- Becky Ebenkamp, Brandweek

NEW YORK International advertising and design competition The CLIO Awards will present entrepreneur Mark Cuban with an honorary Emerging Media Award at its 50th anniversary gathering in Las Vegas May 12-14. Cuban joins previously announced 2009 honorary award recipients: singer/composer Barry Manilow (who wrote ad jingles early in his career) and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner.

Cuban, the chairman and co-founder of HDNet, can also list investor, Internet entrepreneur, movie producer, Dancing With the Stars contestant and owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks among his accomplishments.

"To be recognized by the advertising industry is an incredible honor," said Cuban, who will attend the Emerging Media Awards. The entrepreneur, who debuted streaming media with Broadcast.com during the Web's 1995 infancy and HDNet a week before Sept. 11, 2001, is used to dealing with doubters, and sees opportunity even in the depressing down market. "There is always a new way to apply media in unexpected ways," he said. "The key is not to follow trends, but to trust your instincts and preparation and get ahead of future trends."

The Emerging Media Awards show within The CLIOs is comprised of four media categories: Content & Contact, Interactive, Integrated and Innovative Media.

"Audiences are seeking new avenues to get their information -- these forms of communication are ways that clients and their agencies are getting their message out [to supplement] their radio, TV and billboards," said Wayne Youkhana, director of The CLIO Awards. "Advertisers realize, 'We can't just do a TV ad, we can't just do a print ad. We have to do an interactive mix of everything to guarantee that we reach our audience today."

Cuban was a natural fit as "a pioneer of digital media and understood the power of it," Youkhana added. "He was ahead of his time."

Additionally, the 2009 CLIOs have named the jury members for the Emerging Media Awards. The Interactive jury will be executive chairman Nick Law (CCO, North America, R/GA, New York), Jeff Benjamin (interactive ecd, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder, Colo./Miami), Jorge Calleja (cd, Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam), Javier Cami (CEO, e-volution, Buenos Aires), Pete Case (cd, gloo, Cape Town, South Africa), Mike Geiger (chief digital officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco), Timm Hanebeck (cd, Jung von Matt/Alster, Hamburg, Germany), Rei Inamoto (co-CCO, AKQA, San Francisco), Jean Lin (global chief strategy officer, founder, WWWins, Beijing), Benjamin Palmer (co-founder, CEO, The Barbarian Group, New York), Fernanda Romano (cd, JWT, London), Andy Sandoz (cd, Work Club, London) and Geoff Teehan (partner, Teehan + Lax, Toronto).
 
The 2009 CLIO Awards Content & Contact jury is executive chairman Rob Reilly (partner, co-ecd, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder, Colo./Miami), Mark D'Arcy, (CCO, Time Warner, New York), Stuart Outhwaite (creative, Mother, London), Ted Royer (ecd, Droga5, New York) and Satoshi Takamatsu (founder, CCO, Ground, Tokyo).
 
Marcello Serpa (partner, general cd, AlmapBBDO, Sao Paulo, Brazil) will serve as executive chairman of the Print/Innovative/Integrated jury, which will include Yuri Alvarado (evp, CCO, Draftfcb Mexico, Mexico City), Jay Benjamin (ecd, Leo Burnett, Sydney, Australia), Katrien Bottez (cd, Duval Guillaume, Brussels), Israel Diaz (svp, cd and managing partner, Leo Burnett Canada, Toronto), Hwa Ean Huang (deputy chairman, ecd, McCann Worldgroup Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur), Ivan Johnson (ecd, Network BBDO, Cape Town, South Africa), Delle Krause (cd, Ogilvy Frankfurt, Germany), Jacob Nelson (cd, Forsman & Bodenfors, Stockholm, Sweden), Tian It Ng (ecd, Lowe China, Shanghai), Victor Ng (ecd, Euro RSCG Singapore), Grant Parker (head of art, DDB London), Matt Reinhard (ecd, DDB West, Los Angeles), Mariano Serkin (general cd, Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Erik Vervroegen (cd, Paris).

The submission deadline for CLIO entries is Friday, March 13.