KV ‘Pops’ Sridhar to judge outdoor at Asia Pacific Ad Fest

It’s raining Indian judges at award shows abroad. After Prasoon Joshi, regional creative director, South and South East Asia, McCann-Erickson, was invited to chair the television category at the 9th Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (Ad Fest), 2006, it’s the turn of Leo Burnett’s national creative director, KV Sridhar, to make his presence felt there.

Sridhar, aka Pops, has been invited to judge the outdoor category at the Asia Pacific Ad Fest this year; the Ad Fest is being held in Pattaya, Thailand, from March 9 to 11. David Nobey, executive creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney, will be the chairman of the Ad Fest.

Sridhar remarks, “It is quite an interesting thing, actually. I was invited to be a judge at the Asia Pacific Ad Fest two years ago, in 2004, as well. But I couldn’t make it then due to certain important meetings and prior engagements.”

Well, better late than never. Asked why he has been chosen to judge the outdoor category in particular, Sridhar comments, “Generally, art directors who do well in print are the ones considered to judge outdoor. I have always been an art guy and it is my personal opinion that art is more important and noticeable in print and outdoor. I guess that is how this association happened.”

According to Sridhar, India has been performing quite averagely at the Asia Pacific Ad Fest in the past, with not too many entries winning, whereas creatives from Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia win left, right and centre.

“But this could be because the Ad Fest is very conservative and has extremely high standards of creativity,” explains Sridhar. “In fact, winning here is so difficult that if an entry actually bags an award at the Asia Pacific Ad Fest, it is generally a given that the ad will go on to bag a Cannes Lion.”

The theme of this year’s Ad Fest will be ‘What’s Next?’ Sridhar feels that this theme has been designed to encourage new thinking and innovation. In addition, two new categories will be introduced this year, ‘Print Craft’ and ‘Creative Media’.

In past years, there was only one judging panel, which had to go through television, print and outdoor. Due to the increasing number of entries and categories, the Ad Fest will now have separate panels for television, print, outdoor and television craft as well as DM and interactive. This has been done so that the judges get to spend quality time judging their respective categories.

For the record, the Ad Fest is one of the largest international events of its kind. It is aimed at everyone connected with the media and advertising industries: agency planners, buyers or creatives, media owners and clients who want to make the best use of their advertising budgets.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!