Top speakers open Ad Star three-day event in South Korea

It received 18,063 entries from 61 countries, with 1,680 finalists from 42 countries and 196 jurors from 67 countries. The theme is ‘Break’ and the programme celebrates creative thinkers who are breaking new ground by taking risks and pushing the industry forward.

Guest speakers

Some of this year’s guest speakers include:

• Wayne Pick, creative director at Colenso BBDO/Proximity Auckland - From a beer that helps you save the entire planet, a cream that helps fight cancer, to shredded cash that will help you be good with money, one of New Zealand’s star creatives Wayne Pick will share some examples of brands with purpose.

• Tim Doherty, chief creative officer, Isobar China - Tim’s provocative session will encourage creatives to “stop spinning in circles” by embracing technology to create truly big ideas.

• Shun Matsuzaka, founder of McCann Millennials at McCann Japan - A few months ago McCann Japan announced it had created the world’s first creative director robot. One of the leading brains behind the AI robot, “AI-CD ß”, Shun is presenting a session that explains the robot’s creation. He will even share the story of AI-CD ß’s first brief, when the robot was hired to create an actual creative campaign for client Mondelez.

• Brian Oh, MD of King Korea - For insights into Asia’s incredible gaming market, Brian is presenting a fascinating session on the fast-changing mobile game industry. King Korea is part of global gaming behemoth King Digital Entertainment – the company behind mega addictive game Candy Crush.

• David Lee, founder and CEO of Shakr.com - David will explain the phenomenal rise of digital video marketing. His session will cover the nitty-gritty of creating successful video campaigns, from funnel segmentation tips to Facebook’s Carousel, Canvas ad units, and A/B testing.

• Anders Larsson, chief technology officer, TOPP, Sweden - who will talk about three emerging trends impacting how consumers engage with products and services. Topp is a leading design studio, which has worked with companies like Samsung, Google and Blackberry.

• David Guerrero, chairman and CCO, BBDO Guerrero - BBDO Guerrero was the first Philippine agency ever to be ranked among the world's top 50 agencies in the ‘Gunn Report’. It was also the most awarded Philippine agency at the 2014 Cannes Lion Festival and won the nation’s first ever Cyber Lion, which makes David a creative force to be reckoned with.

Eui-Ja Lee, co-chairperson of Ad Stars’ Executive Committee, says, “We can confidently say that the event has opened a new prospect in the field of global ad festivals. While only 3 105 pieces from 29 countries were entered in 2008, this year 18 063 entries from 61 countries were submitted. Ad Stars will keep moving forward with our goal to discover new creative ideas all over the world.”
“Our sincere gratitude goes out to everyone visiting the ninth Ad Stars, a festival dedicated to celebrating cultural diversity and groundbreaking ideas,” says Hwan-Jin Choi, co-chairperson of Ad Stars’ Executive Committee.

For more information, go to www.adstars.org.