Wide ranging seminars, presentations and events
turn ADFEST into an educational summit.

ADFEST 2009 has a busy schedule of events and seminars for delegates, as well as rounds of judging for work in a variety of categories. 

For the commercial production and TV sides of the industry, attention will focus on the Film Lotus winners and the Film Craft Lotus winners, as well as on awards for top production companies and the presentation of the work of the ‘Fabulous Four,’ a quartet of young up and coming directors who were selected by the Film Craft jury to produce original short films. 

This year, the Film Lotus Jury is chaired by Sir John Hegarty, the legendary Chairman and Worldwide CD of Bartle Bogle Hegarty.  Also on the Film Lotus jury are: Ali Shabaz, Executive Creative Director, JWT Singapore; Grant Rutherford, Executive Creative Director, DDB Melbourne; Nopadol Srikieatikajohn, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok; Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer & Chairman/Partner, Taproot India, Mumbai; Suvit Jaturiyasajagul, Creative Director, Spa Advertising, Bangkok; Taichi Harada, Creative Director, ADK, Tokyo; Tian It Ng, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe China, Shanghai; Wataru Yamamoto, Creative Director, Dentsu Inc., Tokyo; and Yew Leong Tan, Creative Director, Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur.

The Film Craft Jury is chaired by Prasoon Pandey, a director with Corcoise Films in Mumbai.  An award-winner around the globe (including at ADFEST, Cannes, Clio, New York Festivals and other competitions), Pandey was listed as one of the top 25 commercial directors in the world by the Gunn Report. 

Rounding out the jury are Ben Zhang, Managing Director & Executive, Producer, Gwantsi Production, Shanghai; Francois Chilot, Executive Producer, Les Producers, Paris; Peter Grasse, Executive Producer, Curious Film Pty Ltd., Sydney; Seungzoo Lee, director, Shortcut Film, Seoul; Suvinit Pornnavalai, The Honest Director, Sky Exits Films, Bangkok; and Tsutomu Iwamoto, director, HAT Inc., Tokyo

Once again, ADFEST is sponsoring the Fabulous Four competition, designed to discover the region's most promising young directors.  Every year, ADFEST invites these talents to submit scripts based on a particular theme, with this year’s theme being ‘Made in Asia.’ In response, the competition received a total of 53 scripts this year, a significant increase on last year's competition, which attracted only 14 scripts. They came from Australia, Indonesia, China, New Zealand, Japan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. A jury of production executives evaluated the scripts and selected four to be produced.  Those films will be screened at ADFEST.

The directors chosen to have their shorts produced were Sam Bryant of Luscious International in Sydney; Nitiz Wongthed of The Bandits Co., Ltd. In Bangok; Yuji Shiota of HAT, Inc., in Tokyo; and Brian Lucknasuwan of Big Blue Production Co., Ltd., Bangkok.

Overall, the seminars and presentations at ADFEST are on a par with those seen at all the top international advertising events, with some of the industry’s brightest names presenting.

On Thursday, Piyush Pandey, the Executive Chairman and National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather India, will present titled “Cup Full of Culture,” his take on how strong local insights and a touch of local culture can make for extremely powerful communication.  It’s his account of his experience as Jury President of the Intercontinental Advertising Cup in Slovenia last year. The Cup is a show that recognizes work inspired by local cultures, and Pandey will use this as a way to demonstrate that often work such as this can represent ‘local gems’ that resonate strongly with consumers but are often lost on international awards show juries. 

Also on Thursday, JWT will present a seminar titled “The Dragon is Coming! The Wolf is Coming!”  It uses modern works of art to describe the historical fear of Europe (the wolf) and Asia (the dragon), and what this fear has created in the past and present, as well as how to search for the contemporary spirit of both continents.  It will be delivered two major figures in the Chinese art scene: Zhen Hua Li, Founder and Independent Curator of MSG Production and BJ Art Lab in Beijing, and with Wuershan, Director at One Production in Beijing. It will be moderated by JWT China's Sheung Yan Lo.

On Friday, 20 March, John Zeigler, President and CEO of DDB Asia Pacific, Japan & India, will present “Can Gossip Sells Products?” It’s an examination of how word of mouth can help move the needle for brands in a region as culturally diverse as Asia. As he describes it, “How, as communicators, do we become more influential and convincing when people have different ideals and traditions, speak different languages and live in communities as small as a village or as large as a city with 20 million people?”  In his presentation, he’ll discuss the origins of gossip, what this form of storytelling reveals about people and society, and more importantly, how advertising creatives, directors and producers can apply the theory of gossip to our marketing communications strategies.

On Saturday, the final day of ADFEST, Mark Tutssel, Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, will present “Wildfire: Creativity, with a Human Touch.”  The presentation focuses on the interaction of people and their behaviours, and how the most successful brands know how to leverage that understanding better than their competitors.

Says Tutssel of his presentation, “We’ll identify some of the most successful brands of the 21st century, explore new forms of advertising that feel more like real life than marketing and talk to people from all over the world about what they expect in return from the brands they invest their valuable time and money in. And finally, we’ll show what turns a buyer of your brand into an advocate.”

Also on Saturday, the Berlin School of Creative Leadership will present violin virtuoso Miha Pogacnik in a seminar that promises to be one of the highlights of the festival line-up.  In addition to being a master of the violin, Pogacnik is also a cultural ambassador with an exceptional capacity to use classical music to inspire creative leaders to think beyond traditional boundaries.  His presentation will be titled “Passage Through the Fire: A Harmonious Strategy For Uncertain Times.” Through his music, Pogacnik will bring the concept of 'Creative Leadership' to life by exploring the relationships between harmony and tension, success and failure, flow and crisis.

Finally—and fittingly—South Korean powerhouse Cheil Worldwide will present “Riding the Asian Mobile Wave,” a presentation that will reveal how mobile marketing is being utilized in branding efforts to enhance consumer preference. It will be delivered by the agency’s Tschaik Lee.  The agency has taken great strides over the past decade in the mobile marketing arena. In a world where technology and innovation will not stand still, the agency says, individual and collective lifestyles are becoming increasingly sophisticated and discerning.  “A mobile device is no longer just a commercial device anymore,” says Lee. “It serves as a social and cultural connector.”  The presentation, he adds, will look at how Asian consumer insights are translated into mobile marketing campaigns and how they can be worked into an effective and sexy tool for branding.

 Chapter 1: Mood & Motion       Chapter 2: ADFEST       Chapter 3: News and Views from ADFEST       Chapter 4: The Reel