Epica on the tracks of the Silk Road
It happens in the east. That's why the originally European award has now opened up to the rising sun. Recently, advertising from India and China is also competing in Paris with 155 ideas from 12 agencies in Switzerland. Advertising Week is on site.
In his last "year in office", Andrew Rawlins can or must whip 3893 submissions from 648 agencies from 62 countries through a daily twelve-hour jury marathon this week from Tuesday to Friday. The work will be judged by representatives from the editorial offices of international trade journals such as "Briefing" from Portugal, "Brand News" from Italy, "Marketing Türkiye", "New Moment" from Serbia and "Werbewoche" from Switzerland. A total of the following are currently in Paris 41 magazines or websites from 34 countries represent.
Epica has won six new titles from Canada, India, Singapore, China, Australia and the Philippines for its round. In sync with this global opening, 78 agencies from 18 new countries submitted work for the first time. The entries from the new nations added in 2012 already account for 14 percent of the total submissions. Thanks to this opening, the festival was also able to record growth in 2012, although the campaigns from the traditional Epica countries fell by 4 percent.
"I am curious to see where the general development of creative competitions will take us now that Scholz & Friends in Germany, for example, has decided to do without competitions not only for financial but also for non-material reasons. Jung von Matt only wants to take part every second year," wonders Michael Weinzettl, the jury representative from Lürzer's Archive in Paris. "For us, the interest in such competitions is enormous. There is a real gold-rush atmosphere in advertising," says Annurag Batra from India, who is responsible for several publications in his country, such as our Advertising Week.
With its appearance in Paris, Switzerland is among the front runners with 155 entries. There are 44 entries from Austria, 721 from Germany, 194 from the USA, 358 from the UK and 87 from Italy. Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Cambodia and Nigeria are playing the underdog role that Switzerland has usually had to play in the European Song Contest in recent years with just one entry each. But when it comes to advertising, our voice can no longer be ignored.
On Friday evening, Werbewoche will announce which of the 155 entries from 12 agencies in Switzerland will be honored with an Epica Award. The bronze and silver winners, which are more complicated to determine in the electronic voting, should be calculated by next Wednesday.
Andreas Panzeri
