The 2014 Busan Ads Festival kicked off on August 21 at Bexco in Busan. A wide variety of advertisements submitted to the festival offer a glimpse of the humor and creativeness of people from around the globe.

The festival heated up even before its opening, with more than 12,000 entries submitted from 62 countries. Only around 1,600 advertisements in 23 categories that have been qualified as finalists will be showcased during the festival. This year's winning pieces will be announced at the closing ceremony on August 23.




The four-day festival that lasts until August 23 is themed on "Convergence." In accordance with its theme, the festival runs online preliminaries and offline final rounds, both of which are open to the general public. Also during the festival, professional advertisers gather from around the world and are expected to share information and opinions about the strategies that fit into the era that promotes "media convergence."

The participation of professional advertisers as juries and panels has been gaining attention, too. Especially this year, there is a higher number of females than in previous years, including Lauren Connolly, an Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director at BBDO, and Gigi Lee of Y&R ECD.




Unlike other international advertisement festivals, such as Cannes and Clio, the Busan Ads Festival is open both to professionals and the general public. Anyone interested in advertisements was allowed to submit entries and is able to attend the festival, for free.

Also, this year's festival offers various programs that can be attended by the general public. Particularly, programs of Creative Camp and Creative School, newly adopted for this year, can offer young students some opportunities to develop their creativity by receiving advice and lectures by internationally recognized professionals.

In addition, young students can get a chance to participate in the "Young Stars" advertising competition attended by university students gathered from across the globe. Another competition, New Stars, has been raising expectations, too, as it will be attended by advertisers from Korea, Japan and China, working in the most recognized firms of their own nations.

This year's festival gives special attention to China with the adoption of a program called "China Special." Some 300 Chinese professionals in media and advertisements will be invited to diverse sessions of seminars while more than 200 winning pieces of last year's China International Advertising Festival will be on display. It is expected to be a great opportunity to learn about the Chinese advertising industry that has recently been experiencing dramatic growth.

More information can be found at the Busan Ads Festival website.
www.adstars.org

(Photos courtesy of Busan Ads Festival organizing committee)

By Lee Seung-ah
Korea.net Staff Writer
slee27@korea.kr