[Busan International Advertising Festival (AD STARS) Participation Report, Part 1] My first advertising festival—feeling the many barriers across Asia firsthand…!
Hello to everyone reading the blog. My name is Kameyama, and I work in the Account Planning Department.
This time, I attended the Busan International Advertising Festival (AD STARS), held in Busan from Tuesday, August 20 to Sunday, August 25, and I would like to share a report on the experience!
I participated in AD STARS with the aim of entering the young professionals category competition (for those aged 30 and under). An advertising festival is an event held to promote the development of the advertising and PR industry, featuring awards for outstanding advertising and PR work, as well as seminars and networking parties. One of its programs is an idea competition in which pairs aged 30 and under take on a challenge, serving both to develop and discover young talent. (It also exists at the most famous Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where it is known as Young Lions.)
At AD STARS, the young professionals competition is called New Stars, and this year 33 teams—mainly from Asia—participated. I will write about what we challenged in Part 2, so in Part 1, I will first cover AD STARS as a whole.
The biggest feature of AD STARS is that entries can be submitted free of charge. Because it is free, the number of submissions is very large: in 2018 there were 20,342 entries from 57 countries and regions. While it did not reach Cannes’ 32,372 entries, it was by far the largest number in Asia.
AD STARS itself was held over three days, from Thursday, August 22 to Saturday, August 24, at a beach resort area in Busan called Haeundae. The hotel we stayed at was right behind the shoreline, and it was a pleasant location—just a few minutes’ walk to the beach.
AD STARS offered the following programs:
• Exhibition of entries that advanced to the final round
• Sponsor booth exhibits
• Talk sessions and seminars
• Networking parties
• Ceremonies (opening/closing)
• Competitions (for students / for young professionals aged 30 and under)
An awards ceremony was held at the closing ceremony on the final day, where outstanding works were announced from among entries across various categories. Works that made it to the final round were displayed with explanations on boards. We also saw several works entered from Japan.
At the sponsor booths, people were holding business meetings and trying out services, among other activities.
Talk sessions and seminars were held from morning to evening on a wide range of themes.
There were two competitions: New Stars, which I participated in, and Young Stars for students. It seems that several Japanese students also took part in Young Stars.
There was an opening ceremony on the first day, a networking party on the middle day, and a closing ceremony on the final day, and each evening over the three days there were opportunities to connect with a wide range of people. I exchanged opinions with representatives from companies exhibiting booths from Japan, as well as members of other New Stars teams.
This was my first time attending an advertising festival, and every day was inspiring—it was a great opportunity that made me want to work even harder than before. Because my English study has been insufficient, I could not communicate smoothly and could not fully grasp the seminar content, and I felt the limitations caused by the language barrier more strongly than ever in my life… Next time, I will study so that I can communicate smoothly in English!
That concludes Part 1. In the next installment, Part 2, I would like to focus on New Stars, the young professionals category competition. Please take a look if you have the time!
