ADFEST announces more entertaining and experiential sessions in a 3-day festival full of inspiration and ideas, that runs from Thursday 23 – Friday 25 March in Pattaya, Thailand. From the art of adtertainment and the exploration of storytelling, to the ultimate sauna experience and mastering TikTok, the program line-up is:

THURSDAY 23 MARCH, 12.25-13.00

“Adtertainment” 

Napapatch Kantasil, Creative Strategist, Creative Shop, SEA-TH, Meta, Bangkok

Arthit Naidu, Client Partner, Meta, Bangkok

Ads that people enjoy watching. Isn’t that the ultimate goal? In this session, Creative Shop’s Napapatch Kantasil and Meta’s and Arthit Naidu explain and explore the power of augmented reality and Reels in advertising, and how to apply them to your idea to entertain your target audience in this incredibly fast-paced era. Adtertainment is a session for anyone who wants to make work for brands that excites audiences. Napapatch began his career as a creative and has extensive experience working for various global and local brands. Arthit is a client partner at Meta and has been working at the company for four years. He works closely with brands in retail and e-commerce and audiences that are digital natives. 

FRIDAY 24 MARCH, 11.15-11.50

“Storytelling” 

Claire Waring, Executive Creative Director, R/GA, Sydney

As audiences shift from broadcast, channels fragment and boundaries between technology and humanity fade, there’s a new opportunity to evolve communications. That opportunity is to take the emotive power of storytelling and shift it into ideas that are not just for watching, but for touching, experiencing, connecting, building and contributing. Audiences no longer just want to be told.

Today we’re able to bring the emotional, physical and virtual together with mobile, metaverse, phygital, AR, VR and every other acronym you can imagine. Story brings to life ideas that can change the world. This session explores how far technology can take audiences beyond the telling.

Claire’s career of over 20 years has spanned Asia, Europe and Australia. Her work reflects her firm belief that magic is made at the intersection of insight, imagination and technology. Claire is constantly seeking new ways to connect customers and brands, with innovative storytelling and immersive experiences. This approach has won her a host of major industry awards, jury and speaking accolades – Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia, The One Show, Art Director's Club (ADC), Clio and Effies among them. Prior to R/GA, Claire spent four years with Publicis.Sapient, Southeast Asia where she was appointed Executive Creative Director. She has also held leadership roles at TBWA\Digital Arts Network, Havas and Saatchi & Saatchi, building a reputation for driving creative cultures of innovation and collaboration. 

FRIDAY 24 MARCH, 16.50-17.25

“Rising Sauna Experience: Japanese “saunners” talk about the future of customer experience creation” 

Kenroku Arakawa, CX Consultant, ADK Marketing Solutions Inc. & alphabox 

Fumihiko Sagawa, Creative Director, ADK Marketing Solutions Inc.  

Kohtatsu Mihara, Experience Director, IBM Japan, Ltd. & & alphabox 

Have you ever been to a sauna in Japan? Japan is in the midst of an unprecedented sauna boom. In the past, saunas were mainly patronised by middle-aged and older men, but today they are popular among women and young people as well. In Japan, people who love to visit saunas are known by the nickname, “Saunners”. For sauna enthusiasts, Kohtatsu Mihara Kenroku Arakawa, and Fumihiko Sagawa, the popularity of Japanese saunas illustrates their session theme, the Expansion of Experiences. They intend to inform their audience about the future of customer experience creation. They will examine how to produce ever-better customer experiences, ask what should be aimed for, and discuss the significant evolution currently occurring in roles from advertising creation to experience design.

Kenroku Arakawa, joined ADK Marketing Solutions, Inc. in 2021 and is currently involved in projects focusing on the service design area, using his experience in customer insight analysis and planning and his previous roles in a business company and digital agency. He took his first sauna when he was five years old and now visits saunas almost every day.

Fumihiko Sagawa joined ADK Tokyo in 2007, armed with a master's degree in construction engineering, experience working in space design, production and advertising as a copywriter. In 2018, he launched a new marketing project for a pharmaceutical company's health drink brand, “Boosting Japan with Sauna”. The project was developed under the theme of "creating a new sauna culture, not advertising”. He continues to work with the brand to support a new sauna culture in Japan.

Kohtatsu Mihara worked as an IT engineer and UX designer at IBM before assuming his current position as Experience Director. In recent years, he has been supporting new business innovation for companies by using his knowledge of design thinking and creating lean start-ups. He is also the co-founder of Sauna@IBM, IBM Japan's official sauna community and promotes open innovation and improvement of employees' quality of life through sauna.

SATURDAY 25 MARCH, 15.40-16.15

“How Entertainment Drives Impact on TikTok” 

Nikhil Sandhu, Head of Creative Lab, South East Asia, TikTok, Singapore

TikTok is the huge, growing entertainment hub where brands can meet audiences in ways that are fun, useful and memorable. Bringing entertainment to the community through short-form videos, trends and culture starts at TikTok. In this session, Nikhil explores how authenticity, innovation and being a platform for product discovery can help your business drive impact and effectiveness. Nikhil leads a team of creative strategists, designers and producers based across Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City. He grew up in broadcast and entertainment where he found his footing in storytelling, content creation and marketing. At present he is helping brands and agencies master how to show up on TikTok.

ADFEST is a non-profit-making entity that believes passionately in its role to nurture and support the creative industry in the Asia Pacific and MENA region. It is one of only 8 regional creative festivals included in the WARC Creative 100 Rankings.