Winning an MM&M Award is the highest honor you canreceive for creative excellence and marketing effectiveness in the healthcarebusiness. In just four years the MM&M Awards has evolved to become thepremier program in the industry. Last year we received more than 750submissions, while 800 people attended the black tie presentation ceremony inNew York. And this year is shaping up to be bigger and better still.

The reasons for this success are twofold: First, submissionsare judged with the utmost independence and authority. And second, results arewithheld until the presentation dinner itself, which generates unprecedentedexcitement. This event has quickly become the biggest and best party in theindustry.

By the time you read this, you will have perhaps three weeksor less to get your submissions together. The deadline is May 30, 2008, so makesure you don’t miss out on the opportunity for glory. Please visitwww.mmm-online.com/awards to submit your entries online, and make sure youcheck out the rules, guidelines and tips for winning.

It’s worth doing it properly because you cannot buy anMM&M Award—no matter how many times you sponsor an awards category or howmany ad pages you place in our magazine. We don’t even have a say in who wins.(After all, who are we to judge?)

Instead, we have assembled a panel of some of the finestleaders and thinkers from every corner of the industry to do it for us. Thejudges will spend an entire day (July 14, 2008) reviewing your submissions.They will discuss the merits of each entry with their peers, before submittingtheir individual scores in confidence. We calculate the results from thesescores, but we don’t reveal the winners to anyone—including the judges—untilthe presentation ceremony.

This rigorous process ensures that your submissions arejudged fairly and independently, and with the authority and respect theydeserve, ensuring that only the worthiest work is rewarded. There is no roomfor favoritism or backslapping here. The only way to get your hands on an awardis to impress the judges with the quality of your work.

This year’s panel is a blend of first-time and seasonedawards judges —all of whom are experts in their fields. As usual, seniormarketing and communications execs from pharma companies are well represented.

To date we have added Deborah Dunsire, president and CEO ofMillennium Pharmaceuticals; Joan Mikardos, media director at Sanofi-Aventis;Benjamin Lei, group product manger, e-marketing at Genentech; and Kevin Nalty,marketing director, dermatology, Merck.

These new experts will add to the insights of returningjudges Cynthia North, customer marketing director at Bayer HealthCarePharmaceuticals; Jennifer Rinaldo, marketing director at Forest Laboratories;Joe Shields, consumer product director, Enbrel at Wyeth; Mike Pucci, VP,external advocacy at GlaxoSmithKline; and Meryl Weinreb, director of patientprograms, oncology at AstraZeneca.

Agency leaders, too, are impressively well represented onour panel, including Doug Burcin, worldwide managing director of Euro RSCG LifeWorldwide; Phil Deschamps, president and CEO of GSW Worldwide; Louisa Holland,president of Sudler & Hennessey; Richard Nordstrom, CEO of McCannHealthcare Worldwide; Dale Taylor, president & CEO of AbelsonTaylor; Sam Welch,CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Communications; Anne Devereux, CEO ofTBWA World Health and LyonHeart; and Carol DiSanto, president of Cline Davis& Mann—not to mention more than a half-dozen creative directors.

Specialty expertise will come from the likes of DavidZaritsky, managing director, pharmaceuticals at Harte-Hanks; Natasha Giordano,president, Americas, at Cegedim Dendrite; Peter Pitts, SVP, Manning Selvage& Lee; Sheila Thorne, president & CEO of The Multicultural HealthcareMarketing Group; Marjorie Martin, SVP, general manager, health, at About.com;and Elizabeth Mutisya, MD, president, board of directors at the HealthcareBusinesswomen’s Association.

Last, but not least, from the publishing side we will bejoined by Bob Ziltz, VP, publisher of Prevention magazine and Keith Yocum,director online advertising at the New England Journal of Medicine.

The message is loud and clear: Your submissions will be insafe hands and the best work will win. All you have to do now is enter. Goodluck.


 

Entry kits: www.mmm-online.com/awards

Entry and event information: Shital Patel, 646-638-6157

Sponsorship opportunities: Jessica Todd, 646-638-6141