Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF), in association with Cannes Lions – International Festival of Creativity, launched the 9th edition of Commward, which is the only accolade for the country’s advertising industry.
Compared to other Asian countries, Bangladesh was a bit under the radar, until about the early 2000s, in terms of presence in global platforms. However, in 2016, Grey Bangladesh brought in the first-ever Cannes Lions for the country.
This year’s at Cannes, Bangladesh won three awards at Cannes Lions. Grey Bangladesh, again, won all of these three.
Bangladesh Brand Forum also sends a couple of teams every year to Spikes Asia, to participate in the Young Spikes competitions. In 2017, two Bangladeshi teams won Young Spikes award, which was the first-ever for Bangladesh.
Commward started quite humbly, with only nine awards in total. This year, Commward has with more than 650 works submitted, from almost all the agencies in the country. This is the highest ever number of entries in Commward.
Commward will honor the most deserving campaigns in 23 categories.
To continue raising the creative standards, Bangladesh Brand Forum introduced a Jury President for its evaluation process. Tay Guan Hin, Founder/Chief Creative Officer, TGH Collective, Creative Change Catalyst, APAC Global Advisory, is the first-ever Jury President of Commward. He was previously the Cannes Lion Outdoor Jury President. Together with Bangladesh’s top ECD and CCOs, he will help raise the creative bar to curate and award the best work.
“Bangladesh is a sleeping giant. I’m honored to be invited as Jury President. My sole purpose is to ensure the best work rises to the top and is celebrated. Creative work that should make any agency or country proud. I strongly believe that the giant is now awakened and we can continue to witness innovative campaigns from Bangladesh on the global stage.“
As Advertising expert, Syed Gousul Alam Shaon, Managing Partner & Country Head of Grey Dhaka said in an interview, “For the agencies, Commward is a part of the regime now. Every year we wait for Commward to come when the community will be together and celebrate the best campaigns.”
Bangladeshi creative industry is no more under the radar. This sleeping giant is slowly waking up and will become a key player in the global creative scene. Nonetheless, Commward can undoubtedly be credited as a torchbearer of this creative journey.
