Day Three at AdStars: Staying relevant; agency- born to consumer-born ideas + skulling beer

The final day of the AdStars International Advertising Festival in Busan saw The Sweet Shop’s Executive Producer, Asia and MENA Claire Davidson take to the stage for the young creative program. Here is Claire’s report of the third day’s speaker program.

It’s the final day here at AdStars 2013 in Busan.  I’m pretty sure there will be a few people sleeping in with sore heads this morning after last night’s Networking Party.  International male and female skulling contests were held on the stage with Koreans in both categories winning hands down, confirming that they can drink beer faster than any other nationality.  It was a fun (yet fairly messy), night had by all.

Despite the ongoing rain everyone is excited about today. We have the final seminars, then both Young Star and New Star workshops, the Cheil job fair, then the festival culminates with the Awards, Closing Ceremony and After Party later in the evening.

The first seminar I took in this morning was with Joonyong Park, CCO of Firstborn, USA, who brought us “Staying Relevant”.  Park opened by telling us that the digital landscape continues to get blurrier every single day. I completely agree. There is so much less separation between mediums now.  Cross media is just so interwoven.  You can watch an online video on YouTube using your tablet or smart phone, and can then see that same video cut down to 30 secs on your TV.  Information just travels so fast these days, and is seen on so many more channels and platforms.  

Park spoke about ad campaigns vs brand engagements. The relationship between client and consumers must form consistent communication. You want long-term effects. Park used various GE, Oreo and Red Bull communications as case studies. Red Bull always engages their consumers. They associate themselves with a wide range of people, teams, sports, music and events. It’s never about the product shot.  It’s engagement, involvement and association.

Clients and brands have to evolve their marketing strategies to adapt to this environment.  Modern consumers now expect brand engagement, and thus the marketing often now needs to be in real time. Today’s appetite for content is insatiable. So when bringing in new products & services, brands must take all of this into account. Park showcased Redkin in a case study – rethinking the beauty experience – and also discussed the phone apps now available by National Geographic.

So what of this new role of mass media?  Word of mouth remains powerful, but it can be very slow.  Today everything is about sharing.  Things happen when information is shared.  This sharing can be across various interconnected channels.  TV though is not dead (gosh, that’s a relief).  It’s not about traditional vs digital, or a fight between old-school and new-school.  It’s just all about cross media now more than ever, and that’s not going to change any time soon.  There must remain a mix of traditional media and social media for the success of full brand integration and engagement.

Hector Fernandez, CCO of Publicis Mexico brought us “Mexico:  The Country Next to the US”.  Mexico is known the world around for being a country with a profound heritage and culture.  But what more do we know?  Not a lot.  Yes, it is that country next to the US.  Yes we love their food.  Yes we love their Corona.  But not a lot is known about Mexican creative.

115 million people live in Mexico.  It’s the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.

Fernandez show cased samples of work made in Mexico – from tourism TVCs to motor accident TVCs to taxi TVCs.

Mexico has won 18 Cannes Lions, making them the country ranked 13th creatively in the world.  Their advertising creatives are really proud of their country and their culture, and do work that is relevant for their territory.  Mexico is three thousand years old, so there is a lot to draw on!  They like to start with the ‘why’ in their advertising.  They work in a different way.  They think in a different way.  They connect people with the why’s.

Interest in co-creation at AD Stars was high. To a standing room-only auditorium, Toru Fujii, Senior Creative Director at ADK Tokyo delivered a compelling perspective on creativity, agencies and consumers. Talking about the relationship his agency has developed with eYeka, the world’s leading co-creation and crowdsourcing community, he explained that ADK has moved ‘from agency-born ideas to consumer-born ideas’. The role of the agency is evolving ‘from creator to curator’.

Using content created by some of eYeka ‘s 250,000 creatively driven consumers from 154 countries, he showed how Coca-Cola, Kikoman, Unilever and Schick are among the world’s top 40 brands putting consumers at the heart of their communications. Toru explained that the role of eYeka was not only to create content but also generate unique insights that reveal how consumers today interpret brands. He said that forward thinking agencies must ‘put consumers in the drivers seat’, and instead of looking for insights to drive ideas, use ideas created by consumers to generate fresh, relevant insights. In todays social world, he said, collaboration with consumers is the future of advertising.

This afternoon’s Creative School brought us a detailed “Introduction to Advertising and the Industry” by Terry Tae Won Son.  I was next up on the podium, discussing “Creative Careers Behind the Camera”.  We know that our industry plays host to dozens of niche professions, each calling for their own specific set of creative skills and talents.

I focused on careers in advertising, production and post-production, and suggested to the students that they might direct their creative passion toward some of the sustainable and rewarding career options in our industry.

Joonyong Park then took to the stage for the second time today, discussing “Things I wished I knew when I was 20”.  Festival set regular Eric Cruz, ECD of Leo Burnett Malaysia, wrapped up the Creative School schedule with his talk “Asia Nowhere:  Asian Identity in the Global Broadcast”.

Sadly, we’ve come to the end of the festival.  Awards time now.  Thank you Busan for having me and see you again next time.

Claire Davidson, Executive Producer ASIA & MENA @ The SweetShop, reporting for Campaign Brief Asia at AdStars 2013.