This year’s AD STARS program is jam-packed with the industry’s best and brightest creative, production, and technology minds from August 23 to 25 at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center in Busan, South Korea.
As the creative industry is facing tremendous challenges and opportunities with the rise of new technologies, this year’s program is specially designed to bridge both worlds. Delegates can expect insightful talks from three learning streams: the Creativity stage which will features the world’s greatest creative minds; the AD tech stage which will be the place to be for those interested in ground-breaking technologies; and the Open Stage which is open to anyone outside the advertising industry who would want to learn more about the creativity business.
For creatives and advertising professionals who want to explore the latest frontiers of creativity, adobo magazine has taken the liberty of pointing out the sessions you wouldn’t want to miss from the Creativity stage:
August 23, 2018
Offline Media: a Creative Breakthrough | 1:20PM – 2:00PM
Cindy Yan Chan
Chief Information Officer & Chief Strategy Officer, Focus Media Group China
Talk Summary: The saturation of advertisement today has made consumers turn a blind eye to regular media and advertisement. We have to reconsider how to make advertising effective, how to engage with consumers, and even further how to create surprises through advertising. Focus Media is the pioneer of elevator media, which is able to cover 20 million major consumers in China. Its ability to publicize brands is well-recognized globally. Media that attracts attention is the best platform for creativity. We will share our creative breakthrough in offline media.
Getting to the Core of Your Brand’s Music Identity | 2:00PM – 2:40PM
Christian Mix-Linzer
Founder & CEO, Tracks and Fields
Talk Summary: Music is effective, but also subjective. While today’s leading brands have gotten very sophisticated about the visual identity, music decisions are often based on personal tastes and gut feelings. This is why the team at Tracks & Fields, a leading global music agency working across Europe and Asia, has developed their own set of tools to get the core of a brand’s music identity to help advertising creatives and marketers to make more objective music decisions for advertising content.
Pay Attention. What Do Consumers Really Want? | 3:20PM – 4:00PM
Andrei Ivanoff
Creative Vice President, MullenLowe Mexico
Talk Summary: This panel is an overview on how companies like Nike, Uber, Spotify and others disrupted the market by understanding what consumers values the most and how connecting people, products and platforms became a new road for its brand success.
August 24, 2018
Panel Talk: “Creativity in Asia. Are We Pulling Our Weight?” | 11:40PM – 12:20PM
Guan Hin Tay (JWT), Toby Talbot (Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand), Woon Hoh (Hakuhodo Asia Pacific)
Moderator: Angel Guerrero (adobo magazine)
Panel Summary: Facilitated by our very own Angel Guerrero, adobo magazine Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief, this panel of c-level creatives will talk about the current creative landscape of Asia and the Pacific.
Strategists & Creatives: A Couples Therapy Session | 12:20PM – 1:00PM
Andreas Krasser
Chief Strategy Officer, DDB Group Hong Kong
Talk Summary: This talk makes the case for why planner and creatives need to work together more closely – especially in Asia where this relationship still is in its infancy compared to its counterparts in Europe and America – and how agency leaders can create the best environment for them to become BFFs, and therefore effective creative problem-solvers, for life.
Land of the Rising Craft | 1:00PM – 1:40PM
Peter Grasse
Executive Producer, Mr+Positive
Talk Summary: A guide to producing award winning content in Japan
Panel Talk: “Workplace Equity and Diversity” | 4:20PM – 5:00PM
Anna Qvennerstedt (Forsman & Bodenfors), Satoko Takada (McCann), Vasudha Misra (BBH India)
Moderator: Laura Swinton (Little Black Book)
Re-Ignite the Gung-Ho | 5:00PM – 5:40PM
Guan Hin Tay
Global Executive Creative Director
J. Walter Thompson
Talk Summary: Are we losing our passion for exceptional creativity in a data-obsessed world? Are we driven by a fear to deliver measurable growth or driven by a desire to create outstanding creative work? Are we succumbing our motivation to experiment or given in to the assurance of data? Instead of allowing data to drive creativity, use it as a starting point, but push it much further with a Gung-Ho spirit of passion.
August 25, 2018
Technology + Storytelling | 1:00PM – 1:40PM
Matty Burton
Creative Chief Asia Pacific, Google Zoo
Talk Summary: Technology is one of the most powerful tools we can use to tell stories, this talk is the story of my journey, how I’ve learnt to approach thinking about it and how technology is just technology until storytellers get a hold if it.
Gunn Report – Lessons From The World’s Most Creative Campaigns | 2:20PM – 3:00PM
Emma Wilkie
Managing Director, Gunn 100
Talk Summary: Gunn 100 is the annual ranking of the world’s most awarded creative campaigns. The presentation will be taking a look at the top line results of the rankings as well as a wide-ranging selection of the winning work. It will also look at the three key themes that emerged and lessons learned from the report.
What is the True Value of Awards? | 3:40PM – 4:20PM
Toby Talbot
Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand
Talk Summary: Toby Talbot will be questioning the purpose of the many shiny awards that proliferate our industry. Like what is there real value to different audiences, from agencies to clients. Even to your mum and dad. Are awards healthy or are they a narcissistic blight, invented purely to make us feel good about what we do because, let’s face it, in the real world nobody else feels good about what we do. Doesn’t everyone – yourself included – actively avoid advertising. So are awards there to paper over the ever-widening cracks of a largely irrelevant industry. Or is quite the opposite true. Does everyone hate advertising until someone does something great and then they love it. Shouldn’t we celebrate that. Do awards make us lift our game and inspire us to create better, more meaningful consumer experiences. Do they prove that advertising has its place in this brave new world. Do they point us to a brighter future and without awards, we have no North Star. These are some of the areas Toby will be covering. Please note the lack of questions marks in this summary. Toby might not provide all the answers, but he certainly has some provocative questions.
Check out the full list of speakers and the 2018 program across all streams on the AD STARS website.
[READ: AD STARS 2018 unveils this year’s speakers]
