Ten teams of young creatives will vie for the prestigious Young Spikes Design Competition Award at Spikes Asia 2018, a three-day festival of creativity held between 26-28 September 2018.
The competition garnered 123 submissions – the most of any Young Spikes competition – from executives aged 30 and under across the Asia Pacific and Japan.
Given the level of response, HP expanded the number of finalists from the original three teams to 10. All will go on to compete in the Festival grand finale.
Finalists of the Young Spikes Design Competition will receive a brief on 26 September onsite at the Festival.
They will then be given 24 hours to create a campaign for a global brand with the possibility of it being brought to life. Submissions will be printed using HP’s digital presses at the Graphics Solutions Business Center of Excellence in Tuas, Singapore, and presented for judging.
Spikes Asia Festival director Joe Pullos said: “The number and quality of entries submitted for this competition exceeded our expectations.
“The Young Spikes competition is designed to identify and nurture up and coming young talent in the APAC advertising community. This year, the design competition set out to challenge the community.
“The responses we received demonstrate how emerging marketers understand the versatility of digital printing and how to connect with their audiences through the effective combination of online and offline experiences.”
The first-round brief presented three issues stemming from Rapid Urbanization – transportation, cultural preservation and urban decay.
Participants were asked to select one of these issues, consider how it affects their city, and create a local awareness-building campaign.
Shortlisted campaigns range from the creation of a city-wide museum to smart food packaging.
The resulting submissions demonstrated how print can solve modern day challenges through meaningful engagement.
They were scored against four criteria – insight, strategic idea and creative use of print, effectiveness, and design and execution – by an eight-member jury consisting of top creative agency leads and brand marketers.
HP director of marketing, graphics solutions business Puneet Chadha said: “The marketplace today is more cluttered than ever.
“Brands need to find new ways to engage with their customers by leveraging more than one channel, message or medium.
“These young creative talents have shown the breadth of what digital printing can do.
“Their submissions put insights at the core and outline how print can be used to create and increase targeted engagement.
“By working closely with the creative ecosystem, we are reinventing the possibilities of what can be printed, how it can be printed and where it can be printed.”
With Spikes Asia, HP aims to inspire and harness the energy of young creatives in the region.
It also seeks to showcase tools and technology that can enable an entire creative journey, from ideation to production.
At the Festival, HP will offer Young Spikes competition participants the use of its Z by HP range, including the HP Zbook Studio x360, workstations and displays.
This will give them the power and versatility to reinvent their creative possibilities.
