Joe Hawkins’ Adfest Diary – Day Two

DDB New Zealand creative Joe Hawkins is currently judging Adfest in Japan and will be writing a daily report for CB.

Steve Henry (left), this year’s AdFest Chairman, gave us all a quick welcome/pep talk yesterday morning. We were to look out for the fresh work. The innovative, ground breaking, category shifting stuff.  And we shouldn’t be afraid to choose work that’s un-tested in other award shows.

That last part was a little tough though as the show had been postponedtwice (originally set to run in March, then in May).  But we got theidea. Look for work that you never thought was possible in thecategory.  Work that would move that category forward and set abenchmark.

So we all moved off to our respective rooms in the giganticallyimpressive Dentsu building and had our initial ‘In and Out’ session. 

Sounds sexy, but it wasn’t really.

Seven guys sitting in a darkened room deciding what would make it to today’s ‘Shortlist’ round.

The quality was mixed.  Some great stuff, some average stuff. And some really annoying entry videos.

I know I mentioned that yesterday, but seriously.  If you make a3-minute video, don’t wait until the 2 minute mark to tell us the idea.

Many of the entry videos blabbed on about information and backgroundthat was largely irrelevant to the idea. Others lacked an ideacompletely.

Coming in with fresh eyes today, our shortlist felt good. It wasshort, which was the point, and the work we’d settled on was prettycool.

Up until a few days ago I wasn’t really 100% on how the judging processoperated, despite reading countless Campaign Brief diaries of jurors. So, for those of you who want to know, here’s the technical side of it…

Today was spent whittling down the shortlist to a finalist list,debating the merits or failings of each piece of work, and then votingon the remaining pieces using a points system which was used to rankthe work.  Then more discussion about the ranking order and makingfinal adjustments, and then it was down to judging the metal.  Moreconstructive debate followed, and after a lot of back and forth, metalwas awarded.

Tomorrow’s another day, so I’ll write about that tomorrow. 

Couple of things to add though…

Pigs ears taste like nothing much and feel like you’re chewing bone and gristle and more bone.

The Dentsu building houses about 5000 Dentsu staff.  At least one ofthose guys wears a uniform and greets everyone in the entrance lobbywith a ‘Good Morning’.  He’s a machine.

There’s a Ninja restaurant in Tokyo.  Ninjas serve you.

I still haven’t seen a used panty vending machine.