Hasta La Creative!

Asia’s regional ad festival AdFest this week showcased marketers from Japan — including Honda, Kirin Ichiban beer and Inakadate Village — who are likely to be worth watching as strong Asian contenders at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Dentsu Inc. was AdFest’s Network of the Year, due partly to the success of its “Sound of Honda” campaign documenting Ayrton Senna’s 1989 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying lap, which set a record for the world’s fastest lap at one minute and 38 seconds. Honda analyzed data for Mr. Senna’s accelerator use, gear position, engine rotation, speed and distance, and recreated the legendary Brazilian racing driver’s historic lap as part of an exhibition called Ayrton Senna 1989. Alongside a short film, the campaign includes 3D web content and a mobile app that synchronizes the sound of users’ own vehicles to that of Mr. Senna’s car on the record-setting lap.

The campaign weaves together disparate technologies from recreating engine sounds to displaying a 3D view of the lap and also manages to “stir emotions, which is something still relatively rare in a lot of digital work,” said Graham Kelly, regional executive creative director, Asia Pacific at Isobar. Mr. Kelly was president of the Interactive Lotus & Mobile Lotus jury, which awarded “Sound of Honda” its top prize, the Grande Interactive Lotus.

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