Claire Davidson @ AdStars in Busan: Day One

The Sweet Shop’s Claire Davidson is on the ground in Busan, South Korea at this year’s AdStars International Advertising Festival. Davidson is both a final round judge and a delegate. Here is her Day One report.

AdStars.  Rain.  It’s year three for me at AdStars, and it’s year three with the rain.

Judging began today with some of the jurors only narrowly making it here to Busan in South Korea in time.  Many flights were cancelled or postponed due to the poor weather, making in nearly impossible for everyone to arrive on time.

The rain, however, hasn’t dampened the mood.  There has been a high level of competition of work to judge and all jurors have been equally excited.

Now in it’s seventh year, AdStars has grown to be the biggest advertising festival in Asia. This year has seen a whopping 12,591 entries from 62 countries. It’s a huge amount of work to view and review, and so judging understandably commenced a few months ago.  Preliminary online judging was held for a week in June and a second round of online judging was held across a week in July, culminating in the final honours being bestowed this week in Busan.  AdStars 2014 has had 193 judges from 56 countries, with the final judges this year numbering 31, including with 5 Executive Judges.

For entries and assessment, AdStars represents five key concepts:

1.  On-offline Convergence – encouraging sharing and participation by online and offline

2.  Discover Diversity – seeking diversity of culture and market

3.  For Human Tomorrow – contributing to the happiness of the human

4.  Free Entry Fees – the competition is open to all, in the spirit of openness and sharing

5.  Creative Solutions – sharing creative solutions that challenge the world

So apart from taking into account diversity of culture and cultural difference, AdStars places a whole lot of emphasis on public service campaigns and the betterment of humanity.  Isn’t that nice?  With worldwide professionals’ creativity shared here in Busan this week, we will garner the chance to think in detail about how we contribute to all people through advertising. We will be mindful of the human tomorrow. This is why I love AdStars so much.

This year’s judges included:

Film, Radio and Outdoor

~  Lauren Connolly, Executive Vice President + Executive Creative Director, BBDO NY (Executive Judge)

~  Rui Alves, Executive Creative Director, Y&R Johannesburg

~  Norman Tan, Vice Chairman, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe China

~  Morihiko Hasebe, Executive Creative Director, Hakuhudo, Japan

~  Chungyu Park, Executive Creative Director, TBWA South Korea

~  Kazoo Sato, Executive Creative Director, TBWA Hakuhodo, Japan

~  Claire Davidson, Executive Producer, Asia and The Middle East, The Sweet Shop

Interactive, Mobile, Interactive Craft, Outdoor Craft & Direct

~  Valerie Cheng, Chief Creative Officer, JWT Singapore (Executive Judge)

~  Guilherme Jahara, Chief Creative Officer, F.biz, Brazil

~  Rindert Dalstra, Digital Strategic Planner, TBWA

~  Graham Kelly, Regional Executive Creative Director, Isobar

~  Joakim Blondell, Senior Creative Partner / Art Director, Forsman & Bonderfors

~  Tim Cheng, Chief Creative Officer, DDB China Group

PSA, Place Brand, Entertainment Promotion, Film Craft and Promotion

~  Yuya Furukawa, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Inc (Executive Judge)

~  Christian Mommertz, Chief Creative Officer, Geometry, Germany

~  Rupert England, Global Executive Creative Officer, TBWA, Hong Kong

~  Louie Sotto, Executive Creative Director, DDB DM9JaymeSyfu/Digit, Philippines

~  Todd McCracken, Chief Creative Director, Ogilvy, Vietnam

Innovation, Diverse Insights, Media, PR, Design Campaign and Presentation Video

~  Aaron Lau, CEO, Cheil China (Executive Judge)

~  Eric Schoeffler, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Group, Germany

~  Kiyoung Kim, Creative Director, Innocean Worldwide

~  Gigi Lee, Executive Creative Director, Y&R Malaysia

~  Masaharu Osawa, Creative Director, ADK

Print, Print Craft, Integrated and Branded Content

~  Jeff Curtis, Founder, Red Pill (Executive Judge)

~  Janez Rakuscek, Executive Creative Director, Luna TBWA

~  Robert Kleman, Executive Creative Director, Sapient Nitro, Miami

~  Kate Hyewon Oh, Executive Creative Director, Cheil, South Korea

~  Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer + Co-Founder, Taproot India

~  Kike Gutierrez, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis, Jakarta

So we’re all very much looking forward to an exciting week ahead here in Busan.

The official festival kicks off on Thursday, with three days of seminars and speaker sessions, rounded off with the gala awards and closing ceremony on Saturday evening. Good luck to all the entrants!

Claire Davidson, Executive Producer ASIA & MENA @ The SweetShop, reporting for Campaign Brief Asia at AdStars 2014.