SINGAPORE – Talented copywriters from the country, ASPAC DAN’s Eboy Jose and Publicis JimenezBasic’s Xanti Gonzalez will compete for the Young Spikes Integrated Competition on September 26 – 28, 2018, at Suntec, Singapore.
The Young Spikes Integrated Competition is an exciting two-day challenge that takes place during the Spikes Asia Festival, giving participants the chance to gain recognition within the industry and make their mark across the Asia Pacific.
Teams of two must create an integrated campaign in response to a brief set by a charity or non-profit organization, whose name, objectives, strategies and target audience are kept secret until the competition briefing session.
Each team must produce a PowerPoint presentation summarising their campaign, including how it would be launched and executed.
A minimum of three media channels must be used within the campaign (one social media network is considered as one media channel) with teams expected to include at least one piece of supporting material within the 10 slide presentation.
A panel of expert judges will judge each entry and select the winners, who will be awarded Gold medals at the Spikes Asia Awards Ceremony. They will also receive full delegate passes to Spikes Asia 2019.
“It feels surreal knowing we’ll be representing the Philippines—I never thought it’d be something I’d be doing. It’s like a dream. I am elated, of course, and yet I am also humbled. I hope I make my country proud with Eboy,” Gonzalez cited. “I’m extremely excited to experience how other creatives from across the globe think and create—how they transform thoughts into ideas, and how these ideas are judged to become even greater,” he added.
“This year, I’m hoping to learn from the experience again. More talks, more people, more fun. And also this year is not just about representing our agencies but more about representing the Philippines. Para kaming atleta! [We’re like athletes!],” he jests.
The duo worked on the local competition in RAW School for ten months in which they emerged as top 2 finishers in class. Xanti tells adobo magazine, “Every month, we – young creatives from RAW School – were given advertising projects. The best 5 submissions per month were awarded points. We were then ranked based on our accumulated points, and, in the end, four of us competed for one last project (the tenth homework)—which was to create a future-proof ad agency.
“The best homework for the month gets some points, and the pair with the highest points by the end of the school year gets to represent the Philippines at Spikes Asia,” Jose added.
RAW School is a dynamic program for creatives organized by the Creative Guild of the Philippines. “Raw school was fun. It’s so helpful to young creatives, from how to think creatively to how to balance between work and passion,” Jose stated.
With the Young Spikes Integrated Competition just a few days away, adobo magazine asks how the two young and talented advertising creatives prepare for the competition.
Jose, who also joined Young Spikes last year, reveals that he prepares by analyzing award-winning ideas online, while Gonzalez says that the local competition itself was their training, with all the projects they were assigned to do. “We were asked to find new insights, create our own personal branding, a seriously important comic strip, a collaborative film, a digital campaign to save animals from the perils of filmmaking, and other fun briefs. Now, I am constantly exposing myself to local and international work—work that’s changing minds, or changing the world. I watch case films, and study and research the work that’s out there shaking things up.”
