AdFest 2012: halfway stage of Outdoor judging

Sachin Ambekar is Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Solutions Sri Lanka. Ambekar is sitting on the Outdoor jury at this year’s ADFEST. Campaign Brief Asia asked him for his observations at the halfway point of judging. Check out his comments – plus other judges – over the next week as they write for Campaign Brief Asia.

On day one, we entered a massive hall loaded with entries and I immediately saw the surprise on everyone’s face. Fortunately, all seven of us (including jury President, Merlee Jayme) got along very well, which made the process much smoother.

Outdoor is one of Adfest’s biggest categories and includes numerous subcategories, so choosing finalists wasn’t easy. I have a feeling I might have been a bit harsh on a few entries but I think the best survived.

We had to go through a lot videos and concept boards so selecting finalists was a lengthy process. Even though the event was called ‘Fast Forward’, we weren’t allowed to do it with any of the videos! Some of the entries were very well shot and managed to sway a few opinions.

There’s also been a significant amount of growth in certain categories, while some of the older ones are clearly fading away. Amongst the work were some amazing innovations that are taking this competition to the next level.  

Today, we’ll be choosing the metals so there’ll definitely be some debate.  But overall, I think we’re pretty satisfied with the quality of work we’ve seen.