ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE, SEPTEMBER 17, 2012 – The Spikes Asia 2012 Festival of Creativity kicked off on Sunday, with an estimated 1800 delegates, speakers and entries from 23 countries. A collaboration between the Lions festivals, Dubai Lynx, Eurobest and Heymarket, this year’s festival sees 4,860 entries vying for recognition, with 214 from the Philippines. The massive turnout was reflected in the long queues that greeted festival delegates at the beginning of the day.
“(This is) an endorsement of the great work in the region, which will ultimately reverberate around the world,” said Spikes Asia co-chairman Terry Savage, on the significance of this year’s festival.
Announced on opening day were the shortlisted entries for digital, mobile, design, direct, media, outdoor, PR, print, promo and radio.
The day opened with a recap of current Cannes winners and this year’s jury information, before segueing into the seminars that would encompass most of the days of the festival. First up was The Economist’s Alan Dunachie, who spoke on the importance of engaging an audience, rather than telling them what to think, followed by JWT’s Eric Lee and Sirena Liu, who stressed to delegates the challenges of evolving to keep up with ever-changing audience tastes and trends.
While delegates divided their time between attending the seminars, perusing the numerous exhibits or grabbing a beer, the Young Spikes went right into work on their challenges in the categories of integrated and media. Briefs were presented at 4pm, with submission deadlines of Tuesday and Monday, respectively.
Longtime rivals Denstu and Hakuhodo, represented by Yasuharu Sasaki and Koichiro Shima respectively, joined forces on the Spikes stage to walk the audience through their presentation on how to survive in an increasingly-digital world.
Upcoming adobo Main Course speaker Eric Cruz, ECD of Leo Burnett & Arc Malaysia, used his time to speak on his personal insights into being Asian and what that means in a world where homogenization and globalization are rapidly changing people’s perceptions of identity.
Following Cruz, Grey Group Chairman and CEO Nirvik Singh shared the spotlight with irreverent stand-up comic Papa CJ, described by Manchester Comedy as the ‘Indian Chris Rock’ for some observational humor on comedy and advertising.
Day One was capped off by an exclusive screening of critically-acclaimed dark comedy, Dark Horse, presented by Ogilvy and Mather, minus the previously-announced intro by David Mayo.
All in all, it was a promising start to the latest edition of a festival that has quickly come to be recognized as one of the most prestigious in the world.
