Good Times: MadStars kicks off in Busan with judging, jury dinner and plenty of festival fun

Day one at the annual MadStars Festival in Busan, South Korea, saw over 40 international judges come together to tackle the serious business of deciding this year’s winning work – followed by an evening of Korean food and festival hospitality. This is the 18th year of MadStars and the 14th year Campaign Brief Asia has attended.

The judges, drawn from around the world, were split into five groups to assess entries across the competition categories. The juries were led by Jury Presidents Anny Havercroft, Global Head of Product MarComs at TikTok; Sandipan Bhattacharyya, Chief Creative Officer, MONKS India; Aurora Straton, Creative Lead at Google; Raja Rajamannar, Senior Fellow and former Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Mastercard; and Tara McKenty, Chief Creative Officer at AKQA.

With judging wrapped, the jurors swapped score sheets for chopsticks at a dinner at one of Busan’s favourite Korean restaurants, kicking off the festival’s social side.

Taking place from 26–28 August at SIGNIEL BUSAN and venues across the Haeundae area, MadStars 2026 features conference sessions, the Opening Ceremony, Awards Show, networking events and the Young Stars & New Stars MAD Competition.

And, judging by our first batch of social pics from the Campaign Brief Asia camera, there’s plenty more fun to come.

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