ADFEST Pattaya 2026, Day 2: Creativity, culture, and the question of what comes next

The main stage at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand was in full motion from the morning, opening with Ted Lim from DIFF Creative Consultants and Andreas Moellmann from FUTURE INC, who set the tone for the day with “The Uncomfortable Truth about The Future of Creativity.” As agencies continue to consolidate and AI accelerates across every part of the production and planning process, the session asked the question that is increasingly hard to sidestep: what will creativity look like tomorrow, and who will be making it? 

Stephan Schwarz from LePub Singapore and SJ Heng from Heineken Asia-Pacific followed with “How Creativity Can Spark Real-World Connections”, making the case that deep cultural understanding, not just data, is what transforms a brand campaign into something people actually want to be part of. The session drew on real work to demonstrate how creativity, when rooted in genuine cultural insight, can move beyond communication and become a platform for social interaction. 

The next session brought one of the day’s more philosophically rich moments. Naoki Tanaka from Dentsu Lab presented “Designing Inclusive Futures: Uniting Technology and Creativity to Move Brands and Society”, exploring how brainwave-driven performance art can expand participation, accessibility, and the role of technology in shaping culture. Tanaka reached for the Japanese philosophy of kintsugi, the practice of repairing broken things with gold, treating the fracture as part of the object’s history rather than a flaw to be hidden, as a framework for thinking about innovation. “Kintsugi teaches us it’s important not only to solve a problem, but also to add a new value and move people’s hearts,” he said. In an era defined by algorithms and scale, he argued that the creative breakthrough comes not from reaching more people but from listening more carefully to fewer. “I believe listening to just one is quite important for all creators.” He closed on a note that extended well beyond the advertising brief: “We can start a brand and business, and at the same time, we can make society better. We are in the 21st century, but there are still ancient rules, biases, and systems that keep us from being truly diverse. When we connect more with more people, with more players, we can move the human race forward.” 

 Before lunch, delegates were treated to short films created for the Fabulous Five award category, a showcase of work by five new directors selected by ADFEST. A panel moderated by Michael Ahmadzadeh, Partner and Executive Producer at electriclimeº APAC and MENA, brought all five directors, Ariyaporn Boondeepathum, Irvine Prisilia, Karin Nogami, Lisa Aoki, and Nagi Tajima, on stage to discuss the inspiration behind their films. 

The afternoon opened with a session that was unusual in its premise. Toyota, Honda Motor, and Hakuhodo took the stage together for “TIGER and DRAGON. When Giants Unite”, with Kenichi Yagi from Toyota Mobility Foundation, Hideaki Takaishi from Honda Motor, Prompohn Supataravanich from Hakuhodo First Bangkok, and Koji Suzuki from Hakuhodo Tokyo presenting a conversation about what happens when competing giants find common ground. Joohee Lee from Cheil Korea followed with “A Global Brand’s Challenge Beyond Borders”, exploring how Big Tech companies can move past product specifications and into emotionally resonant territory across 200 markets. 

Warunyoo Sorasetsakoon and Prasit Kunanuphanchai from BBDO Bangkok then presented “When People Become the Brief Again”, before Jessica Davey and Meyvi Wedelia of GUT Singapore took the stage for “GUT Instinct: Intuition vs Algorithm”, a session that examined how trusting instinct, rather than defaulting to data, can unlock braver and more culturally resonant creativity across Asian markets. Eric Monnet from WPP closed the main stage with “Grandma Famous vs Croisette Famous: A Clarification of Creative Excellence”, a session that reframes what the industry’s highest standards of craft should actually be measuring. 

Running alongside the main stage through the day, the breakout stage hosted jury insight sessions giving delegates an inside look at award discussions across categories including Digital and Social, Digital Craft, Design, Print and Outdoor Craft in the morning, and Film Craft, New Director, Brand Experience, Commerce, Direct, Entertainment, Media, and PR in the afternoon. Four interactive workshops also ran through the day, covering in-game advertising, D&AD’s conditions for creativity, the annual World Producers Summit, and a Producers+ session connecting senior production leaders through structured one-to-one meetings designed to spark cross-border collaboration.