AdFest announces founding partnership

AdFest announces founding partnership of Intercontinental Advertising Cup 2007
The 10th Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (AdFest) continued the screening of entries for TV and Radio Lotus for its second day, when almost 1600 delegates gathered at PEACH, the Royal Cliff Beach Resort in Pattaya Thailand - an increase in attendance of fifteen per cent compared to 2006. With the number of entries increasing 5,012 this year, the exhibition of two-dimensional work has outgrown its original space and now covers three floors of the convention centre. This includes Print, Outdoor, DM, 360 and Innovation Lotus entries. To help delegates access to Print and Cyber entries, these have been made available for viewing via six screening stations located in the exhibition.



SPEAKER SESSIONS
The first session of the day was organized by Japan Advertising Agency Federation (JAF). Three speakers were joined by Mr. Chris Kyme.of 8 Partnership, Hong Kong who moderated the discussion. They were Naoko Katayama, strategist from Dentsu, Yutaka Sugiyama, senior creative director from Hakuhodo and Tomotake Kawagoe, creative director from ADK. The session, entitled ‘The Practical Guide to Planet Japan’ shared different campaigns with delegates to provide a better understanding of the unique Japanese advertising style. Integrated campaigns such as the Cool Biz concept to help reduce global warming were debated, along with the viral campaign for Nike iD, featuring the colourful ‘Akibaman’ series broadcast exclusively through MySpace.

Ms. Daniela Krautsack from Mediacom Vienna covered the subject of ambient media in her presentation, ‘Cows in Jackets''. From her worldwide study interviewing 270 creative experts and advertisers, she is producing a book and documentary on the growth of ambient media around the globe. As media fragmentation and advertising clutter has increased, ambient media has become a useful way of capturing people’s attention in an unusual environment, when they least expect it. Her study has captured examples of ambient media from Europe, North and Latin America and Asia Pacific.

FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS
The afternoon session featured regional award shows and the festival of festivals, The Cup.

AdFest invited festivals from other regions to showcase their award winning work. Mr. Daniel Marcet presented FIAP - the Latin American advertising festival. Mr. Jure Apih presented the award winners from Golden Drum – the new Europe advertising festival.

Lastly, Mr. Michael Conrad announced the launch of the first ever, Intercontinental Advertising Cup (The Cup) to be held in Spain in November 2007.

This ground-breaking idea is jointly supported by the founding partners of Mr Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of Working Committee of the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (AdFest), Mr. Michael Conrad, President of Berlin Creative Leadership School, Mr. Daniel Marcet, President of the Ibero-American Advertising Festival (FIAP) and Mr. Jure Apih, President of the Golden Drum Advertising Festival of New Europe.

The objective of The Cup is to create a global awards show that places a greater emphasis on the influence of culture and language which impacts and defines creative advertising around the world.

The idea for the Advertising Cup was conceived in 2006. All finalists from AdFest, FIAP and Golden Drum will qualify to be judged by a panel of internationally renowned judges who understand the importance of local culture in the search of creative excellence.

Mr. Michael Conrad, formerly Worldwide Creative Director of Leo Burnett said, "It is time the world has an alternative concept and approach to judging creativity in advertising. Any global domination of judging and evaluation can in the long term be counter-productive. A greater emphasis should be given to the diversity of culture and language."

As the largest creative awards in Asia Pacific, AdFest has long been an advocate of local advertising and is a magnet for advertising excellence in the region. Its organizers believe passionately that local culture is an integral factor in the development of relevant and effective media communications.


Jimmy Lam, Chairman of the AdFest Sub-Committee for Judges and Speakers explains, “Great advertising is about connecting with and relating to your audience. You cannot ignore the importance of local culture and language when they help convey a message clearly to the heart and soul of people that use them”.

A semi-permanent judging panel will be the format to ensure the quality and the continuity of the criteria for winning Cup Awards. Nominees of the various awards categories will be invited to attend THE CUP Awards Gala.

EVENING COCKTAILS HOSTED BY BERLIN SCHOOL OF CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
While there was no official event scheduled for the evening slot at AdFest, a cocktail party was organised by The Berlin School of Creative Leadership and hosted by Michael Conrad, president , Benjamin Lorch and Carsten Rasner. The school has launched the first Executive MBA for Creative Leadership, designed to arm the next generation of creative directors with the business and leadership skills to run a successful and profitable creative department or agency.

Chairman of the AdFest Steering Committee, Mr. Toshiaki Nozue sits on the school’s board of governors and the faculty reads like a who’s who of creative excellence. It includes many individuals who have been judging chairmen at AdFest, including Marcello Serpa, Akira Kagami, Tham Khai Meng, Piyush Pandey, Craig Davis, John Hunt, David Droga and Michael Conrad himself.

AP AdFest 2007 is the largest ever. 5,102 creative works have been submitted from over five hundred agencies in forty-nine cities around the region - a six per cent increase on the number of entries entered in 2006.