Flames 2025 Announces Jury Presidents for This Year’s Awards!

The Baku Flames International Festival of Creativity and Effectiveness 2025 is set to bring together the brightest minds in advertising, branding, marketing, and more. With a competition structure built around 4 tracks, Baku Flames will award the best in creativity, strategy, and impact. Each track will be led by a jury president:

• Jury President of Core Track — Ali Rez, Chief Creative Officer at IMPACT BBDO MENAP
• Jury President of Connect & Engage Track — Eduardo Marques, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Groupe Benelux
• Jury President of Design Excellence Track — Shaun Loftman, Executive Creative Director at Landor
• Jury President of Effective Change Track — Elena Plakhova, Chief Reputation and Marketing Officer at Nova Post Group

But Baku Flames is not just about awards; it’s about inspiration, learning, and networking. Our jury presidents will also take the stage to share their experience, exploring the creative processes behind every campaign, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the ideas that have shaped the industry. Here’s what to expect from their sessions:

• Ali Rez will take the stage to explore how creativity influences behavior, drives business success, and makes an impact through storytelling, using award-winning campaigns as examples. His topic is called The Art of Persuasion.
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• Eduardo Marques will share the biggest rejections he faced in his career and how they led to some of his most successful work. His topic is called Don’t Wait, Just Make — A Brief Story About Persistence.
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• Shaun Loftman will discuss how design, storytelling, and strategic branding work together to create lasting brand impressions and shape consumer perception. The name of his topic is The Ingredients for Great Brand Moments.
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• Elena Plakhova will share her experiences navigating brand reputation and marketing in times of crisis. Coming from Ukraine, she has led communications, strategy, and business growth while facing the unprecedented challenges of war.

With a competition featuring four tracks, 14 categories, and hundreds of subcategories, agencies, brands, and creative professionals have the opportunity to submit their work and be evaluated by some of the most influential leaders in the industry.

Get your passes and submit your work at bakuflames.az

For more information or assistance, feel free to reach out to us at info@bakuflames.az