AdFest brings The Cup to Asia

The Intercontinental Advertising Cup (ICAC) are holding The Cup 2009 Award ceremony in Thailand on 18 March 2010 as part of AdFest. The Cup was established in 2007 by the world’s three biggest regional advertising festivals: Asia Pacific’s AdFest, Ibero-America’s FIAP and New Europe’s Golden Drum. The Art Director’s Club of Europe has also joined as a participating festival.

Michael Conrad, Co-Founder of The Cup & President of the BerlinSchool of Creative Management, says The Cup 2009 will be a milestonefor agencies in the Asia Pacific: “When I helped to establish The Cupit was important to have the best quality jury ever appointed to aglobal award show. We succeeded with an amazing group that lovedfocusing on awarding ‘local genius’ in advertising communication. Beingnominated or winning at The Cup should be a big deal in communicationtoday where the focus is strengthening on human values and localculture – especially for Asian Pacific marketers who live in the mostpromising region of our planet.”

Jimmy Lam, President of AdFest, said: “The Cup is a trulyinter-continental awards using a very different approach. It is a veryforward-thinking show because the awards are not judged according tomedia category, and only the winners of each participating festival areeligible to win. The Cup is not just another awards show. Its spirit of’local genius’ and the participation of four regional festivals makesit very unique.”

Vinit Suraphongchai, Working Committee Chairman of AdFest, says: “TheCup is judged by the crème de la crème of the advertising world, and itis one of the toughest awards to win. AdFest is therefore extremelyhonored to be bringing The Cup to Asia for the first time.”

Suraphongchai said the mission of The Cup is to celebrate locallyinspired creativity. It does not compete with any other advertisingshow, but is a very new international concept that makes it possiblefor local creativity to be judged on a global scale by its local merit.It is a natural extension of regional festivals, except The Cupelevates local creativity to a global status.

The 2007 Cup Awards took place in Valencia, Spain, and the 2008 Awardstook place in Slovenia. AdFest runs from 18-20 March 2010.