The 4th Young Lotus Workshop at AdFest 2007

Runner-up spot goes to Beijing, a close second.

The 4th Young Lotus Workshop at AdFest 2007 was moderated by BBDO Asia Pacific and attended by twenty-eight young creatives from fourteen countries, including Bangkok, Beijing, Colombo, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo.

The fourteen national teams presented their creative ideas to the BBDO team, which then voted in a secret ballot to short-list seven Young Lotus entries. The winning commercial was from Team Tokyo, with Beijing a close runner-up and Manila also a finalist.

Suthisak Sucharittanonta, chairman & CCO, BBDO Bangkok and David Guerrero, chairman & CCO, BBDO Guerrero/Ortega Manila said, “We were looking for a fresh idea and great crafting skills were an added bonus. The winning entry showed an astonishing level of craft and had a clear, single-minded idea with a surprising twist at the end.”

The judging panel and workshop moderating team included Chris Thomas - Chairman & CEO BBDO Asia Pacific, Suthisak Sucharittanonta - Chairman & CCO, BBDO Bangkok, David Guerrero - Chairman & CCO, BBDO Guerrero/Ortega and Simon Bond - Regional Director, Proximity Asia, Andy Wilson – Regional Planning Director. BBDO Asia Pacific and Farouk Madden – Executive Creative Director, BBDO Singapore.

The participants were assigned a real brief, “You can do good things in Pattaya”. They were introduced to the Office of the Mayor of Pattaya City, who provided background to the brief. The teams were then asked to produce a TV commercial using the latest Nokia N931 mobile phone and video camera, which answered the brief.

David Guerrero explained the concept. “The Nokia N93i is at the cutting edge of today’s digital age. We wanted to give Young Lotus the chance to make consumer-generated content and at the same time, make a real-time film of how they achieved it.” As part of the exercise, each national creative team was given a N93i phone and told to go out and get footage in Pattaya City to edit into their commercial.

Fourteen independent cameramen were used - one for each team – to video the entire creative process. Delegates at AdFest could watch the story unfold as the edited highlights were revealed each day. This is the first time this has been attempted at AdFest.

Chris Thomas, chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia Pacific said, “The real task for each team was to recognize ‘Brand Pattaya’, identify the positives for the resort and build a compelling argument to convince tourists to come”.

Suthisak Sucharittanonta was impressed with the level of technical skill shown by the Young Lotus contenders. “The teams filmed their own footage and then edited and crafted a commercial from the results, without any help from professionals. The exercise shows how fast digital media is advancing and advertising skills are changing.”

The exercise has proved to be a great training tool. The edited film will be given to the participants as a memento and used to promote Young Lotus at AdFest in the future.

Young Lotus Workshop is part of AdFest’s long-term commitment to provide a learning forum for the creative industries of Asia Pacific and is conducted every year. Participants are selected by national advertising associations. The workshop and attendance of participants is funded by AdFest.