FIAP's Ready to Shine Light on South American Creative

FIAP's Ready to Shine Light on South American Creative
 
If it's April it must be awards show season. Next week the spotlight
turns to Buenos Aires, where the annual Festival Iberoamericano
de la Publicidad kicks off. Director General Daniel Marcet fills us in.
 
By Anthony Vagnoni
 

FIAP Director General Daniel Marcet says the Festival helps creatives stay on top of trends.

Awards show season is getting rolling with a number of shows this month, including Goafest in India, the International ANDY Awards in New York and the abuelo of all Latin American awards shows, FIAP.  Founded in 1969, the Festival Iberoamericano de la Publicidad kicks off next Tuesday, 12 April, at the Marriott Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires, and wraps up on 15 April.
 
SourceEcreative's Andrea Martins, our South American representative, will be on hand at FIAP, and will be reporting back on the panels, the awards, the networking and the nightlife. We also checked in recently with Daniel Marcet, Director General of the festival, to see what's on tap for this 42nd annual celebration of advertising from Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.
 
Marcet says the Festival did well this year, with entries up somewhere between ten and fifteen percent from last year, although they were still tallying final numbers when we spoke with him last week.  Last year's FIAP registered over 4,200 entries, many of which included more than one actual ad.  The category list covers everything from print and direct response to broadcast and new media.
 
The region that FIAP covers includes 23 countries, and most of them will be represented by entries in the competition.  The Festival expects to attract close to 2,000 delegates this year, up from the approximately 1,600 who attended last year and well above the 1,200 who attended in 2009, when the industry was feeling the effects of the global recession.

2010 winners pose with their trophies.

This year's edition of FIAP features two new stand-alone categories, Design and Promo, Activations and Direct Marketing, which were previously subcategories within other entry categories.  And the show is also introducing a new award that will take ads within specific product categories and evaluate them across media platforms.
 
"This is the most innovative competition FIAP has created, which is being presented in this year's edition," Marcet explains.  "It's called La Copa de Iberoamerica, or The IberoAmerican Cup.  It's a competition where ideas compete against each other, independent of the media. For example, a car TV spot will compete against a print ad for cars, a radio spot for cars, etc. And the jury will judge all entries, in front of the audience, so everyone will be able to see how and what is the vote of each jury. It's a reality show of advertising, similar to the 'American Idol' format."
 
Among the highlights of the Festival will be Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts speaking about the "Lovemarks" concept he's created; Pablo Alzugaray, President of the award-winning winning Spanish agency Shackleton, who will be interviewed by Argentinian journalist Pancho Dondo; and Marcelo Tas, a well-known Brazilian TV presenter and host of "Caiga Quien Caiga," who'll share the secrets of his program's success. "We'll also have the second edition of the Circle of Circles, a gathering of presidents of creative circles of the region, and the third edition of IberoAmerica's Hall of Fame," Marcet adds, "along with a full program of workshops and seminars and guided tours through the print exhibition."
 

Last year's Circle of Circles meeting featured leaders from creative clubs and groups.

Awards shows often serve as excellent barometers of the industry's health and vitality at any given time. So what does Marcet believe that FIAP 2011 will reveal about the Latin American ad world?  "I expect to continue being amazed by how new technologies and new media are being used," he tells SourceEcreative.  "Agencies and creatives have always been ahead of communication trends in the past. Today, with the creation of those technologies, they have new things to learn every day. And that is precisely what FIAP has been created for – for communication people to be able to get in touch with new trends."
 

SourceEcreative will publish the winners of FIAP and photos from the event right after the Festival concludes.

Published 5 April, 2011