Ketan Sudhir Kadam and Adith Francis Mili Fernandes from FCB Interface – Mumbai win the Young Lotus at ADFEST 2018

Pattaya: Young Lotus Workshop is one of the integral components of ADFEST every year. It is part of ADFEST’s long-term commitment to provide a learning forum for the creative industry and is conducted every year. An advertising association From each country organizes a local competition and selects and funds a winning team of two participants to attend.

Ketan Sudhir Kadam and Adith Francis Mili Fernandes From FCB Interface, Mumbai, were the winners of this year’s Young Lotus. The trophy was presented to them during the Lotus Awards Presentation on Saturday, 24th March, the final day of ADFEST 2018: TRANSFORM.

This Year’s Young Lotus Workshop was sponsored by ADK Global and facilitated by Rob Sherlock, Chairman of ADK Global. The brief was given to participating teams each consisting of two creatives, to create a ‘social movement for change’ to give parents and children a way to fight obesity so they can live healthier lives – together.

Kadam and Fernandes were one of fifteen pairs competing in the 14th Young Lotus Workshop, which was titled “You Are What You Consume”.  Their idea was called “H2KO” and used the concept of social media sharing and celebrity involvement to spread the word and promote a website designed to help parents combat the problem of child obesity.

The Young Lotus Popular Vote was won by the team From Havas Hong Kong. The idea developed by Wing Chun David Tam and Ming Yeung Chan was entitled, “MARK2GETHER”. The Popular Vote was tallied From delegate votes for their favourite team after the ADK Speaker Session on Saturday, 24th March 2018 where all the finalists presented their work.

The other finalist team was Kuen-Ting Tsai and Ya-Ting Chien, From J. Walter Thompson in Taipei.

“Our theme for Young Lotus this year is “You are what you consume”, based on the idea that what we consume in terms of media, and how we live our lives, affects the creative output of what we do. The Young Lotus workshop is a core part of ADFEST and it is really exciting to mentor the next generation of creators. Of course, it is a contest with a winning team, but overall, we want all participants to leave ADFEST with a different perspective and a different way of engaging with our industry,” says Rob Sherlock, Chairman of ADK Global and Chair of this year’s Young Lotus Workshop.

Cities represented at this year’s Young Lotus Workshop are Bangkok, Cairo, Colombo, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo.

Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of ADFEST explains, “Young Lotus involves a screening process by local advertising associations who pick one national team. During the competition, the teams work like hell, and form a kinship in the process. Then they get to attend our four-day festival. Learning is only one part of it – money can’t buy an experience like this.”

Jimmy Lam, President of ADFEST, says: “The Young Lotus program is one of the jewels in the ADFEST crown and provides young creatives with a very rare and valuable opportunity to come and be trained – we believe it is our contribution back to the industry.”

ADFEST strives to provide a creative forum and stimulus for learning for the advertising community in Asia Pacific and the Middle East region. Every year, the great cultural diversity of work From the region is showcased, rewarded and celebrated. The festival is designed to be inspirational, educational and innovative, with integrity and openness.

ADFEST 2018 “TRANSFORM” took place From 21st – 24th March 2018 at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group, Pattaya, Thailand.