Our President, Julian Boulding, writes:

Last month I had the pleasure of attending Adfest in Thailand, one of my favourite creative conferences anywhere in the world. With the demise of Spikes Asia as a conference (it continues as an awards show only), Adfest is now the only serious pan-Asian creative festival. Its heart is in South East Asia, but with participants come from Japan in the North to Australia in the South; and from Philippines in the East to Saudi Arabia in the West. Don’t miss it next year – it’s amazing. And run by the nicest people in the world.

As the brilliant Festival-opener, Guan Hin Tay – possibly Asia’s best agency strategic planner, now working independently – put it: “Collisions lead to unexpected connections, that drive meaningful change.”

As well as meeting some brilliant indie agency leaders – friends, old and new – we always try to pick out one or two themes. Here are a few soundbites from different – but I thought – convergent perspectives.

If you want predictable advertising – use AI. – Christian Greet, Cirkus, New Zealand

You can’t be a premium brand without being a patron of the arts – Paul Copeland, The Mill, Shanghai

Never settle for cultural association – the product truth has to become cultural currency – Kryse Ynieto, .Monks, Singapore

We look for communities inside and outside of Tokyo who are under-represented – Mike Sunda, Push, Tokyo

Real time brands move at the speed of culture – when you see a meme, the trend is already dying – Herbert Pradjaja, .Monks, Singapore

If you know who you are – you can move fast – Nicole Ingra, Ingra Labs, Amsterdam

 

Last but not least, I got to speak on stage with the amazing and inspirational Heide Cohu, Founder of the brilliant Indie experiential agency, Studio Art + Commerce.

Heide’s superpower is persuading people to jump out of spaceships and parachute to earth (and as we all know – Felix Baumgartner survived). We talked about the huge creative and business opportunity represented by Saudi Arabia today. We showed some fine work from Fadi Mroue, CCO of Saudi Media Research Group, which perfectly captures the authentic culture and contemporary self-image of Saudi Arabia today. Then Heide talked us through how her agency persuaded the Crown Prince of Saudi, to let them build a complete EDM music festival in the desert – in a country which a few years earlier, did not even allow movie theatres.

Heide’s journey to and from Thailand involved dodging a massive fire that grounded all flights from Heathrow, a generator failure above Eastern Europe that knocked out all the lights in her plane and a Magnitude 7.7 earthquake. And of course, arriving on stage with minutes to spare, and not a hair or a stitch of fabric out of place. Ian Fleming, you lived a generation too soon.

Julian Boulding

March 2025