ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday April 06, 2008
Vol. 42 - No 45
Financial Times  

Dull Adfest an indicator of disappointing Cannes for Asia?

By Normandy Madden, AdAge.com

If last week's lacklustre AdFest -- the regional ad show that is building a global reputation as Asia's Cannes festival -- is a harbinger, there won't be big winners from Asia at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival this year.

"I don't think any of the work will win a gold at any major global award shows," said Tony Davidson, executive creative director, Wieden & Kennedy in London, who led the TV jury this year at AdFest. His opinion was echoed by many at the festival. No Best of Show awards were given in two major categories: TV and outdoor media.

"I was not impressed by the TV and print work and I have never seen as many scam ads as I've seen here," Davidson said, referring to the practice of entering ads that are often very creative but haven't been approved by a client or run in paid media. "[Asia's creative industry] needs to sort that out. It makes us look stupid."

Now 11 years old, AdFest is held in Pattaya, a sunny but seedy seaside resort south of Bangkok, and has become a benchmark for comparing the creative performance of different Asian countries. This year AdFest attracted 1,592 delegates from March 26-29, down slightly from last year, and 5,148 entries. Entries were up slightly due partly to several new categories, but fell sharply in the biggest categories. TV entries dropped to 761 from 895 last year, outdoor was down to 495 from 1,392 and press entries fell to 1,205 from 1,453.

"Growth has been static, with fewer delegates than last year," said AdFest Chairman Vinit Suraphongchai. "I think it's because of the U.S. recession and the low dollar. It's harder for agencies to spend money on travel and entry fees."

Bangkok and Tokyo agencies took home most of the metal, but Thailand had fewer winners than usual. In recent years, most of the buzz has surrounded Thai work, such as a series of spots for Smooth E White Babyface Scrub by Jeh United, an independent agency in Bangkok; Ford's "King Kong" TV spot by JWT, Bangkok; and the spots starring worms for Uni-President's Unif green tea by BBDO, Bangkok. The Thai winners usually go on to do well at Cannes.

Japanese agencies dominated many of the awards this year. Out of 761 TV entries, the only two Gold prizes went to Tokyo agencies: ADK for its Maxell DVD "Forever and ever" campaign and Dentsu for Japanese recruiting site Rikunavi's "Ms. Yuko Yumada Looks for Her First Job."

 

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