Daily Archives: July 7, 2022

The technology company Google is keen on building a home for African creators who are promoting the Alternative movement through its platforms such as YouTube. It demonstrated this in a recent two-day programme in Nairobi, Kenya, for 25 creators from different parts of the continent, Isioma Usiade witnessed the event

The Alternative Movement, colloquially known as the Alt Movement, is getting the spotlight from the technology company Google. Recently, the company hosted a two-day Residency Programmein Nairobi, Kenya for creators who identify as Alternative and Non-mainstream.

Similar to a Bootcamp, the two-day program was aimed at upskilling and celebrating 25 young creatives whose idea of being misfits or nonconformists is not easily acceptable in mainstream media. The movement champions unconventional self-expression in all aspects of life but mainly through music, fashion and visual arts.

The creatives were a mixed bag. They were alternative artists, and creative and cultural arts journalists from Nigeria, South Africa, Accra, Botswana, Kenya and other parts of the continent.

The Alt Community is an emerging culture that is uniquely African and is increasing in popularity among the Gen Z demographic. Alt, short for Alternative, originated as an avenue for unconventional self-expression that transcends the traditional. At the centre of the Alt movement, is the desire to remain sincere to oneself regardless of existing traditions or cultural restrictions.

The Alt movement arguably has its origin in Nigeria, with musical Artists like Teezee, BOJ, Tems, Odunsi and Lady Donli, driving the movement but the sub-culture is visible among young Africans across the continent. Sichangi, from Kenya and Amaarae from Ghana, are among the musical artists from other parts of Africa who are propagating Alt sounds. Beyond music, Alt has grown as a lifestyle and its influence is also visible in fashion and the visual arts. Mowalola and Tse are some of the creative influencers that are driving the Alt movement in fashion and photography respectively.

There is also a growing number of creative entrepreneurs in the Alt community. These young individuals are running their own businesses and thriving within Africas creative ecosystem. By optimising the internet, they are carving their distinctive identity and propagating the growth of the Alt community in Africa.

Historically, alternative youth culture is rarely recognised in mainstream media, therefore creators have turned to YouTube to connect with their audiences because there are no barriers to entry.

Speaking during the Residency, Sharon Machira, Communication and Public Affairs Manager for Google Kenya said, Its exciting to see creators that identify as non-mainstream find community on our platform. This comes just a few days after we announced a call for applications for the YouTube Black Voices Fund for 2023 aimed at elevating marginalised voices.

The residency aims toamplify the impact of the Alt movement in Africa and the world. We also want to showcase how products like YouTube and YouTube Shorts and platforms like Google Arts and Culture can help drive the culture forward, added Machira.

Recent Google Search trends from across Africa show an increase in `Alt related searches from 2020, with questions like What is alt?, Who is an alt? and How to dress alt?, being the most searched alt related questions.

Google, through the Alt Residency, is spotlighting and contributing to Africas cultural zeitgeist by exposing Alt creatives and expressionists to skills that can be harnessed through the lens of YouTube, YouTubeShorts, Search and Google Arts and Culture, and enable creatives to scale up in their businesses and career.

The Residency ran from Tuesday, June 28 to Thursday, June 30, 2022, and helped them learn how to better connect with their audiences and move the culture forward. They will be equipped with entrepreneurial skills on how they can enhance the visibility of their brands.

Google also invited Tshepo the Jeans maker for an interactive fireside career talk with the young creative entrepreneurs on how to further build and monetise their brands.

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How Google is Amplifying Alternative Youth Culture - THISDAY Newspapers

The cultural zeitgeist around work is changing. Last week, many of us will have been frantically adjusting our journeys amid nationwide train strikes. If the transport gods were merciful, we will have got home in time for the latest episode of Sherwood, a twisty drama about the legacy of the miners strike. You may have just finished Apple TVs Severance, which depicts a future where work is so bleak the only way it can get done is by creating alternate versions of ourselves. Now we have Minions: Rise of Gru which asks if there is a place in todays world for a morally compromised but lovable boss supported by a legion of subservient, amorphous workers.

Having worked in retail in the mid-to-late 2010s, no collection of words makes me shudder like: It might seem crazy what Im bout to say. This is the opening line to Pharrell Williamss Happy, as featured on the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, which was blasted across shop floors like audible amphetamine to keep workers conscious and adequately cheery. The song also defined much of the 2010s, frantically screaming at us to be happy while the world around us, in many ways, became increasingly grim. The Despicable Me franchise also loomed large in the same era, becoming the highest-grossing animated film series of all time in the space of seven years. The films breakout stars the Minions were ubiquitous throughout the decade. They were plastered on everything from tic tacs to salad bags and Amazon parcels, they led Zumba classes and adorned the tops of NYC yellow taxis. They were quite literally everywhere.

When the first Despicable Me film was released in 2010, ultra-rich business moguls received a mostly positive reception in popular culture. Elon Musk guest-starred in an episode of The Simpsons in 2015 where he was presented as a world-saving genius whose immense wealth was a secondary concern. The episode ends with Musk rocketing off into the sky like a tech-bro Mary Poppins. In the same year, Steve Jobs was eulogised as a troubled visionary in the Danny Boyle-directed biopic. But the seeds of a big business backlash were planted with The Big Short, which lamented Wall Streets role in the 2008 financial crash.

In the years since, the cultural backlash against the ultra-rich has only intensified. 2019s Joker reimagined the aristocratic Wayne family as a cruel, selfish clan while recontextualising the villains rampage as a tragic consequence of a failing society. Dont Look Up, which saw a Jobs-esque billionaire annihilate our planet after promising (and subsequently failing) to stop a comet filled with lucrative minerals from crashing into Earth became the second most-watched film in Netflixs history last December. Earlier this year, The Dropout, Super Pumped and WeCrashed, three shows about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs meteoric rises and cant-look-away falls debuted within weeks of each other, all but cementing popular cultures assault against this once vaunted section of society.

This shift isnt confined to English-language fare. The best picture-winning Parasite resonated around the world with its wildly entertaining exploration of wealth inequality. Squid Game twisted universal fears about debt into a gore bonanza. Javier Bardem plays a factory owner who meddles in the lives of his employees in order to win a business award in the Spanish film The Good Boss (on release later this month in the UK). An exploration of the toxic impact of work and its overreach into our personal lives, the film is another addition to this burgeoning canon of pro-worker, anti-big boss on-screen work.

The parallels between Gru, the supervillain protagonist of the series, and the legion of ultra-rich business moguls in the public eye is striking. Like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, Gru is interested in space exploration. Perhaps most potent, he has a workforce so voiceless and obedient, these bosses would probably salivate with envy. Though, in this area, he faces tough competition from Bezos and Amazon where warehouse workers report frequent injuries and fear of getting fired for not packing enough items an hour while their delivery drivers are so overworked, they have to urinate in bottles.

Most revealingly, real-world corporate culture loves the Minions. HR managers use them as a not so subversive allegory for their workforce. On LinkedIn, you will find many posts about the lessons workers could learn from the Minions, from offering colleagues a helping hand to eating bananas to stay productive or even that having a big bad boss is desirable. Minions, in their eyes, are what workers should be loyal, infantile and replaceable.

The cultural shift against work and big business has opened a vacuum that the burgeoning workers movement is filling. As workers from all sorts of jobs, from barristers to call centre staff, vote for strike action, it is likely that the political and cultural landscape will only tilt further towards pro-worker sentiment. Perhaps it is time to lay the cute-as-a-button do-badders to rest.

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The revolution will be televised: why we are witnessing a big-boss backlash - The Guardian

Vibes has become a ubiquitous word in the past half decade, one many people now reach for when describing the distinct emotion given off by a place, or a thing. It is the prevailing shorthand for a cultural atmosphere, mood, and zeitgeist.

Vibe talk has also entered politics. In this magazine in 2021, Derek Thompson invited readers to think of politics as a vibes war. This spring, again in these pages, David A. Graham argued that John Fetterman won the Democratic Senate primary for Pennsylvania less on policy than on vibes. And Rolling Stone pronounced that Fetterman was neither centrist nor a progressive. Hes a vibe.

To the political commentator Will Stancil, vibes is the idea that politics is rooted in and governed by mass psychology, which makes political behavior intrinsically difficult (and sometimes impossible) to model as a series of quantifiable inputs and predictable outputs, the approach favored by econometrically-inclined disciplines.

In place of data, vibe-talk promises instead to capture deeper emotional currents. What interests me about this form of analysis is that it is a rejection of analysis itself. Its a way of saying: Numbers lie, and emotion always lurks beneath the surface, so lets stop pretending. It expresses the suspicion that dry objectivity is never quite sufficient.

Read: The vibe shift on Capitol Hill

What also interests me is that, not too long ago, the commentators who reach for vibes now would have reached for charisma, and that latter word may help us understand what vibes conveys about emotional politics today.

The rejection of hard evidence in favor of emotional intuition is one of the oldest moves in modern political thought. At the end of the 18th century, Romanticism pushed back against empiricism, as symbolized in William Blakes 1795 painting of Isaac Newton: The scientists obsession with measurement leads him to literally turn his back on the natural world. In the 19th century, positivists like Auguste Comte, who believed that society could be explained in coldly scientific ways, split with anti-positivists like Friedrich Nietzsche, who argued for more subjective, affective approaches. Perhaps the most influential of these anti-positivists was the German sociologist Max Weber, and among his more influential contributions was the word charisma.

Charisma comes from the ancient Greek for gift for grace. Its classical origins give it a timeless feel. Yet its modern usage is only a century old. In the 1910s, Weber dusted off this obscure theological term to describe forms of political authority based on the extraordinary powers of specific individuals. Charisma, he argued, is the specifically creative revolutionary force in human history.

Heres how Weber described the concept in his posthumous 1920 book, Sociology of Religion:

Not every person has the capacity to achieve the ecstatic states which are viewed, in accordance with rules of experience, as the pre-conditions for producing certain effects in meteorology, healing, divination, and telepathy. It is primarily, though not exclusively, these extraordinary powers that have been designated by such special terms as Mana, Orenda, and the Iranian Maga (the term from which our word magic is derived). We shall henceforth employ the term charisma for such extraordinary powers.

Weber, famous as a chief architect of modern social science, was not rejecting nonempirical, magical ideas such as telepathy, the Polynesian mana, or the Iroquois orenda, but repackaging them. Rather than economic forces or ideologies, it was the ecstatic state between rulers and their followers that explained politics.

This new usage remained obscure for almost half a century. Charisma owes its popularity to its journey across the Atlantic, where it was enthusiastically adopted first by postwar American intellectuals sympathetic to Weber, and then by a mass public eager to explain the new world of televisual political celebrity.

In 1949, the sociologist and journalist Daniel Bell tried to slip the word into a Fortune magazine piece only to have it rejected by the editors as elite jargon. But within two decades, the word was widespread enough for a 1969 piece in Time to call it one of the dominant clichs of the 1960s. Google Books data confirm this, showing charisma and charismatic leaping 1,700 percent from 1940 to 1970, and continuing the same exponential curve through to the 2000s, by which time it had grown 6,000 percent.

The 1960s articles that introduced the concept to the American public are eerily like todays vibe think pieces: They acknowledge that the word mystifies rather than clarifies, yet embrace its value as an alternative to dry analysis. The big thing in politics these days is charisma, pronounced karizma, an April 1968 New York Times piece told a readership it clearly assumed to be new to the word. Noting how the idea was being used to describe the mysterious powers of political figures such as Stokely Carmichael and Bobby Kennedy to enchant audiences, the author concluded that charisma was a symbol for telling a complex story in simple terms.

From the September 2016 issue: The charisma effect

Six months later in the same paper, a multipage splash by Richard Lingeman under the title The Greeks Had a Word for ItBut What Does It Mean? championed charisma and suggested that the word persists perhaps because it reflects some deep-rooted need we have to believe in the magic of personality. A need, he added, that was quite separate from traditional demands of proof, evidence, or data.

When it was embraced in the 1960s, charisma offered a way of talking about the ever more entwined worlds of politics, celebrity, Hollywood, and television. It gave a secular label to a mood of spiritual resistance to existing institutions, and not coincidentally, gave its name to the charismatic movement in evangelical American Protestantism. Above all, charisma was useful as a way of avoiding reliance on statistics or technical analysis and a deft means of side-stepping ideological sciences of history such as Marxism or liberalism.

These anti-empirical qualities inspired many lines of attack. In 1968 the British sociologist Peter Worsley thought charisma a hopelessly blunt instrument; in the 1980s, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu derided it as a means of escape from having to think about social relations; in 2009, the American political theorist Fredric Jameson dismissed it as an utterly useless pseudo-concept that led away from lived realities.

Yet, again, the take-up of charisma suggests that most people simply found the term useful.

Even those contemporary commentators, such as Matt Yglesias, who pour scorn on the imprecision of vibes today are content to use the equally anti-empirical charisma.

Is this shift from charisma to vibes merely history repeating itself, or is vibes doing something different from its illustrious predecessor? The answer is yes, and yes.

Like charisma, vibes can be seen as an artifact of the 1960s, specifically the good vibrations language of the counterculture borrowed from older esoteric traditions that described social relations as vibratory. As Google Books data testify, vibrations were a particularly important part of 19th-century language, peaking in the 1880s at the height of the Spiritualist movement. Hippie revival of this language owed as much to Victorian sances as it did to California communes.

Derek Thompson: Democrats are getting crushed in the vibes war

Both vibes and charisma make the case that politics is experiential. Where charisma appealed to a 20th-century discourse with its whiff of classical antiquity, however, vibes today instead meets the needs of a looser, self-consciously atomized algorithmic world. Where charisma was admiring and grand, vibes is noncommittal and irreverent. Charisma, like glamour, is about an exotic superiority: Someone with compelling vibes can be extremely ordinary, and in fact the very vibe they communicate can be that of ordinariness.

And where charisma describes an individuals power, vibes focuses attention on collective emotion. Rather than describing gifted or extraordinary people, modern vibe-talk puts the significance back on the crowd. This emphasis was present in 19th-century Spiritualist uses of vibes. Some people had a stronger relationship to shared spiritual vibrations in the ether than others, and they could perceive and then channel an ambient mood. They might be unnaturally empathetic or open to the vibes. But they werent where the power truly lay.

In this way, vibe-talk reaches back beyond charisma to describe a fascination with people, like Fetterman, who seem to have a powerful receptivity to their immediate milieu. In place of hero worship and subordination, vibes is all about authenticity and what the philosopher Robin James calls sympathetic resonance.

The tools we use to describe political psychology matter. As linguistics and psychologists are eager to point out, metaphors and abstract nouns are not just linguistic conventions but real elements of thought that control how we think. Tracing their rise and fall offers a window into shifting values.

The vibe-shift away from data and dry analysis might simply be a fad. But it also allows us to measure the distance between the ideas that younger and older generations hold about the individual, about collective emotion, and about the politics of language itself.

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The Origin of Vibes - The Atlantic

From photographs of remarkable Black women to an exploration of the definition of kinship, these new exhibits explore the breadth of the modern American experience.

The saying goes that good things come in threes, but four good things are coming to Washington, D.C.s Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery this year. Over the course of the summer and fall, the museum will show four new exhibits that examine what it means to be an American today.

Opening July 8, I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lankers Portraits of Remarkable Black Women will showcase a selection of portraits of contemporary Black American women whove shaped the country with their work in the arts, literature, activism, and politics. Next up, One Life: Maya Lin takes a biographical look at the award-winning Asian American architect behind D.C.s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (September 30April 16, 2023). Kinship, which features more than 40 works by eight U.S. photographers, explores the interpersonal relationships that bind us (October 28January 27, 2024). And slated to debut November 10 is Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees, which pays respect to seven notable Americans who have made a significant impact on the country in the past year.

Together, the four exhibits create a poignant representation of the ever-evolving, modern American identity and the commonalities that unite usa powerful balm in todays divisive times. Because the gallery is a Smithsonian institution, admission is free and tickets are not required.

I Dream a World may look familiar to those who know the work of late Pulitzer Prizewinning photographer Brian Lanker; his 1989 book of the same name serves as the basis of the exhibit, with the likenesses of 25 extraordinary Black women. Although Lanker passed away in 2011, the iconic photographs have been in his familys possession since then and were first displayed at the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka, Kansas, in 2020. In the first installation (July 8, 2022January 29, 2023) at the National Portrait Gallery, photographs of women like Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and Rosa Parks will be on display while in the second (February 10September 10, 2023), visitors may recognize familiar faces like Oprah Winfrey and Odetta, the voice of the Civil Rights Movement.

This exhibition is important because, through compelling portraits, it invites us to consider the achievements of inspiring Black women who overcame tremendous challenges to succeed in fields as diverse as literature, law, music, sports, and politics, said Ann Shumard, senior curator of photographs, in an email.

The next to make its big entrance will be the latest chapter in the National Portrait Gallerys One Life series, which involves the museum dedicating a full gallery to the life of one significant American. This time, the special exhibition will focus on the heralded architect, environmentalist, and sculptorMaya Lin, who is perhaps best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The exhibit uses photographs, sketchbook drawings, architectural models, sculptures, and personal items that guide viewers through the four decades Lin has produced work. Lin is passionate about the environment, and part of her What Is Missing? project, which addresses the global biodiversity crisis, will also be on display. One Life: Maya Lin will be the first time the series has honored an Asian American since it began in 2006. The exhibition opens September 30.

Kinship features the work of international contemporary photographers Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ruth Leonela Buentello, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, and Anna Tsouhlarakis, who were all tasked with exploring the nature of love and relationships of all kinds. Some themes that the installation will touch on include childhood and adulthood, gender roles, the geographic and regional diversity of the country, and life and death. Kinship is the latest exhibition of the Gallerys Portraiture Now series, which showcases the work of the most renowned and innovative photojournalists of the 21st century. Visitors can catch the exhibit beginning October 28.

Last but not least is Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees, which is scheduled to run starting November 10 for nearly a year. The gallerys Portrait of a Nation series commemorates seven Americans who had a huge impact in their respective field within the year, and have subsequently become a part of the countrys zeitgeist. Honorees this year include director Ava DuVernay, for her work in television and film; Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the U.S. President who guided the nation through the COVID crisis; and Serena Williams and Venus Williams, tennis stars whose lives were explored in the Oscar-winning film King Richard.

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4 Powerful Photography Exhibitions Will Debut at the National Portrait Gallery This Year - AFAR Media

It could be argued that the pro-choice movement is not fully aware of the organization pro-life movement, as well as its reach when it comes to young people in particular. While your documentary will shed much needed light on the situation, why do you think the pro-choice movement isn't as clued into the demographics of the pro-life protestors?

Pro-choice audiences and I expect that the majority of audiences for this film will be pro-choice people, and we've really started to hear this already in the screenings that we've been doing people are really surprised by how little they know about the anti-abortion movement. Even for people who are very staunchly pro-choice and who consider themselves to be reasonably engaged in current events and news, a lot of people don't know about these organizations.

They don't know about the Susan B. Anthony List. They don't know about Students for Life. That same feeling was part of what compelled me to want to make this film I felt like we're seeing anti-abortion legislation passing in very sweeping ways and we're seeing the results of the power of the anti-abortion movement trickle down in various ways in state bans and other kinds of bans and legislation that were being passed prior to Roe being overturned.

There was something missing. There was something that I wasn't seeing in the equation that would help me understand why, in a country where the majority of people support abortion access, we were seeing abortion being so radically dismantled. That sense of my own not knowing who the anti-abortion movement is and how they're doing what they're doing and how they're organizing and what they believe, those were all things that compelled me as a pro-choice person to want to understand. That curiosity was behind the approach to the film.

I also was struck in making the film that Marjorie Dannenfelser has a book on her desk that is called "Know Thine Enemy: A History of the Left." It's very clear to me in making the film, and hopefully for people in watching the film, that the anti-abortion movement is certainly watching what the left is doing and what the pro-choice movement is doing and what the progressive social justice movements in the United States are doing.

You see them appropriating that language, the language of the Women's March, by calling the theme of the March for Life in 2020 "pro-life is pro woman." You see when the Black Lives Matter protests happened that Students for Life is very fast to appropriate that movement, creating all of these "Black pre-born lives matter" events across the United States.

This phenomenon is something that is attempting to mainstream the anti-abortion movement as something that is within the contemporary zeitgeist in the United States. It's also an attempt to reach people who consider themselves to be concerned about social justice, to reach young people through this appeal. By showing how much the anti-abortion movement is keeping an eye on progressive movements and using the language of the left and absorbing it and appropriating it, it's important on the flip side to shine a light on who they are and what they're doing and how they're doing it. It's something that the pro-choice movement and many people who are pro-choice aren't necessarily looking at and haven't necessarily investigated very closely.

Learn more about the documentary, "Battleground,"athttps://battlegroundfilm.org. Follow the film on Facebook at @BattlegroundTheFilm, on Twitter at @battlegrndfilm, and on Instagram at @battlegroundthefilm.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Correction:Terrisa Bukovinac's name was initially misspelled. This has been corrected.

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Battleground Director Cynthia Lowen On Roe V. Wade And Pro-Life Views - Exclusive Interview - The List

Thirty years ago, Irish youth culture took its brains to another dimension. The 1990s was a golden age for clubbing all over the world, as genres such as house music and later jungle and trip-hop briefly dominated the zeitgeist. But in Ireland the shockwaves felt especially profound as a country that had spent the previous decades languishing in poverty, religiosity and grinding hopelessness stepped into the bright lights.

This cultural insurgency was countrywide. But it manifested in different ways in different places. In Cork, Sir Henrys became the lodestar for a clubbing scene that would put the city on the international map. In Waterford, the short-lived South mega-club previously the Celtworld theme park became an epicentre (albeit slightly later in 2001) while the Bridge Hotel hosted Underworld during their Born Slippy imperial phase. Galway had the Castle in Salthill, with its regular Sex Kitchen evening.

In Dublin, the sheer size of the city ensured clubbing would become a multi-headed beast. It was simultaneously underground and commercial, niche and mainstream, grass-roots and corporate. And the full scale of that explosion is now explored and celebrated in a new exhibition, to be hosted at the Bernard Shaw pub and venue in Drumcondra July 9-10.

Analog Rhythms A Celebration of Dublin Club Culture tracks the rise and fall of venues such as Sides DC at Dame Lane, Temple of Sound on Curved Street in Temple Bar, The Ormond Multimedia Centre on Ormond Quay, The Pod on Harcourt Street, Columbia Mills on Sir John Robertsons Quay in the docklands, and The Asylum, a three-storey, pink-exterior building on Sackville Place.

The 1990s was a time of cultural awakening in Ireland for many reasons. There was a lot of [social] liberalisation. The nightlife industry gained traction over that period, says Stephen Wynne-Jones of club culture website 909 Originals, which has put on the exhibition.

It's important to tell the story of where things came from, says Wynne-Jones who began DJing and documenting the scene in the late 1990s. The nightlife industry is going through a difficult period at present. But it is well established that Dublin and Ireland is a good place to go out in. And that were attractive to foreign visitors in terms of our nightlife.

The story of clubbing in Ireland is bound up with the wider cultural history. The early 1990s were a period of huge change for the country. The despair of the Eighties had gone but the empty swagger of the Celtic Tiger had yet to come roaring through. And if Ireland was becoming recognised as a cultural hotspot, Dublin had yet to turn into a purgatory of British stag parties and Leprechaun museums. For just a moment, everything seemed possible and that sense of unfulfilled potential lit a fuse under Irish nightlife.

You can track it from the late 1980s, says Wynne-Jones. There were a few clubs. Established places like Sides and the Olympic Ballroom [on Pleasants Street in Dublin 8] were running dance events by the early 1990s. But there was also a lot of negativity about the industry. There was acid house hysteria [in the press].

This attitude of shunning youth culture had fallen away by the middle of the decade. Clubbing was recognised for its cultural currency.

As the 1990s progressed, there's an element of growing sophistication about Dublin nightlife, says Wynne-Jones. You had venues like the Pod opening up, with John Reynolds. And the Kitchen [at Bono and The Edges Clarence Hotel]. You went in terms of media coverage from clubbing being some sort of dirty underground nasty thing. To being something we should be proud of. During the mid-point of the 1990s you had countless magazines coming from overseas saying, Is this the clubbing capital of Europe?

Each clubbing scene in Ireland was unique. What set Dublin apart was the sheer diversity, says Wynne-Jones.

You had different tribes to a certain degree. This was very prevalent back in the 1980s and 1990s. For the real underground clubbers you had venues such as the Asylum. For the more sophisticated you had the Pod and the Kitchen. Even within that, if you were into drum and bass, youd go to the Funnel or Switch.

If you were into hard techno you might go to the Kitchen on a Tuesday. Dublin being the capital city and a bit of a melting pot culturally, though obviously a lot more so now, you had the development of multiple different strands of nightlife all happening at the same time. You had some promoters you took things very seriously. And others who just wanted to have a bit of a laugh, like Martin Thomass Strictly Handbag.

One of the first to recognise something was happening in Dublin was David Bowie who, by 1997 had fallen hard for drum and bass (that year saw the release of his jungle-themed Earthling LP]. He would visit the capital, attending drum and bass nights at venues such as Andrews Lane. He may have been attracted by the grass-roots character of the movement here. He will certainly have noticed the sense of self-belief and optimism in the air.

Ireland began to feel a little more self-confident about itself, agrees Wynne-Jones. Those who were in college in the 1980s who didnt emigrate, who didnt leave the country were like, why dont we create something? People would go to London and further afield and come back seized by a sense of possibility.

They were seeing what was going on in the UK with the emergence of the acid house scene. And seeing there was nothing happening here. It was really about taking a punt: could we create something in Ireland? A promoter might know a few people who played some records. They might save a few quid and bring down someone from the North to play a night. They might bring bands with them as well.

Initially, this was a DIY movement. It was born really out of the 1980s and the disillusionment and the lack of job options and career prospects, says Wynne-Jones.

From the outside, it looked like an overnight revolution. One minute Dublin was a moribund backwater, the next one of Europes party capitals. In fact, this was a story years in the making.

It depends who you talk to. The likes of Tonie Walsh [founder of Gay Community News] would say it started with Flikkers, a gay disco which opened in the late 1970s [on Fownes Street in Temple Bar]. Others should say Sides which opened in 1986 but which didnt become a house music venue until a few years after that. The UK had its 1988 and all of that [when influential acid house night Shoom began to attract media attention in London].

Dublin was a couple of years behind. You had venues like the Olympic Ballroom opening to dance events. And the Mansion House, which was really well covered in the mainstream media and put things in the spotlight. You had events taking place in The Point. You had clubs like The Asylum. Certainly, by 1993 or 1994 we had a broader outlook catering for different tastes.

There are lessons for today, too. Amid a seemingly unresolvable accommodation crisis, youth culture has to find new ways to express itself. There is evidence, feels Wynne-Jones, that the DIY outlook that informed 1990s clubbing may be about to come roaring through once more.

A lot of people who were clubbing back then are now the bosses, CEOs and international representatives of Ireland. Including plenty of TDs. It cant have harmed our confidence, which was obviously lifted by the Celtic Tiger as well. The problem with clubbing in Ireland and Dublin and a lot of markets is that it is cyclical. There are periods when things shut down and people ask, Is the honeymoon over? Then theres a new generation coming through saying Lets go back to basics and keep the fire burning.

Irelands Greatest 1990s Club Nights

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Club culture in the 1990s: How Dublin danced to a new beat - Irish Examiner

The wait is over and the results are in! A+M is thrilled to reveal the shortlist for the Agency of the Year Awards and MARkies 2022 Malaysia. Thirteen years after its inception, this programme continues to serve as a key vehicle for client-side marketers to honour agencies for their outstanding work and services, well-run business performance, and general management across 32 defining categories. All agencies, large and small, were given the opportunity to shine. This year the awards introduced two new categories: eCommerce Marketing Agency of the Year and MarTech Agency of the Year.

This years MARKies saw 43 categories open for entry, across two main segments Creative Ideas and Media Usage - to recognise and reward the most innovative, creative and effective campaigns spanning Malaysias entire marketing services industry. In the first segment, new additions include Most Creative- B2B Marketing and Most Creative- Multicultural Marketing. The second segment included Most Effective Use- B2B Marketing, Most Effective Use- Customer Acquisition and Most Effective Use- Multicultural Marketing. Agencies also have the opportunity to enter our new individual categories and win awards for Best Account Manager, Best Art Director/Designer and Best Strategist.

Agency of the Year and MARKies entries were judged by an independent panel of 28 client-side marketers. One of the judges, Jessica Lee, head, group marketing, Loob Holding, said: "Most entries were consistently excellent in their own areas, making it difficult to shortlist and decide which outstanding agency stood out from the rest of entries.The deserving winners are focused on executing relevant and holistic campaigns, built from insightful audience data that eventually led to effective campaign results."

The winners will be announced on 5 August 2022.

So who made the cut? Here are the 2022 finalists.

Agency of the Year finalists:

1. Analytics Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Digitas Malaysia Media Funnel SKALE TDG - The D Group

2. B2B Agency of the Year Aiken Digital Archetype Malaysia FCB SHOUT GETIT LOCUS-T Pico

3. Boutique Agency of the Year Be Strategic Conten.T Creme Digital DreamsKingdoms Mad Hat Asia Mutant Communications Primal Malaysia The Chariot Agency VoxEureka

4. Branding & Design Consultancy of the Year Archetype Malaysia DreamsKingdoms FCB SHOUT FOREFRONT International

5. Consultant of the Year Ampersand Advisory Archetype Malaysia Digital Symphony Digitas Malaysia Edelman Malaysia Entropia - part of Accenture Song FCB SHOUT GO Communications

6. Content Marketing Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Edelman Malaysia FCB SHOUT GO Communications Kingdom Digital Solutions

7. Creative Agency of the Year DreamsKingdoms Entropia - part of Accenture Song FCB SHOUT Kingdom Digital Solutions M&C Saatchi The Clan

8. CRM & Loyalty Marketing Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Digitas Malaysia DreamsKingdoms FCB SHOUT TDG - The D Group

9. Digital Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Creme Digital Digital Symphony Digitas Malaysia Edelman Malaysia Entropia - part of Accenture Song FCB SHOUT Kingdom Digital Solutions M&C Saatchi PHD Media

10. eCommerce Marketing Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Exabytes Network Intrepid Malaysia Maxis eCommerce & Retail Primal Malaysia

11. Event Marketing Agency of the Year Above Creative Events At Event Quest Event Plus Light Up 7 Pico

12. Experiential Marketing Agency of the Year At Event Quest DreamsKingdoms Event Plus GO Communications Light Up 7 The Gaming Company

13. Full Service Agency of the Year Be Strategic Digital Symphony DreamsKingdoms Entropia - part of Accenture Song FCB SHOUT FOREFRONT International Light Up 7

14. Independent Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Be Strategic DreamsKingdoms GETIT GO Communications Kingdom Digital Solutions Mad Hat Asia Mutant Communications Trapper VoxEureka

15. Influencer Agency of the Year Buzzer FCB SHOUT GO Communications Kingdom Digital Solutions Scarlet Holdings

16. Integrated Marketing Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Be Strategic DreamsKingdoms Entropia - part of Accenture Song FCB SHOUT GO Communications M&C Saatchi Pico VoxEureka

17. Lead Generation Agency of the Year Aforemention (subsidiary of FOREFRONT) Ampersand Advisory clickTRUE Digital Symphony FCB SHOUT LOCUS-T Primal Malaysia

18. MarTech Agency of the Year Aiken Digital Ampersand Advisory Conten.T Digital Symphony Entropia - part of Accenture Song Exabytes Network SKALE TDG - The D Group

Media Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Creme Digital Entropia - part of Accenture Song NKMH Media PHD Media Trapper Universal McCann

19. Mobile Marketing Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory DreamsKingdoms Edelman Malaysia Entropia - part of Accenture Song Kingdom Digital Solutions TDG - The D Group

20.New Kid on the Block Buzzer Digital Symphony Kredence Creative Solutions MsOrange Solutions Creative Primal Malaysia The Chariot Agency

21. Performance Marketing Agency of the Year Aforemention (subsidiary of FOREFRONT) clickTRUE Digital Symphony Entropia - part of Accenture Song Kredence Creative Solutions

22. Programmatic Agency of the Year Ampersand Advisory Digital Symphony Entropia - part of Accenture Song Xaxis Malaysia

23. Public Relations Agency of the Year Archetype Malaysia Edelman Malaysia GO Communications Mad Hat Asia Mutant Communications VoxEureka

24. Search Marketing Agency of the Year Aforemention (subsidiary of FOREFRONT) LOCUS-T Primal Malaysia

25. Social Media Marketing Agency of the Year Aforemention (subsidiary of FOREFRONT) Be Strategic Edelman Malaysia Entropia - part of Accenture Song Exabytes Network FCB SHOUT GO Communications Kingdom Digital Solutions Lion & Lion Malaysia

26. Specialist Agency of the Year DreamsKingdoms FOREFRONT International Mad Hat Asia Maxis eCommerce & Retail SKALE The Gaming Company

27. Video / Production Company of the Year Ampersand Advisory DreamsKingdoms FCB SHOUT Kingdom Digital Solutions Light Up 7 Media Prima Omnia Scarlet Holdings

28. Agency Leader of the Year Be Strategic, Ashvin Anamalai Digital Symphony, Kuhan Kumar DreamsKingdoms, Yens YenKai FCB SHOUT, Shaun Tay Media Funnel, Alexander Ang Chee Chao Personedge, Choo Mei Sze Trapper, Sue-Anne Lim VoxEureka, Jonathan Tan

29. Agency Team of the Year DreamsKingdoms FCB SHOUT Kingdom Digital Solutions Light Up 7 Mad Hat Asia The Lenovo Archies @ Archetype Malaysia Zeno Group Malaysia, Beyond Sugar Team

30. Rising Star Creme Digital, Sam Werngren Digital Symphony, Ahdesya Harindran DreamsKingdoms, Christine Kuek Mutant Communications, Marissa Gross Personedge, Angela Lau TDG - The D Group, Hun Jie Ng

MARKies Finalists

1. Most Creative- Audio FCB SHOUT, SEMPURNA - Malaysia's First Sign Language Musical Campaign Invictus Blue Group, F&N Turns A Problem Into A Nationwide Dance Party! PHD Media, Ensemble Worldwide, Safi - How #SISREDAHJE Anthem shake the world of hijabi transform +40% sales uplift! Scarlet, Cinta KK - TikTok Drama Series

2. Most Creative- B2B Marketing 4 Thirteen, Aspect Ratio Studios, OMD, ABSolutely (Allianz Business Shield) Edelman, #GetMoving Challenge Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Breaking the fourth wall in interactive storydoing Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Power beyond colors - transforming the paint retail value chain FCB SHOUT, MYFUTUREJOBS - Getting Malaysians back to work and the nation back on its feet Noir by Entropia, Pepsi Flexes Retailment Experience to the NEXT Level Noir by Entropia, WONDA Adds a Spicy Twist to Retail Experiences Rantau Golin, Brand Care, #SapotSME Rantau Golin, Brand Care, ATLAS Introduces Automated Sampling SKALE, GGTV, Anchor Legendairy Dream Rewards

3. Most Creative - Campaign Pivot Ampersand Advisory, Covid Constrained? Shiseido Creates 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality To Bring Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysian Women Ampersand Advisory, #SupportLokal allowed SMEs to connect and grow in the face of movement restrictions Archetype Malaysia, #JomSnekBijak by Mondelz Malaysia GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds Invictus Blue Group, F&N Turns A Problem Into A Nationwide Dance Party! The Clan, MAE-ke It Ong Campaign The Clan, Maybank2u Biz App Launch

4. Most Creative - Communications / Public Relations FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds GO Communications, Seasons of Change GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO Mad Hat Asia, Kotex Limited Edition 2021 - Teroka Lokal Noir by Entropia, A CSR That Got Kids Turning Scary Frontliners into Happee Frontliners Noir by Entropia, Pepsi BLACKout Hour: Facilitating Human Connections During Mealtimes Rantau Golin, Brand Care, First Braille-Enabled Vending Machine The Clan, Grab Lejen

5. Most Creative - Content Marketing Ampersand Advisory, First Time In Malaysia Content Innovation: Shiseido Creates 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality That Bring Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysian Women Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, The art of sustainability with Red Hong Yi FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements FCB SHOUT, GO Communications, RASA SAYANG RASA KUAT - Helping the Malay segment navigate ramadan with a fresh insight GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO Noir by Entropia, Changing the Mealtime Narrative from Scrolling Phones to Screenless Companions Yellow Leads, (The Treasure of Family)

6. Most Creative - COVID-19 Response Ampersand Advisory, Covid 19? VR 7! Shiseido Creates 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality (VR) To Deliver Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysian Women Dotace Interactive, Gold For Stix FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling Light Up 7, #VaksinNation M&C Saatchi, U OK Tak Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Transcending Borders and Reaching Malaysian Homes with the Power of Digital Innovation Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Redefining The Nation's Eyewear Shopping Experience Noir by Entropia, A Happee PPE Frontliner Makeover - Designed For the Children, By the Children! Noir by Entropia, Hijrah - Migrating Hope into the Hearts of Malaysians Rantau Golin, Brand Care, #SapotSME

7. Most Creative -Customer Engagement Ampersand Advisory, First-Of-Its-Kind Hyper-Engagement! Shiseido Creates 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality To Bring Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysian Women Astana International, Petron Jom Jalan Jalan Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Breaking the fourth wall in interactive storydoing Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Winning mommies with marketing 4.0 Noir by Entropia, How Goodday Got Kids to Turn Scary Frontliners into Happee Frontliners Noir by Entropia, Pepsi Creates a Retail Playland for In-Store Visitors Noir by Entropia, How Pepsi Challenged Society to Stop Scrolling and Start Speaking at Mealtimes Noir by Entropia, When KFC Tokenized Cravings SKALE, CapitaLand Plant Rewards The Clan, Grab Lejen

8. Most Creative - Digital Ampersand Advisory, First Of Its Kind Digital Experience! Shiseido Creates 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality To Bring Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysia DreamsKingdoms, Experience a billboard come to life with DuitNow Edelman, #GetMoving Challenge Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Unified banking experience (UBX) Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Transcending Borders and Reaching Malaysian Homes with the Power of Digital Innovation Noir by Entropia, The Sweet Goodbye Noir by Entropia, The Gift of Magic Noir by Entropia, How Pepsi Triggered a Blackout on Screens to Light Up Mealtimes Noir by Entropia, Calpis Encourages Gen Z's to Dance to Fame SKALE, CapitaLand Plant Rewards

9. Most Creative - eSportsMarketing 4 Thirteen Group, ADA, Truth Communications, Yoodo Dominating The Malaysian Esports Scene Aiken Digital, When Crypto gets married to Esports The Chariot Agency, Gooderlympics The Gaming Company, GalAxie Cup 2021

10. Most Creative - Event (Physical/Virtual) Bellscape, Elmina 21K Strong Virtual Run and Ride Movement GO Communications, Seasons of Change GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO Light Up 7, Financial Literacy Month 2021 Noir by Entropia, Triggering a Blackout on Screens to Light Up Mealtimes in Eateries Noir by Entropia, Pepsi Flexes Retailment Experience to the NEXT Level Perk Idea, World of Effervescence VoxEureka, NEXTGen Malaysia

11. Most Creative - Experiential DreamsKingdoms, Experience a billboard come to life with DuitNow GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO Invictus Blue Group, F&N Turns A Problem Into A Nationwide Dance Party! Noir by Entropia, Pepsi Transforms an Ordinary Action to an Extraordinary Experience Noir by Entropia, 1st AR Concert In A Bottle Noir by Entropia, When KFC Tokenized Cravings Noir by Entropia, The Sweet Goodbye Noir by Entropia, The Gift of Magic Rantau Golin, Brand Care, First Braille-Enabled Vending Machine SKALE, CapitaLand Plant Rewards

12. Most Creative - Government Sector/Non-Profit Marketing Event Plus, Making Asthma Interesting - Kawal Lelah Sebelum Parah FCB SHOUT, MYFUTUREJOBS - Getting Malaysians back to work and the nation back on its feet GO Communications, World Kidney Day Media Funnel, Rediscover Fun 2021 Campaign Noir by Entropia, How Goodday Milk turned frowns into smiles! Rantau Golin, Brand Care, First Braille-Enabled Vending Machine The Chariot Agency, The Balls Towel Trinergy Digital, Colours of Togetherness Xttack Event, For Your Sweetheart: Think Diabetes, Think Heart

13. Most Creative - Influencers/KOLs Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, The art of sustainability with Red Hong Yi FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks GO Communications, Genting SkYWorlds GO Communications, Seasons of Change Noir by Entropia, YOU.th can make an imP.A.C.T Noir by Entropia, How Pepsi Swapped the Companions in Our Pockets to Our Companions at the Table The Chariot Agency, C27, Money Heist: La Banda ke Bandar / La Banda is Coming to Town The Clan, Nespresso Summer Campaign Trinergy Digital, 111 Campaign

14. Most Creative - Integrated Media Astana International, Petron Jom Jalan Jalan Conten.T, Best of Sports Conten.T, Greenstride Interactive Comic Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Raising the bar - experiential party platform by drinkies FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO M&C Saatchi, Xpax Revamp Noir by Entropia, 1st AR Concert In A Bottle Noir by Entropia, Goodday Milk Yellow Leads, (The Treasure of Family)

15. Most Creative - Launch/Re-Launch 4 Thirteen, Aspect Ratio Studios, OMD, ABSolutely (Allianz Business Shield) Ampersand Advisory, Launching In Covid 19 With VR 7! Shiseido Creates 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality To Bring Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysian Women GO Communications, Seasons of Change GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO Hawt Dotz, AT&S Groundbreaking Ceremony Mad Hat Asia, Kotex Limited Edition 2021 - Teroka Lokal Noir by Entropia, The Sweet Goodbye Noir by Entropia, 1st AR Concert In A Bottle

16. Most Creative- Multicultural Marketing 4 Thirteen Group, ADA, Truth Communications, Pilihan Riang Raya Acendus Communications, Regulate Vape FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements M&C Saatchi, Celcom Penang MsOrange Solutions Creative, Initiative Media, PayNet makes the driest topic in the world FUN and relatable to different cultures, I Dah. You Bila Lagi? Noir by Entropia, TNB Presents: Raikan Malaysia Kita

17. Most Creative - Out-of-Home Conten.T, Coach x Basquiat Conten.T, Rexy Gone Rogue Conten.T, Best of Sports DreamsKingdoms, Experience a billboard come to life with DuitNow M&C Saatchi, Xpax Revamp

18. Most Creative- Social Media Astro, Maharaja Lawak Mega 2021 Entropia, U Mobile MadeByU: Papercraft Arfa Adam GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO M&C Saatchi, Xpax Revamp Naga DDB Tribal, WONDA Merdeka 2021 Noir by Entropia, Nian-tastic New Start

19. Most Creative- Specific Audience Ampersand Advisory, Winning Urban Beauty-Conscious Women: ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Creates Tokyo Ginza Street In Malaysia Blanc by Entropia, Courage & Kindness Entropia - part of Accenture Song, From niche to mass - inspiring travelers with personalized journeys FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements FCB SHOUT, EXPECTATIONS - Resetting The Benchmarks For Mothers GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks M&C Saatchi, Xpax Revamp Noir by Entropia, The World's First Child-Friendly PPE Suit - Designed For the Children, By the Children! Rantau Golin, Brand Care, #SapotSME The Clan, Grab Lejen

20. Most Creative- Video 4 Thirteen, Aspect Ratio Studios, OMD, ABSolutely (Allianz Business Shield) Entropia Blanc, foodpanda "My Ammama" FCB SHOUT, LOVE CARRIES ON - A Chinese New Year story that took the world by storm FCB SHOUT, SEMPURNA - Malaysia's First Sign Language Musical Campaign M&C Saatchi, Xpax Revamp M&C Saatchi, U OK Tak Naga DDB Tribal, WONDA Merdeka 2021 Noir by Entropia, TNB Presents: Seed-sational Deepavali Noir by Entropia, TNB Presents: Hikmah Raya Aida Noir by Entropia, Nian-tastic New Start

21. Most Effective Use- Audio FCB SHOUT, SEMPURNA - Malaysia's First Sign Language Musical Campaign OMD, Leo Burnett, Extending the heat of the 3x Spicy Ayam Goreng McD with audio channel Scarlet, KK Supermart Audio Jingle

22. Most Effective Use- B2B Marketing Aiken Digital, When Crypto gets married to Esports clickTRUE Malaysia, Epson Knowledge Hub LOCUS-T, From RM10,000 to RM300,000. We get the Leads, You Close the Sales. Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Redefining Digital Resiliency with Maxis eCommerce Noir by Entropia, CTOS Credit Manager Always-on Rantau Golin, Brand Care, #SapotSME Rantau Golin, Brand Care, ATLAS Introduces Automated Sampling SKALE, GGTV, Anchor Legendairy Dream Rewards Star Media Group Berhad Kuali (Food Vertical), Driving SME home baker entrepreneur VoxEureka, RE:GENERATE

23. Most Effective Use - Consumer Insights and Analytics Ampersand Advisory, Data Helps Win Urban Beauty-Conscious Women: ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Brings Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysia Archetype Malaysia, #JomSnekBijak by Mondelz Malaysia Digitas Malaysia, Unfolding Success For Samsung Galaxy Fold3 & Flip3 Digitas Malaysia, A Data-Engineered Way To Overachieve Leads Target For Mercedes Benz A-Series PHD Media, Annalect, Stomping down barriers in O2O marketing to deliver 10x growth

24. Most Effective Use - Content Entropia, BMW 5 Series The Exchange Entropia, U Mobile MadeByU: Papercraft Arfa Adam FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements FCB SHOUT, GO Communications, RASA SAYANG RASA KUAT - Helping the Malay segment navigate ramadan with a fresh insight GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO VoxEureka, Doing Well by Doing Good Yellow Paper Plane, Asian Tiger Moms Knows Better Than Dr Google, Dr Facebook And Dr Whatsapp

25. Most Effective Use- Customer Acquisition ADA, 4 Thirteen Group, Yoodo Unlimited Plan - #WhatYooWant Ampersand Advisory, Innovation Helps Win Urban Beauty-Conscious Women: ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Brings TokyoS Ginza Street To Malaysia Creme Digital, GUESS E-commerce Entropia, Watsons KAWKAW Deals | Weekly Promos Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Coffeerithm' powering Nespresso's commerce growth Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Raising the bar - experiential party platform by drinkies FCB SHOUT, OCEAN HARMONY - Bringing life back to the oceans, one card at a time. FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Championing Body Positivity with The Perfect Fit For All Noir by Entropia, TIME Kabel Besar - The Ultimate Strategy for Customer Acquisition

26. Most Effective Use - Digital Digitas Malaysia, A Data-Engineered Way To Overachieve Leads Target For Mercedes Benz A-Series Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Coffeerithm' powering Nespresso's commerce growth Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Power beyond colors - transforming the paint retail value chain Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Unified banking experience (UBX) Mad Hat Asia, Sekuat Rasa Teh, Seerat Ikatan Kasih Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Fitspo Redefined: Strengthening the nation one fitness goal at a time Noir by Entropia, TIME Kabel Besar - The Strong Connection To The Digital Realm Noir by Entropia, Calpis Encourages Gen Z's to Dance to Fame OMD, C27, Smart Bid: Maximizing ROI-driven digital channels and new media to accelerate business performance The Clan, MAE-mang Boleh Raya Campaign

27. Most Effective Use - Esports Marketing 4 Thirteen Group, ADA, Truth Communications, Yoodo Dominating The Malaysian Esports Scene Aiken Digital, When Crypto gets married to Esports MP Events (Pico Malaysia), Malaysia Digital Creativity Festival (MyDCF) 2021 OMD, Leo Burnett, C27, First Blood: Strengthening McDeliverys Ownership of the E-sports Segment through a Global-first Partnership The Gaming Company, Ultimate Warrior Showdown: PUBG MOBILE Asia Invitational

28. Most Effective Use - Events (Physical/Visual) Edelman, #GetMoving Challenge GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds Hawt Dotz, AT&S Groundbreaking Ceremony Kredence Creative Solutions, Scholastic Asia Young Storytellers Award (SAYSA) Light Up 7, Bursa Marketplace Fair 2021 MP Events (Pico Malaysia), Malaysia Digital Creativity Festival (MyDCF) 2021 Perk Idea, World of Effervescence The Chariot Agency, C27, Squid Game: Live the Game VoxEureka, NEXTGen Malaysia

29. Most Effective Use - Experiential Ampersand Advisory, No Events? No Problem! ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Brings The Tokyo Ginza Street Experience To Your Mobile Phone Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Raising the bar - experiential party platform by drinkies GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds Noir by Entropia, Calpis Creates an Aspirational Filter for Gen Z's Perk Idea, World of Effervescence SKALE, CapitaLand Plant Rewards

30. Most Effective Use - Government Sector/Non-Profit Ampersand Advisory, Grey, Go Comm, For the People, By the People, With the People: how Coways WE STAND AS ONE CSR campaign drove record sales without hard-selling any product Blanc by Entropia, From Social Outcries to Smiles of Happiness - Proton Flood Relief Program FCB SHOUT, MYFUTUREJOBS - Getting Malaysians back to work and the nation back on its feet GO Communications, World Kidney Day INFLUASIA, Voter Suppression LOCUS-T, Bald & Beautiful 4.0 Rantau Golin, Selangor Maritime Gateway: Gateway To A Better Tomorrow Vennea, Program Kembara Qurban VoxEureka, Digi Yellow Heart Xttack Event, For Your Sweetheart: Think Diabetes, Think Heart

31. Most Effective Use - Influencers/KOLs Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, The art of sustainability with Red Hong Yi Entropia Blanc, foodpanda Influencer Campaign FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling GO Communications, LEGO x Adidas Brick Kicks Invictus Blue Group, Empowering Frontliners & Sprinting Sales MsOrange Solutions Creative, Initiative Media, PayNet teams up with influencers to make the driest topic in the world FUN and relatable to young adults, I Dah. You Bila Lagi? The Chariot Agency, Costa Smart Cafes: The Cafe You Can Find Everywhere The Clan, Nespresso Summer Campaign Trinergy Digital, 111 Campaign Yellow Paper Plane, Steering ISUZU Into The Right Direction - Winning Hearts, Winning Customers

32. Most Effective Use - Integrated Media Digitas Malaysia, Building A Connected Ecosystem For Nestl Infant Nutrition To Grow, Engage & Retain Parents FCB SHOUT, OCEAN HARMONY - Bringing life back to the oceans, one card at a time. FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Championing Body Positivity with The Perfect Fit For All Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Redefining The Nation's Eyewear Shopping Experience Noir by Entropia, How Goodday Milk turned frowns into smiles! Noir by Entropia, Taylor'sphere Noir by Entropia, Fishermen Integrated Malaysia, TIME Kabel Besar - Living The Best Life With Strong Connections SKALE, CapitaLand Plant Rewards Xttack Event, For Your Sweetheart: Think Diabetes, Think Heart

33. Most Effective Use - Launch / Re-launch FCB SHOUT, GUM & TEETH PROTECT - Waking Millennials To The Truth Of Gum Problems GO Communications, Genting SkyWorlds GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO GO Communications, Seasons of Change Noir by Entropia, NIPPON Paint - The Unsung Hero For All Malaysians Noir by Entropia, Fishermen Integrated Malaysia, TIME Kabel Besar - Stamped Its Territory With The Strongest Connection! OMD, Leo Burnett, You asked for it, and you got it: Re-igniting the Heat with 3x Spicy Ayam Goreng McD PHD Media, How Aiken tap into cultural zeitgeist creates a viral triumph PHD Media, Ensemble Worldwide, How Safi Influence Hijabi with #SISREDAHJE translate to 40% Sales Growth Yellow Paper Plane, Steering ISUZU Into The Right Direction - Winning Hearts, Winning Customers

34. Most Effective Use - Loyalty & CRM Astana International, Petron Jom Jalan Jalan Digitas Malaysia, Building A Connected Ecosystem For Nestl Infant Nutrition To Grow, Engage & Retain Parents Digitas Malaysia, Unfolding Success For Samsung Galaxy Fold3 & Flip3 With CRM Entropia, Watsons KAWKAW Deals | Weekly Promos Entropia, Always On - Stay Thirsty Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Informal loyalty - a game beyond points Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Winning mommies with marketing 4.0 FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling

35. Most Effective Use - Mobile Ampersand Advisory, Innovation Helps Win Urban Beauty-Conscious Women: ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Brings Tokyo Ginza Street To Your Mobile Phone Edelman, Innovation Helps Win Urban Beauty-Conscious Women: ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Brings Tokyo Ginza Street To Your Mobile Phone Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Unified banking experience (UBX) Noir by Entropia, Calpis Encourages Gen Z's to Dance to Fame OMD, Leo Burnett, Navigating the Way to Increase Footwall to McD with Waze

36. Most Effective Use- Multicultural Marketing Blanc by Entropia, Kongsi Your Gong Xi Edelman, #GetMoving Challenge FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements FCB SHOUT, GO Communications, RASA SAYANG RASA KUAT - Helping the Malay segment navigate ramadan with a fresh insight Noir by Entropia, Reminding Malaysian's that We are ALL Wonda-ful Inside Scarlet, Life After Season 4

37. Most Effective Use- Programmatic Marketing Assembly, YES Drives Digital Connectivity In Malaysia Noir by Entropia, TIME Kabel Besar - When Precision Meets Planning OMD, Leo Burnett, Discover the World Japan PHD Media, VMLY&R Commerce, Subway - A Cookie for a Footfall in the Cookieless World Xaxis Malaysia, Colgate Optic White

38. Most Effective Use - Social Media Astro, Maharaja Lawak Mega 2021 Entropia, U Mobile MadeByU: Papercraft Arfa Adam Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, The art of sustainability with Red Hong Yi GO Communications, Take a Stand with SmectaGO Invictus Blue Group, Kebaya & Vulva - Symbols of Empowering Womanhood Kingdom Digital Solutions, SILKYGIRLs Sweet Treats Campaign Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Championing Body Positivity with The Perfect Fit For All Noir by Entropia, REEL-ing an Opportunity to Fame with Calpis OMD, Leo Burnett, C27, McDonalds x BTS: Creating a DYNAMITE Social Buzz with Pop Culture

39. Most Effective Use - Specific Audience Ampersand Advisory, Winning Urban Beauty-Conscious Women: ShiseidoS First-Of-Its-Kind 7 Levels Of Virtual Reality Brings Ginza Street Tokyo To Malaysia Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Winning mommies with marketing 4.0 FCB SHOUT, GOLDEN WISDOM - How RHB captured a new audience by turning traditional culture into modern art-vertisements Invictus Blue Group, Kebaya & Vulva - Symbols of Empowering Womanhood Maxis eCommerce & Retail, Fitspo Redefined: Strengthening the nation one fitness goal at a time SKALE, CapitaLand Plant Rewards The Clan, Nespresso Summer Campaign Trinergy Digital, 111 Campaign VoxEureka, Digi Yellow Heart VoxEureka, Doing Well by Doing Good

40. Most Effective Use - Video Entropia, U Mobile MadeByU: Papercraft Arfa Adam Entropia - Part of Accenture Song, Breaking the fourth wall in interactive storydoing FCB SHOUT, ALLY AGAINST ADVERSITY - Shining the spotlight on Malaysian resilience with the power of storytelling Noir by Entropia, Fishermen Integrated Malaysia, TIME Kabel Besar - Storytelling At Its Best OMD, Leo Burnett, #SyukurBersyukur: How Good Content Can Travel Further and Make a Big Impact The Clan, MAE-ke It Ong Campaign Xaxis Malaysia, JIKSOO Hyper & Hyper Rose Gold (Jul Aug Campaign) Yellow Paper Plane, Steering ISUZU Into The Right Direction - Winning Hearts, Winning Customers

41. Best Account Manager Astana International, Helena Hassan Be Strategic, Daniel Wong Creme Digital, Sam Werngren Personedge, Lim Shan Yen The Gaming Company, Bowie Lim

42. Best Art Director/Designer At Event Quest, CE Tan Borderless, Sandra Sin Clan Malaysia, Afiq Marzuki SKALE, Shah Al Zefflee Zeno Malaysia, Yap Park Mun

43. Best Strategist Astana International, Danial Asyraf Bin Shafri Be Strategic, Dan Iskandar Borderless, Edward Ong Digitas Malaysia, Grace Loh Kingdom Digital Solutions, Edmund Lou TDG - The D Group, Ng Hun Jie The Gaming Company, Stephanie Wong

Reserve your place at the ceremony by contacting:

Czarina Solomon

Head, Project Management

Tel: +65 6423 0329

Mobile: +65 8112 6351

Email: czarinas@marketing-interactive.com

Mohanesh Kumar

Project Manager

Tel: +65 6423 0329

Mobile: +65 9895 3365

Email: mohaneshk@marketing-interactive.com

Read the rest here:

Agency of the Year and MARKies Malaysia 2022 shortlists unveiled - Marketing Interactive

Here in 2022, West Africa is primed for a gaming revolution. The gaming market across the continent has grown substantially in the past few years, and with new developments in hardware and gaming technologies on the horizon, well soon see a massive shift in terms of how West Africans are playing games and the types of games theyre playing.

In Ghana, in particular, the gaming market is expected to be worth the equivalent of $33 million US dollars by the end of 2023. With such substantial potential growth on the horizon, what does the present and future of gaming in Ghana look like?

Mobile Gaming Surges Ahead

Last decade, the vast majority of the African gaming audience was accessing games on consoles or PCs at their local cyber cafes. Then, as eSports began to pick up in popularity across the country, many gamers began searching for more accessible and cheaper ways to game. Enter the smartphone.

Mobile gaming has experienced amassive uptake across Africain general, with the number of gamers doubling over the past five years. Thanks to affordable hardware, cheap data connections, and the proliferation of different mobile gaming apps that are downloadable from app stores, mobile gaming has mass appeal to Ghanaians that is unlikely to diminish any time soon.

The Emergence of iGaming

For decades, Ghana has been leading at the forefront of real money gaming in West Africa. This vastly popular pastime has been legislated in the country since the 1960s. Then, in 2006, the Ghana GC was established to further regulate land-based casinos and bookmakers.

While land-based gaming is still enjoyed across the globe, digital poker and casino gaming aka iGaming has emerged to be the most dominant segment.

As weve seen in the rise of mobile gaming, modern gamers prioritise convenience and accessibility, which is why online poker and casino gaming platforms are out-performing land-based venues across the globe. Platforms operating in Western markets have set the trend for what gamers expect, offering up a huge variety in terms of the gaming experiences that players can engage with. Brand newdigital variants like Spin & Go tournaments, for example, have mass appeal for time-pressed players who want a quick gaming fix.

While South Africa has been the most prominent African market for iGaming adoption, we can expect West Africa to make strides over the coming years, particularly sinceadvanced technologies like Cryptocurrencies are on the rise here in Ghana.

Harnessing the Storytelling Power of Gaming

Games are a unique medium in that they hold the potential to tell stories and preserve culture while entertaining audiences on a mass scale. Take classic board games like Monopoly, for example. Not only are these traditional games ever-lasting favourites, but they also manage to capture the zeitgeist of the eras in which theyre released.

The same is true for digital games. Even games that would be easy to dismiss as entertaining ways to pass the time are still very much of the moment, in the way that all contemporary culture is. Games like the Candy Crush Saga may not hold much value in terms of their socio-economic impact, but theres something contained in them that still resonates with global audiences.

Until now, African gamers have had limited access to games that centre the African experience or are built here on the continent. While the region has generated annual revenues in excess of $590 million and Africa is the worlds fastest growing market in terms of mobile gaming, the games driving this have largely been Western imports.

Developers like Usiku Games Africa and Teddy Kossoko are working hard to change that. Based in Kenya, Usikus focus is on providing Africa with Social Impact games that utilise blockchain technology to offer new, African-centred ways of play.

Kossokos impact, meanwhile, is firmly within storytelling. His first venture, Kissoro Tribal Game,launched in 2018, becoming the worlds first 100% African mobile gaming app in the process. Based on the Mancala board game, Kissoro Tribal Game updated this centuries-old classic for a modern audience.

His most recent release, Golden Georges, is a mobile football game with a storyline inspored by Ballon dOr winner George Weah.

As the entrepreneur has stated when interviewed recently, the African market as a whole is especially complex, with each country and region wanting different things from their gaming experience. However, Kossoko does see a movement happening both in terms of widespread gaming engagement and Africa-centric game development. It is, after all, only a matter of time before everything changes.

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