Speaking a universal language

If there was one common factor uniting the Asian ads that won big at Cannes, it was that so many of them were completely universal. Though all the Asian creative gurus agreed that Asian advertising was increasingly confident of its own voice, paradoxically, that voice now seems to be taken for granted by the rest of the world. In fact, Piyush Pandey, the Indian president of the film and print/outdoor juries, stresses just that fact when talking about the winner of the outdoor Grand Prix: "First of all, it's great that we have an outdoor winner that's a real outdoor winner, and not just a poster. When we finally awarded the 'Missile car' the Grand Prix, we came out and asked which country had entered it -- that was the first time we realised it was from Malaysia." Speaking on the winning work, Pandey says that he urged the jury to look for entries that worked just as well beyond the creative fraternity, to bring what he described as "the man for whom the work is being done" the consumer into the picture. "We looked for simple ideas and less noise, and a return to emotion," he says, and the Grand Prix in press and outdoor reflects that quest. The outdoor Grand Prix from Malaysia, along with a joint cyber Grand Prix for NEC Corporation by NEC Media Products, Japan, the direct Grand Prix going to Virgin Mobile in Australia by agency Host Sydney, and two Media Lions for Starcom meant that the Asian presence at Cannes has reached critical mass. Apart from these three big awards, the region picked up 66 Lions, of which 18 were from Australasia, and an amazing 12 were cyber Lions picked up by Japan. At Dentsu's annual standing-room-only seminar on Asian creativity, senior creative director Yukio Nakayama kicked off with a series of ads from across the region that were in contention at Cannes. "Where is Asia in this?" he asked -- the fact of the matter is that if it's the Press Trust Holdings ad from Ogilvy & Mather Singapore or the Senso Ristorante poster from Leo Burnett India, the ads could have been made anywhere, for anyone. A huge crowd favourite and gold Lion winner from Thailand, the Soken DVD campaigns showed movie buffs enthusiastically describing the flicks they'd watched at home -- in the style of a faulty DVD player that skipped, jumped and played endless loops of footage. Except for the language and the obvious Thai features, it could have been made in any other country -- and judging by the applause it gained, many creatives wished that it had been. Another immensely popular winner was the BBDO spot for Uni Green Tea, again from Thailand -- featuring an animated pair of bugs that struggle all the way to the top of a tea bush, to snack on the best leaves, only to find the pickers from Uni Green Tea have got there before them. "I love that ad; that's quintessentially Asian humour, but a focus on the product," says Michele Kristula-Green, president, Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific, who says that in the last 20 years that she's spent in Asia, the industry has come of age -- grown up, in fact. "We're seeing a bit of an Asian voice emerge, there's more subtlety, different types of humour," she explains. Apart from Grand Prix winner J. Walter Thomson, the other big Cannes winners from Asia were TBWA, Leo Burnett, BBDO and Ogilvy. TBWA in Asia took home four golds, and one media Lion. TBWA Japan's 'Vertical football' was a contender for the Grand Prix in the outdoor category, but had to settle for two golds instead. The stunt for Adidas also picked up a media Lion. TBWA Singapore's campaign for Sphere action figures picked up a gold for print and a gold for outdoor in the retail category. The Sphere campaign is another awards veteran which has won two golds, one silver and five bronzes at AdFest. It also won the best of show print and best use of photography there. Justin Barry, the chief executive of TBWA Singapore, observes: "This has been a remarkable year for TBWA globally and TBWA Singapore. We've always had great performances from particular offices, but this year, our stars are in an amazing alignment. "I believe the main reason we are doing so well across the network is that our proprietary discipline 'Disruption' is being applied more and more successfully. Disruption mandates us to focus on breakthrough thinking and creativity -- and this is what award shows are rewarding." Burnett lugged home four golds, three silvers and two bronze Lions. The campaign for Philips Lighting, by Burnett Singapore, won a silver and a bronze at Cannes. This is another awards veteran. At AdFest, the campaign picked up two silvers and a bronze. At Media's awards, it picked up three silvers. It also bagged a silver at the Clio's and two silvers and six bronzes at Singapore's Creative Circle Awards. This year's Cannes marked Burnett's best performance in a while. Last year, for example, the agency took home just one silver and one bronze. In fact, the trophy cabinet has been bare of gold Lions since at least 2000, so this year's haul has been particularly satisfying. Notes Kristula-Green: "Burnett's focus for the past few years has been to raise the bar on the creative product. Strong ideas, bold execution." Publicis Groupe-affiliate Starcom perked up its regional profile with a Thai win for Heineken and a win for Procter & Gamble in Japan, helping to demonstrate the agency's strategic strengths. "We had four wins globally, but two of these wins came from Asia," says D Sriram, Starcom's CEO for Southeast Asia and India. In the often neglected cinema category, Starcom headed off competitors from South Africa, Turkey and Germany to win the top prize. The cinema campaign Starcom conceptualised allowed Heineken to own the digital sound check at a time when Thailand had clamped down on alcohol advertising. "We started off with the fact that cinema may be a small part of the media mix in most markets, but that in Thailand it is critical and that people don't like getting into the theatre early to have to view too many ads," notes Sriram. "Heineken, as part of the sound check, is the last ad they see before the movie starts." 'Plastic surgery', the campaign for Virgin Money in Australia, picked up three golds in the Lions direct category. This is a well-decorated campaign which also picked up a gold at John Caples in New York, a Grand Prix at the Australian Direct Marketing Awards, as well as a silver for effectiveness and two bronze awards from the same festival. The other agencies with gold Lions to their name were BBDO (four) and Ogilvy & Mather (two). Further down the ladder, Dentsu had a better year than 2003, but nowhere near the performance of its regional counterparts. There were no gold Lions for the Japanese giant. Additional reporting by Jimmy Yap