Ad Stars has extended this year’s entry deadline until May 31. It remains free to enter, and is the only festival with a US$10,000 cash prize for its two Grand Prix of the Year winners. The festival runs from August 23 to 25 at Bexco (Busan Exhibition and Conference Centre) in Busan, Korea.
The international advertising awards programme has chose Anna Qvennerstedt of Forsman & Bodenfors in Sweden as an executive judge.
Qvennerstedt wears a couple of different hats at Forsman & Bodenfors. She is both a copywriter and chairman of the board. The agency put itself in the spotlight with its Epic Split film for Volvo Trucks starring Jean Claude Van Damme, which won Grand Prix of the Year at Ad Stars in 2014. That now very famous ad was followed with a series of other “epic” and awarded Volvo commercials.
Forsman & Bodenfors: Volvo Trucks new stunt sets a Guinness World Record
Qvennerstedt joined the agency 14 years ago and has contributed to some of its most acclaimed campaigns. In 2007, she became the youngest Swedish person to be awarded the Platinum Egg, which honours individuals who have had an exceptional impact on the advertising industry in Sweden. She was also the second woman to be elected to The Platinum Academy (Sweden’s Hall of Fame for people in advertising).
Forsman & Bodenfors was the most awarded agency in the world 2014, according to the Gunn Report, and works with leading brands like H&M, Airbnb, Volvo and SK II. Qvennerstedt has won an abundance of gold medals in numerous international award shows, as well as a Grand Prix in Cannes for AMF Pension.
The billboard campaign persuaded young social-networking Swedes to see themselves as seniors in need of a pension plan. They MMS-ed a picture of themselves to a number, and within three minutes they received their picture back, aged 70.
“I am truly looking forward to my first visit to Ad Stars, where I am expecting to meet lots of fascinating people and judge ground-breaking work while experiencing a unique festival in a unique part of the world,” she commented.
“We were delighted when our Live Test Series campaign for Volvo picked up many awards in 2014, but winning Grand Prix of the Year at Ad Stars that year was particularly memorable as it’s not often that advertising professionals are awarded prize money for our ideas.”
Hwan Jin Choi, chair of the Ad Stars executive committee, stated, “Forsman & Bodenfors continuously ranks among the world’s top creative agencies. I am looking forward to meeting Anna and discovering some of the secrets to the agency’s success. We are thrilled she has accepted our invitation to be part of the 11th Ad Stars festival.”
Enter the Ad Stars 2018 Awards here.
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