ADFEST Wrap-Up
Simon Furse
26 March 2007
Well what a week -- looking back Adfest truly delivered with excellent organization, a great venue, and inspiring work.
Out of a total of 895 film entries, which was slightly down on last year, the festival gave out twenty-nine Bronze, fifteen Silver, and three Gold TV Awards this year. Winning agencies were from Bangkok, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.
John Hunt, worldwide Creative Director of TBWA/Johannesburg was Chairman of the Film judging panel. He commented, “Asia Pacific is the place to be both economically and intellectually and this is reflected in the quality of the work that the TV judging panel saw. The trend for the category overall is upwards, although the top two to three percent have stayed static, which is why there were fewer Gold awards given.”
The three Gold awards were won by McCann-Erickson/Mumbai for Happy Dent Teeth Whitening Gum, Hakuhodo/Tokyo for Toyota Cars, and DDB/Sydney for Napcan. Hakuhodo/Tokyo also climbed the stage to receive the highest accolade for Best of Film.
Of the three, Toyota Cars received much praise with Donald Gunn calling it “one of the best car spots ever made.” For this roving reporter the outstanding commercial was Happy Dent. A clever Idea shot with care and attention to detail -- a client’s dream.
The agency with the highest tally of Lotus Awards was Ogilvy & Mather/Singapore, with thirteen awards. BBDO/Bangkok placed second with eight awards. Ogilvy & Mather/Bangkok was the third most-awarded agency with seven Lotus Awards to take home.
All in all over the three-day event, 182 awards were given out across eight advertising categories (excluding Film Craft and Print Craft), in response to 5,012 entries from over five hundred agencies in forty-eight cities around the region this year. Bangkok was the most awarded city with a total of fifty awards, while Singapore came second with thirty-eight awards. Mumbai was the third most awarded city with twenty-four awards.
While the Lotus Awards aim is to reward and recognize outstanding creativity, AdFest itself is equally a forum of learning and exposure for the creative industry in Asia Pacific. 1600 delegates attended, from junior creatives to regional creative directors, production houses, agency management and advertisers.
So roll on next year...(book early to avoid disappointment)! Now for us its off to the second leg of the intercontinental cup at FIAP in Argentina!
ADFEST 2007
