Entertainment category three times. “It’s such a cliché to say it’s an honor, but it really is,” he remarked, “especially after having served as a jury president when Tiffany Rolfe was in this role. She’s such an inspiring presence in our industry, and now I get to step into those shoes. You feel a sense of responsibility in doing so, since the signals the Next juries send out can have a real impact.”
Setting standards or benchmarks is at the core of the AICP Next Awards mission, Donaton added. “I think all awards competitions should celebrate what’s great not just in the moment, but should show us what’s possible,” he said. “And in judging this show, we’d often ask about a piece of work whether it was ‘nexty’ enough, or did it have enough ‘nextiness.’ It was a constant filter we used to determine whether an entry showed the way to what’s next.
“As a journalist, one of the kindest things anyone ever said to me was that it felt like I could see around corners,” Donaton continued, “and winning a Next Award has a similar quality to it. What it says is that the people who created the work can see things before others do.”
The AICP Next Awards Jury Presidents & Curators at Large
As chairperson, Donaton set out to identify industry professionals to serve as jury presidents who would bring a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives to their roles. In so doing, he’s selected a team of highly-regarded creative and marketing executives to lead the panels that will judge the Next Awards categories. The jury presidents in turn select the judges for their respective disciplines. The lineup of 2022 jury presidents includes:
- Branded Content & Entertainment: Shannon Pruitt, global chief content officer, Stagwell Media Network
- Creative Data: Ronald Ng, global chief creative officer, MRM
- Digital Experiences: Andrew Carlson, chief experience officer, Organic
- Experiential: Karan Dang, executive creative director, Yellow Shoes
- Influencer: Judy John, global chief creative officer, Edelman
- Innovation: Jae Goodman, CEO, Observatory
- Integrated Campaign: Atit Shah, chief creative officer, Digitas North America
- Purpose Driven: Bill Oberlander, founder & chief creative officer, OBERLAND
- Real Time Engagement: Bianca Guimaraes, partner & executive creative director, Mischief USA
- Social: Tatiana Holifield, head of social media, Brand, Hulu
- Web Film: Guto Araki, founder and chief creative, Biite.club and Big Family Table
Several curators at large will work with jury presidents to determine the final disposition of the AICP Next Awards as well as select the Most Next (Best in Show) honor. This year’s curators at large include past AICP Next Awards judging chairs such as Gerry Graf, co-founder, Knickerbocker Slapglobal; Jeff Kling, founder & chief creative officer, Lighting Orchard; Jaime Robinson, co-founder & chief creative officer, JOAN; and Tiffany Rolfe, global chief creative officer, R/GA. Additional curators at large are: Teressa Iezzi, director of content, The Farmer’s Dog; Marc Maleh, VP, creative studio, Crypto.com; Allen Mask, partner, West Cap/CöLab; James Robinson, chief creative officer North America, Momentum Worldwide; and Jimmy Smith, co-founder, chairman, CEO, & chief creative officer, Amusement Park.
The work of the AICP Next Awards winners, along with that of the honorees of the AICP Show, becomes a part of the archives of The Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it can be studied by future generations and is available for use or exhibition by the museum’s curators.
The deadline to enter the AICP Next Awards–along with The AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the Commercial, and the AICP Post Awards–is March 28, 2022.
