A member of the jury for Digital, Mobile, Promo, Activation, PR and Media, Kazoo Sato, TBWA Hakuhodo ECD, shared that he was surprised to find that the Kidlat Awards has become internationalized. According to him, the results of awards shows in Japan are sometimes too domestic.
“But here after going through the judging, we judge the works based on international scale. I think it’s really good for the Philippines to be more strong in the international shows and I found a lot of really really strong ideas today that could hopefully win in Cannes,” he said.
As included in the judges’ briefing at the start of the session, the Kidlat Awards exist to honor the best creative advertising in the Philippines with the intent of raising the standards of the local industry, and helping it successfully compete in the global scene.
Sato shared that the level of discussion as well as the quality of work was very high on the first day of judging. “A few works as I said were very highly competitive within the international shows. I found the level of creativity in the Philippines is getting higher and higher by the year,” he said.
Meanwhile, Budjette Tan of the Creative Guild’s competition committee said the digital/media/promo jury got to see some very familiar entries as well as new ones. “We got a good reaction from the jury when they saw a couple of the new interesting digital entries,” Tan said.
Noting that the digital category had the least number of entries, Tan said agencies may have been more careful in the selection process. “Maybe knowing what everyone will be up against, the agencies just decided to be a bit more picky on what to submit,” he said.
Leo Burnett’s Dino Cabrera, who is also on the jury for Digital, Mobile, Promo, Activation, PR and Media, also said that agencies were being more conscious about what they enter in awards shows. “I think they really pick and choose what they want to enter so they have to be a little more critical so that’s why there are less entries already,” he said, adding that while the number of entries had not increased from last year, the quality had improved. “It’s constantly improving in digital,” he said, adding that there was a lot of focus on human connection.
“It wasn’t really too much about technology… I guess so far a lot of it is making acts not so much of ads. A lot of it is sincere, you can see from how they crafted the ideas and the entries. I think it’s a good direction in terms of how we’re executing our digital ideas,” he said.
The Jury for Film, Radio, Integrated and Innovation is led by Marcus Rebeschini, Y&R APAC. Its members include Tin Sanchez, BBDO Guerrero, Andrew Petch, Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, Brandie Tan, Publicis Jimenez-Basic, Ompong Remigio, Campaigns & GRey, Raoul Panes, Leo Burnett Manila, and Noel Bermejo, McCann Worldgroup.
The jury for Print, Outdoor, Direct & Design is led by TBWA\SMP’s Melvin Mangada, who replaces Tay Guan Hin of JWT ASEAN.
Jury members are JWT Manila’s Dave Ferrer, Ogilvy Philippines’ Richmond Walker, FCB Manila’s James Bernardo, Film Pabrika’s Joel Limchoc, Y&R Philippines’ Badong Abesamis, and graphic designer AJ Dimarucot.
Meanwhile, the jury for Digital, Mobile, Promo, Activation, PR and Media is led by Thomas Hong-Tack Kim of Cheil Worldwide. Members include Cheil Worldwide ECD for Innovation Thomas Hong-tack Kim. Joining him will be TBWA\Hakuhodo Tokyo ECD Kazoo Sato, Leigh Reyes, Eugene Demata, Tonypet Sarmiento, Badong Abesamis and Dino Cabrera.
Judges discussed the work based on the following criteria: originality of idea, excellence of execution, and relevance to target.
Day 1 of judging included determining the finalists based on in-or-out vote, completion of judging sheets, and the review of finalists after the initial report by the auditors, Punongbayan & Araullo.
For Day 2, the schedule includes the review of finalists, the metal round, and deliberations including Best of Show. There is also the DIWA award, supported by Ayala Foundation, which honors excellence in advertising that supports social good.
Winners will be announced on May 10 at the 2014 Ad Summit Pilipinas at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. For inquiries, email 4asp@pldtdsl.net
