The John Caples International Awards has selected Juanita T. James as general chair for the 21st annual awards ceremony.
Though she is a longtime direct marketer, James, who is executive vice president at Doubleday Direct Inc., said she brings a different perspective to the awards because she has never worked on the creative side of marketing campaigns, which the awards ceremony honors.
“They essentially looked outside the advertising world, so to speak, because though I've always been in direct marketing, I've worked with customer acquisition and strategy,” she said. “It will add some new excitement. I'll be working with a group of people, some of whom I've worked with in the past and many whom I've never met.”
James said her goal as chair is to focus on continuing to attract quality entries.
“I hope we'll continue the tradition of bringing entries from all over the world. I guess I'd like to see some more of the efforts of smaller creative agencies so that it can expand its reach to include a different group of smaller and larger agencies,” she said.
James, who spent 20 years with Time Inc. and served as senior vice president, editorial, of book-of-the-month club there before joining Doubleday, said she was interested in participating in the awards because of the importance of recognizing creative and because of the awards' reputation.
“I have been in direct marketing for 22 years,” she said, “and in any organization where I have worked, it is a tremendous honor to receive an award and be recognized by this group.”
The Caples Awards deadline for entries is Oct. 31. Preliminary judging is in November, followed by final judging in December. The awards show and dinner/dance will be at the New York Marriot Marquis on Feb. 18.
