The judging of the Hong Kong Kam Fan awards has been completed following three days of judging. Like all awards shows worldwide entries to the awards were down around 40% with 745 entries judged in two stages.

This year's judging panel was headed by WOWWOWTANK director Tan Khiang and included Lance Martin (ECD Taxi2, Toronto), Sam Ball (Creative Partner Lean Mean Fighting Machine, London), Ben Walker (CD Wieden & Kennedy, London), Hwee Beng Poh (ECD DraftFCB Shanghai), Iris Lo (creative veteran Hong Kong), Koshi Uchiyama (CD GT Inc. Tokyo), Pinit Chantaprateep (Chief Creative Officer JWT Thailand) and Kim Shaw (Co-Publisher Campaign Brief).

Saatchi & Saatchi Malaysia has released a new Tiger Beer spot that celebrates Halloween.

Credits: Creatives - Adrian Miller, James Yap, Ramanjit Singh, Alex Wong, Ian Lee. Agency Producer - Kay Ahmad. Production House - Velocity. Director - Peter Carr.
 

Euro RSCG, Singapore has won the Grand Prix in the 2009 Cresta Awards Press competition for their client, Nikon. The winning entry cowas their campaign titled "Faces".

The Cresta Awards, launched in 1993 by Creative Standards International, counted the participation of 51 countries in this year's competition.  A total of 195 ads, campaigns and interactive entries (approx. 5% of all entries) were chosen by 100 top creatives for finalist honors.  The juries for TV/Cinema/Digital; Integrated Campaigns; Press; Poster, Radio, Direct Marketing and Ambient Media were held in 8 cities - Bologna, Budapest, Caracas, Helsinki, Moscow, Mumbai, New York and Tel Aviv.  In addition, a separate pre-selection Jury (17 members from 9 countries) was conducted for Interactive entries.

The 2009 LongXi Worldwide Chinese Language Advertising Awards event will take place at the Journalism School of Shanghai Fu Dan University between Nov 28 and 30. Unlike in past years, all 4 LongXi Awards groups of categories will be judged and take place at the same time by one consolidated judging panel.

The jury consists of ethnic Chinese creative leaders from Greater China region of various disciplines, such as conventional media advertising, Direct, Interactive and Design. They will be working together to award the best entries from the 4 LongXi Awards groups. This year's jury is lead by Carol Lam - TBWA Shanghai, ECD. Joining Lam are: Michael Dee - DDB China Group, COO, Kevin Lee - O&M Shanghai, ECD, Daming Zheng - CC&E Guangzhou & Shanghai, CCO, Wayne Huang - Han Tang Communications Group, CD, Yoken Wu - Yoken Corporate Identity Co. Ltd, Chief Art Director, Ben Lui - IGOO Communication Hong Kong & Shanghai, CEO, Sam Woo - CCCGP Grand Prix Shanghai Limited, Senior VP, Elvis Chau - JWT Shanghai, Senior CD, Tony Liu - Shanghai AEIOU, Chairman & ECD, Dwayne Koh - Wieden Kennedy Shanghai, CD and Akae Wang - Taiwan David Advertising, ECD.

The LongXi Awards were founded by the four ethnic Chinese creative veterans Jimmy Lam, Tomaz Mok, David Sun and Peter Soh 11 years ago.

The Philippine National Nutrition Council wanted to come up with a campaign that promotes healthy, nutritious eating. Dentsu Philippines decided to dramatize the results of eating junk-food by placing posters with trash bags which transform into pot-bellies when filled with real trash.

Credits: Mike Calaquian (Executive Creative Director), Chan dela Calzada (Associate CD/Copywriter), Sandy Floria (Art Director)

UPDATE: Thank you for all of the wonderful messages that have been left for Belle and the family. There will be a ceremony this Saturday 31st October at Cherng Talay Temple, at 12pm followed by a wake at Taste on Surin Beach. Please join us to celebrate Wayne's life, There will also be a service on Thursday week in Sydney, details will follow - Kathy Davies

Well known and loved Australian TVC director, Wayne Maule has been tragically killed in Thailand.

Bestads Top 6 Commercials of the week in the world is now ready to view, reviewed by Duncan Marshall, executive creative director and founding partner at Droga5, New York. One of Marshall's favourite is the Dentyne Ice 'Squid' spot via McCann-Erickson Bangkok.

Ali Shabaz, the Executive Creative Director in Singapore, has decided to take a break from the professional world to spend some time on of his personal interests. Ali started at JWT as Associate Creative Director and when he was promoted to ECD, he outperformed expectations and turned the agency into what it is today.

"While we are incredibly disappointed to see Ali leave, we wish him continued success in the future," said GuanHin Tay, JWT Regional ECD based in Singapore. "He has done a tremendous job in raising the profile of the office and was integral to the success of the JWT network."

Designer Paul Begg and Droga5, Sydney are creating a one-off Porsche 911 for VB RAW live online. The final product will be a hand built Porsche 911 Raw Classic that will be given away as part of the promo. It's all happening at The Raw Speed Shop in Eastern Sydney which is fast becoming a space for urban artists and designers to hang out, have a beer and create work of their own.

As Craig Davis is well known throughout the region CB Asia though we'd post his recent address to delegates at the Australian Newspaper Caxton Seminar held this weekend in Noosa, Queensland. Davis, the keynote speaker at the seminar, is chief creative officer and co-chairman of Publicis Mojo Australasia.

View a PDF of his speech: Caxtons Keynote 230909.pdf 

Ogilvy Bangkok is again tugging at the heart-strings with their latest spot for Thai Life Insurance. This TVC attempts to get the target audience to think about the future, and how unpredictable it can be, while also expressing the essence of the 'First Step' life insurance policy of taking care of every life without regard to disabilities.

The story begins with 30 boys and girls aged 5 singing the famous song 'Que Sera Sera' at a school concert for their parents. The song is symbolic of the questions children pose to their parents about how their lives will be when they grow up, and the answer from their parents is essentially that the future is unknowable, "Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, the future's not ours to see.

American Tourister is a luggage that's so tough, it can survive even the most challenging of situations the world throws at you. Every destination is unique in itself and there is a lot that can happen. Mumbai for instance, can overwhelm you with its crowds and so Contract Advertising Mumbai decided to demonstrate the strength of the luggage by putting it in the most trying of situations.

McCann Worldgroup Bangkok demonstrate that Dentyne Ice gets rid of bad breath, fast. The spot was directed by Suthon Petchsuwon from Mum Films and created by creative team Boonasak Bunnahirun and Salinee Na Ranong. View the spot here.

Clarence Chiew and Minzie Liyu have been promoted and will be leading creative teams. Chiew steps up from Creative Group Head to  Associate Creative Director while Liyu assumes the Creative Group Head role.

"Clarence and Minzie make a great team and with Thomas Yang leaving, it made sense to promote them at the same time," said Ali Shabaz, JWT Singapore Executive Creative Director. "They have already picked up a slew of awards and bagged some great new clients so we expect amazing things from them in the future."

Award-winning director Pep Bosch has been signed to Sydney based production company Goodoil Films for Asia and Australia representation. This follows his recent moves to O Positive USA and MJZ UK. Bosch's trophies include a Gold Lion for VW Amnesia and a long list of award winning spots for clients such as Visa, Audi, Honda, Toyota and Ikea. Pep's unusual take on the world has created some of the more thought provoking and entertaining spots created in recent times.

Bestads Top 6 Commercials of the week in the world is now ready to view, reviewed by Roger Camp, chief creative officer at hot US agency Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco - who is the all-time most awarded American creative at Cannes. 

Google has today been named the new principal sponsor of AWARD School Australia and New Zealand, a 16-week course which teaches copywriters and art directors how to create big advertising ideas. The partnership is founded on Google's belief in creativity and innovation, and the importance this plays in creating effective and unique ways to connect with people.

Director Jonathan Nyquist and his producer Warwick Boulter have joined the Film Construction family.

"We are thrilled that Jonathan chose Film Construction as his new home. We have admired his work over the past couple of years and Jono and Warwick are a great addition to our team," says Peter Hewitt, Executive Producer.

One of the features of Nikon's COOLPIX S1000pj camera is that it can project photos on to a wall. GT Tokyo's Naoki Ito and Hideyuki Tanaka are behind the idea.

To drive the message of recycling, the first among a series of events was organized via JWT New Delhi at a college festival. A few young artists spent 7 hours putting together 6500+ trashed Pepsi cans and PET bottles into an intriguing pile of trash. When the light was thrown on it, the curious crowd saw in the shadow cast on the screen, what recycling can lead to: a beautiful world. More than 15,000 people watched it live and over 50,000 online. 11,345 people vowed to make recycling a way of life by signing on the wall and 7,331 of them registered on the website on the spot.

Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of the Ogilvy Group, recently spoke on TED offering life lessons from an ad man.

View his talk here.

When was the last time you had a great conversation? A conversation that was out of the blue, intriguing and interesting. A conversation where you found out so much more about your friends and so much about yourself. The Book of Conversations came to life because the two people behind the project, Jason Schragger and Mark Carolan, believe we simply aren't as good at talking as we used to be. Too often we just trade information. What we did, what we bought, where we went, what we did at work. The book is a collection of questions, each question a conversation starter. It's the intrigue of exploring someone and discovering what lies beneath. Some questions are deep, some trivial and some you will never forget.

Some thought this day would never come. Some just hoped it wouldn't. And the rest couldn't give a fuck.

Background.

Two Ogilvy agencies head the finalist list for Asia at this year's London International Awards. O&M Bangkok has the most finalists with 9, closely followed by O&M Mumbai with 8. Dentsu Inc. Tokyo and BBDO/Proximity Malaysia were the next best performers with 6 finalists each.

In terms of country performance Japan leads the way at LIA with a total of 27 finalists. India is next best with 12 finalists, followed by Malaysia (11), Thailand (10), China (10), Singapore (9), Hong Kong (3) and The Philippines (3). Australia was a strong performer from the Asia-Pacific region with an impressive 42 finalists. New Zealand scored 12.

BBDO Malaysia / Proximity Malaysia collaborate with thinktank director Sling and leading New Zealand post house Digipost to launch a new look for Maxis Mobile's sizzling prepaid brand, Hotlink, with the brand promise "There's always more with Hotlink". View the spot here.
 

Ingrid Goodyear is to take up the role of General Manager of Kodak's motion picture business in the company's Asia Pacific Region (APR) and Vice President Entertainment Imaging. Goodyear will be responsible for the full oversight of the Region's business within 15 key countries, including Australia, Japan, Korea, India and China. She will transition from her previous role as General Manager of the division's Image Capture business, where she oversaw the design and marketing of Kodak's full line of motion picture camera negative products. In her new position, Goodyear will retain her responsibilities for Worldwide Marketing.

"Given her broad experiences in operations, finance, sales and marketing, Ingrid brings a real depth to this role," said Kim Snyder, President Entertainment Imaging and Vice President Eastman Kodak Company. "I am very pleased to have such a proven, successful leader appointed to this key position."

Could this be the end for the boys?...

See previous story for a bit of background here.

Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia Creative Group Head Donevan Chew is to join M&C Saatchi as Associate Creative Director. The move is efffective from early November.

International creative trainer Ralf Langwost, the founder of IdeaManagement, died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on Sunday night. Although based in Germany, Ralf was well known in Asia being a regular speaker and delegate at the major international festivals including Cannes, Asia Spikes and AdFest. Ralf was just 48 years old. Campaign Brief's thoughts are with his family, friends and co-workers at IdeaManagement.

On December 7, 2009, leaders from 192 countries will gather at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to determine the fate of our planet.

Spearheaded by the International Advertising Association, the advertising and media industry around the world has collaborated in an international campaign to raise awareness of the issue and the meeting.

Colenso BBDO, Auckland leads the agency pack of 117 agencies in Asia, Australia and NZ accepted into The Work 09 annual, which is by far the most comprehensive record of advertising in the region, now in the 8th year of publication. Colenso BBDO, CB's NZ Agency of the Year, scored 18 acceptances, followed by Ogilvy & Mather Thailand and  DDB New Zealand with 11 each, with Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne sharing 4th spot, with 10 acceptances each.

The 2009 London International Awards judging has concluded in Las Vegas. This year is the first year that the organisers of the London International Awards made the welcomed decision to assemble a jury in the same place to judge the awards. Judging was held within the best hotel on the Las Vegas strip - the magnificent Wynn Hotel. LIA President Barbara Levy told Campaign Brief the decision to bring all the judges together to judge was made to take the international awards show to a higher level. Going on the results of this year's judging this aim has certainly been achieved. This year's panels were headed by Jeremy Craigen, ECD at DDB London, Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather and Faris Yakob  EVP/Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Worldgroup, New York (Pictured above, Right to Left).

KB Vinod has been appointed as Creative Head of Mudra West, India. Prior to this appointment, KB was with Leo Burnett as Executive Creative Director.

Commenting on this appointment, Bobby Pawar, Chief Creative Officer- Mudra Group said, "KB is just the right person to lead the young creative team at Mudra West. He really thinks through-the-line and will be a great partner for me to work with."

Adding to this, Arijit Ray, EVP, Mudra West said, "With KB coming in, we have the creative leadership in place. His well rounded experience makes him the ideal person to provide the right creative mentoring and direction to Mudra West's brands."

Thierry Halbroth has been promoted to Joint Executive Creative Director, joining ECD Sylvester Song in managing McCann Erickson's Cathay Pacific Central Team creative department. Since joining McCann Erickson in early 2006, Halbroth has been a key member of the Cathay Pacific Central Team and a great leader, inspiration and contributor of leading-edge creative ideas.

Mark Collis is leaving his post as ECD at Ogilvy and Mather, Tokyo and will return to Sydney later this month. His future plans are not yet known.  He told CB: "I'm in discussions with a couple of people but it might be that I simply help out on projects directly for other agencies and clients."

Collis was previously ECD at Leo Burnett Sydney and known for campaigns such as 'Pommies' for Bundaberg and 'Inner Child' for McDonalds, as well as the award winning original 'Earth Hour' campaign for WWF. He joined O&M Japan in March 2008.

Every fortnight Campaign Brief Asia is turning the spotlight on a hot director that is currently in the news. Campaign Brief Asia speaks to SEGA, who recently signed with The Sweet Shop for global representation.
 
The Spanish commercials director SEGA - Sergio Garcia - got his start in advertising as a designer and then, art director. His break as a director came with a group of promos for a television channel called Cuatro, where the client gave him total freedom to interpret and visualize the concepts. Describing his first few years as a crash course in directing, he has since worked across Europe for brands including Chrysler, Orange, Metro and Seat.

BETC Euro RSCG Paris has released a new humorous spot for Canal+. The agency has a long history of great work on this client and this one fits in well with previous efforts. In this story Canal+ highlights its showcase of original programming, consisting of series, documentaries and fictions, created by and for Canal+, scripted by prestigious writers such as Olivier Marchal and Jean- Hugues Anglade. View the spot HERE.

Thomas Yang is leaving JWT to join DDB Singapore as Associate Creative Director. Over the past 15 years Yang has worked at agencies such as Lowe, BBDO, O&M, M&C Saatchi, 10am Communications and JWT. After joining JWT as Head of Art in 2005, he soon moved on to lead JWT as the Associate Creative Director on clients like HSBC, Bayer, Unilever, SilkAir, Pizza Hut & Shell.

Yang will work on key accounts at DDB Singapore and will report directly to Joji Jacob, ECD DDB/RAPP Singapore.

"We're really kicked that Thomas Yang is joining us. He is probably the best art-based creative leader in Singapore. He'll help us in our integration drive and to create and lead work that gives our clients an unfair advantage in the market.," said Jacob.

The Vietnam Creative Circle and their long standing partner VietnamMarcom have teamed up with Sun Flower Media Ltd who will host the Vietnam Advertising Festival incorporating the YOUNG LIONS from December 10th-13th. The Big Show, where agencies in Vietnam exhibit their best creative work, will take place on Friday 11th December as part of the Festival.

This year, under the guidance of co-chairs Ty Montague of JWT and Michael Lebowitz of Big Spaceship, the International Andy Awards has decided to break with tradition and turn to the international advertising community to elect the 2010 award jury. electthejury.com features a list of 100 plus candidates from around the world that visitors can vote on for the next few weeks. They can also nominate other candidates before October 15. The final list of 25 jurors will then be announced on December 1.

BBDO Guerrero/Proximity, Philippines today released a campaign to heighten awareness of the Tropical Storm Ketsana/Ondoy appeal that is being undertaken by the Philippine Red Cross. There will be two further spots and a press component.

Simon Handford and Sandy Chan with take up the joint ECD role at Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong, replacing Gavin Simpson who is relocating with Ogilvy to Malaysia. In December the duo will leave M&C Saatchi Hong Kong, where they have been working as joint MDs and ECDs, and their roles will be taken up by regional CEO Chris Jaques and newly appointed regional ECD Rowan Chanen.

The 24th London International Awards judging is currently underway.  Twenty two of the best creative people around the world are at the magnificent Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas to recognise and honour the best work from 78 countries. The categories of work judged in Vegas are Print, Billboard, Poster, Non-Traditional, Integrated, Television & Cinema, Web and Mobile plus The NEW Category. This year's panels are being headed by Jeremy Craigen from DDB London, Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather and Faris Yakob of McCann Worldgroup, New York.

Kazoo Sato has joined TBWA Hakuhodo as Senior Creative Director. Kazoo was most recently at Beacon Communications, a joint venture agency between Dentsu and Leo Burnet, where he worked since 1999. Kazoo has produced award-winning work for a variety of domestic and international clients including P&G, McDonald's and Coca Cola. Prior to that, Kazoo worked at Sony Music Entertainment, and continues to leverage his music passion, knowledge and connections in his creative thinking. In addition to his advertising work, Kazoo's creativity can be seen in his CD jacket designs and production of music videos and live concerts.

"For me, it's important to be creative in more ways than just simply making ads. I wanted to find a place that embraces and encourages creative ideas that are bigger than a tv spot or a print ad. TBWA Hakuhodo is that kind of agency," said Kazoo. "I'm hoping to do great things with our current clients while inspiring the whole industry."