Adfest 2018: FCB Interface Mumbai team walks away with Young Lotus award

FCB Interface Mumbai’s Ketan Sudhir Kadam and Adith Francis Mili Fernandes have been adjudged winners of this year’s Young Lotus trophy at Adfest 2018. 

This Year’s Young Lotus Workshop was sponsored by ADK Global and facilitated by Rob Sherlock, Chairman of ADK Global. The brief was given to participating teams, each consisting of two creatives, to create a ‘social movement for change’ to give parents and children a way to fight obesity so they can live healthier lives – together. 

Kadam and Fernandes were one of 15 pairs competing in the 14th Young Lotus Workshop, which was titled “You Are What You Consume”. Their idea was called “H2KO” and used the concept of social media sharing and celebrity involvement to spread the word and promote a website designed to help parents combat the problem of child obesity. 

The Young Lotus Popular Vote was won by the team from Havas Hong Kong. The idea developed by Wing Chun David Tam and Ming Yeung Chan was entitled, “MARK2GETHER”. The Popular Vote was tallied from delegate votes for their favourite team after the ADK Speaker Session on Saturday, March 24, 2018 where all the finalists presented their work. 

The other finalist team was Kuen-Ting Tsai and Ya-Ting Chien, from J. Walter Thompson in Taipei. 

“Our theme for Young Lotus this year is “You are what you consume”, based on the idea that what we consume in terms of media, and how we live our lives, affects the creative output of what we do. The Young Lotus workshop is a core part of Adfest and it is really exciting to mentor the next generation of creators. Of course, it is a contest with a winning team, but overall, we want all participants to leave Adfest with a different perspective and a different way of engaging with our industry,” said Rob Sherlock, Chairman of ADK Global and Chair of this year’s Young Lotus Workshop. 

Cities represented at this year’s Young Lotus Workshop: Bangkok, Cairo, Colombo, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. 

Young Lotus Workshop is one of the integral components of Adfest every year. Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of Adfest, explained, “Young Lotus involves a screening process by local advertising associations who pick one national team. During the competition, the teams work like hell, and form a kinship in the process. Then they get to attend our four-day festival. Learning is only one part of it – money can’t buy an experience like this.” 

Jimmy Lam, President of Adfest, said, “The Young Lotus program is one of the jewels in the Adfest crown and provides young creatives with a very rare and valuable opportunity to come and be trained – we believe it is our contribution back to the industry.” 

Young Lotus Workshop is part of Adfest’s long-term commitment to provide a learning forum for the creative industry and is conducted every year. An advertising association from each country organizes a local competition and selects and funds a winning team of two participants to attend. Young Lotus Workshop The workshop, accommodation and Adfest attendance of participants is funded directly by Adfest. 

Adfest 2018: Transform took place from March 21 to 24 at Peach, Royal Cliff Hotels Group, Pattaya, Thailand.