Seen and noted

BEST TV
Top Choice: Renault: Afford to live again
Runner Up: Halfords: Get on your bike

Humor always gets me. Specially when the product message is as blah as saving money and affordability in this economic climate. The Renault spot is simple and definitely based on a good insight. I totally love the different "declarations of pride". Perfect casting and acting. The Halfords spot was all about the excitement of biking after the Olympics. Though it was a funny way of showing the age-old "bandwagon" idea, I love the casting of the all too realistic, out of shape guys in bike shorts and the fiercely competitive kids.

BEST PRINT
Top Choice: WFF: Rhino
Runner Up: Samaritans of Singapore: The Hidden Pain

I'm not too hot on the ideas. I've seen a lot of great WWF work in the past while using 'Ambigrams' is not exactly new. But I chose these two for the beautiful-attention-to-detail-execution.

BEST OUTDOOR
Top Choice: Antiseptica: Handvertising
Runner Up: Corona Extra: Luna Corona

I just love it when you put freshness into a good 'old demo. Antiseptica's handvertising simply shows the spreading of germs through hand contact. It's the "create a bit of paranoia" meets "create a need for our product" idea. I've ran half-marathons and I hate myself for not thinking of this! Clever. Now, what's a better outdoor idea than waiting for the moon to sit perfectly on top of a Corona bottle? This has the healthy mix of excitement, element of surprise, and anticipation while importantly playing up the "lemon slice" product equity.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Top Choice: Starhub Project: Third Eye
Runner Up: Jell-O: Jigglevision

The very first time I've seen Starhub's "Third Eye" it blew me away. This is such a great example of relevant innovation. It doesn't just bring joy to the blind, but it makes volunteering so easy and inviting. It lessens the excuses NOT to help. This is the kind of ideas that truly bring humanity to technology. Simply powerful. On the other hand, I find the Jello Jigglevision fun and perfect for the category. It makes use of technology to make you see secret messages through product use! Just pure joy and nothing more. Sometimes, an idea like this is my stressbuster after a long day.




This week's Bestads reviewer is Cannes Mobile Lions Grand Prix winner Merlee Jayme, chair & chief creative officer at DM9JaymeSyfu, The Philippines.

Before this, she was the executive creative director of BBDO Guerrero and the vice president/executive creative director of ACE Saatchi & Saatchi.

She started her small shop DM9 Jayme Syfu 7 years ago. DM9, an affiliate of DDB Worldwide, has been blessed with the country's very first Cannes Grand Prix in Mobile, a Media Lion, an impressive number of metals from CLIOs, Adfest, D&AD, AWARD Australia, The Work, and a Gold in Spikes Asia, Epica and digital Asian awards. It has been ranked the Philippines' no. 1 in the 2010 Campaign Brief Asia Ranking and awarded the very first Campaign Asia Pacific Creative Agency of the Year for the Philippines 2012.

She was awarded with two major citations in 2009: The Hall Of Fame Award from the Creative Guild of the Philippines and the New York Festivals Creative Achievement Award.

Last year, she was jury president for Outdoor Lotus in Adfest, Pattaya, a jury member in the prestigious Cannes Lions Festival in France for the Outdoor Lions category and the jury head for Indonesia's biggest award show Citra Pariwara 2012. This year, she was part of the executive jury of the New York Festivals.

She is currently the chair of the 4As Philippine Agency of The Year.