- Adweek Staff

NEW YORK The International Andy Awards has added a new category for its 2009 competition called "Category Next" in order to recognize innovative work in any medium.
 
The new category, sponsored by Contagious magazine, was created to offer a platform for ground-breaking creative that may not fit in the show's other categories, said Andy chairman Mark Waites, joint creative director and founding partner of Mother, London.
 
"We live in a world where category defiance seems almost mandatory. We don't know where the next thing is coming from," said Waites. "This is an attempt to reward innovation."
 
The 2009 Andys will take place in New York next March. Judging will take place in February at the Riviera Maya in Mexico.
 
The jury includes Richard Bullock, 180 Amsterdam; Mike Byrne, Anomaly, New York; Susan Credle, BBDO New York; David Droga, Droga5, New York; Marie-Catherine Dupuy, TBWA\Paris; Pete Favat, Arnold Worldwide, Boston; Jeff Goodby, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco; Gerry Graf, Saatchi & Saatchi, New York; Tony Granger, Y&R, New York; Bob Greenberg, R/GA, New York; Prasoon Joshi, McCann Erickson, India; Andrew Keller, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder, Colo.; Carol Lam, TBWA\Shanghai; Jose Molla, la comunidad, Miami; Ty Montague, JWT, New York; Bob Moore, Publicis USA; Hiroki Nakamura, Dentsu, Tokyo; Piyush Pandey, Ogilvy & Mather, India; Bob Scarpelli, DDB Worldwide, New York; Roger Stighall, North Kingdom, Stockholm, Sweden; Feh Tarty, Wieden + Kennedy, London; Jureeporn Thaidumrong, JEH United, Bangkok, Thailand; Mark Tutssel, Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago; Oliver Voss, Jung von Matt, Hamburg, German; and Simon Waterfall, Poke, London.

The Advertising Club in New York is the facilitating sponsor of the International Andy Awards.