The finest creative thinkers

Singapore — Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity, a collaboration between the Lions Festivals and Haymarket, was held at Suntec City from Sept 23–26. The festival celebrates and inspires creativity in communications in the Asia-Pacific and provides the region’s growing creative and advertising industry with a platform to network and exchange ideas.

Spikes Asia brought together some of the best creative thinkers from around the world and was attended by 1,800 delegates who participated in various programmes that included seminars, forums, tech talks, networking nights and awards.

MediaCorp is the Singapore representative for the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity.

Ms Christina Chua, senior vice-president of marketing and sales planning at MediaCorp, said: “As Singapore’s leading media company, we are proud to support Spikes Asia which honours the latest breakthrough communication ideas from the Asia-Pacific and presents insights into emerging regional industry trends.”

She added: “Through engaging the industry and showcasing top accolades won especially by Singapore agencies, we hope to bring to the forefront the message that award-winning solutions have a positive impact on brands and businesses.”

THE INSPIRING WORKS

This year, the festival received a record 4,984 submissions from 22 countries. It was a tough decision for the 90 jury members who had to deliberate and shortlist the entries across 18 categories, including two new categories for healthcare and innovation. The jurors eventually chose 472 winners, with the most awards (48 winners) going to the Promo and Activation category.

Jury president for the Film, Print, Outdoor and Radio categories, Mr Ted Royer, said: “There was some really great work this year; work that will inspire for years to come. It is great to see Asian creativity thriving.”

From Singapore, 10 agencies won 39 awards (one Grand Prix, six Gold, 14 Silver and 18 Bronze) at the festival.

Among these, BBDO Singapore and Grey Group were the two agencies that won the most number of awards with eight wins each.

A PROUD WIN

Ogilvy and Mather Singapore won the Film Craft Grand Prix award for Unilever’s The Day I Visited My Son campaign.

Mr Nicolas Courant, integrated creative director at Ogilvy and Mather Singapore, said: “The Day I Visited My Son was awarded Grand Prix in the Film Craft category as well as Gold award in the Film category. Winning these two awards is an achievement we’re very proud of because this is what the agency stands for: Delivering the best quality thinking in the best way possible.”

Ogilvy and Mather Singapore has been winning an average of five to six awards every year for the past three festivals.

Mr Courant said: “Ogilvy’s ambition is to produce creatively influential, effective work that builds the business of our clients. Our reputation at international and regional award shows like Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia attract talents who want to be a part of a winning agency and leave their mark. It’s good for the agency’s energy and great for our clients who get to have the best creative thinkers working on their business.”

YOUNG TALENTS

The festival also comprised the Young Spikes Academies and Young Spikes Competitions.

The Young Spikes Academies offer young professionals and students the chance to attend seminars and tutorials by industry experts, while the Young Spikes Competitions place young professionals on a regional platform to compete with their peers in the industry.

Doing Singapore proud in the Young Spikes Integrated Competition were the teams from DDB Singapore (art director Mr Malcolm Wee and junior copywriter Ms Pek Li Jun), which bagged a Silver award, and Tribal DDB (junior copywriter Ms Sarah Chan and junior art director Mr Tan Boon Keng), which won a Bronze award.

The DDB Singapore team and Tribal DDB team were the first runner-ups for the film category and print category respectively at the MediaCorp Young Creatives Competition 2014. Produced by The TODAY Special Projects Team