Y&R’s Nicole Sue Tan and Cassie Ng share the experience of representing Malaysia at AdFest’s 2018 Young Lotus competition

Y&R Malaysia’s Art Director, Nicole Sue Tan, and Digital Art Director, Cassie Ng represented Malaysia at AdFest 2018’s Young Lotus competition, after being lauded as two of Malaysia’s top young creatives as Young Kancil champions at Malaysia’s Kancil Awards 2017. Here are their thoughts on their weeklong adventure in Pattaya.

After a 2-hour flight, followed by a 2-hour drive, we arrived in Pattaya. We started our adventure with an express Pattaya tour, zipping through the streets under unforgivingly hot weather. We headed back to the hotel to freshen up, before meeting the other 14 teams representing different cities from across the region. We bonded over food, before the food coma kicked in on what was a relatively early night.

The next day, we started bright and early (early, by creative standards, that is) as the Young Lotus workshop officially commenced. This year’s workshop was hosted by the ADK network, centred around the theme: “You Are What You Consume”.  Throughout the workshop, we went through gut-churning and thought-provoking segments that made us rethink how we consume inspiration to help us digest unique insights, and ultimately spit out sharper ideas. The sessions were conducted by some of the most renown and nurturing mentors in the industry, giving young creatives like us a front-row seat to the way these rockstars think.

The workshops were a bit of an awakening for us: we saw just how little of the world we’ve seen as young creatives, and how much bolder and hungrier we must be – even to the point of us being uncomfortable – to consume newer perspectives for fresher work.

After a day and a half of learning, came the Young Lotus 24-hour Challenge. This year’s brief tasked us to create a “social movement for change” to give parents and children a way to fight obesity so they can live healthier lives – together. For 24 sleepless hours, we pushed ourselves to apply our learnings by consuming more inspiration, unearth the right insights to crack the brief, before executing our idea as fast as our fingers would allow. Of course, with a bit of time to consume some more Thai food. But after submitting the work, the fight was not over yet. We had to present our work to the panel of judges, before having our work grilled and tested to its limits.

After that long battle, we did not win the challenge (sorry, Malaysia). That honour went to Team Mumbai, who came up with a very clever idea powered by a strong insight, flawlessly executed all within the span of 24 hours. The amazing duo went on to wow the audience on Saturday morning during the Young Lotus showdown with a very entertaining presentation. Something that had many of us at a “I Wish I’d Done That” moment.

Despite not leaving Pattaya with a Young Lotus trophy, we still left with many valuable lessons. It even brought us closer together as creative soulmates. Cassie now knows Nicole’s secret love for her favourite brand of milk and her yoga routine, and Nicole knows just how obsessed Cassie is with cats, and that she can’t sleep with lights on.

We thought of putting together some of the learnings we got from not just the workshop, but also from the brilliant young creatives who were our rivals for that brief, but friends for a lifetime:

One: This Is Not just a Young Lotus Brief

Yes, it’s just a competition. Yes, this isn’t a job for a paid client. But why treat it as anything lesser than a real job, when the possibilities to go beyond a mediocre, safe campaign are endless? This was how Team Mumbai won: they saw this as a chance to inspire real families into action. Check out their H2KO campaign. They whipped up a campaign that came with a working website for real. All within the span of 24 hours.   

Two: Never Settle

It might just take you almost a hundred “meh” ideas before you arrive at that one idea. Keep pushing. Resist the temptation to settle. But at the same time, know when to stop, because… 

Three: 24 Hours Is an Insanely Short Amount of Time

Time management is critical here. It will be helpful to plan your workflow during the 24-hour timeframe. And because time is likely not on your side, it important to know how detailed you’d like to visualise your idea. You’d only have time for a few key pieces to demonstrate your idea, so know how to make them count. Set some time aside for not just crafting the idea, but also the flow of your story during the presentation.

Four: Perform and Entertain

When Team Mumbai, Taiwan and Hong Kong were on stage, they managed to keep our eyes peeled on them as they delivered well-thought-through presentations that felt like performances. They not only told the stories of their idea succinctly, but also entertained us and kept us engaged.

Five: Don’t Take It Too Seriously

Most importantly, as much as it is a competition, don’t forget to have fun with the brief. This usually leads great, unusual, fun ideas. Also, make time for Walking Street. That itself was quite an experience, perhaps for another diary entry.

With AdFest 2018 over, we concluded our Young Lotus journey. We left Pattaya with new friendships, fond memories and a refreshed mindset on how to navigate the creative industry as young creators. It was an honour to be surrounded with such infectious creative energy and inspiring minds. Thank you, AdFest, for such a remarkable, career-changing experience!

Special mentions to Cynthia, Neo, Gella, Bernard, Ria, Easy, David, Alex, Feby, Adith and Ketan for the pictures and thoughts.