Young Spikes 2021 open for entries; Sweetshop’s Wilf Sweetland joins Young Spikes Film jury

Spikes Asia today announces that the Young Spikes Competitions in 2021 are open for entries. Aimed at creatives who are aged 30 or under and employed in advertising and communications businesses, the Young Spikes Competitions provide Asia Pacific’s next generation of creative talent a unique chance to gain recognition and make their mark on the industry.

The Young Spikes Integrated Competition and the Young Spikes Film Competition will adopt a new online format in line with Spikes Asia’s awards-only celebration of creativity in 2021.

Sweetshop global CEO and partner, Wilf Sweetland has been selected as a jury member for the Young Spikes Film Competition.

Says Steve Latham, head of talent and training at Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia: “It is so important to support the young talent in our industry especially during these times. In place of the competitions that usually happen during the festival, we decided to introduce these online competitions to provide young creatives from across APAC with an opportunity to showcase their talents at the region’s most prestigious creative branded communications accolade. I’m very excited to see where their creativity will take them and the final winning pieces of work.”

This year’s brief is developed in collaboration with non-profit environmental organisation Conservation International to tackle the problem of ‘overfishing’ and the effects on climate change. Teams competing in the Integrated competition will need to produce an innovative idea and communicate it creatively to the intended audience. Those who enter the Film competition must first craft a storyboard and if they have been shortlisted, shoot an engaging video advertisement.

Each competition will be judged by a diverse set of world-class creative communications experts from across Asia-Pacific. The jury for each competition are as follows:

Young Spikes Integrated Competition Jury

Maan Bautista, Group Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson, The Philippines
Narayan Devanathan, CEO, DAN Solutions | Chairperson, Creative Line of Business | Group Executive & Strategy Officer, Dentsu Aegis Network India, South Asia
Archana Jain, Managing Director, PR Pundit, India
Valerie Madon, Chief Creative Officer of Asia, VMLY&R, Singapore
Pathamawan Sathaporn, Managing Director, Mindshare, Thailand
Peiyang Yang, Executive Creative Director, Havas Beijing, China

Young Spikes Film Competition Jury

Sheng Jin Ang, Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe, Singapore
Sneha Iype, Executive Producer, Nirvana Films, India
Swee Ling Ng, Film Director, Directors’ Think Tank, Malaysia
Jin Saito, Creative Director, SIX & CEO, COTODAMA, SIX Inc. / COTODAMA, Japan
Wilf Sweetland, Global CEO & Partner, Sweetshop, (Australia, Global)

From the applications received, each jury will select a shortlist of the highest scoring entries. In November, the shortlisted teams will then be given the opportunity to review their work from Round 1 with a jury member before submitting their final work in January 2021.

The Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will be announced in February 2021 alongside the Spikes Asia and Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness Awards winners.

The Gold winning team will receive full delegate passes to Spikes Asia 2022.

The competition brief and the entry criteria for the Young Spikes Competitions 2021 can be found on the official Spikes Asia website here.

Spikes Asia Young Spikes Competition key dates:

Open for entries: 8 September 2020
Client briefing and live Q&A: 15 September 2020
Submission deadline: midnight SGT, 25 September 2020
Shortlist announcement: October 2020
Winners announcement: February 2021