Industry award shows are useful for taking the pulse of what’s considered great advertising at any moment in time. There’s just one problem: They’re usually judged by the same senior agency and client executives, which limits perspectives.

To mix things up, Gerry Graf, one of the top creative directors in the business, has launched his own show, the Astroland Advertising Festival. The idea is to move beyond the usual suspects and get more emerging talent involved as judges, for a different view.

Astroland’s inaugural jury is comprised of 15 creatives, each of whom has worked in advertising for less than five years. They recently picked this year’s winners, which will be announced Dec. 5.

While acknowledging that there are plenty of advertising awards already out there, Graf told Ad Age that Astroland feels unique and has selected a first batch of winning work that people across the industry might find interesting—even, or perhaps especially, more senior creatives.

“What we define as advertising has been changing incredibly quickly,” the Slap Global co-founder said. “There’s all these creators coming in who create advertising differently, and have been exposed to advertising differently. I just thought, ‘Oh, I wonder what they think is good. What gets them excited?’”

Once he had the idea for a show, Graf reached out to industry friends—Rob Reilly, Susan Credle, Anselmo Ramos, Lisa Clunie, Colleen DeCourcy and others—to get recommendations for jurors. The resulting group hails from places such as Bandits & Friends, Callen, HeimatTBWA, Joan, Mischief @ No Fixed Address, Squarespace and Supernatural AI. (See the full juror list here.)

Also read: Creative judging and accessibility

The judging methodology

For the first Astroland show, there was no entry process. Rather, the jurors were each asked to pick five or six recent pieces of work they liked. (In future years, there will likely be a more typical process where agencies and brands can pay to enter.)

Work was defined more broadly than at some shows. Any piece of communication promoting a product, service or brand was eligible, including work from agencies and studios but also individual creators. Unofficial brand work developed by creators was accepted if the brand interacted with it in any way.

The jurors met on Zoom to explain their selections and cull a shortlist of about 90 pieces. They spent a few weeks scoring them. On a second Zoom, they weighed the scores, debated some more, moved things up and down and eventually finalized a winners list of about 60 pieces.

Instead of gold, silver and bronze, the winners are grouped into “Damn,” “Great” and “Kind of Great.” (There are only four Damns among the 2024 winners, so it’s an elusive prize.)

The winners are a mix of traditional and non-traditional work, said Graf. “There’s a decent amount of films,” he said. “There’s a lot of social stuff—a lot of TikTok stuff. There’s an amazing pop-up store. This crew is not completely cut off from the stuff that the big award shows say is great. They just included a lot of other things, too.”

Learning what great advertising looks like

The first Astroland award ceremony will be held on Dec. 5 in New York. Graf created some promotional materials for the show—or rather, some of his friends did. Reilly, DeCourcy, Lee Clow and other industry leaders recorded short videos simply saying they are not judging the Astroland awards.

Graf said that he sees Astroland as another way for creatives to sort out what great advertising is—something Graf has been trying to do since he pored over Cannes Lions and One Show annuals as a junior creative—just from a different angle.

If Cannes is the Oscars of advertising, then Astroland is more Sundance, Graf said—additive and more indie and cutting edge. Even the name Astroland, a reference to the now-defunct “space-age” amusement park in Coney Island, evokes a more off-kilter version of Disney’s theme parks.

If Astroland can recognize work that’s a bit under the radar yet connecting with younger consumers, it will be useful—even if the appeal of such work might sometimes be lost on the old guard.

“I remember when I was a copywriter and [Nike’s] ‘Lil’ Penny’ came out and my jaw just dropped,” Graf said. “I didn’t even know that was advertising. I didn’t know you were allowed to do that. I remember telling my bosses about it, and they were like, ‘It’s just a puppet. Why do you like that?’ I remembered that when I was working with these judges, when they were voting for stuff I might not vote for.”