Great ads and great Korean hospitality… The party never stops at AdStars in Busan

Many years ago The Campaign Palace Sydney created a great agency t-shirt and the slogan printed on the front still sticks in my memory. For those not aware of The Campaign Palace’s unrivaled creative reputation at the time – just think of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore’s three year dream run when Dave Droga and Craig Davis was there.

Anyway, the t-shirt said: “Do great ads and have a laugh”

It just about sums up what every creative should strive for.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been qualified to try the first part of this slogan, but I am reasonably experienced at the second. So if you want to see some great ads and have a laugh, next year get on a plane to the AdStars Festival in Busan, Korea. And if you are ever fortunate to be invited to judge do not hesitate to accept.

While at AdStars this year I saw some great work, listened to some great presentations and had some great fun.

The refreshing thing about advertising festivals around the world is they always tend to attract the best people, both as judges and delegates, and now with two years of witnessing the AdStars Festival I am reassured that my first year impressions from last year were correct and that the festival has a very bright future. The Haeundae area of Busan is very beautiful with great beaches, restaurants and night life. With the large Chinese and Japanese ad industries as neighbors delegate numbers will grow over coming years. And the feel of the Festival reminds me a lot of AdFest in the early years.

Without doubt, the Young Stars Ad Competition is proving very successful for AdStars and this augurs well for the long-term future of Korean advertising.

The Young Stars program is very well run, with over 150 young stars from 8 countries in the region participated this year. The three top concepts at the competition were very fresh, entertaining and deserving winners. It’s also a good sign that in Cannes this year the team from Korea beat everyone in the Young Lions creative competition.

Hopefully the organizers can stay true to their ideals and yet grow in the number of delegates who in turn can learn from the likes of this year’s impressive seminar speakers: Hashem Bajwa from Droga5 New York – who reminded us that this is a young person’s game and of how little we know about where it’s heading; and Ross Chowles from The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town – who gave one of the best talks aimed at young creatives that I have ever heard. If I was a young creative wanting to get ahead in this business an hour or two spent talking to Ross would be worth more than a year at university; and then there was “Pastor” Eugene Cheong from O&M Asia Pacific who delivered and entertaining and passionate sermon on the 8 habits of highly creative people; Lo Sheung Yan (Mayan) also spoke on the fascinating power of the People’s Republic of the Internet in China and Wain Choi gave a very honest appraisal of why Korean advertising gold isn’t worth it’s weight. There were other presentations that I couldn’t attend but received great feedback, including Pablo Gonzalez’s insights into Chilean creativity.

As an advertising festival AdStars will in future years certainly provide healthy competition to both the much more established AdFest and Spikes Asia. But in terms of “having a laugh” it already leads the way….

DOWNLOAD THE FULL AWARD RESULTS: 

AdStars Award Results.xlsx

For more on AdStars click here.

To see the Grand Prix and Gold winners click here.