The 15th Mad Stars festival has opened its doors in Busan, South Korea. Mad Stars is free to enter, making it one of the fastest growing advertising festivals in the world – and the only global festival based in North Asia. It takes place annually at Bexco (Busan Exhibition and Convention Center), and is running this year, August 25 – 27.
“Mad Stars launched 15 years ago. This is a truly exceptional year for our festival. We are not only celebrating our rebrand from Ad Stars to Mad Stars, but we are also celebrating the return to in-person events which had been in hiatus for the past 3 years due to COVID-19. I’m happy to say that Mad Stars remains one of the world’s biggest shows according to the number of entries received with around 19000 entries from a record breaking 73 countries this year,” stated Hwan-Jin Choi, chairperson of Mad Stars.
“There is no fee to enter the Mad Stars Awards, which sets us apart from many other advertising festivals. But this doesn’t mean Mad Stars is easy to win. Only the world’s best creative ideas will be celebrated at our awards show this Saturday, setting a new benchmark for our industry.”
On Saturday August 27, Mad Stars 2022 will conclude with a gala awards show at Bexco’s Grand Ballroom.
Charu Menon, partner and executive producer at Heckler, was one of five executive judges this year. She stated, “The judging process was rigorous, enriching and inspiring with a lot of original and creative submissions from all around the world. After a couple of pandemic years, it was so good to see a return to lightness and simple, fun storytelling. I’m really excited with our final results and I can’t wait to let the whole world know about it.”
Chris Duffey, strategic development & creative cloud design at Adobe, is also an executive judge. He stated, “I am honoured to be a judge at the Mad Stars 2022 awards show. It was inspiring to see such diverse marketing, advertising and digital solutions from all corners of the world. We’ve seen time and time again that amidst challenging times, creativity somehow always finds a way to shine through. It’s clear that as consumer expectations and attention will continue to evolve so will the creative industry.”
The 15th Mad Stars conference is divided into two stages, one dedicated to creative professionals and which requires a paid entry fee (Main Conference) and another which is open to everyone (Open Stage). The Open Stage is open free to the general public as part of Mad Stars’ mission to raise awareness of “creative solutions that change the world” beyond the advertising sector.
This year’s program is inspired by the theme, MAD, which stands for marketing, advertising and digital contents and is a reflection of the direction the creative industry is heading, and is a testament to the festivals mission to embrace creativity in all its forms. Some highlights and keynote speakers of this year’s edition include:
Thursday August 25 2022: Conversation With The Executive Judges
Executive judges of Mad Stars 2022
- Alan Kelly, chief creative officer at ROTHCO | Accenture Interactive
- Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder, director at Elephant Design Pvt Ltd
- Charu Menon partner & executive producer at Heckler
- Chris Duffey, strategic development & creative cloud design at Adobe
They will be joined by Hwanjin Choi, chairperson of Mad Stars, and Sangsoo Chong, vice-chairperson of Mad Stars. The panel will discuss where are we now and where will we go, and will share insights and trends.
[keynote] Consumer Sensing In The Era Of Digital Transformation
In this session, Sungsoo Jung, chief executive officer of HS Ad/LBEST will share the expanding role of ad agencies for new people in the DX era.
Friday August 28 2022: Don’t believe the hype. Re-think experience.
Wayne Deakin, global principal for creative and branding consultancy, Wolff Olins, explores why we must think human-first not frictionless-first when it comes to brand experience.
Saturday August 29 2022: Questions From The Next Generation of Leaders
Alfred Wee, executive creative director of McCann Worldgroup Singapore; Tomoko Kanezaki, managing director, executive creative director at Dentsu; Wayne Deakin, global principal and creative at Wolff Olins; and Jason Velasquez Burayag, creative director M&C Saatchi UAE will take part in a fireside chat, and share their advice for creative leaders on how they can become future leaders in the creative industry.
Marketing professor and world-renowned business figure, Philip Kotler, will also take a major role in the festival by taking part in two different scheduled events. On the August 26, Strategic Forum To Attract a Successful 2030 World Expo Busan, and on August 27, Vision For Valuable Marketing.
Find all the latest announcements here.
