The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on August 20 that it will co-host the '2025 Busan International Marketing and Advertising Festival (MAD STARS 2025)' with Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan International Marketing and Advertising Festival Organizing Committee. The event will take place from August 27 to 29 at Signiel Busan and throughout the Haeundae area.
The Busan International Marketing and Advertising Festival, now in its 18th year, is the largest advertising festival in Asia and the only one of its kind in Korea, attracting about 25,000 participants annually. This year, under the theme 'AI-vertising: The Era of Artificial Intelligence Advertising and Marketing,' the festival will spotlight new possibilities in advertising created by the synergy between artificial intelligence (AI) and human creativity, while examining industry trends and changes.
The organizing committee accepted submissions from around the world for about four months starting in early February. After an online preliminary review by 302 judges from 74 countries, the finalists were announced. Moving forward, 34 final judges from 20 countries will conduct three rounds of judging on the finalists. The main award winners, including the two highest honors of 'Grand Prix of the Year,' will be revealed at the awards ceremony held at Signiel Busan on August 29.
This year's conference will feature about 40 lectures, including keynote speeches. Kim Jonghyun, CEO of Cheil Worldwide, will deliver a keynote address on 'How to Continuously Provide Value to Clients in the AI Era.' Alex Abrantes, Chief Production Officer for North America at Iris Worldwide, will speak on 'Strategies and Approaches Needed for Creativity to Surpass Technological Limits.' Shamal Lahoud, Head of Production Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa at Snapchat, will give a lecture titled 'Creativity Augmented: Where Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Culture Meet.'
Popular science commentator Gwiedo (real name Kim Jae-hyuk), who is active on both YouTube and television, and broadcaster Noh Hongchul will also take the stage. Gwiedo will discuss 'Content Creation in the AI Era: The More You Know About AI, the More Content Changes,' while Noh Hongchul will share his content strategy with the theme 'The Right Answer to No Right Answers: When Content Becomes Unpredictable.'
The festival will also host the 'New Stars' (84 participants from 11 countries) and 'Young Stars' (98 participants from 9 countries) marketing and advertising competitions to discover and nurture emerging creators from around the world. In both competitions, participants will have 30 hours to plan and produce creative ideas and campaigns based on topics revealed on site. New Stars is open to advertising professionals with less than five years of experience, while Young Stars is for university students. Winners will be offered internship opportunities at major domestic and international advertising firms.
Further details about the festival can be found on the official website.
Lim Seonghwan, Director-General of the Media Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "As new technologies like AI and new services such as FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) and smart TV-based free real-time streaming services spread, Korea's advertising industry is also entering a new phase. The Ministry will continue to pay close attention to the advertising industry as it faces these new changes and will expand its support accordingly."
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