White Square International Festival of Creativity continues its call for entries. Every year the international jury of the Festival evaluates more than a thousand cases at the highest level. To inspire creative industry representatives around the world to submit their best projects to White Square 2025, we continue our series of interviews with members of the Festival jury. With us today is Kestrel Lee, Executive Creative Director of Xodbox, Singapore. He has over 20 years of experience in advertising with agencies including Arc Worldwide/Leo Burnett, FCBi, TBWA/Tequila, Sapient and ZENO/Edelman for clients such as Mars, Porsche, Singapore Airlines, Unilever, L'Oreal, HP, Apple, Microsoft, adidas, Volvo, Air New Zealand and more. He has over 100 prestigious awards from international and local creativity festivals to his credit.
When did your journey in the creative industry begin? What inspired you to choose this career? Are there any stories or moments in your career that have had the greatest impact on your professional growth?
My choice to start a career in advertising was made after I first read the most famous advertising campaigns created by the outstanding Neil French from Singapore. These masterpieces not only caught my attention, but also exposed me to the limitless potential of masterfully written texts and skillful storytelling techniques. Their creativity and power of impact inspired me to improve myself and strive to become better at my profession.
Your projects have been highly appreciated at prestigious international festivals of creativity. Which of your projects do you consider to be the most successful and why?
I particularly like my Martel Ultimate Start-up Space campaign, which ran from 2009 to 2010. I was the interactive team leader responsible for the social media strategy and creative work. This crowdsourcing campaign won more integrated and social awards in Singapore that year than anything else. Leveraging on the previously unknown idea that social content will drive search results, it was at a time when most agencies had not even started in social media. It showed that media-sensitive ideas work much better than media-agnostic ideas, especially in the age of social media and smartphones.
In your opinion, how do the participation and winning of creativity festivals influence agencies and representatives of the creative industry? What additional aspects, such as reputation enhancement, professional networking and inspiration for new ideas, can be crucial in this process?
Award shows allow you to compete with the best of the best and fuels our drive to be better. They inspire us to strive for new heights. Winning both local and international festivals that celebrate creativity around the world is equally meaningful and prestigious to me. Each achievement at such festivals is not just an award, but an opportunity to share my vision and contribute to the international dialogue on creativity and innovation.
You have a high professional expertise in the field of creativity and experience of being a jury member of many international festivals, and this year you will be evaluating the entries of White Square Festival. What evaluation criteria are the most important for you? What new ideas would you like to see in the entries of White Square Festival?
Looking forward with great interest to seeing new and creative applications of artificial intelligence, as well as high impact social campaigns that truly changes the worlds for the better in the long run. Artificial intelligence will open up endless horizons for creativity, and I would like to see how it can become a catalyst for change in our society. While other award shows have silo craft and effectiveness categories, we will be assessing creative direction, effectiveness or social impact and craft for every award submission as they can’t work without each other.
How do you approach the creation of new ideas and projects? Do you have any certain methodologies, techniques, or lifehacks that you use while working with your team? Can you highlight the key factors that help you create effective projects and build long-term relationships with the brands' target audience?
I regularly practice one exercise with my team that opens up new horizons of understanding for us every time. I emphasise that a tagline is not the idea. And the idea is not the art direction. What else is there? The answer is emotion or either passion and tension points. Ideas that are purely craft driven lacks the emotional triggers to drive work of mouth marketing or viral campaigns. To distill such emotion-drive insights or point of view, you have to do social listening on your own to the key culture spaces of the brands' target audience all the time, before and after campaigns.
What new trends and tendencies do you think will be actively seen in the field of marketing and communications in 2025? In your opinion, what innovative approaches and strategies will be able to attract consumers' attention and create a sustainable connection with brands? Are there any examples of companies in your country that are already implementing such tools and can be a reference point for others?
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the realm of video, images and content on social media, opening up new horizons for creativity and self-expression. However, in my opinion, its impact will become even more profound and significant when generative artificial intelligence tools begin to be applied to intellectual property that has lost its copyright protection. Classic characters such as Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Winnie the Pooh, and Tintin can be given new life through the innovative capabilities of artificial intelligence. These iconic characters, familiar to many generations, can be reimagined and adapted to modern realities to create unique interpretations and stories. An example of this is the attempt to retell the story of Winnie-the-Pooh in a completely new light - the film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey was a commercial hit. This project demonstrates how classic characters can be adapted in unexpected genres and contexts, creating an interesting mix of nostalgia and novelty.
What are your hobbies and passions that fill your life with inspiration? Do you have any special books, movies, music or travels that form your creativity and influence your approach to work? How do you integrate these hobbies and inspiration into your daily practice to create something unique and memorable?
I am an avid gamer as I am an obsessive fan of ACG i.e. Anime-Comics-Gaming. I run a small guild for an online game, where we explore virtual worlds together. I also run two Facebook accounts dedicated to retro games that take us back to the golden era of handheld gaming devices like Nintendo game & watch. These games not only evoke nostalgic memories, but also allow me to share my experience and love of classic games with other enthusiasts. My activities are not limited to just that.
I also manage an eSports and gaming WeChat messenger group for gaming and eSports in China. We actively discuss the latest gaming news, organise tournaments and share strategies in an effort to create a friendly community of like-minded people. Every day I immerse myself in the world of gaming, where I can not only have fun, but also exchange ideas and be inspired by the creativity of others.
What would you like to wish to your colleagues, participants of White Square Festival 2025?
Have fun and push the envelope!
The Jury of White Square Festival Jury is being actively formed and will be announced in March, but their participation has already been confirmed by the brightest people with invaluable experience in judging prestigious international creativity festivals and numerous awards around the world, representatives from more than 35 countries.
To submit your entries, go to the White Square Festival's official website and choose from 247 nominations covering the entire spectrum of the communications industry. Discounted entry fees are available until March 3, 2025. The final deadline for entries is April 28, 2025.