Held at Suntec City International Convention and Exhibition Centre the inaugural Spikes Asia was held from 16-18 September 2009. Ken Mandel, VP & Managing Director, Yahoo! Southeast Asia, one of the event’s key sponsors, offers a quick summary of the event
1 December 2009
Spikes was the region’s first shot at an Asian Advertising and Awards Festival. It was brave, inspiring, fun - the three reasons I entered this business in the first place.
For those of you who couldn’t make it, I want to share my personal highlights as a delegate, a sponsor and a fan of creativity. The three-day festival was a unique opportunity to step back, stop and think about the marketing industry and its challenges in Asia.
My key take-away was this: with online platforms democratising creativity and allowing everyone to create their own content and share it, professional creatives in marketing, art and media no longer own the term. That’s why the smartest brands leverage creative consumers to extend their brand messages for them: in the future maybe the most creative marketers won’t be judged by what they produce but what they encourage the rest of the world to produce with them.
Since Yahoo! aggregates information for easy consumption, here’s a fast take on Spikes 2009 Yahoo! style.
Ken Mandel’s Top 5 Spikes David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, sent the message that we are privileged to be in an industry where we are paid to use our imaginations. So use them, get rid of self imposed boundaries, and start creating integrated solutions that are right for the brand. His power-point free presentation also reminded me that as communicators we should all be able to get on our feet and knock people off theirs.
Neil French, one for being entertaining, and two for being uncompromising on stage and off. If great work that changes consumer mindsets is the objective, why accept mediocrity in idea or execution? A huge fan of the print medium - he started the World Press Awards - Neil’s writing is gripping, very much like the man himself.
Sir Ken Robinson for his passion and intellect and for delivering a serious POV with the panache of a stand-up comedian. He believes we are all creative beings and our creativity should be nurtured by educators and corporations. As an industry prone to navel-gazing, we need more inspiring thought-leaders from outside. For inspiration check out his book The Element or catch his brilliant presentation on Ted Talk.
Digital versus non-digital. What? Aren’t we way beyond this already? Effective marketing versus non-effective marketing is what it’s always been about. All digital does is give us the amazing ability to extend out ideas beyond what we once thought was possible. As anthropologist Anna Kirah of CPH Design said digital native consumers move in and out of chaos between off line and online spaces effortlessly. Shouldn’t the marketing industry be doing the same? Anyhow, if you really must keep score, Online advertising now accounts for 23.5 percent of all ad spend compared to TV’s 21.9 percent.
What’s the Big Idea. Sponsored by Yahoo!, this session, chaired by Linda Locke (CEO, Creative Director, Godmother Consulting) gave me a radical idea: has the big idea had its day? Let’s face it, the big idea is usually a TVC (see Spikes 2009 winners) that’s bolted onto 360 applications. What about creating brilliant little ideas that can be aggregated into one biggie? More integrated thinking. Check out the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair interview series for a dose of inspiration.
Thanks to Spikes 2009 for making me think and thanks to you for letting me share my thoughts. Join me at Spikes 2010 and we can do it face to face.
PS. Almost forgot the parties. Kudos to Euro RSCG, Ogilvy & Mather, Starcom Mediavest, JWT, TBWA and BBDO for reminding us that this business is fun even if some of us had a little too much fun and missed the morning sessions (you know who you are). However, the Yahoo! party was my favorite and I hope to see you all there next year. There were some fantastic Big Idea Chair shots so look for your pic in the Flickr Stream. The one with Mayo, myself and Atifa is here.
Singapore - Fox One Stop Media (FOSM) has launched FOSM Singapore, a specialized local advertising sales team to cater to the country’s advertising sector. FOSM, the commercial branch of the advert…
TVAPlus: Looking at sales and distribution firstly; how did last year fare compared to 2010 and how you are seeing content moving and what sort of content is moving in Asia Pacific currently? Steve…
Paris - Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice President Global Advertising Strategy and Content Excellence for The Coca-Cola Company, is headlining MIPTV 2012’s Branded Entertainment programme. He will deliver a …
Mumbai - BBC Worldwide Productions in India is producing a brand new reality series for youth focussed Channel (v) entitled My Big Decision. The seven part series, hosted by Bollywood star Sandhya Mr…
Paris - MIPCube, a two-day high-level networking and live learning experience exploring the game-changing innovations affecting the TV industry, will open in Cannes on Friday 30 March, just ahead of t…
Free Magazine Subscription
Printer-friendly version
