Cyber Lotus wrap-up from Pattaya

Doug Schiff Executive Creative Director at OgilvyOne, Beijing sat on this year’s Cyber panel at AdFest. Here he gives an insight on the judging and a little theorising on why Japan kicks so much Cyber ass.

Judge Cyber and you earn your buffet breakfast voucher. There’s not a lot of sitting around contemplating the aesthetics of a retouched photograph. Or leisurely ruminating over the word choice in a headline. No, it’s more about wrapping your head around augmented reality systems, branded utilities and the freshness—or more likely staleness—of motion portrait technology. That’s why it was so satisfying to be gifted with what became the 2009 Cyber Best of Show: the Sagami Original .002 condom campaign, from GT Tokyo, titled ‘Love Distance’.

Selected from six Cyber Gold winners, there was unanimous agreement among the six judges. It would have been seven, but the jury president abstained, as he produced the work. In fact, with this egalitarian group, there was more infighting over the air conditioner settings than what was or wasn’t worthy of metal. (Those living in Northern Asia wanted to get a bit gamey for a change, while those living in the tropics seemed to covet their growing layers of epidermal permafrost.)

Huh? A condom campaign wins Best of Show?

Well, that’s just it. It’s not like any other condom campaign. It’s really more about love than sex. It had all that buzzy tech stuff covered: live streaming video, blogs, SMS and blind branded entertainment, but what this campaign really did so well was captivate and engage Japan with the well-told story of a separated young couple, and their month-long, millimeter by millimeter journey—complete with an ever-visible running millimeter countdown—toward being reunited on Christmas Eve. Documented in detail online, while stirring up huge amounts of speculation about who or what was behind it all, the couple was tracked for weeks running along highways, through rainy winter conditions across the expanses of Honshu, all in their flannel sleepwear, before they finally embraced at the foot of Osaka Castle— reducing the millimeter count separating them down to 0.0. The public then learned that the whole adventure was developed for a condom which measures only .02 mm, the thinnest ever. After they finished taping the story, they quickly and deftly edited a TVC, coating it in a gorgeous Ryuichi Sakamoto score that fit like, well, you know. And it turns out the campaign sold the crap out of the little strait jackets. So what’s not to like? Here’s their campaign presentation video.

There were a few others very well worth mentioning. Like the already well-known Axe Wake-Up Service, more drool-inducing Uniqlo micro-sites, and one of the rare non-Japanese winners, an entertaining viral showing some freshly produced, but aged and grainy-looking footage of Bruce Lee expertly playing ping pong with nunchucks for Nokia.

Of course, it hasn’t gone unnoticed by both jury and delegates that the Japanese seem to be wired to do this stuff at another level.

Roughly 70% of the Cyber winners were from Japan. But before actually making Darwinian conclusions, I’ll have a go at explaining the phenomenon: the Japanese have this combination of an affinity with technology (read: micro-electronics fetish) along with a simple, uncluttered, nearly always beautiful design sensibility.

The combination makes very complicated back end technology feel like slices of toro on the tongue. They seem to have an inherent understanding of how best to use the online medium. Never just throwing TVCs on a site and calling it a day, but rather making the most of the functions and advantages of the online world. And there seems to be one more thing: these young trailblazers still have something to prove back home. Since Japanese culture and the hierarchal ways of corporate life in Japan still afford those with the most age spots to call the shots, these digital wizards are all the more focused on breaking fresh ground. To prove their worth today, beyond where they had proven it yesterday. But, so, well can someone now hint to them that they’ve earned themselves a breather? Maybe have them just stay down here in Pattaya without their computers until after next year’s awards season.

A quick note about Adfest. While entries were down this year, and delegate numbers were down even further, the show itself was run amazingly well. They didn’t trim or skimp, or allow anyone to feel anything but grateful that Adfest is and will continue to be.