Sally Campbell, founding partner of the production company Somesuch and a leader in the industry’s efforts for equity and inclusion in the production ranks, has been named chairperson of the 2023 AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the Commercial. Also announced is the full lineup of experts from a cross-section of the industry who will serve on the 2023 AICP Show Curatorial Committee.
The AICP Show, along with the AICP Next Awards and AICP Post Awards, comprise the suite of competitions under the AICP Awards banner. The results of each show will debut during AICP Week in New York, and be featured at a gala celebration at The Museum of Modern Art.
“Sally has proven herself to be an industry leader in so many respects, from her involvement with AICP to the consistently high level of creative excellence that’s seen in the work of her directors at Somesuch,” said Matt Miller, AICP president and CEO. “She leads with her heart and her head, and just the right smidge of piss and vinegar. We’re excited for her involvement in all aspects of the AICP Show. It’s going to be quite a year.”
“I was very, very flattered,” Campbell said of her reaction to being tapped for the AICP Show chairperson role. “It’s really an honor to be in the company of all the past Show chairs, and build on what they’ve achieved. I’m looking forward to living up to the role.”
Somesuch was launched in the U.K. in 2010 by Campbell, a former agency producer, and her husband, the director Tim Nash. The pair relocated to Los Angeles in 2017 to launch the U.S. office of the company. A native New Zealander, she emigrated to London at the age of 21 and got her start as a runner at The Mill, later joining the storied agency BBH as a producer. Her company has consistently been in the forefront of setting creative benchmarks and upholding the highest standards for craft, whether working in music videos, commercials, brand content or long-form entertainment.
With a firm commitment to diversity, Somesuch boasts one of the highest numbers of women directors on its roster in the industry. The company is also dedicated to producing socially conscious work, and has done so for brands like Gillette, Nike, Secret and Libresse, earning Grand Prix and Gold and Titanium Lions at Cannes and a Black Pencil at D&AD in the process. Somesuch’s “Home,” produced for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, won the BAFTA for Best Short Film in 2017, while another short film, “The Long Goodbye,” a bracing look at racism in Britain, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short last year.
As executive producer, Campbell has served on the juries of some of the most discriminating competitions in the world. Her goal for the AICP Show in 2023 is to boost international exposure and participation across the board. “I love that we’re being more inclusive now, and that we’re increasingly looking at each other’s work from both here and abroad,” she notes. “It means we’re not being complacent, we’re reaching out and attracting the best work from all over the world, and being inspired and challenged by it. That’s hugely rewarding for me.”
AICP Show Curatorial Committee
In assembling the Curatorial Committee, Campbell said she’s impressed by the bifurcated judging process that the AICP Show employs, in which work is initially judged by a carefully selected group of industry experts before it reaches the curatorial stage. The curators determine appropriateness to category and the final disposition of the winners of the AICP Show.
“I like how this phase of the judging happens with everyone in their own space, watching the work, and not talking about it with their friends and peers at other companies,” she said. “Given the breadth of the judging juries and the Curatorial Committee, I feel the results have the ability to be more genuine, and more objective; it just feels more legitimate. And that’s reflected in the strength and value of winning an AICP Award, in that it’s been rigorously judged by people who truly know their craft inside and out.”
In addition to Campbell, the 2023 AICP Show Curatorial Committee includes James Bland, managing director/executive producer, Arts & Sciences London; Antonio Burnett, sr. producer, brand lead Nike Global, Wieden+Kennedy Portland; Rich Carter, president/executive producer, brother; Melissa Culligan, executive producer, Epoch LA; Carol Dunn, executive producer, Human and AMP National Board president; Kim Gehrig, director, Somesuch; Geoff Hounsell, editor, Arcade Edit; Angus Kneale, chief creative, Preymaker; David Kolbusz, chief creative officer, Orchard Creative; Jason Kreher, chief creative officer, Accenture Interactive; Erika Madison, head of production, Anomaly LA; Charlotte Marmion, managing director/executive producer, Iconoclast Paris; Tabitha Mason-Elliott, partner, BARK BARK; Lisa Mehling, owner/president, Chelsea Pictures; Julia Neumann, chief creative officer, Johannes Leonardo; Jenn Nkiru, director, Iconoclast; Vicky Osborn, creative director, Framestore; Brandon Pierce, founder, MadeByBeedy Productions; Avelino Rodriguez, CEO & founder, The Lift; Amber Saunders, editor, Cabin Edit; Daniel Schaefer, chief creative officer, Jung von Matt; Mal Ward, managing director/partner, Arts & Sciences; Colleen Wellman, director of video production, Apple; Brian Yessian, partner/chief creative officer, Yessian; and Iwan Zwarts, partner/VFX supervisor, Blacksmith.
The AICP Show is one of the industry’s leading creative and executional benchmarks and serves as more than an awards show. Each year, The AICP Show, The AICP Next Awards and the AICP Post Awards are preserved in The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film’s state of the art archives for future generations to study and are available for use or exhibition by the museum’s curators. To be eligible, work must have first aired or launched between April 4th, 2022 and March 12th, 2023. The entry deadline for the AICP Show, along with the AICP Post Awards and the AICP Next Awards, is March 6, 2023. Full entry details can be found here.
