Judging AdFest 2022: TBWA\Hong Kong’s Jerome Ooi
Campaign Brief Asia has asked TBWA\Hong Kong’s Executive Creative Director and AdFest 2022 judge, Jerome Ooi a few questions about the recently completed award show.
1) What were your overall impressions of the standard of work that you saw in the judging this year?
After two years of Zoom, it was encouraging to see the body of work that came through, and the level of finesse in the winning pieces were all very impressive. If anything, it spoke volumes about the resilience of our creative community and the industry. Does that mean WFH really does work after all? Nah, gotta be sheer grit.
2) What was your favourite ad/campaign from your judging?
Speaking about what worked, ‘Carbon Thumbprint’ surely did. The campaign ingeniously got people to switch to a carbon neutral network by measuring the carbon emissions resulted from their own mobile data usage. And if that was not convincing enough, they can also “see” it through an AR visualisation. Solid execution with clever use-of-data to highlight how our digital behaviours and choices impact the environment.
Another campaign that stood out for me was ‘Lions Good News’. It successfully reimagined historical editorials seamlessly into a new, intuitive digital format. A wonderful case of meticulously crafted digital design, beautiful aesthetics thoughtfully considered from interface to the user experience.
3) Highlight 2 or 3 other ad/campaigns that stood out for you and explain why?
‘Yakushima Treasure’ took digital craft to a whole new level. Such awe-inspiring artistry and attention to detail in the execution of this multi-sensorial music performance, at a time where immersive digital experiences take precedence.
4) Where is the best work coming from? (ie is there a country or a network that is doing very well?)
Based on the categories I was privy to, and while there were many stellar individual pieces across the region, the strongest works this year were predominantly from Japan, as well as Australia.
VIEW CB ASIA’S COVERAGE OF THE WINNERS
VIEW CB ASIA’S COVERAGE OF SPECIAL WINNERS
READ PAUL CHAN’S COMMENTS
READ JESSE WONG’S COMMENTS
READ RICHARD YU’S COMMENTS
READ DAMISA ONGSIRIWATTANA’S COMMENTS
READ GRAHAM DREW’S COMMENTS
READ TAY GUAN HIN’S COMMENTS
READ GERALD FITZGERALD’S COMMENTS
READ WOON HOH’S COMMENTS
