2024 AMERICAN ADVERTISING AWARD JUDGES
Thank you!
Anne Ryan Gauer
President and Creative Director at Spotlight Productions
Writer, producer, and director Anne Ryan Gauer has 25 years of production experience. She has been honored with awards including: First Place National ADDY Award for Public Service, Houston International Film Festival Award, New York Film Festival Award, Columbus International Film Festival Award, IAFE Best Campaign, and more than twenty ADDY Awards. Anne holds national and regional production credits. She worked as Assistant Location Manager for the Paramount Pictures film “NEBRASKA” that was nominated for five Golden Globes and six Academy Awards. She has field produced stories for major television networks. Anne has judged American Advertising Federation local and district award competitions in 17 states.
She has written and produced hundreds of corporate and industrial video programs, television commercials, and advertising for print and social media. She was awarded the YWCA “Salute to Women” Award for her contributions to the community. She is currently President and Creative Director at Spotlight Productions, Billings, Montana.
Leigh Anglin
Sales Manager/Digital Sales Manager at Townsquare Media, Results Radio
Our presenter grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota. After getting swished in the face with damp, discolored, Holstein tails, he discovered at an early age that farming would not be his chosen profession.
There were signs of Adult Attention Deficiency Disorder right out of high school, as it took him three different schools and several job paths before he settled into advertising. He has been an audio-visual writer/producer, photographer, and has done just about every job in radio from announcing to sidewalk shoveling. He has served as a Sales Manager at KXRB- KKLS, General Manager of KELO Radio, Director of Advertising Sales for Midcontinent Communications, and “Chief Idea Officer” for ADwërks, Inc. a Midwest Advertising Agency where he spent most of his time overseeing five McDonald’s accounts. He recently retired as a Sales Manager/Digital Sales Manager at Townsquare Media, Results Radio in Sioux Falls.
Our guest is a past South Dakota Ad-Fed president, and alumni of the AAF National ADDY committee. He has won several ADDYS and the Silver Medal award. In 2004 he was part of a team at ADwërks that won a National Best Bets Award from the McDonald’s Corporation and a local Best of Show in the South Dakota ADDY Awards. He’s also been recognized with two Photography Best of Show awards at the Sioux Empire Fair, a Gary Owens production award from the South Dakota Broadcasters association, and was a 2020 Radio Mercury Awards Finalist.
As an ADDYS volunteer he spent many years doing everything from building displays to co-hosting and co-chairing the awards. He has served as a judge for ADDY competitions from North Dakota to Houston, TX. In 1993, he developed a judging software package for the American Advertising Federation that was ultimately licensed to every AAF club in the country.
Jay Watson
Transit & Airport Art Director at Lamar Graphics
Jay Watson has worked for Lamar Advertising in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the past 19 years, and more than half of that time has been as an Art Director over Transit and Airport. With the knowledge he’s gained during his time at Lamar he has given many presentations on creating effective OOH (Out of Home) & Transit Advertising, along with other topics like the importance of good typography, color usage, and hierarchy, as it all relates to outdoor advertising.
Jay has served on the board of AAF-Baton Rouge for the past 6 years, and is their current club President. His involvement with the club goes back even much further than that, since his larger-than-life 3D stage props have been a mainstay for Baton Rouge’s Awards gala for the past 11 years. During his time as a board member he has served on many committees, including 3 years as a chair of their local American Advertising Awards. Jay is quite familiar with the importance of this competition, and he also knows what it takes to Win an ADDY.
He’s a problem solver that’s always excited to learn new things, as well as being an avid DIYer that simply loves all things crafty & creative. In his spare time Jay enjoys laughing at his two rescue dogs Tucker and Willow, and spending time with his partner Ryan.