Spikes Asia 2018: Where’s the digital idea?

I’ve been in Singapore judging Spikes since Monday. We judged TV, Print and Publishing categories. 

 

This is my first time at Spikes and I’ve always been curious about it. 

 

The first thing that amazed me was my colleagues on the jury. 50 per cent of the jury was made up of women, and that’s a good sign for the industry. 

 

As usual the work from Thailand stood out in the TV category alongside some madness from Japan. But in general I don’t see the work going to the next level. 

 

In terms of the festival, I’m getting cold vibes. A couple of people have told me that in the years gone by this festival was really big. But, as per my recent experiences all the advertising festivals have cut down on the size. In the last year or two, they’ve grown like mushrooms in each corner of the city. Some people call it a money making business, and somehow I agree with that. 

 

The big thing I noticed here is that there are no local agencies from Singapore. I miss the likes of Joji Jacob, Eugene Cheong and Ali Shahbaz here. 

 

Overall, the judging experience was average. I really missed seeing 30-second classic TV ads. And because of free media, I saw millions of long format ads and they got onto my nerves. And the world of new media - I thought I’ll see some ground breaking digital ideas, but that was a disappointment too. These cause driven ads are quite shallow. They’re nothing else but desperate for awards. That much for those ads, as I don’t want to talk about scam ads even though texhincially they’re all legal. I really doubt people are watching and sharing these long format TV ads. 

 

Signing off from Singapore!