This week's guest judge is David Guerrero, chairman of BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines. After being bitten by a snake in Thailand, David watched hours of televised sport to survive. He did so, but at the same time disastrously rekindled his love for English football. Fortunately he has been distracted by the task of founding his Manila-based agency and keeping it in the top 20 of the region's creative league table, 'The Work'. He has also been named one of Asia's top 10 creatives by Campaign Brief Asia. The same publication named BBDO Guerrero Philippines Agency of the Year in 2006, 2007 and 2008. David has also won the country's only Grand Prix (at London International), Golds at Cannes and Clio and Silvers, Bronzes and in-book work at One Show and D&AD. In the last six months he has added gongs at Spikes, Clio, and Digital Media to that tally. He has headed numerous award juries and in 2007 was named the first Cannes Jury President from south-east Asia.
BEST TVThe world cup is looming large over the summer. So this column will try to resist the temptation to descend into convoluted footballing metaphors. But the brief is to pick a winner and a runner-up in each category. And comparisons with sporting folklore will be hard to avoid. In the TV final for example it's come down to Dulux vs Sony.
Dulux looks ballsy enough. It's a big project and ultimately compelling to view. Arguably, however, it's more fascinating as an execution than an idea. Which means
Sony's 3D spot comes out a comfortable winner. There's been a lively debate on this one on my favourite UK industry blog about this one. But it deserves the top honours in this company: succeeding by creating a sense of the possibilities of 3D television rather than merely attempting to simulate it.
BEST PRINTThe competition was perhaps less fierce in this group. I wanted to like Kitadol. But as a fan of Modern Family I thought this was more about sexual orientation than period pains: Amnesty had a powerful thought provoking visual - but for me one more associated with suicide than executions. Runner up then is
LG's 'Don't lose your contacts' work. It's simple and unambiguous. And the photography is nice. But it is, probably squeezed out by
Conqueror. As Asia's only print gold at Clio this has already come under some scrutiny on the campaignbriefasia.com blog. It's beautifully crafted - although again far more compelling in implementation than concept. And possibly, just possibly, a bit formulaic in its round sticker headline device. But it looks cool and sometimes that's enough.
BEST OUTDOORCNN is glorious. It's an emphatic winner over any opposition in this group. And maybe the best outdoor idea I've seen all year. It creates emotional resonance and drama with just a long piece of sticky-back plastic. But it goes further by taking its audience on a journey of through the geography, history and politics of Berlin. And with considerable art aligns itself squarely behind the brand positioning. The struggle here is
to find anything worthy of putting up against it. Doesn't seem fair. If anything, the
Drive Dry work. Powerful thought if in a familiar form. Which leads to the question: why include car bits when the emotional power is in the possessions?
BEST INTERACTIVEThis week's group of death: There are three strong contenders but only two places. Eventually eliminate Nokia since the brand has set a high bar for itself recently and this doesn't seem up to the best of it. So the runner-up is
NBA Twitter Play-offs: an invitation to tweet up your team against the opposition. It's instant, robust, simple, cleanly executed and engaging. What more could a sports obsessive want? But the winner with some elegance and charm (especially, I would imagine on a high-speed connection) is the
Philharmoniker Hamburg work. It's a virtuoso performance involving fish playing solo bassoon and random strangers on vibraphone. The site was getting overloaded during my time on it but it's definitely worth visiting. And if you make it to the city itself you may find yourself in a starring role.
