You may now submit commercials that are up to four minutes long as entries for the APA Collection. The final final deadline is noon on Tuesday 30th June: at which point all the entries are compiled on to DVD’s for judging.

Enter now at www.apashow09.co.uk

Congratulations to Stink Digital for winning the Grand Prix with Carousel for Philips for Tribal DDB Amsterdam. The Palme d’Or, the Cannes Lions ranking of the top ten commercials production companies worldwide, included three London companies: Academy, Partizan and Rattling Stick, reflecting the consistent excellence of UK commercials production.

Success too for the UK production companies among the winners of gold, silver and bronze lions, who can be seen at http://work.canneslions.com/film

In the CFPE/Shots Young Directors Award, UK successes were Kim Gehrig at Academy, who won the first prize in the European Broadcast commercial category, Nima Nourizadeh from Partizan, who won second prize in that category and Ben Woolf from Pulse Films, who won first prize in the Branded Short Film category. For details of all the winners and photos from the event, which drew and audience of 550 people to the Palais Stephanie (down from 900 last year, reflecting the general reduction in Cannes attendees).

The APA, as part of the CFPE and in partnership with the AICP and Kodak, hosted the World Producers Summit, which drew production company owners from around the world to discuss the challenges the recession presents to our industry. With the theme of Shared Intelligence, the forum enabled producers to explain the issues they had faced in their country and how they had tackled them, to enable the delegates to learn what new challenges they might face and plan an approach to them.

The forum aimed to help production companies worldwide in their planning to emerge from the recession, with industry structures which enable them to prosper and to continue to identify and nurture great directing talent and provide the best quality production expertise for the clients and agencies which engage them.

This years Masterclass has come to an end with over 70 students graduating last night at MPC Theatre.

After 5 months of lectures, study groups and demo evening the students all passed the exam and collected their certificates last night in a great evening for everyone. We would like to say a huge congratulations to all of the students for passing the exam this year, in particular Ross Curzon-Butler, Alice Haines, Hannah Davies, Lucy Clements, Henry Huang, Kate Aitkin, Jo Coombes and Andy Noble for achieving the highest mark of Outstanding for their exam.

We would also like to thank everyone who has been involved in the course and helped to make another year such a great success.

The New York Times, March 26, 2009: “Even though people have the opportunity to watch video on their computers and cellphones, TV accounts for 99 percent of all video consumed in 2008…"

This is a story about a story. A story that has been repeated so many times, in so many places, with so much zeal, that it has taken on a life of its own—despite the fact that it is false.

The theme of the story is that television is dying. It is a story built on shabby journalism, ad industry buffoonery, and the willful suspension of skepticism on a scale unprecedented during my time in the advertising business.

This story has been advanced by a gullible press, confused advertising and marketing executives, web promoters, and careless pundits caught in a feedback loop of such proportions that it's possible it has done serious harm to the media and advertising industries. Last week, in a remarkable turn of events, the story was exposed as a complete fraud. Live television has proven to be astonishingly, amazingly dominant.

In "the largest observational look at media usage ever conducted" researchers at Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, found the following:

99% of video viewing was done on a television in the past year.

Less than 5% of TV viewing was DVR (TiVo) playback.

YouTube, Hulu, iPhone and all other web and cellphone media combined accounted for less than 1% of video viewing

The wonderful thing about this study is that it isn't the typical "self-reported" nonsense. This is actual observed behavior. To see the whole article go to http://adcontrarian.blogspot.com/2009/03/facts-still-matter-death-and-life-of.html

The idea that the growth of the internet as an advertising medium is at the expense of TV advertising is a thing of the past. Aside from the good health of TV as a medium in which more commercials are seen than ever (rather than repeat all the facts and figures on TV advertising, see www.thinkbox.tv), effectiveness studies establish that the best advertising campaigns use a variety of media, with television at the centre.

Of the most recent IPA Effectiveness Awards, 22 of the 23 used TV advertising and in all cases that was in conjunction with other media.

A powerful new example of TV advertising working with other media and, in particular, the internet, to transform a brand from also ran to market leader appears in the new issue of Contagious magazine, which explains the success of comparethemarket.com. To read the article click here. www.contagiousmagazine.com for information on Contagious.

Our recent seminar, bringing together speakers from different disciplines to offer practical advice on marketing, business issues, making the most of your website and foreign exchange, was very well received.

For those of you who asked for a summary or missed the session, please click here for a one page summary from each of the four speakers.

Film London was delighted to be involved in another successful London-shot ad campaign for T-Mobile. The new advert, “Sing-along”, a follow up to Liverpool Street Station’s “Dance” advert, featured 13,000 people singing karaoke in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Much like ”Dance”, the commercial was filmed with multiple cameras – to capture real reactions from the public. The mass choir brought Trafalgar Square to a standstill as commuters and passers-by belted out songs including Is This the Way to Amarillo and Summer Nights using over 2,000 microphones which were handed out as words were projected onto giant screens. An added highlight of the event was the surprise appearance of international pop star Pink, who had been hidden in the crowd.

The “Dance” campaign, which was also shot with Film London’s support, became a YouTube sensation. It generated over 11 million hits and has made its way around the world as a viral, inspiring numerous fan sites and spin-offs, as well as finally winning the Gold Clio for direction of a TV commercial at the 2009 Clio Awards last week.

Ed Sayers, Agency Producer at Saatchi, was keen to reproduce this winning formula: “Following the success of the collaboration on “Dance”, together with Partizan we again approached Film London first for our follow-up...Making the approach as the same team, to the various controlling parties, was the right thing to do. We very quickly had all the right departments take our enquiry seriously and feed back how keen they were to work with us, despite the unusually short lead-time for an event of this scale”.

The most vital part of Film London’s work was to help convince the client that “Sing-along” could be achieved in central London. As Paul Cavanagh from the Squares Management Team explained: "When T-Mobile gave the final go ahead to produce the commercial there was an intensive five week planning process which could not have been achieved without the established relationships between all of the relevant authorities and Film London. This production was a perfect example of how these relationships enabled a major coup and a unique filming event for London.”

Location Manager Charlie Somers added: “The producers initially looked to shoot the project abroad, but thanks to initial work from Film London, the project stayed in the capital. Organisations such as The Westminster Special Events Team, The GLA, and Metropolitan Police Service all worked together with Film London and my location department to resolve the huge logistical issues that a project of this size throws up, in order to create something quite remarkable. This advert really shows what can be achieved in London.

For filming enquiries at Trafalgar and Parliament Squares please contact 020 7983 4813 / 020 7983 4234 or email trafalgar.square@london.gov.uk. Filming guidance for the squares can also be found at Trafalgar Square - Filming .Film London: For locations advice & support – please contact the Locations Team direct on: 020 7613 7683 / susie.williams@filmlondon.org.uk / www.filmlondon.org.uk

With a brilliant line up of speakers from Chinese brands, agencies and production companies and from the APA and IPA membership, the 350 delegates who attended the Beijing London Advertising Forum in Beijing, enjoyed a unique opportunity to learn from each other and to develop new business relationships.

The Forum was launched by a reception at the British Embassy, Beijing, where the delegates from London and their guests from China were welcomed by the British Ambassador to China, Sir William Ehrman, who introduced the reception by explaining the importance of the UK’s creative industries, the Government’s commitment to promoting them and the importance of the UK’s advertising and production industries within that. That support, which was invaluable was provided by UKTI and the China Britain Business Council.

The programme, which took place at the fabulous China Club, Beijing, over the next two days, saw 26 presentations, aimed at explaining what makes London special- the first presentation from London producer, Luke Beauchamp- and what makes China special, via insights from Oliver Xu, MD, JWT Beijing.

Moray Mclennan, Worldwide Chief Executive, M&C Saatchi explained how simple ideas were effective ideas, when working across different countries and regions.

Edward Bell, Planner at Ogilvy, Beijing then looked in depth at their work for Moto, explaining effectivness and return on investment, showing the value of the campaign to the client and, in doing so, giving a detailed insight into the IPA’s effectiveness awards, which are the longest running and most sophisticated analysis of the value of advertising available.

Andrew Ruhemann from Passion and Jerry Hibbert from HRA provided an excellent overview of the power and variety of animation London offers and Carl Grinter from Rushes and Penny Verbe and Jodie Brooks from Smoke and Mirrors did the same for post production. Lifeng Want, CEO of Xing Xing, who produce content for HRA, explained how that worked and, in doing so, provided proof to the audience that cross continent production works.

Smoke and Mirrors also announced the details of their Shanghai office, to open shortly. Smoke and Mirrors follow Partizan, Stink and RSA in opening in China and other production companies, such as Home and Great Guns, in being represented there but the opening of one of London’s major post companies in London is opening in Shanghai is a big sign of London’s confidence in and commitment to the opportunities that China provides.

Polly Chu ECD, JWT China explained how the recession was effecting China and the opportunities that provided for brands, while Patty Tse and her colleagues from Cheers Films looked at service companies in China and what they could offer APA members.

Janet Hull from the IPA gave an overview of UK advertising, and what the IPA is doing, in terms of training and effectiveness awards, among other things, to add value to UK advertising.

Emily Bliss from Home and John Golley from Spank then got into the detail that the Chinese delegates had requested, in terms of how they should engage APA members and what commercials cost, showing what could be produced for different budgets.

Nick Blunden from UK agency Profero then enlightened the delegates about the latest thinking in digital advertising in London, an area in which the UK has developed an expertise of great interest to other adverting markets.

Tracey Lee from BBH Shanghai explained how BBH had taken their big idea for Johnnie Walker- Keep Walking- and made it work in China.

Axel Chaldecott, Global Creative Director HSBC, JWT, explained how they had created a successful global campaign for a brand with strong links to China.

Chien Wang, ECD, TBWA China, told the audience how the Beijing Olympics impacted on brands and agencies in China and what London should expect from 2012.

Simon Elms and Colin Smith from Eclectic then took us through music and its importance to commercials.

We looked to at brands, with Lenovo presenting on how they are developing a Chinese brand into a multinational brand.

We learnt together and began/continued building relationships with what is currently the third largest advertising market in the world: an astounding market which has become the biggest car market in the world, has the largest number of people on the internet in the world, despite only 20% of the population owning computers and which will continue to grow as more of its 1.3 billion move from a subsistence to consumer lifestyle.