Adfest 2019. The Work, Day 1.

Ron Samuel wanders through the AdFest halls and checks out the work that is getting noticed.

The way that the work is actually exhibited at Adfest is a good reflection of what is happening in the industry. The area once dominated by press and print has been replaced by a VR experience and experiential examples that you have to interact with in order to see how the idea works. It’s great but there’s only so much you can do before you start forgetting what you’ve just experienced.

It was great to see extensions of campaigns that have won previously such as the JBL campaign. The new work is still visually stunning and just good to look at, as it should be. The outdoor for Lego was also a standout for me, simple and inventive.

The work from Dentsu from offices across the region was consistently good. From the print campaign for Yanhee Acupuncture Services (Bangkok office) to The Unspoken Truth Campaign from the Singapore office. This was a great example of a print/mobile interaction where the print told one part of the story and you scanned the QR code to get the full story. Not sure how many people would actually do that but it was a great idea well executed.

The Access Israel campaign was another example of how to keep it simple and compelling.