By Yenny Heriana Lim

Taraaa… Here is the winner of UNICEF’S PUBLIC SERVICE AD CAMPAIGN COMPETITION 2008, for the category of professionals.

Presenting: PENDEKAR ANAK

Or ‘The Child Knight’ in English. Uh, sounds a bit tacky huh? Whatever… Haha.

I really just wanna split everything out in Bahasa Indonesia, but I know my 95% buddies, my beloved ex-roommate, and my LUCT chums across the Strait of Malacca would bugging me for subtitle then. So, here we are.

On September 11, 2008, I went on stage at the Blitz Megaplex Grand Indonesia Plaza-at UNICEF Award Presentation Night-in Jakarta-at 5.30pm-all alone by myself from Medan-representing my other three quarter-to receive the first prize: 2 Tickets to Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (AdFest) which will be held on March 2009. Don’t ask me who (the two out of four) are going cause I don’t care. What mostly important is our feeling and appreciation of what we entitled as ‘A Cause to Champion’. And this cause has been championed by four youngsters, with no experience but guts and hunger of creative briefs: Yenny Heriana (the creative director a.k.a. the bad guy), Wilson (the copywriter a.k.a. the initiate joker), Yunika (the art director1 a.k.a. the crafter), and Mahadi (the art diretor2 a.k.a. the pop artist). And another one name should I mention is Felix Lim, the ‘Nightmare-Before-Christmas’ guy that was so happen back for a short holiday in Medan (I know your holiday ain’t a holiday at all after you met us, sorry). We’ve been through weeks of OT and tons of argument on the strategy. As ‘A-Forever-Busy-Multitasking-Office-Haunt’ I should thank Wilson and Yunika at the first place for kept insist on sending entry to this competition (that’s what I always do, fishing my teams with creative briefs but too busy to follow up and really nail it out, sorry). Nah, enough for the crap and let’s just get to the point.

Our research said that most youth in Indonesia spend 19 minutes on average on Facebook everyday, and that means internet made a lot of exposure and networking site works. Then, we decided to create PENDEKAR ANAK, a community under supervised by the UNICEF Indonesia which not only active on the line but also make the causes possible in the real life.

Here is the logo. A very much pop art style (as always, but I really like this one) by Mahadi.

And three series of teaser ads on children issue to create awareness and curiosity. These teasers can be then expanded into other issues based on the programs. Now, look at the art direction! Every detail counts. Look at the characters, the expression and their clothes, the surrounding, the billboards, the houses and the neighborhood, the public transport, and even the texture. So many research had been done for it, and we ought to make Felix felt Indonesian again after staying in The States for years. Revisions by revisions, Yun-Di-Lix finally done with the visual and I and Wilson slept with swimming copies in our subconscious. Not to mention the thrill of putting all pieces together in one organized creative strategy into power-point presentation. Sigh.

This ambient media is cute and scary at the same time.

Now, the real call. The audiences are referred to the website.

And in the site, you can put anyyyythiiinggggg, as much and as long as you can, about the children’s issues faced by the UNICEF. And great thing about community, you can always make a lot of interaction and hey, be smart… Let the members do the work for UNICEF, involve them!!! Enroll them for whatever next coming projects.

This might looks simple. But trust me, there are a lot of thinking (and arguments and OTs and pains in the ass) before it. Uh, I got many deadlines to catch. Let me just take a breather and get back to work later.

Comments, anybody?

About the winner team:

Those four youngsters who believe in their guts and passion in spite of limitations for exposure in Medan, are all graphic design/advertising graduated from Malaysia which were then be gathered in Lumut Communications Medan. With no senior and couches from the industry, Lumut is dreaming a big dream to be the representatives of Pulau Sumatera in the creative industry. Now they are not only the audiences, they are players.

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