Scene at Spikes

Spikes Asia Wraps with Top Honors Going to
JWT, O&M and Phenomena

By Anthony Vagnoni

The Spikes Asia 09 festival has just wrapped a three-day celebration of Asian advertising and creativity, and the big winners at the event were the JWT and Ogilvy networks. JWT was named the event’s Network of the Year, after winning Grand Prix honors in three categories, Integrated, Direct/Sales Promotion and Craft. The TV/Cinema Grand Prix went to Thai Life Insurance’s “Melody of Life” TV spot, directed by Thanonchai Sornsriwichai out of Thai production company Phenomena for Ogilvy & Mather/Bangkok, which was also named Agency of Year.

The festival was held at the Suntec City convention and exhibition center, where approximately 800 delegates reviewed over 2,500 entries and attended a full program of seminars and workshops. Among the companies hosting workshops were European and US-based music house Massive Music, along with Coca-Cola and Microsoft.

One of the highlights of the festival was an appearance by Neil French, the often-controversial godfather of Asian advertising, in an event sponsored by the BBC. The roster of agencies presenting seminars was impressive, as none appeared to be left out: presenting were Dentsu, Chiel, Leo Burnett, DDB, Grey, TBWA, Publicis, O&M, JWT and Grey. Also presenting seminars were Yahoo! and Nokia. The festival included a tribute to the late Yasmin Ahmad, ECD of Burnett in Malaysia and a filmmaker and writer who passed away earlier this year.

The TV/Cinema jury this year was headed by David Droga of Droga 5. The Craft jury was chaired by Piyush Pandey of Ogilvy in India. The Craft Grand Prix was presented to a print ad from JWT in Shanghai.

Photos from the event appear below.

Over 800 Spikes Asia delegates gathered at
Suntec for three days of ads, seminars and workshops.

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“Ringmaster” Marko Klijn from animation house Cirkus in
New Zealand visits with Lee Michael at the SourceEcreative booth.

Anna Fawcett, Executive Producer at Filmgraphics in Sydney, left,
with Rona-Lewis, EP at Dragonslayer, and Lee Michael.

Delving into the secrets of advertising music at the Massive Music workshop.

Ai Yamamoto from Aoi Advertising Production, Tokyo
(left) visits with Lee Michael at the SourceEcreative booth.

Making the scene at the Kodak display.