Bangkok--Feb 16--Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
The Asia-Pacific Advertising Festival (AP AdFest) today announced the 9th annual advertising competition across the Asia Pacific region will be held from March 9-11, 2006, at the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall (PEACH), Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel. Participants are challenged to predict the future of the advertising industry in the Asia Pacific region and find the answer to the theme for this year “What’s Next”.
Mr. Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of the AP AdFest Working Committee, said, “This year’s theme clearly reflects significant development of Asia advertising community. Today the Asian presence at global advertising competitions every year gets bigger and bigger. It seems that global advertising hub is shifting from Americas and Europe to Asia Pacific. We’ve seen big shifts away from traditional media channels of late to the new frontiers. That leads to our theme “What’s Next”. It is time for us to seriously look at these trends, analyze them and get ourselves ready for another big development.”
Throughout the past nine years AP AdFest has significantly progressed from a regional advertising competition to an international advertising festival and a trend setter in the global advertising industry. Operations and standards of the advertising competition have been consistently improved. The number of participants and entries also increased year on year. This year, as the application remains open, there are already 2,875 entries (4,027 entries in total in 2005), and 451 participants have already confirmed their attendance.
Mr. Vinai Uesrivong of Plannova Co., Ltd., said, “We always have something new every year. In the 9th year of the festival, we have added a new category “Print Craft” for photographers & producers, illustrators, retouchers, production designers and stylists who actually were the key to breathing life into great advertisement but were in the past unsung heroes. This time, they will take the walk. The additional category clearly reflects the AP AdFest’s commitment to setting new industry standard and promoting the entire industry at all levels.”
In addition, the AP AdFest will also include the 3rd Young Creative Workshop aiming to provide young creatives with the opportunity to learn from leading professional creatives. This year, Tay Guan Hin, Regional Executive Creative Director of JWT, Singapore, has accepted to be the chairman of the Young Lotus Session. A pair of young creatives recruited from the selection committee in each city will participate in the workshop. The participants will have to produce work as assigned and present their works to the judging panel during the festival. Only one most outstanding work will win the Young Lotus Award at the event.
Again, for the second consecutive year, the AP AdFest and the Japan Association of TV Commercial Production Companies (JAC) will jointly hold the “Remarkable Five 2006” Young Director Short Film Presentation. Under this programme, JAC will select one young film director, aged below 30, from each of the following five countries — Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia. The selected film directors will be assigned to produce a 3-5 minute short film which JAC will provide financial support to each director for film production costs as well as travel expenses to attend the AP AdFest and Kodak will supply 16 mm films. The directors will have to present their own film on March 11 at the AP AdFest.
About AP AdFest
Asia-Pacific Advertising Festival, or ‘AP AdFest’, is an annual regional event consisting of three main activities: competition and exhibition of creative works produced in Asia Pacific; creative seminar or discussion led by leading individuals in the creative and advertising realms; and a forum for advertising, creative and marketing people in the region to meet and exchange views. The event is aimed at raising awareness and standards of advertising work, as well as encouraging related industries to showcase their latest services and technological progress in an exhibition held during the event.
Those interested in more details about the festival or in the winning creative works of the year can browse through the Internet at http://www.asiapacificadfest.com.
For further information
Vinai Uesrivong / Boonsri Trakulpatanakon
Plannova Co., Ltd.
Tel. 0 2722 3202
Bhiyada Wongwarachat
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Ltd.
Tel. 0 2205 6607 End.