'Passion and commitment makes phenomenal work’: MediaWorksXI

MediaWorks XI, which began last Thursday, saw 108 young media professionals take up the task of responding to a real brief for Bulgari. On Saturday morning, following long hours and compelling final presentations, the judges awarded the winning "agency" for teamwork and the best creative and media ideas.

Pho King Greyt (hint: read it out loud), the winning team, mentored by James Hawkins, chief digital officer at Dentsu Media Asia, presented its big idea, which captured a key insight on Bulgari's product offering and distilled it into a clear positioning for the Asia market. With a media strategy that included social media, video and the use of augmented reality on mobile, judges credited the winners for clear presentation and teamwork.

Along the way the teams had to adjust to a last-minute, middle-of-the-night wrench thrown into their media planning, courtesy of a 'news' video provided by the BBC. 

At around midnight on the eve before presenting their pitches, teams received a news alert from the BBC with additional information on Bulgari.

In his closing comments, Boris Barboni, international marketing director at Bulgari, said he was impressed with the quality of ideas from a number of groups and would be exploring at least four of them further.

"I was really impressed with this beautiful think tank that is MediaWorks," he said. "What the teams presented really shows that energy and a commitment to excellence can produce amazing ideas."

Wrapping up the 2016 edition of MediaWorks, Torie Henderson, president of global account management for Omnicom Media Group and chairperson for the event, said: “When I saw all your faces [delegates] from up here on stage on the first day, you all looked a bit terrified. And now by the end there’s just this energy of collective love and goodness, which is just so special. It’s one of the things I love about MediaWorks. The other thing I love is the commitment that teams give to the client brief.”

This year’s event attracted a record number of delegates, with 108 trainees from across Asia-Pacific. The participants were split into 13 teams, each with a designated mentor.