Japan took home ‘best in category’ for the Innova and Cyber categories this year, down from the four categories it topped at last year’s event. However, the show saw few pieces of standout creative, with judges bemoaning the dearth of quality in the TV and interactive categories, in particular.
This year’s show attracted 5,148 pieces of work from 33 cities in the region, led by Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur.
The event also featured two new categories this year, for Design and New Directors.
Nissin Cup Noodle’s ‘Freedom Project’ campaign took the Grande Innova Lotus, in the category designed to recognise outstanding innovation ideas for communication.
The campaign triumphed ahead of Leo Burnett Sydney’s ‘Earth Hour’, ‘Uniqlock’ - by Projector Tokyo for Casual Wear, and Sony Bravia’s ‘Color Tokyo’ by Hakuhodo Kettle Tokyo.
There were no best of shows awarded in the TV, Outdoor, or 360 categories. Indeed, the TV category, headed by jury president and Wieden & Kennedy London executive creative director Tony Davidson, saw only two golds handed out, both to Japanese agencies - for Rikunavi’s ‘Yuko Yamada’ campaign by Dentsu, and Maxell DVD’s ‘For ever and ever’ work by Asatsu-DK.
Thailand’s economic difficulties were seen as a major factor behind the low metal count in the TV category. “When Thailand has a bad year, the region has a bad year for TV,” said juror and Saatchi & Saatchi regional creative director Andy Greenaway. “It’s not going to be a good year for TV from this part of the world.”
Greenaway added that while the standard of judging had improved considerably at this year’s festival, most of the work remained average.
“Around five per cent of the work stands out,” he said, adding that the paucity of good interactive work from this region, not including Japan, remained a critical problem for the industry.
“The interactive work is suffering because clients are not spending,” he said.
