What Judging MAD STARS 2026 Taught Me About Turning Local Problems into Creative Solutions
Fertilizer, factory sludge, and regional labor shortages. Not the glamorous end of advertising, but the subjects of three cases I keep returning to after completing 76 evaluations as a Preliminary Juror for MAD STARS 2026. Each of them changed something real before it said anything at all.
A fertilizer brand turned its soil database into a service.
A tile manufacturer turned its waste into classroom chalk.
A job platform turned an unfilled vacancy into a trip worth taking.
That pattern is the argument of this piece: the strongest work changes the system first, then tells the story. Communication still matters. But increasingly, the most powerful thing a brand can communicate is what it actually changed.
What I judged, and how
MAD STARS is an international festival of marketing, advertising and digital content held in Busan, South Korea. Its 19th edition ran from 26 to 28 August 2026 under the theme “AMPLIFY,” with work from 83 countries.
The festival splits into two groups. SOLUTION recognizes work that solves business and consumer problems; POSITIVE IMPACT recognizes creativity that produces meaningful social change. My allocation covered both: 12 Strategy and 19 SDGs evaluations in the Professional competition, plus 33 SDGs and 12 Health evaluations in the Non-Professional competition.
Strategy Stars asked whether there was a real strategic challenge, a coherent idea, a credible execution, and results. SDGs and Health weighed the idea, its relevance, and its execution. Across both, the same rule held: a worthy cause does not make a strong idea, and a beautiful case film cannot rescue a weak strategy.
Soil Stay: when your data becomes the service
Tra Mongkut Fertilizer, Thailand · VML Thailand · Strategy Stars Grand Prix, SDGs Gold, Gold in Data Insights, Crystal in Brand Experience & Activation
This one was personal. I previously worked with farmers through the VEGI project, so model farms, soil knowledge, and practical training are familiar territory. Seeing them win a Grand Prix was a pleasure.
The problem. Fertilizer is a commodity, and farmers switched on price. To justify better products, Tra Mongkut needed farmers to understand their own soil. Most didn’t.
The hidden asset. The company had spent more than a decade mapping Thailand’s 300-plus soil types and running model farms suited to different conditions. That knowledge sat in a database, changing nothing.
The insight. Farmers distrust corporate advice but trust what they see working on another farmer’s land. And not just any farm: a farm with the same soil as theirs.
The mechanism.
Soil sample → soil database → matching “soil twin” farm → farm stay → peer learning → practices applied at home.
Effectively, an Airbnb for farmers where you pay with a soil sample. That matching is the whole game. Visiting a successful farm is inspiring; visiting one whose methods actually transfer to your land is useful.
The evidence. VML Thailand reports that more than 10,000 farmers took part, and the work also won the Creative B2B Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2026. Participation is not yet proof of better harvests, but it shows real demand for practical, soil-specific learning, which is a far more meaningful signal than reach.
Why it earned the Grand Prix, in my reading. Not the farm-stay gimmick. The strategic conversion of an underused business asset into customer value. Tra Mongkut already owned the data; creativity changed what the data could do.
For Mongolia. Plenty of Mongolian companies are sitting on knowledge their customers can’t use: banks with SME lending patterns, seed and input suppliers with yield records, pasture and livestock programs with years of field data. The question is not how that data improves targeting. It is whether the data can become the service itself.
TileChalk: don’t advertise the circular economy, build a circle
DBL Ceramics, Bangladesh · POP5 · SDGs Stars Grand Prix
The problem, times three. DBL recycled the water used in tile production, which left behind ceramic residue that couldn’t simply be dumped. Meanwhile, local chalk makers faced rising raw-material costs, and underserved schools needed affordable classroom supplies.
The insight. One industry’s waste stream could become another industry’s raw material.
The idea, in one line. Ceramic factory waste became classroom chalk. When a mechanism fits in a sentence, that is usually a good sign.
The mechanism.
Residue clay → drying, crushing, sieving → organic binder → moulding → local chalk producers → NGO distribution → classrooms.
DBL describes six months of research with local manufacturers to get the formula right: affordable, lower-dust, safe for children. Then it published the method as open source, so others could replicate it.
The evidence. By October 2025, DBL reported 10,000 packs distributed across 1,000 schools, including slates made from broken tiles. But the stronger result is structural: one move reduces industrial waste, supplies a struggling local industry, and equips classrooms.
Why it stood out to me. Purpose work often fails one simple test. Remove the brand, and does the idea still make sense? Here it doesn’t. The solution starts inside DBL’s own production process. That is real brand relevance, not a CSR donation with a logo on it. The work behind it matters too. A material had to become a product, manufacturers needed a workable supply arrangement, schools needed a distribution route, and replication needed a method others could use.
For Mongolia. Where are our circles waiting to be closed? Ash from Ulaanbaatar’s thermal power plants is the obvious, locally recognised candidate. Mining by-products, wool and cashmere processing offcuts and construction waste are others. The method transfers: identify the waste stream, find who needs it, test the application, and build the partnerships that keep it running. Circular economy thinking only counts when the circle actually operates.
JobStay: shrink the commitment, change the behavior
Albamon (Worxphere), South Korea · Cheil Korea · Strategy Silver, SDGs Bronze
The problem. Korea has a severe geographic mismatch. Cheil cites 52% of Korean youth concentrated around Seoul, while regional businesses struggle to recruit. The lazy response would be a campaign saying “regional jobs are good too.” It would change nothing.
The insight. Young people who avoided regional jobs were happy to travel to the same places. A permanent move is a frightening decision. A two-week trip is not.
The idea. Turn a regional job into a work-and-travel experience. Participants spent around two weeks living and working in Busan, Tongyeong, or Gyeongju, with accommodation, transport, and local experiences included, covered by the work they did for 15 participating local businesses.
The mechanism.
Platform employment data → regions with vacancies and travel appeal → Gen Z recruitment → local work placement → two weeks of lived experience → content and local spending → a shifted perception of regional life.
The evidence. Publicly reported results include roughly 250 applicants per place, all surveyed participants saying they would consider regional work in the future, around 13.2 million video views, and an 82% rise in channel subscribers. Willingness is an encouraging signal, not proof of relocation. The real test is how many participants return, take jobs, or keep contributing to those economies.
Why it stood out to me. It treats a structural economic problem as a behavioral-design problem. Mongolians have a saying for this: Мянга сонсохоор нэг үз — better to see/try once than to hear a thousand times. Jobstay gave that principle a business model.
For Mongolia. Opportunity, talent, and economic activity concentrate in Ulaanbaatar while aimag centers struggle to keep young people. Don’t start by asking a young UB professional to “move to the countryside.” Build the bridge instead: two weeks in Mörön or the Khuvsgul tourism economy, a real job or project, fair pay, accommodation, and introductions to the local network. Tourism gets someone to come. The quality of the work and everyday life decides whether they return.
What connects all three
Soil Stay turned data into education and service. TileChalk turned waste into infrastructure and useful products. JobStay turned a labor shortage into an experience. Each found value in something already present but disconnected from the people who needed it. And in each, execution was inseparable from strategy: the matching, the material science, the employer network were the idea, not decoration on top of it. They changed the system before they communicated the story. The case films were good. But they were evidence that something had changed, not a substitute for the change.
After 76 evaluations, the work I remembered was rarely the work with the biggest budget or the flashiest technology. It was the work where problem, insight, and intervention fitted together so tightly the idea felt inevitable. The best work I judged didn’t ask how to tell a better story. It asked what to change so the story would be true. That question is available to every Mongolian business tomorrow morning, no festival budget required. Start with what’s in front of you: a customer who can’t use your product well, a material you throw away, a role you can’t fill, or knowledge that has never reached the people who need it. Pick one. Understand why it persists. Build something people have a reason to use. Then measure what changes.
What the student work showed
Nearly two-thirds of my evaluations, 45 in total, came from the Non-Professional competition in SDGs and Health. What struck me was how open the competition is. MAD STARS accepts work not only from agencies and brands but also from students, independent creators, and the general public. Some of the most encouraging entries I saw came from people at the very start of their careers. For young Mongolian creatives, students and agencies, that openness is an invitation. If you have an idea that solves a real problem, consider entering. Putting your work in front of an international jury is one of the best ways to learn what strong work looks like, and how yours measures up.
Sources
adobo Magazine: MAD STARS 2026 Grand Prix winners, incl. Soil Stay and TileChalk
adobo Magazine: VML Thailand's Soil Stay wins Strategy Stars Grand Prix
Campaign Brief Asia: Worxphere and Cheil launch the JOBSTAY Project
Branding in Asia: MAD STARS 2026 open to agencies, creators and the general public
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