Zara Kok named Portfolio Night Singapore All Star, wins trip to a week long creative challenge in NY
Zara Kok, a junior art director at The Secret Little Agency, walked away with the Singapore All Star title at Portfolio Night last week, earning a trip New York to take part in the event’s first-ever global creative competition.
Kok (left), 24, studied graphic design, with a speciality in advertising, at Central Saint Martins in the UK. She graduated in 2011 and interned in London at TBWA, Brave and Weapon 7, before coming home to Singapore in August, 2012.
“I didn’t expect to win, but I’m really excited to go to New York and work with different people from around the world,” said Kok. “It’s a great opportunity to get more exposure and grow creatively”.
Portfolio Night, which was co-hosted in Singapore by Y&R, JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, brought over 75 aspiring young creatives together with 30 of the city-state’s leading creative directors for a fast-paced evening of ‘speed dating’ style portfolio reviews. Portfolio Night, which is coordinated by New York-based IHAVEANIDEA, takes place on the same evening in cities across the world.
This year, for the first time in Portfolio Night’s 11-year history, each participating city picked an All Star to take part in a week long creative challenge in New York in August.
Kok and 23 other All Stars from across the world will work on a creative brief from Ford Motor Company.
“We were looking for bold and fresh thinking. Ideas that showed maturity beyond the young age of the participants. Zara stood out, and at the end, the decision was unanimous,” said Farrokh Madon, Chief Creative Officer, Y&R Singapore.
“There was lots of buzz, and lots of energy, and I was inspired by the work that I saw,” said Tay Guan Hin, Southeast Asia ECD, JWT Asia Pacific. “Zara took the top honours but many of the young creatives can walk away proud of what they’ve accomplished, and armed with tangible input on how to take their work to the next stage.”
“It’s great to connect with young, ambitious people who are so full of energy and enthusiasm,” said Troy Lim, Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific. “I think everyone who took part, both the young, aspiring creatives and the CD’s, came away with something positive.”
7 Comments
These guys really like to blow their own horn.
“oooh i’m so helpful and i’m giving so much back”
Speak to any of the people who attended, they’ll all tell you, the CD’s were unhelpful and most acted as if they were simply fulfilling obligations. The only people who got value out of this is Ford’s agency. Cheap staff! Must be a WPP company…
I think its really interesting, and telling, that Zara with her fantastic degree and internship experience chose a little known small agency over a big multinational…I wonder if this is going to be part of a trend?
@Phil: It goes to show how hard it is for an upstart to break into the circle of MNC agencies.
Chatting to 20 ecds for 10 min each is hardly going to turn anyone into a genius overnight. This is just a hiring fair….it is important to get access to new talent as they can hopefully be trained and of course the salary they ask for is peanuts. Nearly all the ecds are only there because of their awards for proactive work anyway…to think that they can help you become a better adman or woman with a few wise words is quite a stretch.
Hey Collins, this ‘upstart’ as you put it just won the title of Portfolio Night AllStar. Looks like she is doing just fine without your mentoring.
Portfolio night is nothing more than a cattle call to search for cheap new blood to feed MNCs need to hire eager beavers who will slave for long hours and no pay and ECDs ego for ready-to-run ideas for awards.
The exploitation stops when one wakes up to the truth.
Collins: TSLA is a great team of people where creatives are well respected, and respected by their clients.
they have creatives with New York MNC agency experience too.
and I’m not for the agency but I’ve worked with them before.