The Irish Audio Awards is in the process of selecting its second ever jury. This is being done with insight and guidance from the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design, alongside some of the best, most highly respected, and consistently awarded creatives in the industry. Drawing from this experience, the Irish Audio Awards will assemble a jury that is qualified to assess, recognise and award the most exceptional work. The jury will be assembled with a varied set of experience in mind and will be equipped to evaluate work fairly and effectively.
The jury will comprise four creatives; two practising outside Ireland, one Irish jury chair, and one audio craft specialist. The jury will be empowered to award to the best of its ability, and as such, the Audio Awards will have no access to the jury whilst they deliberate. Similarly, the Audio Awards will not be privy to decision making rationale and will have no input into the results. See our confirmed judges below.
Pearse McCaughey
McCaughey Creative
Pearse McCaughey has over thirty years’ experience working as an advertising creative. He was Group Creative Director of TBWA\Dublin and a former President of ICAD and a member of the ICAD Executive Committee. He is currently a Creative Fellow of UCD where he is a PhD candidate, and continues to work as a creative consultant with a particular interest in teaching creative thinking and problem solving skills, along with facilitating creative collaboration among multi-disciplinary teams.
Sandra Bold
CCO Wunderman Thompson Benelux
Sandra moved her ad career from Bucharest to London, from London to Milan and from Milan to Amsterdam in pursuit of life’s meaning, good work and great people. Or food and coffee.
The jury is still debating.
During her quest she managed to land awards in major ad festivals like One Show, Cannes, Clio, Eurobest and D&AD and titles like Copywriter of the year.
Her work also put a shoulder in McCann Romania becoming agency of the year and network of the year 4 years in the row in Golden Drum and Publicis becoming Adweek's 2021 International Agency of the Year, 2nd agency in the world according to Cannes Lions 2021 and 3rd Agency in the world according Cannes Lions 2022.
Sandra is currently working in Wunderman Thompson as a Chief Creative Officer for Benelux.
Gavin Little, Sound Designer
Echo Lab
Gavin Little is a Sound Designer and Music Producer based in Dublin, Ireland. Gavin has made his name working in the space where motion meets sound. An avid fan of cinema, music and electronics, his career started as a graphic designer before progressing into visual and then sound design for motion. In 2001 he established Echolab to focus solely on creating audio for commercials, film trailers, short/feature films, brand identities, VR experiences and anything that moves. ECHOLAB has a commercial client list that includes Nike, Sony, Apple, Dolby, Google and Samsung. Echolab sound design has featured in the trailers for some of Hollywood’s biggest films including Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex Machina and continues to rattle sound systems and minds around the globe.
Paddy Treacy, Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy
After selling mortgages for Rothco (RIP) and flogging scratch cards for DDs (also RIP) Paddy left Ireland to go and live at Wieden+Kennedy. He’s spent the intervening years encouraging Londoners to wear Nike, convincing the British to try Bud Light and explaining why TK Maxx is actually better than you’d expect. He now spends the vast majority of his time thinking about the Shamrock Shake™.
Fun Fact: He's never won an award for radio. So what the hell does he know?