D&AD’s Sanky, Contagious’ Kemp-Robertson and Brazil’s Washington Olivetto head Adfest line-up

ADFEST has unveiled its line-up for this year’s 3-day Festival on 17th – 19th March, with some of the world’s most influential marketing executives headlining the event.

From London, D&AD President Simon ‘Sanky’  Sankarayya (left) will give a Seminar called ‘The Chocolate Room’, exploring the highly collaborative nature of communications today.

“Collaboration is a must nowadays not an avant garde way of working,” says Sanky. “Our understanding of how culture and society are evermore connected is really the future currency. We’re certainly living in a time when a lot of what you could dream up can be made, so close your eyes and make a wish… stand up and be counted.”

As well as being D&AD President, Sanky is a Director at AllofUs, an interactive design agency that explores how R&D and technology can work alongside traditional advertising. It’s the first time D&AD has given a Seminar at ADFEST.

Also from the UK, Contagious returns to share its first Asian Trends Briefing of the year, ‘Projects, Not Campaigns!’, presented by the magazine’s co-founder & editorial director, Paul Kemp-Robertson (left).

“Sealed ad campaigns are dead. The best brands are those that see themselves as networks which connect like-minded people around shared interests and causes. This means thinking editorially, reacting in real time and engaging in reciprocal conversations,” says Kemp-Robertson.

From Brazil, Washington Olivetto (left) will explain how his agency, WMcCann, has infiltrated popular culture time and again in South America in a Seminar titled, ‘Advertising and Pop Culture’.

“Advertising fascinates when – in addition to meeting its obligations to sell products and build brands – it reaches a greater, and more noble ambition: to be part of the popular culture,” says Olivetto.

Olivetto is one of Brazil’s most famous advertising gurus – in fact, there is a famous pop song dedicated to W\Brazil, which he founded prior to its merger last year with McCann-Erickson.

Olivetto is also Grand Jury president at ADFEST 2011.

Register to attend ADFEST or contact Delegate & Registration Manager, Ms Noi via noi@adfest.com