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Tag: ADFEST PATTAYA

  • It's the first festival of the year and Asia's most celebrated regional creative festival, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    What makes Adfest Pattaya a must-visit

     

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Sanjeev KotnalaOther than the last edition, I have attended every edition GoaFest and yet I favour Adfest Pattaya. It is the first festival of the year and Asia’s most celebrated regional creative festival. One of the eight regional creative festivals in the WARC 100 Creative ranking that reflects the fast-changing face of the creative, marketing and production industry.

     

    The 2023 edition of Adfest with the theme “Rise” was held between March 23 and 25, 2023 at the regular venue, the Pattaya Exhibition Hall (Peach), at the Royal Cliff Hotels Group, Pattaya. And if one is to see the Winner Showcase, one would realise the extent of technology usage and integration in advertising and communication in every form and format.

     

    WINNER SHOWCASE

    Post the festival, AdFest Pattaya has the winner showcase on its site. Where all the winners’ entries AV, film and board, are easily accessible with complete details. A few of the creatives are not showcased because the client has barred them due to some copyright issues.

    I have thoroughly enjoyed my Wednesday watching the winner showcase. I would recommend everyone interested in the field to see the brilliant work showcased there. Some of the brilliant work where technology and accessibility played a major role- reflecting the change and trend included Tiger Beer, Unbranded Menu of McDonalds, Consent – partnering to showcase lack of consent, Closeup- city of love, Crazy Bundy Mixes, Shizuoka Model City, Toyota Voice Watch, Adidas – Ravi limited edition and the print special- the Annhaar Newspaper election edition that never got printed. Watch all these and more at the winner showcase.

     

    JURY INSIGHT SESSIONS

    One of the things that makes it endearing is the 45-minute breakout stage sessions of Jury Insight. Where delegates can listen first-hand to in-depth and freeform discussions with some Lotus Awards juries across panels and learn the secrets of what makes some works great.

     

    ADFEST PATTAYA CONNECT

    AdFest Connect APP is another tool that encourages and facilitates networking and interaction. It shows every delegate’s name, position, company, city, and country unless they have chosen not to be part of the AdFest Connect. It does not divulge the email addresses but facilitates the initial email sending unless opted out by the delegate. It is just a connecting tool and does not guarantee a response.

     

    WORKSHOP AND INDUSTRY SESSIONS

    There are industry-specific learning sessions needing pre-registration and with limited seats. This is no different from other festival programs. Still, they seem more relevant and industry-inclusive, like the World Producers Summit – a forum for production company owners and stakeholders to gather and discuss specific issues encountered as the industry evolves and globalises. This forum is a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights and learn possible solutions to current and emerging business challenges. Sessions like ‘Creativity for Mobile-first-era, ‘Step into AR and Reels’ and ‘CG Metahumans And The Infinite New Frontier Of Communication.’

     

    DIVERSIFIED JURY PANELS.

    The eight jury panels mostly follow the 8 Jury and 1 Jury president format. Interestingly, the panels are highly diversified in terms of agency and geographical representation and do not show any gender skew. There were 57 Jury members representing 18 cities at AdFest Pattaya 2023.

     

    ADFEST PATTAYA EVOLVING WITH TIME.

    The AdFest Pattaya has been evolving with time. There are, in total, 20 awards categories other than special awards. This time round, ‘The Commerce Lotus’, formerly the eCommerce Lotus, expands to include offline commerce in addition to eCommerce to celebrate creative and innovative solutions that enhance the consumer experience at source and drive business sales. The Digital amd Social Lotus, formerly Digital Lotus, introduces various new sub-categories to reflect the fast-changing landscape of the digital world and social media. And PR Agency of the Year was added to the Special Awards line-up like Network, Independent Agency, Digital Agency, Media Agency, Production Company and Advertiser of the Year. In addition, the scoring criteria were updated.

     

    YOUNG LOTUS.

    On the lines of Cannes Young Loins, AdFest Pattaya also has a young Lotus workshop before the festival, and 2 participants selected through local regional representation represent each region. AAA India partners AdFest Pattaya to choose the Young Lotus representative from India.

     

    ARCHIVES AND ENTRIES.

    All delegates have access to the AdFest Pattaya Archives, the winner showcase and the selected programme showcase. A brilliant resource that allows delegates to search and learn. And as a practice, AdFest Pattaya has a well-organised display of entries.

     

    DELEGATE FEES ARE A BIT OF AN ISSUE FOR INDIAN DELEGATES.

    The delegate Fee of Thai Bhaht 35K (83.5K INR) for the full, Thai Bhaht 22.5K (54K INR) for Young and Thai Bhaht 17.5K (42 K INR) for Students is a bit steep as there is an additional cost of travel and stay that could be approximately INR 60K including return airfare.

     

    NET-NET.

    Adfest Pattaya, the regional Creativity festival, is a recommended adfest. Though a bit costly, it is still manageable for young, under-30s, with early planning. India had 30 winners at AdFest Pattaya 2023, but not many delegates.

     

  • Adfest 2015 lived up to its promise of providing a creative forum and stimulus for learning, reports Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala@Adfest: Well-choreographed storytelling


    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    ‘Seamless Storytelling’, ‘You Are The Hero’ and ‘Jury Crossfire’ were the central thought pieces theme that ran through Day 2 and 3 at ADFEST 2015 Pattaya. Amply demonstrated with engaging presentations that ran like clockwork. Hats off to the team behind the scene.

     

    The thoughts that kept echoing long after the presentations were over and were too loud to be ignored, I share a few of them with you…

    ‘INVOLVING’

    If you tell someone – he will soon forget it, if you show someone he may remember it but if you are able to involve him – he will understand it. First coined by Confucius remains as relevant as ever. As communication heroes we need to be doing that.

    ‘STORYTELLING’

    To do that, we need to be able to use the art of storytelling. A smart beginning, introduce character, middle where things get complicated, a turning point and a satisfying end. Sound even though art of storytelling is a natural art not everyone is good in it. Get a good storyteller in your team.

    ‘MAKE IT MEMORABLE’

    You have your own world and if you look in your life, you will have few distinctly memorable points of reference. That is your world. And we should operate in our world.  Our job is to make things memorable. As in life you get more in return for surprises and unexpected than for doing the expected. It is true for the communication, event, trigger you press with the audiences. And while you are at it- try thinking how will you create personally unforgettable experiences for your own life to expand the world you live in. Go ahead and in the next 180 days – do what has never been done before.

    ‘THE NEW REALITY’

    ‘Virtual Reality’ and ‘Augmented Reality’ seems to be a medium that is set for explosions in terms of advertisers to adapt and the consumers to be delighted with. They truly engage the customer. In a way they have the capability of creating captive audience by drawing complete attention, focus and engagement. The way forward with software that is becoming of superior quality day by day and the ease of delivering it like- Google box- is giving that force needed to take it to another level.

    SELLING AN IDEA

    Clients live and die by how well their brands are ding in the marketplace. Empathize with them. Use logic and reasoning to back up your sell. Clients are really wanting to be assured that they are doing the right thing. Show them the case studies and trends to convince them how other brands have succeeded doing something similar and how we could lose out if the competition beats us to the idea. But reassure them with a contingency plan. At the same time, you must demonstrate how passionately you believe in your idea. If even you are not 100% convinced wit your work, why should the client believe in it.

    ‘YOU ARE NOT AN ADMAN’

    This was a title devised a long time back, when all you did was Advertising. Now you are hardly doing that. You are doing a lot more, lot more defined, at times niche but hugely more practical, relevant, engaging, involving and strategic. So, first change yourself in your approach to work. Try doing unexpected; bring in the most unexpected solution to an expected problem.

    ‘WORK LIFE BALANCE’ – Pum Lefebure Idea

    May not work till you see them as two compartments. Pum shared that at the start of the year she takes a cube and places the most important thing for her life (this year she shared it was health). On two sides she places two things that make her happy. Like Family and Creativity. Then on the other two sides she places the two things that make her professionally happy. Like Travel and something. And at the base she places her goal. Because it should be the foundation and not something you are trying to jump and access. And the most important thing should be at the top, without which nothing would really matter. She says she plays with that Cube a lot and it helps her keep her focus.

    Adfest lived up to its promise of providing a creative forum and stimulus for learning. By showcasing every entry (not just the shortlist), the great cultural diversity of work was available to be absorbed. Some of it was stunning and one believes will continue to get more applauded as the year goes by.

    Learnings from: Andrew Petch, Executive Creative Director of Ace Satchi & Satchi Manila, Gosling of Happy Finish- Augmented reality, Jonathan Samway, Executive Producer at Moth Projects, Sydney, Katsuaki Hashida (Hakuhodo Kettle, Tokyo) & Takahiro Hosoda (TBWA Hakuhodo, Tokyo, Lotus News, Oz Dean, Creative Director- We Are Social Australia. Pun Lefebure, Co founder of Design Army and Sa’ad Hussein, Chief Creative officer & executive Director of TBWA\Kuala Lumper

     


    Sanjeev Kotnala is Head Catalyst at Intradia and believes the best way forward for an organisation is to enhance its interanal team’s potential and capabilities instead of depending on external resources. He is a Management, Marketing and Braand consultant and conducts specialised workshops in the area of IDEATION (Harvest and Liberate) and Innovation (InNoWait). To contact email sanjeev@intradia.in  or tweet at s_kotnala visit www.intradia.in  www.sanjeevkotnala.com.