On Tuesday evening, November 16, the prize for up-and-coming magazine media talent was awarded for the seventh year in a row in De Balie in Amsterdam. The winner, Isabelle Udo, works at studio VideOrbit, is a visual designer.
The Promise of the Year 2021 was awarded for the first time during an event organized by the Lucas-Ooms Fund, because the Mercurs – the annual magazine gala and prize party – is canceled this year. The 2021 promise was sponsored by the Magazine Media Association (MMA).
Creative in the superlative
In addition to a cash prize of 2,500 euros and the winner’s certificate, winner Isabelle Udo received the artwork “Memories of Tomorrow” from artist Atolty (also known as magazine maker Rupert van Woerkom).
The jury was unanimous
The jury was unanimously enthusiastic about Isabelle’s qualities: ‘Creative in the superlative is the artist who has literally already stepped into the future with Augmented Reality. A promising and enterprising talent that is causing an international furore for the biggest brands and is eager to use her unique talent more for the magazine media. It is only a matter of time before the Netherlands – and the magazine media industry – discover her too.’
two runners up
The jury chose Victor Pak (EW editor) as Soraya Hadjar (editor at large Complex NL) as the runners-up of 2021. They each received a cash prize of 1000 euros and a certificate.
The jury was impressed with Soraya, how she has become a role model for young editors from behind, helping them to grow. She herself has an ambitious task to make her title big in the Netherlands. Stubborn as she is and with great perseverance, the jury is convinced that she will succeed.
The jury was very impressed with Victor Pak’s presentation and ideas for change, always based on quality journalism, and curious about all forms of media. Victor Pak steams to the top at breakneck speed.
Ten multimedia top talents
The Promise of the Year is the prize for up-and-coming talent in the media trade magazine. Talents eligible for the promise are young, (super) talented people who make a valuable contribution to the development of the magazine media industry. They are distinguished by the high quality of their personal professional skills and/or their original, creative and innovative ideas. They can be writers, publishers, photographers, designers, bloggers, vloggers, marketers or (database) techies. They can work for a publishing house or they can be freelancers.
the jury
Prior to the live judging, the jury had prepared thoroughly with the submissions of the ten very different finalists. They work for a variety of titles and just as easily create productions in print, for online platforms, radio, TV, socials, e-commerce, editorial management or podcasts. All true centipedes: the editors of the future.
2021-Jury
The jury of beLOFte 2021 was carefully composed of creative (magazine) media makers and media specialists:
Derk Haank, chairman of the jury (LOF and various board positions)
Jaap Biemans (Volkskrant Magazine/ Cover Junkie; Mercur d’Or)
Jildou van der Bijl (LINDA.; Mercur d’Or)
Saskia Smith (Tis not a Hotel/Smith&Co here)
Franska Stuy (Franska.nl; Mercur d’Or)
Ruud de Langen (dentsu Benelux)
Nathalie Peters (MORNING FRISK)
Nicolette Hulsebos (LOF/FONK Media)
Inclusiveness in the media industry
Jury chairman Derk Haank: “What a talent. Ambitious young people who are already very valuable and future-proof. Inspiring, cross-media multi-talents. We enjoyed their stories, motivations, dreams, deeds and their work. Made with pure passion. With so much quality, it is difficult to choose a winner, but luckily we also had the awards for two runners-up. With that, we put three extraordinarily talented, very different young people on stage. The choice for the Promise of the Year 2021 shows courage and is future-oriented. We can confidently say that the seventh election for the Promise of the Year is really a promise for the future of the profession.”
Previous winners promise
2020 Arjun Chadha (founder Get Familiar Magazine – Oxygen Media)
2019 Bret Hartman (Designer Libelle)
2018 Onno den Hollander (Editor Quote, now writer at Eigen Werk)
2017 Emiel Brinkhuis (Winq – MediaMANsion, now client lead GoSpooky)
2016 Pieter Zwart (Data journalist VI and on Catenaccio.nl, now Editor-in-Chief VI)
2015 Renee Bijlsma (coordinator project editor Libelle, now Dedato designers & architects).
Sign up BeLOFte 2022
You can register for the Promise 2022 from August 2022. The registration form can then be downloaded via the Lucas Ooms Fund,