Claire Davidson takes in the seminars at the international AdStars 2015 Festival in Busan, South Korea
The Sweet Shop’s Claire Davidson (pictured centre) is back at the AdStars International Advertising Festival in Busan, South Korea. Davidson is taking in the seminars and reporting for Campaign Brief. Here’s her round up of the sessions on from all three days of the Festival:
. 17,698 Entries (which is a 40% increase in entries from last year).
. 1,717 Shortlists.
. 22 Categories.
. 193 Judges previously shortlisted entries in July.
. 35 Judges on the ground in Busan to award the work.
. 5,000 people to attend the festival during the next three days.
. USD $20,000 up for grabs in prize money.
With those statistics, it’s easy to see why the nine year old AdStars is now by far the largest advertising festival across the Asia Pacific region.
I love coming to AdStars. It’s my fourth consecutive year and the 7th year Campaign Brief’s Kim Shaw has attended. It truly is a wonderful event filled with much learning, much inspiration and much creative sharing. On a personal note, what I particularly like about the festival is that AdStars focuses on sharing diverse creative solutions around the world, for the betterment of culture and humanity.
One of the USD $10,000 Grand Prix winners to be announced on Saturday evening at the Awards Ceremony must be from a public service category contributing to humanity. On the back of World Humanitarian Day yesterday, this is a great achievement to see within our industry of advertising and communications.
This year’s AdStars slogan is ‘Share Creative Solutions, Change the World’ with the theme to go beyond advertising, and further beyond advertising convention, covering the change of the advertising environment and much more. 2015 also sees the Video Awards introduced, which has categories in Branded Entertainment Videos, Branded Viral Videos, Branded Information Videos and Campaign Videos – Case Film.
The first seminar I took in today was with one of advertising’s luminaries, Merlee Cruz Jayme, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of DM9 Jayme Syfu. Jayme brought us “Beyond Hard Sell is Heart Sell”.
We are in a business of selling. It’s about convincing or persuading people. Everyday though, the faster and easier way to do this is to hard sell. The most direct way to convince someone is hard sell. In the digital world there are so many changes in trends and technology. It’s exciting and it changes every year. But there is one thing that does not change. That is heart sell. (all together now AAAAAWWWWWW) Heart sell is human connections, deep connections that link to your brands. They are real stories of people’s feelings. Heart sell versus hard sell is much more difficult. You have to dig deeper. The results however give you shares, loves more than likes, hits not skipped and the buzz helps to create a brand. It also builds longevity for a brand.
Why do we insist on bringing our hard sell messages to the digital world? Consumers have changed. Remember you are now just a scroll, or a swipe or a skip away. Branded content is not an extended version of TV commercials. Genuine social media is more powerful than paid social media. We looked at case studies by Dove, Honda, and the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Can you combine hard sell and heart sell? Yes. But it must be executed well. Take Volvo Trucks and Docomo’s latest release. There are different ways to heart sell. True heart sell can stand the test of time. Create ideas from the heart because it allows you to relate more to your consumers.
A good quote from William Bernbach to put this into perspective is “You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen”.
Up next was Even Teng, Managing Director of J. Walter Thompson, Taipei who spoke to us about AdAsia 2015 Taipei and invited us all to attend.
The Asian Advertising Congress, or AdAsia as it is more commonly known, is a regional advertising event organized by the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) which is held in a different country around the region annually.
This year it’s to be held in Taipei from November 22nd-25th and its theme will follow the impact of cloud technology on marketing, culture, creativity, media and brand communication. The aim will also be to discover inspiration from our five senses. Teng took us through the full festival programme, who will be judging, who will be speaking and what events we can expect during the four day extravaganza. Through cloud and creativity we will experience, discuss, explore, exchange, share and celebrate. I’ll also be looking forward to the Ted talks there.
Sae-Hwan Park, Vice President of Cheil Peng Tai was next up on the stage and brought us “The Major Trends and Implications of E-Commerce in China”. Park works in the marketing and supplying of Korean products on websites in China. E-Commerce in China is one of the largest and also the fastest growing markets in the world.
Some of our global IT companies competing for the market place there include the following:
~ Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon from the US
~ Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent, WeChat from China
~ Naver, GMarket, Kakao, Line, Samsung and LG from Korea
How have they all developed within China? Well during the initial stage these IT companies tried to establish the leading position within the industry. They competed with each other in the industry and continue to do so today. The second stage they were faced with was to keep stabilizing their position and to seek other opportunities. The third and current stage is globalization, which focuses on cross border investment and acquisition to strengthen the global influence. For example Alibaba made a huge investment, Tencent focused on SNS and Media.
So the aim is to become the industry leader, strengthen that competitive position and increase influence. E-commerce growth in China is colossal. This year it is predicted to reach 638 billion dollars. The increase rate of online shopping is higher than the increase rate of cars, chemistry, banking, electronics etc.
The Chinese E-Commerce industry can be broken down into MART: (I hope that you all know your E-Commerce acronyms)
~ Mobile
M1. B2C Mobile Retail.
M2. Mobile Payment.
~ PlAtform
A1. Self Operation vs Platform.
A2. Integrated vs Vertical.
~ Region
R1. Thousands of countries and 10K Villages.
R2. Cross Border Trading
~ Technology
T1. Big Data
T2. O2O
In summary it’s about Convenience, Convergence, Channel, Customization and Change.
“The Magic of Culture” was next up, brought to us by Sonal Dabral, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of DDB Mudra Group.
We always want to go beyond our limits and beyond our creativity. Dabral today talked to us about going one step further and going beyond our culture.
Brands that understand culture and the local nuances of their culture are able to speak to their consumers about their own insights, using their lingo and phrases, coupled together also with their customs, beliefs, habits and rituals, and it has a great, great impact on consumers. Brands use this cultural language that is understood, but at the same time are also sensitive to their own regions and social beliefs.
We looked at a number of wonderful Indian commercials as reference, such as those for brands Happydent chewing gum, Nerolac paint, Fevi Kwik glue, Naturalite and Incredible India. Indian advertising has been successful in breaking boundaries in their country between, for example, caste systems, creating social change, geography, sport and even taking pot shots of their potbellied God.
Local stories can be used to send out the ‘biggest’ of messages and to provide a richness unique to your campaigns and thus your countries. Dabral believes that cultural insights are the darts through which great ideas enter people’s hearts. Very true Mr Dabral. Very true.
The final speaker for today was Jimmy Lam, President of Adfest. What’s going on here today at AdStars – we’re having opening day speakers from AdAsia and AdFest. It’s nice to see the camaraderie between our Asian advertising festivals and their partners. Lam today spoke about ‘Celebrating Creativity with Cultural Roots’.
The Asia Pacific Region is incredibly diverse. There’s no debating that. And it is diverse in so many ways – culture, ethnic groups, language, customs, tradition, history, food, art, religion, political systems and even technologies. If you add up the populations of China, India and Indonesia you get more than half of the world’s population. Although these cultures at their essence are very different, at times they can be very similar. At the end of the day though, it’s about insight and storytelling.
Today we looked at the winning work from AdFest’s 2105 Lotus Roots. The take outs for us were:
~ Utilise technology and art
~ Integrate a local event
~ Long live local custom
~ Save fading tradition, and give it some support
~ Have empathy of a national passion
~ Discover and use our own unique, local cultures for inspiration.
~ Adfest is Made in Asia, and Made for Asia. See there in March 2016.
That’s it for me from Day one at AdStars 2015. It’s time now for the Opening Ceremony, followed by the Opening Dinner, and then the huge Campaign Brief Asia & Effie Awards Korea Legendary Networking VIP Party. What a night ahead! See you bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning. Well maybe…
DAY 2
It’s been raining for the past 24 hours here at the seaside in Busan, but that hasn’t dampened anyone’s day or deterred any of the diligent delegates from making their way to the Bexco Exhibition and Convention Centre for Day 2 of AdStars 2015. In fact it’s been quite cozy in here all day. Today was once again a full schedule – packed with seminars, forums, workshops, tech talks, creative schools and panel discussions, all continuing to revolve around ‘the spirit of opening and sharing’.
Fabio Saboya, Creative Director of Loducca, reminded us today about our fundamentals. The topic of his seminar was ‘Don’t Forget The Basics”. To go beyond is great, but first let’s remember that you need to practice the tools of your trade… and you need to practice those a lot. You don’t have to always go, and shouldn’t always go, beyond boundaries. Don’t underestimate the basic requirements. Learn to think INSIDE the box. You have to look down and stumble. Really, really… don’t forget the basics…
Loducca is the fifth most awarded Independent Agency in the world, and number one in Latin America. Clearly Saboya is then well versed in practicing what he preaches, to have built an agency of such aclaim. We looked at case studies from Loducca about Dani Alves and that provocative banana throwing, John Frusciante, The Empty Project, Cupom Fiscal, #NoFilter, Poetweet and Easy Way. These were projects that went beyond cultural barriers, both online and offline, and often shifted the paradigm between agency and client.
Next up for me was a seminar on a subject that really interests me: budgets! Yes, budgets o’ budgets. They really do interest me. I use them day in, day out, and I love them to bits. I’m a budget nerd. Gabor Spielmann, Creative Director and Partner at Kaboom, brought us “Give Me The Freedom Of A Tight Budget”, which is a somewhat reworked quote of David Ogilvy’s “Give Me The Freedom of A Tight Brief”.
How can low budget projects inspire creative people? How do we turn this negative into a positive? Clients these days always want us to create a big hype but with a small budget. Spielmann knows this all too well, hailing from Hungary and working across Eastern Europe where the small advertising market prevails.
Why should we embrace low budget briefs?
~ It’s fun.
~ It’s the pures
t type of challenge
~ Clients appreciate results more
~ It helps new business
~ Less risk with execution
~ It allows you to look for a new media
We viewed examples of work Spilmann was behind, for clients such as Scrabble, Audi, BNV, Ballers, Matchbox, as well as some NGOs and local festivals.
Make budgets your friends, regardless of their size. Remember that the budget is a friend that we often have to learn to live without. But friends can sometimes help us, big time!
Low budgets can make agencies spread their wings, rather than tie them up. (But if they do, at any time, want to give me larger budgets to work with, I won’t be knocking them back.)
“Opportunity in Difficulty” was the seminar topic discussed today by Nkanyezi Masango, Creative Director of Y&R, Cape Town. Masango explained how and why living in South Africa has influenced his journey and paved the way for his creative career.
South Africa is a beautiful country, which has had endless difficulties. Thinking as an optimist is a necessity. Masango referenced a quote by Winston Churchill ‘A pessimist sees the difficulty in opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in difficulty’. Difficulties come in all shapes and sizes in our industry – from the tight budgets to the tight deadlines. Our way of thinking will be a lot more inventive if we look at these obstacles from a glass is half full perspective. Embrace them. Clients today always want more but for less money, and it is these created boundaries that force you to be more innovative and more inventive.
Simplicity too is absolutely key, although it’s actually very hard to achieve. Don’t overcomplicate. And whilst you’re at it, look to start celebrating writing again. Think beyond the brief. Don’t limit your thinking on just actual advertising. Go beyond. Solve problems and issues. Masango has just done that in his work in South Africa. Difficulty can create better work. Creating excellence takes longer, but it’s worth it.
In line with all speakers today, we looked at case studies worked on by the speaker. Masango (pictured left with Matt Eastwood) showed us campaigns for Hope Soap, Land Rover, Johannesburg Zoo, Operation City Smart, and Edward Snell’s Reflector Protector.
Incidentally, Nkanyezi means ‘star’ in Zulu. So he was always destined to be here with us at AdStars this week. ‘AdNkanyezi’ is quite fitting for this very talented creative.
Finally for me today I caught the very inspiring Matt Eastwood, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of JWT, who brought us ‘Curiosity – Not Being Afraid to be the Dumbest Person in the Room’. Thank goodness for that!
There is a lot of power in asking questions. When we are young we want to know what everyone else knows. Curiosity is a fundamental human trait. We need to discover new things. Embrace the environment you live in. Imagine if Jimmy Hendrix didn’t wonder what a guitar could do.
Curiosity is the one thing that makes us human. What if I push this button? What if I open this door? What if I plant this seed? What if I don’t listen to my mother?
How? What? Who? Where? Why? Begin with questions that probe the world, and then build on those, that are then further built on, and built on and built on, that in turn then lead to more questions.
Curiosity is the engine of the business we’re all in. Curiosity is the best way to approach everything we face. It’s the best way to engage in every given day.
This topic has so much meaning to Eastwood that he has recently been curating ‘Curiosity Sessions’ and invites guests to come to the agency to talk about what they do. It’s taught him to look at things differently. Guests included Andrew Zuckerman and Christoph Niemann. Eastwood has learnt to be fearless and endlessly curious.
Sometimes you also just have to ask questions you are too scared to ask. Probe the darkness and it will bring in light. We looked at a fascinating case study by JWT which mapped favelas in Brazil. Not knowing something could be sad.
Why does curiosity stop when we’re older though? The main reason is fear. We make ourselves vulnerable when we ask questions, when we admit we don’t know something. We’re too afraid to show weakness and ignorance. Do you really want to miss an opportunity to grow, to become better, to understand more?
Curiosity has no size. It can be seemingly insignificant. It can be personal. It can be highly rewarding. It makes us feel real. It allows us to improve our memory and helps us to remember. It helps bring people together. It helps us to be more intimate between person to person, but also between communities. Curiosity leads to results. Here we looked at a case study of a Shell project providing energy, and thus education, again in Brazil in the favelas.
Curiosity leads to discoveries. Most companies expect their employees to know all the answers. Most expect their leaders to know the same. Therefore leaders often appear to know, and really they don’t. We skip over those willing to question and willing to doubt. With today’s climate of technological advancement, what one person can know everything?
We need to bring back the innocence and optimism we had when we were children. Don’t be afraid. Be hungry. Curiosity is for everyone, everyday. It’s a fundamental human trait and a fundamental human need. It changes the way you see and the way you live.
It’s not easy. But you know what you need to do? You need to be dumb. You need to be ignorant. You need to know nothing. Knowledge begins with ignorance. Help me understand. Don’t be afraid to be wrong. The ones who learn the most are the ones who admit to being wrong.
Curiosity guides you to completely different places. There is power in asking why and how, but it takes courage to do this, and to be stupid. Once you do though, you’ll be better for it. Ask simple questions. Ask childlike questions. Ask more questions after that. Let’s challenge ourselves. Let’s approach our world with honesty and look at it from a childlike way. Take roads you wouldn’t normally go down. Be open to all the answers and the surprises those answers will bring. Find the person you once were again, when you were 3 years old.
As our good friend Albert Einstein said, ‘I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious’.
Thank you Matt Eastwood for a truly outstanding, broadening and uplifting talk this afternoon. Can I ask you a question now? Pretty please.
DAY 3
It’s hard to believe it’s Day 3 and the final day at AdStars already. There is a nervous and excited energy in the air today, ahead of tonight’s award ceremony. Particularly anxious and eager are all of the Young Star (college students) and New Star (young professionals) teams who have competed here in Busan during the past 30 hours, to produce strategies and creative ideas for evaluation by this year’s jurors. Good luck to all those in competition. And just to add more weight to the energetic tension there is US $20,000 prize money to be awarded tonight across the categories. I’m sure there will be an abundance of soju shared later in the evening.
Today I caught Yoshihiro Yagi, Creative Director of Dentsu Inc who brought us his seminar, “Make Better Use of Design”. Design is a bigger concept than advertising. It leads brands and companies back to their original values. Regardless of the scale of the medium or brand, large or small, the role of design is solid.
Design allows you to express opportunities which words can not state. Design is global. Design can expand the value of a product. The law of design defines a brand’s essence.
Yagi covered off three areas today whilst showing examples of his work:
~ Design Value
~ Seven Senses
~ Common to Unique
We looked at case studies for Honda, Menicon contact lenses, The Ultra Asian, D&AD, and The Rimpa School.
Gather a lot of material and inspiration. Train your design muscles. Look around you. Look at items common to you. The process of design begins with discovery. Find personal inspiration.
Next up for me was Erik Ingvoldstad, Managing Director of Acoustic who spoke about “Digital Centric is the New Integration.” Digital centric is a consumer journey orientated philosophy that is born out of the culture we live in, where digital is everywhere. Sorry what’s that? I was looking at my phone…
How do we bring this digital transformation then to brands and companies? Ingvoldstad’s focus today was also to look at the failures of agency integration and how we can fix it. Most brands are not looking for a new agency. They are looking to develop their business and connect better with their consumers. They are not interested in agency silos. They want to use the industry convergency to build it to their advantage. They want to create memorable experience and have a continuous presence in the market.
Today you must be smart, and you must have the right strategy. Digital is now part of everything and we’ve had to rethink that. The clients can’t get what they want though. Many agencies don’t have their client’s best interests at heart. Change will never be as slow as it is today. It’s not going to slow down, it’s only going to get faster. It’s not going to be easy. Digital transformation is here. It will change every single industry on the planet. It will also create new industries, again at rapid pace.
Most agencies are struggling to adjust to this ‘rapid’ change around us. Most clients are struggling to integrate their marketing efforts. Many things get in the way. Money gets in the way. Egos get in the way. History gets in the way. Clients get in the way. Briefs get in the way. Media agencies get in the way. So how can we change this?
Digital is not new. It’s not new media. It’s part of everything. The culture of digital is the starting point. Digital is about technology but also about culture. It has changed the way we do everything. We must integrate around the lives of the consumers, not the media channels. We have to fully understand the customer journey. There can be no predetermined agenda and no vested interest. It has to be media neutral and technology agnostic.
In advertising technology is just a tool. The culture of technology won’t be just ‘digital’. It will be every new media channel and every old media channel that is right to connect with your consumer. It’s not about campaigns. It’s a holistic approach. It’s about bringing lifecycle principles into advertising. Create an infinite loop of experiences. The creative agency needs to be rebuilt. We can not have digital people and traditional people. There should be no more divisions and silos. It should be only one P&L, and with integrated KPIs. Only audience needs can drive solutions.
Go digital centric, or go home…
“Music – the Powerful Branding Tool You’re Not Using Correctly” was the topic chosen by Ben Quandt, CEO of The Gunnery to discuss with us this afternoon.
Music is what makes us human. Music is something that unites people. It crosses boundaries. It transcends. It surrounds us and pervades us.
Music is incredibly powerful in connecting emotionally with humans. Sound though is often overlooked and undervalued.
There are many ways in which sound is used in advertising. At its essence it’s about having the right fit for your client and your brand. Sound can increase the impact of your visuals tenfold. You also want to be able to create memory and recall. Congruency is critical. It impacts what you put on the screen and what people see. Music can also impact your perception of taste. Sound affects mood and emotion, as well as perception. A good soundtrack coupled with compelling visuals will give you a dynamic campaign. Sound enriches our experiences. Music can strengthen brands. Most brands though spend less than 5% of their marketing budget on sound. Sound is just as important as your logo, your brand colours and even your brand font. Acquire the power of music and sound for your brand.
Jose Miguel Sokoloff, President of Mullen Lowe Group Global Creative Council brought us “Key Lessons from My Time in Advertising”. Advertising is one of the strongest tools of change that we have. There is a truth in the world – success and failure are only temporary. Everything can change and will change. There is one thing that is permanent, and that is change.
The change is permanent.
What do you want to be in this profession? What sort of brand do you want to be? What sort of advertising do you want to do? What sort of person do you want to be? Concentrate on the long-term goals and don’t get distracted by relative success. Never lose sight of what you want to become. Don’t get distracted. Concentrate. Make the hard choices that need to be made. Advance every day. Work hard on every brief. Be serious with every task handed to us. Your secret should be consistency.
All clients are the same, only some take longer to buy great work than others. Do the best you believe you can do. Walk with your clients. Educate your clients. Force is only a short-term solution. Hard sell is not as powerful as soft sell. Work with people. Convince them by being soft, intelligent and clever. Don’t underestimate anything. Don’t underestimate brands. Don’t underestimate people. He who has the best idea will win. Do something with what you do. Do something useful with the tools that you have to make change. Focus on what makes us one country and one people, not what differentiates us. Have a conversation.
We looked at campaigns by Magnum, Buick and Exit Deutschland. We also viewed Sokoloff’s various powerful ‘demobilize’ campaigns made with the Colombian government, including Operation Christmas which lit a path of trees with Christmas lights and implored guerillas to put down their arms and return home. Guerillas are as much prisoners of their organisation as the ones they hold hostage.
Everything takes time, but anything can be done. We have the tools to change, to help, to solve, and to bring peace, something Sokoloff strives for passionately in Colombia. Keep in mind where you want to go. Believe in what you do.
It’s time now to frock up for the Awards Ceremony. Thank you once again AdStars for having me for another year. It’s been a pleasure.
Claire Davidson, Managing Director & Executive Producer – ASIA + MENA @ The Sweet Shop, reporting for Campaign Brief Asia at AdStars 2015.
