B-Reel’s Postcard from Spikes

The 6th Annual Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity took place in Singapore during the final week of September this year, gathering together advertising practitioners from across the Asia-Pac markets. 

“The Cannes of Asia” became my shorthand description for friends and colleagues who hadn’t heard of the festival, which in many ways is true: four days of seminars and forums, parties and networking, all in a spectacular location and capped off by an awards ceremony and rollicking after-party. It’s tough to cram everything in especially as (much like Cannes) some of the best opportunities to meet people are at parties that go on late into the night. There are fewer attendees than at Cannes, so the effect of bumping into the same people over and over again is greater. After a few days it’s really nice to see some familiar faces around the various hotels, restaurants and parties in central Singapore. The exchange of business cards is a big deal, and I came away with hundreds. Bring as many as you can carry and pay attention to protocol. 

Representatives from all the big global agencies are of course in attendance: JWT, Ogilvy, BBH, Dentsu et al; as well as numerous directors, production companies and music reps. You can easily explore the amazing Singaporean nightlife with an ad-hoc crew of new friends, with late nights culminating in a visit to one of the many excellent hawker centres selling a confounding array of street food. The JWT and Google parties were highlights, but it’s imperative to RSVP to invites - or you could find yourself sternly being denied entry. Pfft! I didn’t want to go to that MuchMusic/Dentsu party anyway… oh, who am I kidding? It looked like one of the best of the week from my vantage point on the portico of the grand Chijmes Hall, pining from the wrong side of the velvet ropes. 

As a novice to doing business in Asia-Pac, the week at Spikes served as an invaluable crash course. Folks working all over the region(Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney and Singapore itself) were on hand to give me their insights into the characteristics of each local market, from the working cultures of various cities to the range of appetites and ambitions of Asia-Pac clients. Everyone certainly had an opinion on the best location for B-Reel’s next office! The seminars and forums were well-curated, making it worth getting in as many early nights as possible in order to catch speakers such as Casey Niestat and Stefan Sagmeister. Oh, and if you’re into your Formula One, the festival conveniently kicks off the week after the Grand Prix, so a lot of people come early and get a jump on the networking. All in all, shiok, ah! *

*Malay slang for “out of this world!”

Image credit: "Sunrise-MarinaBay-Singapore-20090419" by Mohd Kamal from Singapore. - Good Morning Singapore ! Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution