SPIKES: Yahoo! on 'The Big Idea'

Moderated by Linda Locke, CEO/creative director, of Godmother and former Leo Burnett creative chief, the session saw members of the Integrated Jury including David Guerrero, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines, Ruth Stubbs, president, Asia of Mediabrands Asia-Pacific, and Akira Kagami, global executive creative director of Dentsu, discussed the work that impressed them.

Each member started by stating their definition of a big idea. Stubbs said that a big idea is about truth and one that “resonates universally”. Guerrero said “a big idea takes on a life of its own” while generating more and more ideas. Kagami mentioned that a big idea can usually be summed up in a few words or one to two sentences.

Vodafone India’s ZooZoos campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather, drew praise from the jury members for the quirky characters in the ads. Guerrero said the campaign stood out as it deviated from usual sports imagery to invest in creating characters while Stubbs lauded the campaign’s ability to transcend across its targeted audience to a much bigger one and its ability to utilize multiple channels to support the ZooZoo characters.

Axe Japan’s “Wake up service” campaign, created by BBH Asia-Pacific, was another example of a campaign that worked well to maximize the insight of its target audience – young men who use their mobile phones as alarm clocks. Beyond the integrated characteristics of the campaign, Locke said the interesting thing about this campaign was that it showed how a brand can be presented in a “very small and personal space”.

Nike China’s Mentu campaign featuring basketball star, Kobe Bryant, in a reality-TV series showed how a traditional format can be used in a different way, according to Kagami while Guerrero noted that the campaign ranked high for the quality of the content.

The Manikako dolls drive in the Philippines and The Times of India’s Teach India campaigns  also warranted high praise from the jury members for being altruistic social drives that broke out of their moulds with highly inventive and engaging initiatives.

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Spikes Asia is organised in conjunction with Haymarket Media. The full programme can be found at www.spikes.asia.