Boracay – Complete at last, the 12-person creative jury finished the elimination round to deliberate on the finalist, bronze, silver and gold winners in the Kidlat Awards in the Boracay Regency.
Throughout the day, the jury debated on shortlisted ads in several categories, including craft and DIWA, the public service advertising competition. Frequent refrains in the discussion were the definition of categories, the reclassification of certain entries, and the sudden riot of categories of craft.
Apparent were the sudden growth of the Outdoor categories. BBDO Guerrero/Proximity’s Brandie Tan noted that many of the clients invested in Outdoor more than print. "I wish they’d bring back Print at some point."
DM9 JaymeSyfu’s Merlee Jayme observed that clients were also approving more work in viral, indicating that the industry was finally getting the hang of the new medium.
Both jury veterans and newbies were impressed by the crafting of the ideas. Manny del Rosario said that not only has the work improved over the years, but "many of the big brands are showing up in the competition."
First-time judge Joey Ong of Bates 141 felt overwhelmed by the number of entries and the duration of the deliberations, but the entries for the Ads of the Decade gave him a better appreciation of the progress the industry has made in crafting.
With ad agencies discovering the relative creative freedom in Radio, this medium displayed a bumper crop of interesting ideas as well. Both Publicis JImenezBasic’s Lawin Bulatao and TBWASMP’s Jimmy Santiago were pleasantly surprised by the quality and range of the Radio entries, which Bulatao said were ‘"less formulaic" than the TV ads in competition.
Nevertheless many of the "less formulaic" ads fell by the wayside in the deliberations. Chalk it up to a tougher jury, as well as the rule that grants only three metals–a gold, a silver and a bronze–per category.
As JWT’s Dave Ferrer, a Gold Lion winner himself, said, "Cannes Lions receives better entries, but the Kidlat Awards is the toughest show on earth."
