Who wants to elect an awards jury?

With all the debate about the purpose and worth of award shows in the past 12 months, The International Andy Awards has taken a novel approach – you decide the jury.

For the first time the Andys, which are based in New York, are asking the public to vote on who they want on the jury. You can also nominate jury members who you think should be in the running to make the jury, but you have to be quick, the select a nominee option closes on 15 October and overall voting closes on 15 November

I think this is a great idea, especially in this digital, everyone-has-a-voice online age that we live in. Also especially as the Andys want to make its awards show more global and pick the best of the best from around the world, and have a better representation from the digital marketing world. It's also targeting Asia, so if there’s someone you think is worthy in Asia then nominate them online at electthejury.com.

“Communications platforms have gotten so complex and advertising is going through unprecedented change because of it. But one of the things that hasn’t changed is the way that awards shows work. Our mission is to get more people from different disciplines actively involved in figuring out who decides what the best work in 2010 is,” Ty Montague, co-chair of the Andys and co-president and chief creative officer of JWT North America, said.

Check out a video of Montague and co-chair Michael Lebowitz's explanation on the jury selection here.

American Idol meets advertising award show, sort-of. Will be interesting to see the results of this crowd-sourcing model and what jury it churns out in the end.