ABOUT
Michael Kauffman is the Executive Director of the Clio Music program at the Clios, the premier awards competition for the creative business. Clio Music honors creativity in advertising and marketing for artist promotion and brand collaborations, as well as the use of music in ads, trailers, film, video, and other media. Prior to his current role, Kauffman held marketing and sales positions at YouTube, Google, RightsFlow, Universal Music Group’s Verve, Verve Forecast, GRP, impulse, & Blue Thumb label group, at BMG Distribution and with the Windham Hill label.
Clio Music, founded in 2014, is one of six verticals developed by the Clios to celebrate creative excellence in a specialized field. The program champions boundary-pushing marketing, advertising and communications from the brands, agencies, record labels, venues, artists, and creators that shape music culture. Each cycle, leaders from across the global music industry convene to determine which entries will earn the prestigious Grand, Gold, Silver and Bronze Clio Music Awards.
PANELS
Grand Ideas: Music Behind the Work That Wins
What makes great creative work rise above the rest? This session brings together leading voices across music, advertising and marketing to take a closer look at some of last year’s Clio Music Grand-winning work—watching it together and unpacking the ideas, choices and execution that made it stand out.
The panelists will share what they find especially compelling, where music makes the difference, and how they might have approached the original brief themselves. Part showcase, part creative critique, it’s a candid look inside exceptional work—and the thinking that turns a great idea into an award-winning one.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 2:00 PM