Havas’ Babinet and Wunderman’s Morel are Spikes Asia 2011’s first jury presidents

ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE, MAY 11, 2011 – Spikes Asia Advertising Festival, the regional event for creative excellence in advertising and communications for Asia, has announced the first jury presidents who will head to Singapore to chair this year’s awards. Rémi Babinet, chairman of BETC Euro RSCG and global chief creative officer of Havas will lead the Film, Press, Outdoor and Radio jury as well as the Integrated jury; Daniel Morel, chairman and CEO of Wunderman, will chair the Direct and Promo & Activation jury.

 

“It’s an honor for us to have Rémi and Daniel chair at Spikes Asia this year. Two greatly admired industry leaders whose commitment to their profession and immense expertise will be significant for the awards and for the region,” says Terry Savage, chairman of Cannes Lions, who with Haymarket is joint organizer of the Festival.

 

Rémi Babinet founded BETC Paris in 1994, carving out a brand image that is original and modern for its many clients, such as Evian, Air France, Peugeot, Canal+, Petit Bateau and Lacoste. In 2010, the Evian Rollerbabies campaign was certified by the Guinness World Records as the most viewed online ad of all time with over 165 millions views and counting. BETC was ranked the second most creative agency in the Gunn Report 2010 while its Canal+ ‘The Closet’ spot was the most awarded in the world.

 

Babinet has consistently challenged the traditional limits of advertising by opening up his agency to new creative fields and creating new ways with which to interact with consumers, such as producing ‘Panik’ parties in Paris, bringing together artists and alternative music scenes as well as inaugurating an 800 m2 space in the agency dedicated to fashion, design, art and photography.

 

Morel is responsible for transforming Wunderman into one of the most formidable digital marketing networks in the world, with 15+ companies covering every aspect of relationship marketing, and some of the world’s best-known brands as clients.

 

On joining the agency, Morelreaffirmed its commitment to the fundamental marketing principles and spirit of innovation, and mapped out a strategy for growth. This led to powerful global account relationships with first IBM, then Microsoft and Nokia, which along with Ford are among the agency’s largest accounts, demanding scalable, high-impact, cost-effective campaigns in some 50 countries. Morel launched an aggressive strategy to expand the agency’s influence in digital direct marketing, acquiring 18 best-in-class interactive and analytics firms around the world since 2005—AGENDA, Blast Radius, Designkitchen, TheseDays and ZAAZ, among them. In 2010, he enhanced the agency’s foothold in the analytics area by expanding KBM Group across Europe and adding I-Behavior and MDI to its ranks.

 

Taking place at Suntec Singapore, the festival offers an intense and challenging programme of seminars and workshops focusing on creativity, inspiration and learning for individuals involved in creativity and communications. Delegates can view exhibitions of creative work from Asia-Pacific, enjoy networking events in the evening and celebrate the best creative advertising and communications work in the region at the Spike Asia Awards Ceremony.