All about: Pitching for and hosting AdAsia

Hanoi will play host to the 28th edition of AdAsia, the congregation of advertising and media representatives from across the continent. The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Re-engineer advertising’.  The festival begins on 11 November with day-long registrations followed by the welcome party at the National Convention Centre.

1. Madhukar Kamath, draws on his experience from 2011 (as chairman of the organising committee of AdAsia 2011) and explains the challenges involved in hosting AdAsia. He recalls that after the Indian delegation won the bid to host AdAsia in 2011, they looked to address two basic challenges.

He was referring to building participation and follow the success of AdAsia Jaipur 2003. He explains, “In the preceding years - 2005 (Singapore), 2007 (Korea) and 2009 (Malaysia) - we had got feedback that participation from both speakers and delegates had seen a drop. So, we had to set a benchmark for the future AdAsias. The second challenge was that in 2003, Jaipur was a great success. It was a congress that all of us were fully proud of and therefore our objective was to create the finest AdAsia ever.”

“So, we set upon the objective of setting a new standard in terms of content and width of delegation. We made sure the entire festival (two and a half days) was seamless and it had to be built from hour to hour. AdAsias are a combination of learning, networking and entertainment. We had to get a perfect mix of that. We had put together an organising team that consisted of Ashish Bagga, Dr Bhaskar Das, Ramesh Narayan, Uday Shankar and Sunil Gautam. Our advisory board was led by Dr Anand Mahindra, and that did a phenomenal job,” added Kamath.

The festival saw participation of more than 3,500 delegates with 46 speakers addressing them.
2011 was India’s fourth opportunity to host the festival. The first time the country and New Delhi hosted AdAsia was in 1970. The festival returned to the country and the same city in 1982.
India hosted AdAsia for a third time in 2003, with Jaipur getting its first taste of the event.
 
2. Vietnam won the bid to host it in 2009, during the 26th edition at Kuala Lumpur. The festival will see 26 speakers addressing delegates across four days. This is the first time the country will be hosting the festival.

On the bidding process, Pradeep Guha, chairman, Asian Federation of Advertising Associations, says, “Member countries that show interest have to go through a set of standard procedures to show their eligibility. Once that happens, the countries in contention make a presentation in front of the International Council. The shortlisted countries then present in front of the General Body, which finally takes a call on awarding the rights to host the festival.”

Srinivasan K Swamy, chairman, RK Swamy BBDO and president, India chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA), will be leading the Indian delegation to Vietnam, after he was nominated as leader to AdAsia 2013. Swamy was entrusted with the role of vice president - development for Apac at IAA in June 2013.

3. Guha further explains what set Vietnam’s bid apart from the other contenders. “Winning entries are based on preparedness of the country, importance of the market and a few other factors. Vietnam was chosen because it’s a relatively new member of the (AFAA) Board and a new important market within Asia. In 2011, we (India) were ‘happening’ and hence we got the rights to host the festival.”

But that’s not the only reason, he adds, saying there are a different reasons for each country winning the rights to host AdAsia. “Right now, we’re going to Vietnam and on the bidding day, we’ll be looking to get our destination for 2017,” surmises Guha.

The first edition of AdAsia was hosted in Tokyo in 1958.

What it means…

Vietnam:

• Gains international exposure
• Helps tourism

AdAsia:

• Widens base in an opening economy
• Favourable economy for delegates

Festival program:

• Day 1 11 November – Registration, Welcome Party
• Day 2 12 November – Sessions, Sun Flower Lunch and Dentsu Night
• Day 3 13 November – Sessions,  Hakuhodo lunch, 2015 Taipei presentation and Taipei Night
• Day 4 14 November – Sessions, announcement of AdAsia 2017 and closing ceremony