But let’s be honest. We’re in a bit of a rut. Year after year, we sweat buckets trying to create work that we can be proud of and sometimes, we actually pull it off. Our peers send us emojis, LinkedIn gets lit, journos put it on their front pages and the lucky few of us actually win some lusted-after Kancil metal. That’s truly worth celebrating, but all too often, it stops there.
It wasn’t always this way, but it has been this way for too long. Everybody reading this has worked on the recurring festive brief that celebrates our unique diversity - such a unique melting pot of influences, inspirations, curiosity and talent! So why doesn’t the rest of the industry see that? Why does it seem that the only way to ‘make it’ is to go somewhere else? Maybe we don’t have a creativity problem. Maybe it’s a confidence problem, a belief problem. Maybe too many of us confuse ambition for arrogance, maybe we’re not thinking big enough with the potential of our thinking. Because the truth is, great idea are truly borderless - great idea can solve a human problem that anyone, anywhere can relate to. Great ideas are truly borderless.
On the subject of humanity, we have to talk about AI - the most fundamental shift in creativity in our lifetime. We creatives are equal parts excited by the possibilities to make amazing new things and intimidated by the possibilities to make us all becoming irrelevant. Right now, the jury might be out, but this Kancil jury won’t be looking for how technology can replace human creativity. We don’t want examples of using AI to do funky, faster, cheaper versions of what we already do - rather, we want to see its potential in enhancing and enabling new boundaries. We want to see how AI enables us to creatively show new ways of how we see the world, of what Malaysians are made of, that weren’t possible before. It cuts across all disciplines, which is why you’ll see AI represented across all ‘innovation’ subcategories this year.
Another shift is the Direct category - there is no more Direct category. What began as a category to celebrate the best in direct mail to your door, has been updated to become ‘Commerce’. We wanted to better reflect our industry’s ability to use customer insights and technology to drive the bottom line.
The Kancils is a fundamental stepping stone on all of our creative journeys - but it shouldn’t be the only destination. As Malaysia’s #1 creative festival, it’s our mission to reignite the belief in Malaysian creativity again. This year’s awards are not just about recognising and awarding great ideas for Malaysia, but great ideas made in Malaysia that the whole world can admire. Let’s make ’em jealous, show ‘em what we’re really made of and that we can Make it for Malaysia.
This is the Kancils 2023 and this time, it only starts here.
— Graham Drew, Kancils Jury Chairman 2023
