Piyush Pandey invited as judge at Asia Pacific AdFest 2007

Piyush Pandey invited as judge at Asia Pacific AdFest 2007

MUMBAI, October 24

Piyush Pandey, executive
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chairman and national creative director, O&M, India, has been invited as a judge at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival Awards, 2007. Pandey will be the chairman of the Print Lotus. John Hunt, worldwide creative director, TBWA/Worldwide, will be the chairman of the TV Lotus, and Linda Locke, regional executive creative director, Leo Burnett, Asia Pacific, will be the chairperson of the Outdoor Lotus.

Pandey, Hunt and Locke will lead the three judging panels for all the entries in their respective categories at AdFest 2007, which will be held in Pattaya, Thailand, from March 14 to 17.

For the record, since Pandey took over in 1994, O&M, India, has now come to be ranked amongst the most creative offices in the O&M worldwide network. In 2004, Pandey became the first Asian to be president of the Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival.

“Pandey is no stranger to the AdFest as he was an AdFest judge a few years ago,” says Jimmy Lam, sub-committee chairman of speakers and judges, Asia Pacific Advertising Festival. “According to me, he is our home-grown Asian creative adman, who has made it to the international creative arena.”

John Hunt, on the other hand, has been working with TBWA since 2003. He is among those who reshaped the TBWA network. Over the last few years, TBWA has been voted Creative Network of the Year both at Cannes and by publications such as ‘Ad Age’ and ‘Creativity’.

Locke of Leo Burnett, Asia Pacific, was honoured with the prestigious Chairman’s Award at the Singapore Creative Circle Awards in October 2003. At the same awards show in 2005, she was one of five individual recipients honoured with a Champion of the Creative Circle Award for her years of contribution to the industry. She was also featured as one of the 16 most influential creative directors in Singapore.

The chairpersons and juries will convene for a week in March 2007 at PEACH (Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall) in Pattaya, Thailand, the hub of Thailand’s East Coast. All the entries will be reviewed and the results announced during the AdFest. The awards presentations will be held during the last two days of the festival.

Lam explains why the AdFest has different judging panels led by different chairpersons: “This has been done to help each judging panel make creative leaders in the region. They can also focus on one award category and have ample time on their hands to scrutinise each entry so as to identify and award the works that best represent the Asia Pacific region with great cultural differences and similarities.”

For the record, the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival was first launched in Chiang Mai in 1998 as a celebration of creativity for people of all ranks in Asia. Apart from the awards, the AdFest provides the opportunity to showcase the best creative work of the region.