AUSTRALIA'S DAVE KING TO HEAD DM JURY AT ADFEST

M&C Saatchi Sydney's Dave King has been appointed Chairman of the DM Lotus at AdFest next year, and Benjamin Palmer has been named Chairman of the Cyber Lotus. AdFest, which is held in Pattaya, Thailand on 14 -17th March 2007, has been extended to a 4-day event next year.
King, National Creative Director – Direct, of M&C Saatchi Australia, joined M&C Saatchi in 1999 as senior writer. He is one of the region's most awarded DM creatives with five Direct Lions, a D&AD Silver Nomination, One Show Silver and nine gongs at the John Caples Awards, amongst others. Last year he also received a Silver and a Bronze at AdFest. Under his leadership as Creative Director in 2004, M&C Saatchi set a then Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) record of 22 finalists, converting 13 into gongs. This next year they managed to top that with 24 finalists including the Grand Prix and the Winged Messenger for the best piece of direct mail. He has judged at Cannes, AWARD, ADMA and twice been invited to judge Caples.
Palmer is CEO and Executive Creative Director of The Barbarian Group. He began his career doing graphic design for record covers and Boston-area nightclubs, following which, he began freelancing at advertising agencies. His work with agencies coincided with the world wide web boom, and he found himself doing work both for traditional and interactive media. Having survived the boom and crash, he decided that he wanted to focus entirely on interactive.
In December 2001, Benjamin co-founded The Barbarian Group with three partners. The Group now has 30 active clients, and has won gold medals at most major international awards shows. Mr. Palmer has also served on a number of awards show juries, including D&AD, The One Show, and the Art Director's Club.