Spikes Asia 2009 sees drop in entries, increase in delegates
Spikes Asia 2009, touted as the first Asian advertising festival, is all set to kick off on September 16, 2009 at Suntec City, Singapore. The three-day festival will be attended by over 818 delegates. The entries count is lower than last year, but Festival Chairman Terry Savage stated that given the global economic scenario, the dip in entries was expected. <br> <a href= http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/fullstory.asp?section_id=1&news_id=35887&tag=31727&pict=0 target= _blank><b>Spotted at Spikes: Piyush Pandey, Prasoon Joshi, Dave Droga, David Guerrero… </b></a> <br> <a href= http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/fullstory.asp?section_id=1&news_id=35888&tag=31728&pict=0 target= _blank><b>Young Spikes, global meetings, seminars… Omnicom gets busy at Spikes </b></a>
As soon as the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009 culminated, the organisers of the Festival had busied themselves in the preparation of Spikes Asia 2009, along with festival partners Haymarket. Even though a direct comparison cannot be made, as this is the first year that the IAF is part of Spikes Asia, with 2,784 pieces of work competing for the metals, the number of entries this year is lower than that of last year.
Festival Chairman Terry Savage, who has been busy in Singapore for the past many days alongside his team including Festival CEO Philip Thomas, stated, “Numbers are dropping everywhere given the economic conditions around us. Though that cannot be a reason to not celebrate creativity, and to recognise creativity in a region like Asia that has been emerging as a creative hub, which is why we have proceeded with the Spikes Asia plans this year.”
What Savage is clearly excited about is the number of delegates. He said, “To get 818 – and people are still registering – shows the interest that people have in an Asian festival. We are very happy with the participation.”
The first day of the festival will see speakers such as Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, Mindshare APAC; Richard Pinder, COO, Publicis Worldwide; Calvin Soh, CCO & Vice Chairman, Publicis Asia; Francesco Lagutaine, Chief Marketing Officer, Citibank APAC/Japan; Thomas Kim, Creative Director, Global Creative Team, Cheil Worldwide; Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO, Grey Group APAC; Steve Blakeman, Chief Planning Officer, Mediabrands APAC; and Andy Greenaway, Regional Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Asia, among others.
The day seminars and workshops would be followed by a Hawker Market Night, which has been organised in association with McCann World Group. The event is designed to be a networking opportunity in the midst of live music and a “slice of Singaporean hospitality”.
