AdFest 2012: Sachin Ambekar’s pre-judging thoughts on the Outdoor category

March 13 2012, 12:52 pm | BY Lynchy | No Comments

sachin1.jpgSachin Ambekar is Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Solutions Sri Lanka. Ambekar is sitting on the Outdoor jury at this year’s ADFEST. Before he starts judging Campaign Brief Asia asked him for a few of his expectations. Check out his observations – plus other judges – over the next week as they write for Campaign Brief Asia.

Just a few weeks ago I was watching an innovative interactive outdoor billboard in London that can actually identify the sex of a person passing by and give a specific message. Needless to say outdoor media has come a long way in the last few years. There are so many new ways of communicating your idea that sometimes it’s hard to keep the track of it. That’s when I realized that it’s going to be a great fun judging the AdFest’s outdoor category this year.

AdFest is the first Asian award show in the year. This is the place where we see the latest work been produced and not yet entered in any other award shows. We will also see the potential big award winners in 2012 in this show and we also see some new trends emerging in the market as well as some old ones dying.

In the past few years we have seen some new countries trying to show their talent in the awards shows like never before making the competition even more intense and interesting. I am sure there will be a few new countries going to surprise the region this year. Thanks to the growing Asian economy. Indonesia and Vietnam have already proved their capability of pick up big metals. Old players are coming up with fresh new approach, great ideas, mind blowing crafting and innovations. After all this is the region where ideas like ‘Jay-Z Decoded’ and Samsonite ‘Heaven and Hell’ are born.

I am also expecting to see some great public service campaigns this year as we all know the region has witnessed some of the worst disasters in the year 2011.

I am certainly looking forward to have a great week ahead with some of the regions top creative people judging AdFest outdoor category. See you there.