As Spikes Asia returns in 2025 to celebrate APAC’s finest in creativity and marketing effectiveness, this year introduces a new focus on humour in branded communications.
A familiar face in the industry, Torsak Chuenprapar—co-founder and chief creative officer of Wolf BKK—shares how Wolf leverages humour in their award-winning work and offers insights into this exciting new category.
Why did you prioritise entering ‘The Air Drummer’ into Spikes Asia 2024?
We prioritised entering ‘The Air Drummer’ into Spikes Asia because it is a globally recognised platform. The judges are carefully selected, and the judging system is highly credible. Winning an award at Spikes Asia is a great honour.
How did your success at Spikes Asia impact the team and wider business?
Firstly, the team was incredibly happy because we put our full effort into the project. Secondly, our working relationship with the client improved significantly as they gained more confidence in creating great campaigns. This also helped Robinson Department Store gain global recognition.
This is a very novel idea. How did you convince your client that this would work?
As someone who handles both Central and Robinson department stores, these two have distinct differences. Central focuses more on fashion, while Robinson caters to families, with visitors spanning multiple generations. We wanted to highlight the generational differences within a family—despite differing viewpoints, everyone can still express love and care through gifts from Robinson. The way we convinced the client was by sharing this narrative with them. This is something that happens regularly in Thailand; we live in extended families with parents, children, and sometimes even grandparents. Naturally, there are conflicts, but it all stems from love, and we believed everyone would resonate with this story.
What techniques did you use to engage your target audience on social media?
To be honest, the client had a very limited media budget for this campaign, as it was just a short-term sales event. So, we planned from the beginning on how to make the campaign engaging. If you look at the cast, the man who plays the uncle is actually the drummer of Bodyslam, Thailand’s number one rock band. Even the young girl in the film is a champion drummer in her age group. After releasing the film, everyone loved it and started sharing it organically, which spread to several countries. We were surprised at how it reached an international audience.
‘The Air Drummer’ gained global recognition in Korea, China, and Portugal—did this surprise you? Why do you think it resonated with such a global audience?
We were surprised because we didn’t expect it to go this far. However, at Wolf, we have a rule for every project we work on: Whatever idea we come up with must be something that people around the world can understand and feel. We don’t create work that only people in the country can understand. This is Wolf’s first rule. And of course, no matter the country, people love stories that are unpredictable.
Why do you think the use of humour was so effective for this campaign?
At Wolf, we strongly believe in this approach. People today face many stressful situations in their daily lives, and during their downtime, they want something light and fun to help them relax. This is not to mention the fact that we are competing with a lot of entertaining content on the internet. So, when we try to sell something during their relaxation time, we must provide them with what they want first.
What did you learn while creating ‘The Air Drummer’ and how will it impact your approach to future projects?
As mentioned, for this project, we had a very limited budget. We had to work within strict financial constraints, and we could only shoot in one location (besides the client’s department store). So, the entire story had to unfold in a single setting. We aimed to keep it as simple as possible. When we have a smaller budget, we have to think more, and this approach helped us create a great piece of work.
Having proven that humour pays off, what is your advice for brands apprehensive about using humour in marketing communications?
What’s there to be afraid of? I honestly can’t think of anything. But if you’re still afraid, try to think about what you personally want to watch during your lunch break or after work. Take off your ‘creative’ or ‘marketing’ hat, and you’ll realise what people truly want to see.
What advice would you give to other Thai agencies considering entering their work into Spikes Asia?
Put your best effort into every project, and submit your very best work. Choose the right category, and let’s hope for the best together.
Ready to enter? Get started on your Awards entry journey at www.spikes.asia.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
