Laura Geagea’s Ad Star’s Diary: Day 3
Laura Geagea, Managing Director and Executive Producer of China, Asia & MENA at Sweetshop (pictured left on the right) reports for Campaign Brief Asia from AdStars 2018 in Busan, South Korea.
DAY 3.
The third and last day of Adstars and everyone’s looking forward to the award ceremony this evening.
Hyungkyun Oh, Art Director at Cheil, Aeri Park, Vice President at HS Ad and Matty Burton, Creative Chief Asia Pacific at Google Zoo start off the day with talks touching technology, downloading and condensing work.
Emma Wilkie then took us through ‘Lessons From the World’s Most Creative Campaigns from Gunn Report’. A great 45 minute overview of the very best of our industry from print campaigns, to agencies, interactive and much more. Some fantastic campaigns and ideas make the Gunn Report’s prestigious list, but here are a couple of highlights.
The top 5 campaigns of the year:
Brand: Getty Images
Agency: AlmapBBDO
A print campaign with four impressive portraits of Andrea Merkel, Pope Francis, The Dalai Lama and Prince Charles put together with a multitude of stock art images stitched together.
Brand: Sandy hook promise
Agency: BBDO New York
The cute high-school love story that steals our hearts to then finally reveal that gun violence is something that is in the background and we seldom notice.
Brand: Pedigree
Agency: BBDO Auckland
The humorous campaign that encourages parents to adopt a dog after their kids have left the house.
Brand: State street global advisors
Agency: McCann New York
Today it’s one of the world’s most famous statues, ‘Fearless Girl’ was initially built and installed opposite the Charging Bull on Wall Street for International Women’s Day as a temporary piece. It’s now been moved to a permanent spot across the stock exchange in New York. A very clear symbol calling for diversity and empowerment for women.
Brand: Transport Accident Commission
Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
An interactive sculpture created to show us what our bodies need to look like to withhold a car accident. A very successful campaign that attracted 10 million views on the website in five days.
BDDO worldwide takes the Gunn Report’s most awarded network title for the 12th year in a row, followed by McCann Worldgroup, Ogilvy & Mather & DDB Worldwide.
Ari Halper from FCB New York took the stage after Wilkie. Halper told us how The Future of Advertising lies in our creativity. But just not how you think!
He starts off with a simple question: Is there a future in this industry? Or should I… get out?
The good news is that advertising is not dead. The bad news is that it’s hurting, Halper says half-jokingly, half serious. Carrying on with the same tone, he gives us a quick overview of why we are where we are and what we could’ve avoided along the road.
He starts of by discussing a model that used to be the norm – where agencies would charge clients 15% of the total budget. The fee-based model ensued preceding the “divorce” of media and creativity.
Also touching on awards and how they are an obvious big benchmark that create value for our companies, he says, “Awards should be part of the journey and not of the destination.” It does however feel different.
There is unfortunately a feeling of mistrust that has set itself between Clients and their agencies. However, the future is not all dark and gloomy, Halper gives a few solutions that he believes will lift things up.
Ranging from a performance-based model where the agency makes more if the sales are better than expected, as a first option or even the IP model, which gives the agency ownership of a campaign so that they can capitalize on it when it does well and is aired throughout different media, territories and usage.
Other solutions also include a “Fuck it Model” – where we just need to not over think it, go for something new and not worry about anything else (and pray to whichever God we believe in that it will work out).
Toby Talbot, Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi was next and took us through his personal journey and story revolving around his relationship with awards and “What is the True Value of Awards?”. Talbot’s been in the industry for 28 years. And asks himself whether his legacy will be measured in awards.
When advertising started, there were no awards. But I the 60s, we decided we should give ourselves awards to celebrate ourselves and our work. The logic, if we want to look at it that way, is that if the bar is set high enough, then maybe we’ll all end up pushing for more good work, we’ll have something to aspire to.
“Would there be more bad movies if the Oscars didn’t exist?” A good thought to ponder.
Talbot does believe though that there are too many awards shows out there. So which awards do matter and to who?
A few big names come up, the Effies, which are a bigger attraction to clients as they’re more measurable in terms of data than others. Also, Cannes Lions, D&AD, Spikes Asia, to name a few.
Some agencies are seen to spend up to $1 million a year on awards (this includes case studies, entries, delegates passes, sponsors…). In Talbot’s opinion, perhaps picking and choosing the award shows and investing the rest of your time and money within your own network might be the better choice.
A special note goes out to Adstars that has a system in place, which is different to the majority of awards, where the entries are free. The downside of having to pay for every entry is that some companies simply cannot afford it. Therefore, a lot of good work and ideas get lost every year. Which is something that should be avoided, if we want to see groundbreaking new work!
The creativity talks come an end with Talbot urging us to focus more on creativity, and less on the eterna
l chase of awards.
And off we go to the Awards show and Closing Gala party for the 11th edition of Adstars. A great couple of hours of watching all the work that has been voted the best by the jury, here are a few highlights!
Nike went home with the Advertiser of the Year award. BBDO was awarded Network of the Year, specifically BBDO Pakistan, which won several awards for its gripping ‘Bridal Uniform Campaign’.
Grand Prix of the Year went to two campaigns:
– “Share a Coke – 1,000 Name Celebration” Fitzco//McCann in the United States
– and ‘Palau Pledge’ campaign (Host / Havas Australia)
And I’m pretty proud to say, Sweetshop also walked away with a Gold trophy in Film Craft (Direction) for New Zealand Police Recruitment from Director Damien Shatford.
The 12th edition of Adstars’ theme was also unveiled, “Influence”. The hope is to influence the world through advertising and make it a better place!
Thank you for having us Adstars! A shame we didn’t get more sun, but still an interesting and exciting three days.
See you next year Busan!
Don’t miss the best of Asia’s creative and award news. Sign up for the free Campaign Brief Asia Daily email newsletter. It takes just 30 seconds. CLICK HERE.
