Busan is good

Local ad festival draws global interest

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The first Busan International Advertising Festival or BIAF, which will take place at Haeundae Grand Hotel in Oct. 21-24, is attracting global attention with the attendance of internationally renowned advertisement producers from home and abroad.

 

The BIAF Organizing Committee, chaired by Mayor Hur Nam-sik with its Executive Committee led by Prof. Lee Eui-ja of Kyungsung University, said recently it has received 3,105 advertisement pieces on-line from global ad people and the general public in 29 countries between June 1 and Sept. 10. The number of entries far exceeds the organizers' expectations and is almost three times higher than the 832 entries, which applied for the first event of AdFest, Asia's only international advertising festival so far, held in Thailand.

 

The total breaks down into 1,047 sent by Korean applicants with the remaining 1,698 pieces coming from 28 other countries, including the United States, Japan, Germany, China, Brazil, Russia and El Salvador. Unlike the existing ad festivals, such as Cannes, Cleo, and New York that focus on North America and Europe, BIAF is receiving entries from the Middle East and Latin America, too, reflecting the global interest in it.

 

Also noticeable is the wide scope of participation by world-renowned advertisers. Among well-known domestic participants are First Ad, Innotion, Daeheung Production, HSAd, Welcomm, Grape Communication and MBC AdCom, while overseas companies include Euro RSCG, Grey, Ogilvy, Young & Rebicam and Dents.

 

By genre, printed advertisement took the lion's share of entries with 1,425 pieces, followed by TV ads with 809 pieces and outdoor ads with 361 pieces.

 

In terms of advertised industries, financial and other service industries accounted for the largest number of entries with 518 pieces, chased by corporate, organizational and industrial ads with 431 pieces, electronic-IT office machine with 308 pieces. Advertisements for public interests totaled 567 in number.

 

The organizing committee will select entries to advance to the final competition by Oct. 17 through the examination by the screening committee consisting of 51 experts from 20 countries.

The final competition will select recipients of the grand prize plus gold, silver, bronze and special awards.

 

The source of news : Dynamic Busan