The AWARD Call for Entries has been extendd to Wednesday July 8.
View the web film created by DDB Sydney and Fin Design.
Please note that late fees automatically apply to all entries submitted online after midnight Tuesday, 30th June 2009 (+15%). All entry payments must be made before the 8th July in order for your entries to be accepted.
Late fee charges will not apply if your entries have been submitted online and paid for by the 30th June 2009.
All hard copy entries and artwork must be received by AWARD before the 10th July 2009. For all queries contact Alette at AWARD on +61 2 9699 2999 or email callforentry@awardonline.com

View the AWARD CFE booklet
AWARD_CFE_booklet.pdf
View the AWARD CFE poster
AWARD_CFE_poster.pdf

Designed to recognise and promote exceptional new commercial directors in the Asia Pacific Region, the KODAK AWARD New Director Of The Year honors outstanding commercial directors whose fresh thinking and creativity sets them apart from the rest.

Entries for the KODAK AWARD New Director of The Year is now open and closes on Friday, 31st July 2009.

A distinguished line up of international judges has been selected;

Simon Langley, Creative Director, BMF Sydney (pictured top right)
Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising, India
Toby Talbot, Executive Creative Director, DDB New Zealand
Mark Molloy, Director, Exit Films Melbourne
Romanca Jasinski, Head of TV, George Patterson Y&R Melbourne (pictured)
Hamish Rothwell, Director, Goodoil Films Sydney
Sheung Yan Lo, Executive Creative Director, JWT Shanghai
Ted Lim, Executive Creative Director, Naga DDB Malaysia
Gavin Simpson, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong
Richard Copping, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore (pictured top left)
Scott Nowell, Executive Creative Director, Three Drunk Monkeys Sydney

View the Call for Entry web film

CB interviews New Zealand's Titanium and Integrated Lions juror: Andy Blood, group ECD, TBWA\Whybin\Tequila, Auckland.

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING CANNES 2009?

The quality of the people in the room - you always enjoy something more when the caliber of conversation around you is so high, that's kind of irreplaceable. I have been on juries before where I've gone, 'why is so and so here, should I really care about what they think?' That was in evidence in the room; we were in at all. It was an incredibly high level of thinking and conversation.

Campaign Brief asked Josh Edge to wander the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye  on the final day.

So the Palais has been swept up, the Gutter Bar has returned to 72 Croisette, and the battle-weary delegates have begun wheeling their bags into the glaring Sunday sun. So long Cannes, I knew ye well. So what have we learnt? Here's some rambling thoughts on what went down this week:

Top Bangkok production house Phenomena has pulled off a huge coup, picking up this year's Palme D'Or for being the most awarded production company in Cannes.

1. PHENOMENA            THAILAND
2. SMUGGLER                USA
3. HUNGRY MAN            USA       
4=. ACADEMY                UNITED KINGDOM
4=. O POSITIVE                USA
6=. MJZ                    USA
6=. PARTIZAN                UNITED KINGDOM
6=.  RATTLING STICK            UNITED KINGDOM
6=.  WANDA PRODUCTIONS        FRANCE
10.  LANDIA                ARGENTINA

Despite winning three Grand Prix, Australia's favourite contender for a Titanium/Integrated Lion was snubbed by the jury for what has become the festival's most coveted award. CumminsNitro Brisbane's Tourism Qld 'Best Job in the World' remained just a shortlist after the final judging.

Asia disappointed with nothing making it through.

New Zealand fared better, turning its two shortlists into a Silver Integrated Lion for AIM Proximity/Colenso BBDO Auckland's Yellow YELLOW TREEHOUSE and a Bronze Integrated Lion for Adidas/New Zealand Rugby Union All Blacks THIS IS NOT A JERSEY/ADITHREAD.

Obama for America's Obama/Biden Presidential Campaign won both the Titanium and the Integrated Grand Prix. It was the clear winner for the Grand Prix in both categories. The Titanium & Integrated jury, chaired by David Droga, Founder and Creative Chairman of Droga5, voted on 403 entries to reach a shortlist of 23, of which 11 Integrated Lions and 3 Titanium Lions were awarded.

Campaign Brief Asia asked Droga5 New York ECD Ted Royer to be our eyes on this year's Cannes Lions Film & Cinema jury. Here are his FINAL DAY observations on the judging.

Forgive me, I have been slacking. No, I wasn't drunk the whole time, but I have been judging some long days, gotten the flu and have a very weird bump rapidly growing on my neck. Things are not looking good for me. But the work is great, and seeing how this is my last entry, I'll jump straight to the big winners, some of my favorites and comment on other stuff.

All week long we were worried there might not even be a Grand Prix, and seeing how the last time that happened the jury was almost run out of town, it was a huge relief when several things clearly rose to the top.

Day 7, Saturday: Enough will be said elsewhere about the Film awards so I spent this morning sitting through every short listed entry for Titanium and Integrated Lions, the premier category here even though more glamour surrounds Film. What struck me most was that these entries seem to sum up what Cannes is all about:
1. An obsession with cool. Just because something is cool, does that make it great?
2. Wasted money on entries that don't deserve it. Or worse still, entering a good idea then producing a crap entry video.
3. Great work still rises above everything else.
4. It's fashionable to jump on the bandwagon of "that work is shite" or "that work is brilliant"
5. Despite everything there is still plenty to inspire anyone.

By Heather Jacobs, Campaign Brief

In the five years that I've come to Cannes I've become rather fond of the press room with its tiny little wonky tables. So imagine my disappointment when Sir Bob Geldof announced this morning that in the not so distant future there will be no more press room - no lights, no chairs, no people sitting there - and no more Cannes.

No more Cannes!!! This is because climate change means that it will disappear along with the forests of Africa and the Murray River in Australia. He had me so convinced the end is nigh that when he asked ME (well, the press) to do my bit to fight climate change I signed on the dotted line. View the presentation.

Kofi Annan, bless him, was a graceful and noble speaker and if together they can't rally the troops to action then we'll all just a virus to be wiped away like a bad dose of swine flu as Sir Bob suggested. We need more passionate people like them in the world and hopefully the advertising industry responds to the clarion call first sounded by Al Gore at the festival two years ago.

Terry Savage, Cannes Lions chairman

HIGHLIGHT OF CANNES 2009?

For me the whole week has been a highlight - the seminars were greater and well attended, the winning work was outstanding and showed that the industry is understanding digital but most of all the feeling I get that the industry is feeling confident about the future was the best thing of all.

LOWLIGHT?

Never being able to spend enough time listening to and talking to the leading thinkers in the industry.

One of the highlights of Cannes each year is the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase. View the full presentation.

One of the most popular seminars of the week is 'Wildfire', presented each year by Leo Burnett and Contagious magazine. View the presentation.

Campaign Brief asked Josh Edge to wander the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye today.

Okay, so a few wheels are beginning to fall off the Cannes gravy train as we head into the final stretch - I'm hearing a LOT of wheezing coughs around town. Lots of reports of dropped cameras, broken phones, lost phones, all the usual nonsense. Thankfully, some of us are still maintaining a professional attitude, and I've held onto my camera long enough to keep filling cyberspace with more Cannes-related shenanigans.
Pictured left - This mighty vessel is, as far as I can tell, a bit of a Cannes secret, only recently uncovered by some cunning delegates. It's called a Girafe, which is probably because it stands 100 feet tall. You can buy it filled with Stella Artois for 32 Euro, or Leffe or 34 Euro. A bloody bargain, but susceptible to some pretty shonky pouring action.

Day 6, Friday: Well, one seminar this morning was the best ever.
I'm not really a greenie but after Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof gave their talks today I, and a thousand other ad types, became inspired. They launched a new open source campaign to put pressure on world leaders to deliver at the climate change summit in Copenhagen this December.
As Kofi said, it is about climate justice, not climate change. To understand the full meaning go to www.timeforclimatejustice.org which has the whole story and lots of resources.
Look out for the Beds are Burning Ad Aid style of music video in September and see a preview at the web site. Really inspirational stuff. If you want to hear more I know someone with a bootleg audio recording of the speeches.

More from the Campaign Brief Asia camera including Sir Martin Sorrell with Marc Pritchard (Global Marketing Officer, P&G) and Graham Warsop (Chairman & CCO, The Jupiter Drawing Room) and Roger Daltrey with Hamish McLennan (Global CEO, Y&R). Also for all the Daltrey groupies out there here's an mpg of "Who are you" that he finished his Cannes session with (please excuse CB's rubbish camera skills and the fact that we ran out of memory just before the end).

Download Roger Daltrey in Cannes here:
RogerDaltry_Cannes.MOV

Movie stars, rock stars and ad stars have all been seen in and around Cannes this week. Already this week Roger Moore joined in on the CB Australia lunch at La Colombe d'Or and Roger Daltrey and Harvey Goldsmith gave an insight into the marketing of The Who before belting out a few songs. Spike Lee, Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof are also in town...
Here's a few pics from the CB Asia camera in Cannes.

Day 5, Thursday: Wednesday (Day 4) was a seminar-free day for me as I joined host Patsy Peacock from FBI Recruitment, the guys from CB Australia, Roger Moore (yes, him) and many Australia, UK and New Zealand creative legends for a slow lunch at the world-famous La Colombe d'Or in St Paul de Vence.
Later we took in a party run by The Location Guide on the Majestic jetty.
Today had a couple of real highlights. The Saatchi & Saatchi new directors' Showcase was one. You can see the new 2009 showcase on You Tube at www.youtube.com/nds.
The stand-out for me was the presentation by Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe. As he was introduced by DDB's Bob Scarpelli I actually felt a weird sense of emotion that later I discovered others did too.

Campaign Brief asked The Brand Agency's Josh Edge to wander the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye today.

So the wheels are turning much faster at Cannes now, especially with some of the higher profile workshops and seminars kicking in (Berlin School Of Leadership, Wunderman, 180 Amsterdam etc..). With some Australian Lions in the crowd, and no international network parties to muddy the waters, it was all hands to the Opening Gala for music, backslapping and storytelling galore. So without further adieu (see what I did there?)....


Above: This is what a Cannes party looks like when it has around 50% less delegates, a generally muted mood and is traditionally one of the quieter parties of the week. If you're thinking it still looks like a monster bash, you'd be bloody right.

EXCLUSIVE: Craig Davis has joined Publicis Mojo as co-chairman and chief creative officer across Australia and New Zealand. He steps into the creative role vacated by Darren Spiller who moved stateside this month as chief creative officer of Fallon US.

Davis, one of the highest profile Australian creatives working on the world stage, resigned as global creative director of JWT six months ago. After a decade working overseas he wanted to return to Australia for lifestyle reasons and a desire to raise his young family in his hometown.

AWARD Call for Entries in less than a week.
View the web film created by DDB Sydney and Fin Design. Closing Date: Tuesday 30th June 2009

Payment for all entries MUST be made to AWARD BEFORE 8th July in order for your entries to be accepted and processed. No exceptions. The final material deadline for all hard copy entries to arrive at the AWARD office, is the 10th July 2009. For all queries contact Alette at AWARD on +61 2 9699 2999 or email callforentry@awardonline.com


View the AWARD CFE booklet
AWARD_CFE_booklet.pdf
View the AWARD CFE poster
AWARD_CFE_poster.pdf

Campaign Brief asked The Brand Agency's Josh Edge to wander the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye today.
Pictured left - As the weather turns nasty at Cannes, liquid nourishment provides much-needed relief at the Australian/New Zealand terrace catchup at Le Grande.

By Heather Jacobs, Campaign Brief Asia

So, if austerity is the new black in these tough times where does that leave Cannes, the most decadent of advertising festivals? The mood on day one, Sunday, was subdued. Talk of the GFC had many shakily handing over credit cards for over-priced drinks hoping they weren't declined and the Carlton Terrace was a washout. It's not supposed to rain in Cannes in June - didn't they move the festival a couple of weeks to avoid this? 

Campaign Brief Asia asked Josh Edge to wonder the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye today. Pictured left - An interactive presentation of cinema advertising and it's ability to integrate 3D vision, 3D sound, smells, taste, touch and interactive digital gaming. I'm still waiting for 3D glasses that don't make you look like a complete plonker.

BBDO/Proximity Malaysia was awarded the prestigious Grand Trophy 2009 New York Festivals Advertising Awards. The Kuala Lumpur based agency received the Grand Trophy in the Print category for their acclaimed campaign for Jeep's "Two Worlds."  
BBDO/Proximity's  Grand Trophy  winning  print campaign features three advertisements that illustrate that Jeep can go from the mountains to the deserts and in between; "The Mountain Goat and Crocodile", "Bushman and the Eskimo (Inuit)", and "The Husky and the Camel".  Each ad features graphic image of two characters that overlap to create a Jeep at the intersection point, illustrating the adaptability of Jeep.

CumminsNitro Brisbane winning the Grand Prix in direct for Tourism Queensland's 'Best Job in the world' topped off a stellar performance for Australia in the 2009 Direct Lions. It scored eight of the 50 Lions awarded in the category with three Gold Lions, two Silver Lions and three Bronze Lions.

For Asia it was a lean time in Direct. Hakuhodo Kettle Tokyo picked up a Silver Lion for 'Peace Mirror' for Shiseido Skincare and McCann Hong Kong won two Bronze Lions for 'Flirting with Sound' for Elements Mall.

The PR Grand Prix was awarded to Japan for Beacon Communications Tokyo for Yubari Resort's 'Yubari' a campaign to save a dying and bankrupt city through promoting its low divorce rate.
Jury president William Rosen, president, chief creative officer, North America, for Arc Worldwide, said the decision on Grand Prix was down to two. He described the Adidas NZRU promotion, which allowed people to use nanotechnology to write their names on a thread of the All Blacks jersey, as a compelling idea that really brought people closer to their team. However, after a lot of discussion 'Yubari' was a unanimous vote by the jury for Grand Prix. The jury felt that it was the exceptional piece of promotional work that was awarded for several reasons.
"We all felt that it truly showed the true potential of the promotional category. It was not only a program that changed behaviour, it actually changed people's lives and we thought that was a great example of the potential for the promotional category," said Rosen.
Additionally, it used a core activation idea that unified all media channels and all marketing categories.
Rosen said: "There was a real idea behind the work and we really thought it brought the brand together in a unique and honourable way."
The former coal-mining town shifted its focus to tourism but the newly constructed tourism constructions failed to attract attention and the population shrunk. By March 2007 Yubari was $330m in debt and was declared bankrupt. Seeking a minimal cost idea, the discovery that Yubari had the lowest divorce rates in Japan, inspired the idea of promoting it as a city with 'no money, but love'. An icon called Yubari 'Fusai' was created and three thousand newly married couples from all over Japan visited to bless their union. A variety of revenue generating ideas raised $31m to alleviate the city's debt. It is now on the road to full recovery.

Victor Ng did such a great job with his daily reports from the Clio Awards judging this year that we cheekily couldn't resist asking him again in Cannes. Victor, Euro RSCG Singapore's Executive Creative Director is sitting on the Outdoor Lions jury and this is his DAY TWO report.

Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?

Yes, after two hours of stalemate, we have an Outdoor Grand Prix.

We wanted to be sure of the signal we are sending with our choice. It's not just the best ad, but it's also the one ad that best represents how the category is evolving.

Paul Yole is a planner with The Brand Agency in Australia. A third-time delegate in Cannes, Campaign Brief Asia asked him to bring a different perspective to our coverage of Cannes this year.

Day 2, Monday
First up today was a tour around the finalists in press, outdoor, media, direct, promo and PR. Some stunningly visual work.

Go Viral's Jimmy Maymann gave us a 40-minute tour of the digital space. By next year, it seems, we will be spending more hours online than watching TV and the fastest growing segment online is video. Indeed, video is expected to represent 64% of all mobile traffic by 2013.

Jimmy showed us an interesting piece for Tampax, which is a series of films relating the story of Zack Johnson, paradoxically a 16 year old boy who ....... well, have a look and see at www.zack16.com Interesting, but with no paid media support they have only had 100,000 views.

Campaign Brief Asia asked Droga5 New York ECD Ted Royer to be our eyes on this year's Cannes Lions Film & Cinema jury. Here are his DAY THREE observations on the judging.

As predicted, things are getting better. We watched internet films today, and there were some real standouts. Things should get through nicely despite British judge Bil Bungay`s best attempts to kill everything in sight. Someone get Bil a machine gun, he`s in a killing mood. Also all respect is due to Toshiya Kono from Japan, who insists on watching every piece to the very end, even when its fairly clear it will be bad. With Toshi, you get your money`s worth in judging.

Now that I`ve thought about it, it still is a sausage-fest here in this jury. There are only three women out of a total of 21 judges (22 if you count David Lubars). The three are the hilarious Lisa Bennett from DDB, the saucy and hilarious Sophie Shoenburg from AlmapBBDO in Brazil, and Steve Back from Saatchi in Australia. No, wait, I meant to say my good friend Janet Kestin from O&M toronto, of Dove fame. And each day they split the women up so there´s one in each group. I guess they don`t want female block voting.

So yeah, interweb films today. I can`t talk about specific work, but suffice it to say there´s really nice stuff from a brand that rhymes with Bella Bartois, and some not-so-nice formulas that keep popping up. Even internet stuff has fallen into repetitive types. It´s not enough to just find some mildly interesting artist or musician and then do a documentary about how cool they are and then tack on your brands logo as if to say "we know how cool this guy is, so we must be cool to."

Nor it is good to take an idea that would work as something in ad length and stretch it out to 3 minutes. I know the internet has freed us ad people from the restrictive and stifling 30 second limit, but if you don`t have that much to say, don`t take forever to say it. Lots of ideas that would probably get a lot farther if they ad been judiciously edited will die because they just bore the judges. So long does not equal good. Good equals good.

Tomorrow we do the shortlist.

China and Singapore are the dominant Asian countries at the Shortlist stage of the Press Lions judging. China has 20 finalists followed by Singapore with 18. Next best country is Thailand with 11, followed by India (10), Indonesia (7), Malaysia (6), Hong Kong (3) and The Philippines (2).
Lions are handed out in the Press category on Wednesday night in Cannes.

India leads the way at the shortlist stage of the Outdoor Lions judging in Cannes. With 39 finalists Indian agencies are way in front of Thailand with 26 and Singapore with 16. Conversions to Lions is the important step but with 129 shortlists Asia is looking like performing very well.

SHORTLIST TABLE
India - 39
Thailand - 26
Singapore - 16
Malaysia - 14
China - 13
Japan - 8
Hong Kong - 5
Philippines - 4
Vietnam - 1
Taiwan - 1
Korea - 1
Indonesia - 1

Campaign Brief Asia asked Droga5 New York ECD Ted Royer to be our eyes on this year's Cannes Lions Film & Cinema jury. Here are his DAY TWO observations on the judging.

Still divided into groups. But things are moving a long nicely.

I'm seriously depressed, because we watched Public Service today. Damn. Child soldiers, land mines, cancer. I know these are extremely important causes to fight for and bravo for those who gave their time and support to these, but seeing them all at once like that makes one want to curl up in a ball and weep. Some really good stand-outs in the category. It should be nice. Creatives seem to have a real penchant for telling stories in animation, which, while sometimes beautiful, causes the viewer to become really detached from the problem. I'm just saying.

It's tough watching this because you sympathize for the problem in these ads, but have to vote for the idea, not the organization. So a lot of this work might actually get me to donate, but that doesn't mean the creative solution is worthy of a lion.

Campaign Brief Asia asked Josh Edge to wonder the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's his first snapshot of the early days, with much juicier shots to come during the week proper. We promise.
This first pic is the view From Notre-Dame de l'Esperance. Built sometime in the 16th century, this is as good as place as any to plan your next Gutter Bar rendezvous (and the way back home).

Victor Ng did such a great job with his daily reports from the Clio Awards judging this year that we cheekily couldn't resist asking him again in Cannes. Victor, Euro RSCG Singapore's Executive Creative Director is sitting on the Outdoor Lions jury and this is his DAY TWO report.

Every great movie has a killer quote that immortalises itself into urban parlance.

From Arnie's reliable "I'll be back" to Vader's informative "Luke, I am your father", from Peter Parker's wise "With great power comes great responsibility" to Forrest Gump's sweet "Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" - the quotes defines the film. But enough about my DVD collection already.

Paul Yole is a planner with The Brand Agency in Australia. A third-time delegate in Cannes, Campaign Brief Asia asked him to bring a different perspective to our coverage of Cannes this year.

Day 1, Sunday
Sunday is normally arrival day for me so this was a new experience.
As I am working (honestly), even though it's a Sunday, I picked up a couple of contrasting seminars today.
The first was a complete waste of time. "Innovations in Online Advertising" promised a lot but delivered little. A stand in speaker who did her best but was only OK. Which in Cannes, is not OK. So I went for lunch (sat next to the Outdoor judges and the boss of Dentsu!) and returned later.
Kevin Eyres from LinkedIn gave some interesting insights about how social technology is making companies more transparent and how individuals using social network sites become their own brands. But I remain a LinkedIn and Twitter cynic that is hoping to see the light this week.
The best was left until last.
Andy Pimentel from Razorfish is a Doogie Howser-like guy who is a planner from a digital agency. His talk was about the future of TV and it reminded me of the chilli chocolate gift I was given earlier in the day. You think you know what you are getting but the actual experience is a lot hotter.
Razorfish has done some research including ethnographic techniques, youth design and bleeding edge studies.
They ran a deprivation study in which they had to bribe families $175 a day to go without watching TV. What they found was that people felt tortured and that TV, despite all the hype, still plays a central role in the lives of millions of people.
The overall study revealed 9 genes in the DNA of TV that Razorfish believes will not go away and Andy portrayed a future vision for TV that shows how, in his words, it will become more "internetty".
So, a digital planner guy talking about how a 'traditional' channel will have a real role in our lives using technology that already exists. If only some networks would listen.
The best thing was that the presentation was delivered without the usual platitudes and buzz-words that drive delegates crazy. Good work.
Tomorrow should be good. Press and Outdoor finalists, Go Viral and, yes, Twitter.
Which reminds me. I need to update my Twitter status. And my Facebook page.
It's getting too much.

Droga5 New York ECD Ted Royer is on this year's Cannes Lions Film & Cinema jury. In exchange for free beers he agreed to be Campaign Brief Asia's eyes on the jury. Here he gives his DAY ONE observations on the judging.

I've noticed that any time someone writes a "diary" from Cannes or The Andy's or wherever, they always start by subtly bragging. They say how intimidating it is to be on a jury with such great people, and how wonderful it is just to be in the presence of such talented creative. But what the writer really means is that by extension he or she is wonderful and talented. See how that works? So here goes:

It is such an honor to be among such great and talented creatives on the highly prestigious and intimidating Cannes Film Jury. Only the very best wonderful and talented judges here. Etc.

Now a few stats: film entries are down by about 1,000 over last year. Attendance is down by 40% or so. And everyone's talking about it being a "down" year. But if you think that attendance was even less in 2003 than it was this year, it doesn't seem so down after all.

Dentsu Tokyo has six of Japan's 13 shortlists in the Promo Lions category at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Hakuhodo Tokyo and Beacon Communications both have two shortlists.
In total 28 Asian entries have made the shortlist. China is the next highest ranked country with seven - JWT China is leading the way with four (three for Beijing and one for Shanghai). JWT Beijing's highly regarded 'Bruce Lee - Game of Death' work on Nokia has all three of their finalists.
India has three on the shortlist, Singapore two and singles to Thailand, Taiwan and Korea.

Download the Promo Shortlist here:
Promo Lions Shortlist.pdf

The shortlist is out for the Cannes Direct Lions and Asian agencies have a total of 19 shortlists. India leads the way with seven, China four, Japan three, Hong Kong and Singapore have two each and Malaysia has one.
Multiple finalists are Hakuhodo Tokyo with all three of Japan's shortlists and McCann Erickson in both Singapore and Hong Kong (two shortlists each).

Download the Direct shortlist here:
Direct Lions Shortlist.pdf

Forget what you heard about Cannes not living up to expectations this year. Sure, delegates and standards may be down this year, but for the nearly 6,000 delegates there is still the same levels of excitement in the air. Festival CEO Terry Savage is very upbeat. 6,000 delegates is 50% down on last year, but as he points out, due to the huge growth of the festival over the past few years this delegate total is the same as three years ago.
For Campaign Brief Asia Saturday night was a chance to 'acclimatise' before the fun and games start. Last night was spent catching up with old friends (like Donald Gunn) and meeting new ones, including Jose Molla the founder of La Communidad Miami & Buenos Aires (Jose, pictured 3rd on the right, is creator of one of CBAsia's favourite spots from last year - the brilliant Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival). As well as the Lions festival Cannes is alive with the annual Music festival - as you can imagine the standard of local women (and men) in the streets is outstanding!

Ronald Ng, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia is on this year's Cannes Lions Direct Jury. The judging is already underway and each day Ronald is keeping us up to date with the progress. Here's his DAY FOUR report.

I quickened my step as I approached the judging hall. Having only seen a sixth of the entries up till then, the shortlist was - in my mind - going to represent the best of Direct Marketing for the year. But while Day 3 ended on a high, Day 4 came crashing down as soon as I had my first peek at the work.

Some of them were shite!

12% of the entries made it into the shortlist. But to many of us, it felt like a 'long-list'. We debated, and we debated again. In the morning, after lunch, and well into the evening. After re-voting, things did not change much.

Grey Singapore has released a new print ad for WWF Singapore. Credits - Creative Director: Justin Lim, Koh Hwee Peng. Copywriter: Jody Yeoh. Art Director: Nick Tan, Joseph Chan. Photographer: Shu Ting, Photolibrary. Digital Imaging: Magic Cube. Agency Producer: Annie Lim. Production Manager: Victor Lee. Client Contact: Amy Ho, Managing Director

Asia Pacific Talent Director, Michele Simpson-Crew, has been selected from more than 2000 Australasian applicants to be trained by former US Vice President Al Gore at The Climate Project - Australia Asia Pacific Summit (A-P Summit)  in Melbourne in 11 - 13 July.
Building on the work of The Climate Project - Australia, the A-P Summit will bring together 300 people representing a diverse cross section of industry, advocacy and broad social groupings from Australasia and the Asia Pacific region. Mr Gore and a panel of international experts will provide the training hosted by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
As a delegate Michele Simpson-Crew will have the chance to help focus and re-invigorate the Asia Pacific's regional response to climate change in the lead into the critical UNCCC Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Victor Ng did such a great job with his daily reports from the Clio Awards judging this year that we cheekily couldn't resist asking him again in Cannes. Victor, Euro RSCG Singapore's Executive Creative Director is sitting on the Outdoor Lions jury and this is his DAY TWO report.

Back in the jury room, we greeted one another during the morning round of coffee. It has been delightfully civil, even cordial.

It might just stay that way, if the personalities in the room are as they suggest. Maybe the organisers doped the coffee with valium but everyone appeared so nice and relaxed.

Ronald Ng, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia is on this year's Cannes Lions Direct Jury. The judging is already underway and each day Ronald is keeping us up to date with the progress. Here's his DAY THREE report.

Going into the third day of Direct judging, I had a pretty good feeling. After all, the first two days were pretty dismal and there was no other way to go but up.
 
And voila! The winds on the Cote d'Azur seemed to have blown a different way today. No topless grannies on the beach. But loads of seriously big hitters today.
 
Our group feasted on a beautiful set of Integrated campaigns. Yes, there was a whole lot that qualified as 'integrated' only because of fat media budgets. The ideas were small, and the extensions were just 'matching luggage'.
 

Victor Ng did such a great job with his daily reports from the Clio Awards judging this year that we cheekily couldn't resist asking him again in Cannes. Ng, Euro RSCG's Executive Creative Director is sitting on the Outdoor Lions jury and this is his DAY ONE report.

 This one's ready to be a sequel to the classic movie "12 Angry Men".

Think jury duty in a small room where a majority -- if not unanimous -- decision must be made on the fate of "The Ad". The jurors, plucked from diverse backgrounds, are brimming with starkly different personalities and styles. Would "The Ad" be sentenced to the advertising equivalent of the electric chair? Or be acquitted of the crime of mediocrity and make headlines in the advertising world?

Welcome to a behind-closed-doors peek of Cannes Judging 2009, Outdoor category, aka "12 Angry Men and a Woman"....

She may come to regret this, but Campaign Brief Asia's consulting editor Heather Jacobs is writing a daily blog about the social side of Cannes 2009. Champagne, sparkling mineral water or Rose in hand, she'll take you behind-the-scenes of the world's biggest advertising festival. There will be vox pops with delegates, news snippets and her observations as she wanders along the glitzy La Croisette from the Carlton Terrace to the Palais. And back again. You can also follow her on Twitter,  HeatherinCannes

Mark Ashley-Wilson is on the Cyber jury at Cannes this year. The digital director of Three Drunk Monkeys in Sydney will be writing a daily diary for Campaign Brief Asia....

Today was all about blowing into microphones and adding yourself into the scene via webcams - all good but no real ideas, just technology use. See a selection of tweets below from 5 different jury members which gives an insight into what we are thinking.

Ronald Ng, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia is on this year's Cannes Lions Direct Jury. The judging is already underway and each day Ronald is keeping us up to date with the progress. Here's his DAY TWO report.

So, where did I leave off from yesterday? Ah yes, how many ideas could I remember after dragging myself out of bed this morning? Only a handful, really.
 
But I tell myself things can only get better. I've told myself that a few times already.
 
We started with a group discussion. David Sable, the Jury President once again brought up the topic of 'What is Direct?' That prompted opinions as varied as the price of beer between KL and Cannes. Is it direct only if it has a call-to-action, a URL or if it creates discussion? The list goes on. We debated about defining the criteria even further for next year. But it was Gavin (M&C/Mark) who made the most interesting point. If it's too defined, it's going to take away all the fun and all those 'hey-which-category-does-this-belong-to' ideas. Not sure if everyone agreed with him, but I sure did.

In the spirit of dragon, to become stronger in facing this financial crisis, the LongXi Worldwide Chinese Language Advertising Awards has brought forward the LongXi Grand Awards (Film, Radio, Print, and Outdoor) which used to be held at year-end, to run in this autumn alongside with LongXi Catch Awards that acknowledges new media creativity, LongXi Nova Awards that encourages young creatives, and LongXi Design that recognizes outstanding Chinese design.
Deadline for submission of 2009 LongXi Awards is 11th July 2009.
LongXi Awards goes green this year and submission is fully online! Please register and submit entries through the online submission system. For details, visit LongXi official website: http://www.longxiawards.org.cn/09lx (Mainland China) or http://www.longxiawards.org/09lx (outside Mainland China).

The London International Awards has extended their deadline for entries to Wednesday 1st July 2009. For entry kit visit their website.

The 2009 New York Festivals Advertising Awards, honoring "The World's Best Advertising" will present iconic commercial director Joe Sedelmaier and legendary advertising creative Neil French with NYF Lifetime Achievement Awards.  The NYF Lifetime Achievement Award recipients will be honored in separate ceremonies during the inaugural New York Festivals International Advertising World Tour.   
Joe Sedelmaier, the brilliant award winning commercial director known for his quirky humor and off beat casting for client's such as FedEx, Wendy's and Alaska Air, will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chicago launch of the seven city 2009 World Tour.  Neil French (left) will be presented with the NYF Lifetime Achievement Award in Shanghai, China on July 25th. As former WPP Creative Director, Neil French is known around the globe for his award winning ads featuring signature lengthy copy peppered with his unmistakably dry wit and unique outspoken point of view.  Having won dozens of international awards including NYF dating back to the mid 80s, French is undoubtedly considered one of the true pioneers of advertising in Asia.
 "We're honored to be able to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to people who are as accomplished and as deserving as they are.  At such a tumultuous time when people are constantly talking about how much the industry is struggling to find itself, it's incredibly fitting to honor two professionals who have clearly mastered the fundamental of any great ad, the idea," said NYF President Michael O'Rourke.

Paul Yole is a planner with The Brand Agency in Australia. A third-time delegate in Cannes, Campaign Brief Asia asked him to bring a different perspective to our coverage of Cannes this year.

Opening Day minus 3 - This year I'm going to hunt down anyone with a different opinion worth noting so I can report back to the blog. I hope to avoid using the word 'content' altogether and even 'stories' and 'conversations' may be a bit on the nose.

Ronald Ng, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia is on this year's Cannes Lions Direct Jury. The judging is already underway and each day Ronald will be keeping us up to date with the progress. Here's his Day One report.

I'm in this big room overlooking the Cote d'Azur where 4 topless grannies are sunbathing. But I swear my attention is on the 1,300 entries in front of me.
 
There's a drop in entries. Not too bad if you consider how 'un-good' things are today. But I'm sure, and most importantly, all the best ones were submitted.
 

This billboard, complete with fake mud, was put up during the rainy season in The Philippines to show how FedEx puts your package first.
Credits - Agency: BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines. Chief Creative Officer: David Guerrero. ECD: Joel Limchoc, Simon Welsh. Copywriter: Meggy De Guzman. Art Director: Dale Lopez. Digital Imaging: Manny Vailoces, Dale Lopez. Producer: Al Salvador.

Tide Detergent makes your clothes bright according to this new campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi Guangzhou. The campaign uses bulbs to make up each garment.
Credits - Executive Creative Director: Ng Fan. Creative Director: Au Kin Cheong, Wendy Chan. Art Director: Wendy Chan, Wang Zong Liang, Huang Yan Jun, Duan Hui, Ng Fan. Copywriter: Arthur Tsang. Account Service: Ann Jinco, Pully Chau. Photography & Digital Imaging: Gao Shi Yuan, Guo Jin Xing, James Chan, Wu Xiao Yu, Liang Wei Ming.

Bob Geldof, founder of Live Aid, will be joining a distinguished panel, led by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, to launch a major international campaign on climate change at the 56th Cannes Advertising Festival on 26 June 2009. The campaign is aimed at world leaders achieving a just deal at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009. The Panel also includes David Jones, Global CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide - Havas Worldwide, who will talk about the urgent action required from the advertising and marketing communities to ensure success at the Copenhagen Conference.

This print ad from BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines ran as part of a campaign highlighting the dangers of not using FedEx.

Credits - Chief Creative Officer: David Guerrero. ECD: Joel Limchoc, Simon Welsh. Copywriter: Simon Welsh. Art Director: Joel Limchoc. Photographer: Jonathan Tay. Digital Imaging: Manny Vailoces.

With the Cannes International Advertising Festival getting underway June 21st remember that there are another two important awards shows that have announced their Call for Entries. Each have upcoming entry deadlines to note.

LONDON INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
This is the first time LIA is included in the Campaign Brief Creative Rankings. Entry deadline to LIA is June 19th. This year LIA has added the Bronze Statue to their line-up of metal. This year's Jury Presidents include Jeremy Craigen, Executive Creative Director of DDB London (pictured) and Tham Khai Meng, Ogilvy & Mather - Worldwide Creative Director and Chairman of its Worldwide Creative Council. View LIA website.

AWARD AWARDS
Entry deadline for AWARD this year is June 30th. Craig Davis, former chief creative officer worldwide JWT (pictured) has been appointed the Chairman of Judges of this year's AWARD Awards. AWARD Judging will be held in Sydney, September 8th until September 18th. Finalists will be released in October, and the winners will be heralded at the AWARD Awards on Thursday November 12th at The Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney. View the AWARD website.

Saatchi & Saatchi in Shanghai has created a new campaign for MF Mattresses. The "Hairy" campaign demonstrates how comfortable the mattress is and how this equates to a good sleep.
Credits: Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai. Creative Director: Awoo Lai. Art Director: Chao Xu. Copywriter: Hesky Lu. Account Service: Dora Meng, Jenny Low. Photographer: KK Fong. Illustrator: Joo Teoh.

India: Out of 212 entries, two young professionals from Contract Advertising were selected as the winners of India's Cannes Young Lions Creative Competition organized by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). The team made up of Anshumani Khanna, Associate Creative Director, and Priya Gurnani, Senior Art Director, will fly to France to compete in the prestigious Young Lions global competition. The competition brief requested entries on the them "Stop Domestic Violence Against Women. Report Abuse." The selection was a two phase process. In the first phase, judges shortlisted seven entries. Then they asked the seven teams to make a presentation describing the work and development process.

The Call for Entries to The Work 09 is out and this year, more so than ever, your Chief Financial Officer will be happy!

Now in its 8th year of publication, The Work is a 400 page, hard cover publication that features the very best advertising of the year from Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The Work is recognised as the only true permanent record of creativity from the entire region.
There are two things that differentiate The Work 09 apart from traditional award shows.
Firstly, The Work is selective - to qualify for entry the ad or campaign must have already passed the test and been a finalist or winner at an awards show. Secondly, there is no wasted entry fees - only accepted work incurs an acceptance fee.

Entry deadline is FRIDAY, JULY 31st 2009.

Download the PDF Entry Kit with all the details:
The Work09 CALL FOR ENTRY KIT.pdf

With a unique twist, Publicis Ambience Mumbai put a gigantic shaving blade on a pylon recently to demonstrate how sharp their supermax size is.
Credits - Client: Supermax Blades. Agency: Publicis Ambience Mumbai. Creative Directors: Ashish Khazanchi, Prasama Sankhe. Writer: Nikhil Panjwani. Art Director: Shantanu Suman.

Each week Campaign Brief Asia sits down with a prominent creative talent from our region and gets to know them better. This week in this regular "10 Minutes With" column is Calvin Soh - Vice-Chairman, Chief Creative Officer-Asia, Publicis.

What did you do before getting into advertising?
I came out from my military service and my dad wanted to mortgage the house to send me to Australia to get a degree. I declined and worked as a telemarketeer, camera salesman, lifeguard and fast food chef.
How did you first get into advertising as a career?
I tried getting a job as a journalist but without a degree in Singapore, it was impossible. So it was stock broking or advertising then.
Who gave you your first big break?
Ogilvy. Wrote in to be a writer but again, no degree so they stuck me in traffic. Within two years I was account manager and employee of the year.

Said to be Singapore's best Portfolio Night yet, now in it's 7th year, the evening was hosted for the first time by 7 of Singapore's top Agencies. And at 7pm , young copywriters, art directors, students and freelancers congregated at the main hall of the Red Dot Design Museum - a trendy Singapore landmark (once a police station) to meet their mentors from the Advertising world.
Some came as far as Mumbai just for the night for an opportunity to meet Singapore's top few. The 7 Agencies rallied to sponsor the evening this year and put aside usual Agency rivalry to give an opportunity for students and young budding creatives to meet their mentors from the industry. Founders of Portfolio Night are industry website IHaveAnIdea and their Portfolio Night has become a global phenomenon described as the "single largest simultaneous career speed dating night in the world".

D&AD put on a great evening in London last night for the presentation of their annual awards. The Roundhouse in Camden prove an excellent venue for the awards, which attracted nearly 800 people including several Campaign Brief friends from Asia, New York and Sydney.
Congratulations to Droga5 for their amazing performance - Dave Droga, Ted Royer, Ben Nott and Duncan Marshall were all there to accept the awards and CB nearly managed to steal all their Pencils! (see picture below). It was also a big night for Ronald Ng from BBDO Malaysia who was there to accept his award for their already highly awarded Jeep work. Saatchi Sydney ECD Steve Back and CD Dave Bowman were there to accept a Yellow Pencil for the "UN Voices Project". Special mention to former O&M Singapore digital guru Dominic Goldman who picked up a Yellow Pencil for the brilliant Barnardo's "Break the Cycle" campaign he created at BBH London. Also at the awards was Ogilvy worldwide ECD Tham Khai Meng, who was hanging out with some of the big names of the London industry including Jeremy Craigen (DDB), Rosie Arnold (BBH) and Graham Fink.
Here are some of the pics from the CB camera.

Campaign Brief Asia was lucky enough to be at the D&AD Awards presentation in London this year and we can report it was a great night, very impressively organised. D&AD hands out Pencils in many categories from Environmental Design to Graphic Design to websites to music videos. Now call us old fashioned, but outside of the huge achievement of Droga5's two Black Pencils, it was the true advertising categories that got us excited.

Here are a few of our highlights from the Yellow Pencil winners:
In TV & Cinema Advertising Skittles 'Pinata' won a Yellow Pencil.
In the Writing for Advertising category was Orange Goldspots from Mother London - Snoop Dogg / Rob Lowe / Anjelica Huston.

Asia picked up 9 of the 54 Yellow Pencils that were awarded at the D&AD Awards held last night in London.
Dentsu Inc Tokyo picked up the most with three in the Environmental Design (KDDI Corp), Mobile Marketing (Honda 'Ke-Tai Traveller') and Packaging Design (Ichida Garden) categories. 'WERK No.16: Joe Magee Special' by Work Advertising in Singapore also won two Yellow Pencils, in Graphic Design and Illustration.
Single Yellow Pencil winners were BBDO/Proximity Malaysia in Poster - Art Direction for their Jeep 'Bushman/Eskimo, Husky/Camel, Goat/Crocodile' campaign. BBDO/Proximity Malaysia also received 4 Nominations. (See previous story)
GT Inc Tokyo won for Sagami Condom's 'Love Distance' and HanTang Communications Group in China won for Wptt Contraceptive in Package Design. The final Yellow Pencil went to Bascule Tokyo in the Websites - Interface & Navigation category for Radiohead in WOWOW.

To see Asia's total of Silver Nominations and in-book Finalists click here.

Droga5 New York has pulled off a major coup winning two of the four Black Pencils handed out at the D&AD Awards Ceremony in London tonight (11 June).  'Million', the programme that 'turned academic achievement into a brand' won in Integrated, and 'The Great Schlep', the film in which comedian Sarah Silverman championed Obama to Jewish voters before the US election, won for Writing in Viral.


The other two Black Pencils went to Matt Dent's redesign of UK coins for the Royal Mint was awarded a Black Pencil in Graphic Design, and 'Kinetic Sculpture' (left) for BMW by German interactive studio Art+Com won in Environmental Design.  The Black Pencil is the creative industry's most elusive prize, only awarded for truly groundbreaking work.
D&AD President Garrick Hamm said, "The breadth of creative work that's been awarded this year is exceptional.  We're in the midst of a challenging time, and this work shows what the industry is capable of.  The 4 Black Pencil winners demonstrate the power and all-encompassing nature of creativity - in education, politics and even in the change in our pockets.  These winners are more than just great pieces of communication, they change our behaviour and touch our lives."

This campaign of three print ads from Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai focuses on the strength and durability of Nippon Paint.
Credits - Client: Nippon Paint. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai. Creative Director: Kien Ho Ong. Writer: Mike Tay. Art Directors: Mike Tay, Kien Ho Ong. Photographer: Keno Zhao. Digital Imaging: Joo Teoh.

JWT has just informed us that Adeline Chew, the winner of the viral ad competition run by YouTube and the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival to promote Oxfam's climate change campaign, is working in the JWT Malaysia creative department.
Chew worked with a group of young creatives at JWT Malaysia on the 48 hour creative challenge.
"It's a great achievement for our youngest team," praised Edwin Leong, JWT Malaysia, Deputy Chairman/ECD.  "We're way past awareness of climate change, it was an elegant solution to a tired brief."
The team was comprised (from left to right) Adeline Chew (Art Director), May Ling Yong (Senior Writer), Nadia McDonald (Writer), Sam Goh (Art Director)
See previous story HERE.

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather India and South Asia will head the Craft jury at this year's Spikes Asia Festival.
In 2004 Pandey became the first Asian to be president of a Cannes Lions jury.
"A legend not just in India but around the world, Piyush knows all about winning awards as well as judging them. We are truly delighted to have him join us in Singapore to lead the Craft jury," said Philip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions, who together with Haymarket, organise Spikes Asia.
Commenting on his appointment, Pandey said, "It is an honour to be invited to chair the Craft jury at Spikes Asia 2009. We will try our best to ensure that the best work wins."
Spikes Asia will be held at Suntec City, Singapore from 16-18 September 2009.

Campaign Brief is heading to London for the D&AD Awards presentation this Thursday night (June 11th). So make sure you check out the CB Asia Blog Friday morning for our run-down of all the news and find out what Asian work, if any, managed to convert into Yellow and Black Pencils.

Or get up early and WATCH D&AD LIVE on 11 June from 2045-2230 GMT.

The D&AD Awards website will go live today, where you can look at all the nominated work. Registered users can bookmark work to create a library of their favourite work from this year's awards and to comment on the work.  To coincide with the launch of the Annual in September, the site will incorporate all in-book work and all in-book work since 2005 - creating a cross-referenceable library of the best work in the world. D&AD will continue to add content from past Annuals to this site from now on. Soon, D&AD members and journalists will be able to download work directly from the site.

The idea is that "Wildlife's fate is in your hands". To get China's urban youth engaged in WWF's biodiversity program, BBH China created the world's first mobile app where a virtual displaced bear interacts with your real environment. Through the mobile app, people can directly sign up with WWF. It also connects directly to your SMS address book to spread awareness and the App easily. View the idea HERE.
Credits - ECD: Johnny Tan. Copywriters: Carol Ong, Yinbo Ma, Ken Lu. Art Director: Carol Ong, Yinbo Ma, Alex Avis.

Saatchi & Saatchi Malaysia has released a new campaign for Penguin Books that emphasizes how "unputdownable" they are no matter where you are. The agency's previous work for Silverfish Books was one of Asia's most awarded print campaigns of the year. This campaign however is created for Penguin Books Malaysia.
Credits - Creative Director: Adrian Miller. Writer: Ramanjit Singh Gulati. Art Directors: Karen Wong, Richard Copping. Photographer: Lim Sok Lin. Digital Imaging: Simon Ong (Studio DL).

Last year Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore held off a resurgent Ogilvy & Mather Singapore to top the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings. This year however O&M Singapore was able to catch and overhaul their traditional rival by the small margin of just 81 points.

O&M Singapore sits top - and as such earn the title of Campaign Brief Asia's Regional Agency of the Year - with 2245 ranking points. Ogilvy Singapore is second with 2164 ranking points.

However O&M Singapore's reign at the top of Creative Rankings may be short lived as Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore actually outpointed O&M Singapore over the past 12 months at 2008's award shows. Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore scored 907 points in 2008 compared to 672 for O&M Singapore. But as Campaign Brief Asia predicted last year, O&M Singapore's amazing 1573 points amassed in 2007 proved decisive in their overall position this year.

187 individual agencies are ranked in the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings. The rankings are based solely on performances over the past two year period. Creative awards won more than two years ago are not counted in the tables.

This year's Top 6 ranked agencies are listed here:

With The D&AD Awards presentation on this week and the Cannes International Advertising Festival getting underway June 21st remember that there are another three important awards shows that have announced their Call for Entries. Each have upcoming entry deadlines to note.

LONDON INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
This is the first time LIA is included in the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings.
Entry deadline to LIA is June 19th. This year LIA has added the Bronze Statue to their line-up of metal. This year's Jury Presidents include: Jeremy Craigen, Executive Creative Director of DDB London and Tham Khai Meng, Ogilvy & Mather - Worldwide Creative Director and Chairman of its Worldwide Creative Council. View LIA website.
SPIKES ASIA
Entry Deadline for Spikes Asia is 24 July 2009. Six juries made up of 42 leading creatives, media, design and craft specialists from 17 different countries - both regional and international - will meet in Singapore to vote, discuss and award the very best work in Asia. All entries can be viewed during the three-day Festival, which takes place at Suntec City. The winners will be revealed during the awards ceremony on Friday 18 September. Headlining the jury at Spikes Asia is David Droga the founder and Creative Chairman of Droga5, New York. View Spikes Asia website.
AWARD AWARDS
Entry deadline for AWARD this year is June 30th. Craig Davis, former chief creative officer worldwide JWT and former regional ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi in Asia, has been appointed the Chairman of Judges of this year's AWARD Awards. AWARD Judging will be held in Sydney, September 8th until September 18th. Finalists will be released in October, and the winners will be heralded at the AWARD Awards Presentation Evening on Thursday November 12th at The Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney. View the AWARD website.

In today's Media section of The Australian, Ben Welsh, ECD of M&C Saatchi, Sydney, outlines to marketers what awards mean to the advertising industry and what we can all expect at Cannes in two week's time. Read the article HERE

Every fortnight Campaign Brief Asia is turning the spotlight on a hot director that is currently in the news. Last year Moxie Films set up an office in Thailand - Campaign Brief Asia speaks to Henry Lu, one of their New York-based directors, who recently finished a campaign for the Japanese market.

Henry Lu, producer of Nike's inaugural 'Just Do It' spot, spent a decade as an agency producer at Wieden + Kennedy, Portland & Tokyo and BBDO before he switched to directing in 2003. He's signed with Moxie Pictures, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Bangkok and represented directors including Wes Anderson, Jim Sheridan, Jared Hess and Cameron Crowe. Prior to working in advertising, Lu studied film at Ryerson in his native Toronto and directed short films set in Buenos Aires and Hong Kong that have played at film festivals including Sundance, Mill Valley, Sydney, Soho and the Worldwide Short film festival in Toronto. He grew up in Toronto, but his heritage is both Taiwanese and Chinese. He now splits his time between New York and Toronto.

Campaign Brief Asia is heading to London for the D&AD Awards presentation this Thursday night (June 11th).
Make sure you check out this site on Friday for our run-down of all the news and find out what work from Asia managed to convert into Yellow Pencils.

Each week Campaign Brief Asia sits down with a prominent creative talent from our region and gets to know them better. This week in this regular "10 Minutes With" column is Graham Kelly, who recently left his position of Executive Creative Director at TBWA Singapore.

What did you do before getting into advertising?
An Honours Degree in Chemistry.  Then various odd jobs in the year between graduating and my first job in advertising - including running my own stall in a flea-market in Glasgow and delivering TV sets up far too many stairs in the city's high-rise flats.
How did you first get into advertising as a career?
I wanted a career that would let me be creative.  I thought it might be Chemistry, but soon after I started university I realised I would not be in the top 10% that do the breakthrough, prize-winning science. I had always enjoyed writing - and my sister seemed to have lots of fun (she was a journalist) - so some form of creative writing seemed an interesting option.

HP has launched 'Power To Change', a campaign that encourages personal computer users around the world to make behavioral changes in support of the environment.
The campaign encourages users to download a new desktop widget that tracks the cumulative energy savings associated with participants turning off idle PCs when not in use.
The Power To Change widget is available for download by individuals and companies across the globe and is compatible with all PC computing platforms. With the widget, computer users worldwide can watch and explore the energy savings the campaign generates through the power of behavioral changes across individual and global users. 
HP estimates that if 100,000 users shut down their work computers at the end of each day, energy savings could total more than 2,680 kilowatt-hours and carbon emissions reductions could total more than 3,500 pounds per day. This is the equivalent of eliminating more than 105 cars from the road each day.
Power To Change is launching across all three HP regions - Asia Pacific and Japan; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and the Americas - and is available in five languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

YouTube and the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival have today announced that Adeline Chew (27) from Malaysia and Guy Dayan (27) from Israel have won the viral ad competition to promote Oxfam's climate change campaign and will now become 'Team YouTube', the 39th team competing in the 2009 Young Lions Film Competition.
On 15 May, 2009 Oxfam was unveiled as the competition's charity partner and unveiled a brief for young creatives across the world to create a short ad of up to one minute on YouTube to promote their climate change campaign. Creatives were given 48 hours to submit their ad and then had a further two weeks to make their YouTube ad go viral by any means necessary.
The competition received 692 entries and over 100,000 votes in two weeks. A panel of worldwide creative leaders have been assessing the quality of the ads over the last week and have selected Adeline and Guy as the winners based upon their ads' creativity, number of views and video ratings. They will now unite as 'Team YouTube' and will receive an all expenses paid trip to Cannes to attend the International Advertising Festival and compete as the 38th team in the prestigious Young Lions Film competition.

Adeline's video is entitled 'Listen, don't watch'.
Guy's video is entitled 'The YouTube climate thermometer'.

With the International Advertising Festival just two weeks away, Leo Burnett has raised the interest and speculation over the best work with the release of its 23nd Cannes Predictions reel.
The reel brings together 50 contenders likely to earn a coveted Lion at this year's Festival.
A team led by Leo Burnett Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Mark Tutssel viewed thousands of campaigns, monitored global and local award shows and followed the general industry buzz to select the work for this year's collection. Besides including the most honored work, the reel is designed to reflect an international mix and a balance across multiple product categories. This year's reel features work from more than 14 countries including Nokia Bruce Lee 'Ping Pong' from China, Thai Life Insurance 'Melody of Life' from Thailand, Carlton Mid 'Woman Whisperer' from Australia and Himani 'Man Made Machines' from India.

So what can we expect at this year's festival?

For Tutssel the question on everyone's mind is: Has creativity suffered in the face of the global recession?
 
"With only a cursory glance, one could argue it has," said Tutssel.

Photographic representation operation LOOK Production is going international. Recently, LOOK has established exclusive alliances with leading production companies in growing markets, to establish LOOK India and a LOOK Asia.
The company has also promoted Senior Producer Helen Doick to take over as General Manager. Doick has over 15 years production experience and has worked at LOOK for the last 4 years. Both Helen Doick and Niki Beeston (Marketing and Creative Services) will head up all local and international marketing at LOOK.
Under the new management structure, LOOK will take on new creative direction within advertising and include the launch of a new fashion division.
See their website here.

Crispin Porter+Bogusky Miami has won the Grand Effie Award for Burger King's "Whopper Freakout" at the 41st annual awards held last night. The Effies honour the most effective advertising of the year.
Carl Johnson, co-founder of Anomaly was the chairman of the board of directors of Effie Worldwide this year. He commented: "Burger King won the Grand Effie convincingly due to their boldness and creativity across multiple media platforms, delivering real cultural relevance and, above all, outstanding business results."
See more details on the Effies here.

The Cannes Lions seem to be recession proof from an Asian perspective given the breakdowns of entry levels to the festival this year. While overall entries to Cannes are down 19.9% entries from Asia-Pacific are only down 10.4%, something that is no doubt pleasing to the Festival organisers. A fall of just over 10% is an amazing result given the depressed economic position of the industry in our region and all the negative talk of cutbacks amongst networks.

Asia-Pacific entries this year totaled 5157 compared to 5757 last year.

The number of entries from Singapore this year is 458, which is just 17 entries less than the 475 last year. Thailand entered 406 entries compared to 482 last year. India dropped to 982 entries from 1109 in 2008 and Japan fell from 957 to 747 entries.

Surprisingly, Hong Kong and The Philippines actually increased their entry levels this year. Hong Kong's entries jumped almost 100% - from 154 in 2008 to 310 this year. Entries from Manila increased to 202 from 167 twelve months ago.

On a world wide scale Cannes Lions entries from their three most prolific countries have drastically declined. The USA is down 25.2% to 2726 entries. Brazil is down a huge 38.3% to 1519 and the UK is down 24.4% to 1316 entries. 

Entry figures for this month's Cannes International Advertising Festival are nearly 20% down on last year. 22,652 entries from 86 countries will be competing at this year's event, a 19.9% drop on the record breaking year in 2008.
"Although there are naturally fewer entries across the categories, the Lions remain the ultimate global awards to win. We are particularly happy about the launch of the PR Lions, which have been so well supported by our colleagues in the PR industry. With 431 entries from 239 companies in 48 countries participating, it's a great welcome to Cannes for this new category," said Philip Thomas, Festival CEO.
As the figures show the biggest fall this year is in the Press category with a 32.2% decline. The Film category is down 25.4%, Outdoor is down 23%, Cyber is down 20% and Direct down 19.6%.
This year the Cannes Lions runs from June 21st to June 27th.

Bestads Top 6 Commercials of the week in the world is now ready to view, reviewed by Frazer Jelleyman, executive creative director of David & Goliath, London: http://tr.im/fopw

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Ogilvy & Mather senior art director Adrian Chan has emerged as Asia's No1 most awarded creative in this year's Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings. Chan accumulated 1036 ranking points just 26 points in front of last year's No3 ranked creative - Richard Copping (ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore - pictured below right). Coming in at No3 this year with 995 points is BBH CD Ashidiq Ghazali (pictured below left), who recently moved from Ogilvy Singapore, where he was teamed with Chan. Creatives (or former creatives) from Leo Burnett Bangkok and Ogilvy & Mather Singapore fill the next 5 positions. Amazingly, 1533 individual creatives from across Asia are ranked in this year's Creative Rankings.

Released annually, the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings tabulate all Asian winners and finalists at the world's most important International and Regional awards shows. Those shows are: Cannes, D&AD, Clio, One Show, AdFest, Media Spikes, AWARD Awards and Campaign Brief's 'The Work'. Like the various sporting rankings, Campaign Brief Asia's rankings are based solely on performances over the past two year period. Creative awards won more than two years ago are not counted in these tables. Points are allocated to the agency, writer and art director only. And it is important to note that no Craft awards from any international or regional show count in these Creative Rankings.

Here's this year's TOP 10.

    1    Adrian Chan    O&M Singapore    1036
    2    Richard Copping    Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore    1010
    3    Ashidiq Ghazali    BBH Singapore     995
    4    Sompat Trisadikun    Leo Burnett Bangkok    965
    5    Troy Lim    O&M Singapore    943
    6    Eric Yeo    O&M Singapore    941
    7    Noranit Yasopa    Lowe Bangkok    861
    8    Pipat Uraporn    Leo Burnett Bangkok    829
    9    Jagdish Ramakrishnan    BBDO Singapore    816
    10  Suthisak Sucharittanonta    BBDO Bangkok    798

Creatives ranked from No11 to No25 are listed here:

The AWARD Awards Call For Entries brochure is out now. See below.

VIEW THE CHINESE PDF:
2009AWARDCallforEntries-Chinese.pdf

VIEW THE THAI PDF:
2009AWARDCallforEntries-Thai.pdf

VIEW THE JAPANESE PDF:
2009AWARDCallforEntries-Japanese.pdf 

VIEW THE ENGLISH PDF:
Award_Poster.pdf

Thanks to a diverse group of creatives, educators and business leaders, the 2009 One Show Creative unConference recently in New York tackled topics as varied as the challenges in running a small or independent agency, the future of branded entertainment, the politics of agency/client collaborations and even creative solutions for political problems in Afghanistan.
One of the goals of an unConference is to keep the conversation going long after the conference closes. To do this The One Club has collected notes from 31 of the unConference sessions and posted them to the unConference site.

Each week Campaign Brief Asia sits down with a prominent creative talent from our region and gets to know them better. This week in this regular "10 Minutes With" column is Steve Hough, who this year moved back from Saatchi & Saatchi Vietnam to be Executive Creative Director of Y&R Malaysia.

What did you do before getting into advertising?
When i was 16 my father told me that the local Art College was full of people who did very little work and who only wanted to have a good time. Eureka! I'd found my perfect career path.
How did you first get into advertising as a career?
Back in the eighties I was doing a Graphic Design course in Manchester and came across a D&AD annual. It was full of great ads by John Webster, David Abbott and Dave Trott. It immediately struck me how comparatively boring graphics was and that I needed to escape to the murky world of Advertising, which was far more fun.