Ad Unplugged 2nd November 2007

To read the write up in The Star, click on the title of this post.
AN INCREDIBLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
It was a full house! 180 enthusiastic students came to work with six top Executive Creative Directors :
• Rahul Mathew
Executive Creative Director of Young & Rubicam
• Bas Moreu
Executive Creative Director of TBWA-ISC\Malaysia
• Jeff Orr
Regional Executive Creative Director of Grey Worldwide
• Ted Lim
Executive Creative Director of Naga DDB
• Ronald Ng
Executive Creative Director of BBDO
• Daniel Comar
Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather

The brief was to turn Tat Seng rubber slippers into a global cult. As you can imagine, the students were not exactly thrilled with the brief!



The ECDs however, set them straight to work, directing their thinking and bringing out their ideas. Here's Ted working with his group, taking many by surprise when he insisted they think of the strategy first!


Here's Daniel Comar giving his group a taste of how Ogilvy works







It was amazing what some of the students managed to come up with in just three hours.








Among the shortlisted ideas were :

• The designer Tat Seng : famous artists are given the chance to create their own designs on a Tat Seng slipper which would be autioned off to the highest bidder.

• A viral contest featuring stunts with Tat Seng slippers.

• The Electric Shock Proof slipper. Very nice ambient ideas.

The judges had a hard time deciding on the winners! After the six ECDs presented the best ideas from their respective groups, they were asked to vote for their top two favourites. Four ideas made it into the Finals. The ECDs debated each idea and weighed it against the brief : to make Tat Seng a global cult. They were looking for a big brand idea.

Then, they voted again to decide on the 1st and 2nd Prizes.


THE FINALISTS
These two ideas almost made it : they would have been third and fourth, if we had that many prizes.

• The 'un-slippable' slipper. The group drew a great storyboard of a hilarious TVC where an old lady wearing Tat Seng foiled the efforts of a car thief. Very funny, and it's a great TV idea. Get a Thai Film Director to shoot it and it'll probably win awards all over.

• Mr. Tat Seng : A cranky character who is an incredibly individualistic individual. He says something like "F..k Off if you don't like my logo. I like it." (hey, guys who did this - pls give me the actual line if you can remember it)

THE TWO WINNERS ARE :

2nd Prize went to the group who positioned it as the 'No Choice' slipper, an anti-fashion statement.In the three hours, this group managed to express the brand idea very well in a series of POS and ambient ideas.




1st Prize was awarded to the group who branded it as the 'Signature Slipper', packing it with a set of three markers for customers to design their own personalised slippers. This won over the artist's designed slipper as it was down to earth, accessible to everyone and allows young people the opportunity to self-express.

According to the CDs, a few groups were also thinking along the same line, but this was better thought through and a more articulate expression of the brand idea.
What both winning groups had in common :
1. The brand idea came from a truth about the product. They accepted it as it was, and looked at how they could twist it into an appealing proposition. Many groups that didn't make it were too focussed on all the things that were unappealing about the product, and they got stuck there.

2. They did not rely on a tangible product USP. They created a personality, an attitude, that says a lot about the user.

3. They managed to crack the strategy and also come up with great ideas for the creative expression of that strat.
Some had strong strategy, but not enough time to think of ideas. Others had ideas but strategy was not strong.

Everyone had the same brief, same amount of time. For all those who also achieved these three criteria, good for you.

Here's Ronald sweating it out with one of his groups





















PART 2 WITH JEFF ORR
If you want to develop your ideas fully and create something fit for your portfolio, contact Jeanette at 03-2287 7095 or jeanette@95percent.com.my and book your seat now.
Date : 27th November (Tuesday)
This session is open to all who attended Ad Unplugged.