MUMBAI: Celebrating 25 years this year, Eurobest, the European festival of creativity, has introduced two new awards and academies to recognize the talent in the advertising and communications industry.

The special awards are titled as ‘Independent Agency of the Year’ to be presented to the highest-ranked independent agency that has amassed most points across all the entry sections including Branded Content & Entertainment, Craft-Film, Craft-Print & Poster, Design, Direct, Film, Integrated, Interactive, Media, Mobile, Outdoor, PR, Promo & Activation, Print and Radio. The points will be based on all shortlisted and winning entries by agencies that are not majority owned by a major holding company.

The ‘Golden Palm Award’ will be bestowed to the most awarded production company in the Film and Film Craft sections. The award will be calculated on a points basis, with different values attributed to each award and shortlist place.

The fest has also launched two new academies for budding talent titled ‘The Eurobest Academy for Young Marketers’ and ‘The Eurobest Young Suits Academy’.

The young marketers academy will offer professionals below 30 years of age, working for client companies a unique insight into creativity in communications to understand the way creativity can be applied to their marketing strategies. Guided by an industry expert, the three-day course is designed for advertising managers, brand managers, business development managers, communications managers, marketing managers, media managers and sales managers.

On the other hand, the young suits academy is designed to inspire and equip the continent's young agency account executives below the age of 28 years, to lead and achieve ground-breaking creativity for their clients and their companies. The team will be guided by veteran ad professional Kevin Allen, who has over 20 years of experience in companies like McCann Erickson, the Interpublic Group and Lowe Worldwide.

Commenting on the innovations, Eurobest festival CEO Philip Thomas said, “As we look to the future, Eurobest not only honours the agencies and production companies that are paving the way forward with their innovative ideas and techniques, but is also fully committed to ensure that the new generation of marketers and account managers benefit from the rich offerings of the event and are wholly integrated into the creative process of brand communications.”

The fest will take place from 28-30 November in Lisbon, Portugal.