Emir Shafri’s Spikes Asia Diary: Day 1

Young & Rubicam Singapore’s Digital Lead Emir Shafri (pictured second from right) is a jury member of the Innovation category at Spikes Asia, here’s his take on day one of the Festival.

After a long 15 minute cab ride (fortunately with no layovers or turbulence), I landed bright and early at the Mandarin Oriental for day 1 of the Innovation Spikes judging.

Anyone who has worked with me would know that I’m really a morning, but today’s an exception. You see, the judging process for this category is slightly different, with shortlisted entrants making a 10-minute presentation to the jury, before a 10-minute Q&A session. It’s unlike any of the past jury gigs I’ve done, so the excitement of being part of this unique process alone was all the caffeine I needed.

We started with a brief chat by the poolside overlooking Singapore’s hazy skyline about what we were looking to award this year. Perhaps our Jury President and resident Clever B(u)oy of M&C Saatchi Australia, Ben Cooper, said it best when he said we’re on the hunt for innovations that solve problems in a simple, natural way. Indeed, a lot of the pieces that focused on cool technology without solving a real need (“tech for tech’s sake”, as it has often been uttered at the Festival) were eliminated during the online judging process.

By 10, we were shepherded to the Festival’s Discovery Stage to sit through the Innovation Spikes shortlist presentations. For the next 6 hours (with a quick lunch break in between), we heard from the creators of all the shortlisted work, as they shared with us the thinking that went into each innovation, how they brought their innovation alive, as well as their plans to take their innovation to the next level.

The presentations really gave us a chance to have an intimate look into the thinking that went into each innovation. While entrants could enlist the help of beautifully put together case films with moving stats and soundtrack during the initial remote judging round, entrants couldn’t hide behind beautiful films during the live presentation.

With the ideas laid bare, with no case films to distract, we spotted things we didn’t initially see. In some cases, ideas that were in our mind clear winners in the beginning didn’t seem so clear-cut after the presentations. In others, work with case films that raised more questions than answers seemed much tighter after the presentations.

We all felt really privileged to have this intimate look into the heads of the innovators. We saw what inspired them, be it a large issue plaguing the community around them, or a personal event that affected them. We saw the challenges they faced and continue to face to bring their ideas alive. We saw how they overcame these challenges as they worked closely with their clients and vendors to bring the idea alive. It gave us a really deep understanding of each innovation.

We couldn’t thank the shortlisted entrants enough for gamely spending those 20 minutes explaining the results of what in some cases were years of hard work, and for patiently answering every question that we had. The amazing presentations definitely gave us a strong discussion for the jury’s discussions for the metal stage.

With the presentations out of the way, I then braced my liver for the Spikes Nights. Met up with my girlfriend (who’s in the Young Digital Academy) and the rest of the Y&R Singapore crew at Campaign Brief Asia’s annual Legendary debauchery at the Gem Bar. It was good seeing old friends and making new ones. And it was amusing seeing the Gem Bar staff trying in vain to stop us from spilling out into the street.

With our growling tummies, we then made a pit stop for the McCann rooftop party. Unfortunately, unlike last year where they had burger and kebab stalls, they only had a few curry puffs going around by the time we got there. So we just fed ourselves with thumping beats from Spotify, before calling it a night.

Really excited to see how the discussions go on Day 2. With the discussions done, I promise I’ll try to keep the diary entry much shorter tomorrow. To paraphrase Pascal: “I’m sorry I wrote you such a long Spikes Asia diary entry. I did not have time to write you a short one.”

Photo Captions:

Photo 6: Legendary Japanese Art Director Hisashi Matsui, sharing with us his philosophy in life: Coolness cries for no one.