ASIA-PACIFIC – KOREA, JULY 29, 2013 – Ad Stars Organizing Committee has announced 1,704 entries that advanced to the final competition, including new participants from Czech Republic and Norway. On the list are 416 domestic and 1,288 overseas entries who will be competing for Ad Stars’ grand price this coming August.
Among the entries that advanced includes campaigns that have won in overseas festivals such as the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and Clio Awards. It includes ‘Dumb Ways to Die’, a public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia, and Samsung Life Insurance ‘Bridge of Life’ by Cheil Worldwide.
Compared to previous years, Ad Stars 2013 made a new record with the highest number of entries submitted. This year, 12,079 submitted entries were received by the committee, 2,868 domestic entries and 9,211 are from overseas.
Lee Eui-Ja, co-chairperson executive committee, said: “Not only has the volume of overseas entries increased this year, but also the status of Ad Stars has improved because a good number of the submitted entries have already won awards in overseas ad festivals.”
From the finalists, 1,484 professional entries and 220 amateur ones. The host country Korea has a total of 416 finalist entries, Japan 177, Singapore 135, and China 126. According to continents, Asia has 1,385 (81.3%) entries for the final contest; the Americas have 144(8.5%); Oceania has 31(1.8%); and Africa and the Middle East have 11(0.6%). As for Oceania, 31 entries out of 64 entries, i.e. 48.4% have advanced to the final, which has raised this region’s status. Besides these, there were new participants from France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, etc.
Choi Hwan-Jin, co-chairperson of the executive committee, introduced Ad Stars as a platform on which solutions for a creative economy can be shared. He also encouraged people to visit Ad Stars by stating “it will be a good opportunity for them to be able to understand the characteristic of various advertisements of each culture undeterred by nation and genre because of the many excellent entries meeting this year’s theme of ‘Discover Diversity’.”
Two rounds of judgments are scheduled from July 11 to August 20 to determine which of the finalists will be awarded with grand, gold, silver, and bronze prizes.
Ad Stars will showcase the world’s advertising trend and be open at BEXCO in Busan on August 22. Main supporters are the Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
