APMF Perpetual Vision is a collection of writings on the talks given and themes broached at previous iterations of the biennial advertising and communications conference.

The Asia Pacific Media Forum (APMF), first held in 2005 and most recently held in Bali in May, has grown in stature and prestige, featuring notable speakers from around the world; APMF Perpetual Vision is the first publication looking back at the growth of the event and the development of the trends it has marked in communications, technology and media.

The work is the brainchild of Wiwiek Siswanti, an advertising lecturer and consultant who has been involved with the APMF since its inception, first as finance director and subsequently as director.

As the presentations given at the conference became ever more salient and engaging, she wanted to produce a permanent record of the best of them.

As such, she and Rima Sjoekri, a food writer involved with the APMF as a web editor since 2008, decided to approach the great and good of the Indonesian advertising industry to ask them to contribute essays on their all-time favorite APMF talks.

The result should interest anyone with an eye on trends in media, advertising and technology.

Perpetual Vision divides its essays into three chapters — “Transmedia Powered by Technology”, “Connecting With the Human Spirit” and “Vision Led by Hindsight, Insight and Foresight” — but many of the themes are common to all three.

One of the most notable is the concept of advertising addressing the unconscious mind. Written by Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) deputy chairman Ricky Pesik, an essay entitled “Talking to the Elephant: Smart Communication in a Digital Era” looks at a talk given by British ad man Rory Sutherland at the 2012 APMF, regarding how advertising, by limiting itself to rational, logical appeals, was “failing to reach the heights it could”.

According to Sutherland, the most successful communication engages the more ineffable aspects of human experience: emotions, fun and sex.

A similar point is made in “The Formula for Creative Alchemy” by Henry Manampiring, one of two essays discussing presentations by Japanese advertising doyen Kentaro Kimura.

Speaking at the 2008 APMF, Kimura underlined the need to go beyond the rational, illustrating his point with a parody of a fairy tale, as described by Henry: “The hero of the story comes across an idea in town, and thinks he’s found what he was looking for. But while the idea is good, it’s not quite bright enough. It’s not until he wanders into a dark and forbidding forest that he finds an idea bright enough to illuminate the entire kingdom [...]

“Town and forest are used here as metaphors. The town represents the unconscious mind, the field of reason and logic. Ideas can, of course, be found here, but they are often predictable, and rarely constitute a breakthrough. The dark forest, meanwhile, represents the unconscious — chaotic, unpredictable, perhaps scary and risky. Yet it is here that we are likely to find the brightest of ideas.”

Not all of the APMF speakers included in the book come from the world of advertising; there are also essays on talks given by, among others, airline impresario Tony Fernandes, veteran musician Abdee “Slank” Negara and politicians Anies Baswedan and Ridwan Kamil.

Their essays help to drive home the point, made repeatedly by Perpetual Vision’s contributors, that communication is increasingly holistic, blurring traditional divides and distinctions.

This is also true of media technology, with content freed from the restraints of physical hardware. One of the most interesting points made in the book is that this is in fact good news for forms of media frequently written off as obsolete or dying, such as radio and print publications.

Think beyond: Kentaro Kimura, the founder of the Hakuhodo Kettle creative agency, talks during the Asia Pacific Media Forum (APMF).

“Journalism plus technology equals unlimited possibility,” says David Alexander in his essay on a presentation given by media strategist Earl J. Wilkinson at the 2014 APMF, outlining a future in which paywalls, sponsored content and sharper media branding ensure the continuance of print publications.

Radio, meanwhile, has proven able to adapt to the rise of the internet and changes in media consumption, argues Jerry S. Justianto in his essay “Listen to This” on talks given by radio experts Tony O’Regan and Kudsia Kahar.

The medium, Jerry writes, can continue to serve as “a nucleus for creating a movement” that “creates the best theater of the mind for each individual user”.

It is perhaps inevitable that players in a given industry will present that industry in the best possible light. While the APMF is an explicitly non-commercial event, Perpetual Vision was partly funded by the Creative Economy Agency, which of course has an interest in promoting Indonesia’s creative industries.

Nonetheless, in a technological and media landscape shifting with at times dizzying speed, this work stands as a useful and engaging landmark, reflecting on trends to date, and pointing to those to come.

— Photos courtey of APMF