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  • Goafest 2012 to focus on ‘Magic of Ideas’

    Goafest 2012 to focus on ‘Magic of Ideas’

    MUMBAI: The theme of Goafest 2012, to be held on 19-21 April, will be ‘Magic of ideas.‘

    In line with the overall festival theme, Goafest 2012 Conclave is themed ‘Ideas for impacting the full circle‘.

    Also, some changes are introduced this year, one of them being that for the first time it will encompass the geographical area of the entire South Asian region.

    Goafest Committee chairman Arvind Sharma said, “This year, it will be an advertising festival for all in South Asia. We are calling everyone involved in creating ideas from countries across South Asia- Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal – as delegates as well as award entrants.”

    Held at the Zuri White Sands in South Goa, the organisers will be holding road shows in countries across South Asia to promote the festival in these markets.

    Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) president Nagesh Alai said, “We have received a very positive response from countries in South Asia. We are looking forward to our road shows to promote the festival in these markets. All South Asian agencies will participate in the main awards show. However, there will also be ‘The best of rest of South Asia‘ in each of the verticals.”

    The 2012 edition of the advertising world jamboree is looking at strong client participation. Beyond the Conclave, senior clients are expected to be an integral part of the knowledge seminars.

    The Goafest Committee is also looking to attract young client delegates in large numbers. It is offering a special package for under-30 marketers. “We‘re confident that well over 50 major client organisations will take part in the festival this year,” averred Sharma.

    Following the trend of the past, this year too AAAI and Ad Club Bombay will be working together in partnership for the fifth year to deliver awards to celebrate creativity.

    The Advertising Club Bombay president and chairman of the Awards Governing Council, the joint Advertising Agencies Association of India and Advertising Club Bombay body that runs the awards, Shashi Sinha said, “Last year‘s awards were well received by the industry. The Awards Governing Council will follow the same tight processes with some fine tuning in 2012.”

    Over the years, specialist areas like Out of Home, Ambient, Design, Interactive Digital Advertising, Direct, and Integrated Advertising have been growing in importance. In recognition of this phenomenon, in 2012 Abbies at Goafest will have a provision for Grand Prix in all the nine verticals.

    It may be recalled that last year Grand Prix were given only in Film, Print and Radio verticals. This year Grand Prix is also being introduced in media awards.

    In 2011, over 140 agencies sent entries for Abbies at Goafest. A large number of these were specialist agencies. “Abbies are open to all those who create ideas. They do not have to be Advertising Agencies Association of India or Ad Club members,” Sharma observed.

    Consistent with its growing importance, digital will find a place of pride at Goafest 2012. Digital Awards will be held on 20 April as will Media Awards. Design, Direct Awards will also be held on the same day, while the rest of the Creative will be held on 21 April.

    Throwing light on the novelty of this year‘s do, Sharma said, “We have made the festival more inclusive and professional from the previous installments. Also, we have worked on tightening the jury process of the awards after taking into consideration the industry‘s feedback from last year‘s awards.”

  • Contesting a monthly ratings system for news channels

    Contesting a monthly ratings system for news channels

    MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Television news broadcasters are pressuring for a monthly ratings system that will free their content from being weighed on a weekly basis, but advertising agencies do not seem to be in agreement.

    News Broadcasters Association (NBA), an umbrella body of TV news channels, has decided that the weekly ratings for all national news and business channels in Hindi and English should be done on a monthly basis from next month.

    The NBA board feels that this will improve news broadcasting standards as “coverage and reportage of news and programmes cannot always be linked to popularity or audience measurement”.

    India’s ratings agency TAM, however, has not yielded yet. Though in dialogue with the NBA, TAM wants consensus from the other stakeholders like the IBF, AAAI and ISA who are also users of the same central TAM database.

    Said TAM Media Research CEO LV Krishnan, “It is imperative for NBA to first discuss their proposal with other industry bodies. Only after this should one arrive at an overall industry consensus on the frequency of TAM data reporting. TAM will require written approvals from each of the member’s industry bodies on the decision taken with respect to the change in frequency of data reporting. Till the time we receive a formal overall approval from all stakeholders of the TAM database, no decisions on the change in current frequency of reporting will be taken.”

    Building a consensus will not be easy. Leo Burnett Chairman of India Sub-Continent Arvind Sharma said, “Advertising agencies will oppose such a move. To make a more informed decision, an advertiser needs transparent, frequent and current data. Moving to a monthly ratings system will not allow us to read patterns. It is not a progressive move.”

    News broadcasters argue that their content is distinct from other genres as they have a responsibility to inform and empower their viewers with quality programming and dissemination of news rather than providing content merely for garnering viewership. News broadcasting standards can only improve with time spent on strategic planning and research rather than knee jerk reactions taken on a weekly basis.

    NBA wants TAM to introduce the monthly ratings system initially for a period of two years. Regional news channels could be brought under this system on a later date.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, several senior executives said on condition of anonymity that agencies look at 4-13 week data when they make advertising deals for their clients. “There is no revision in rates done after a deal is inked. So there is no reason for them to be upset,” a top official said.

    The NBA also clarified in an official statement that the initiative taken by it would not in any way hamper the decision making of advertisers and advertising agencies.

    “In the new monthly dispensation, advertisers would continue to get access to data broken down to a minute or a day-part or a specific programme in a manner similar to how data points are currently accessed in the weekly format,” it said.

    Sharma, however, disagrees. “News channels are indirectly saying that more frequent information (weekly ratings data) makes their content worse. This seems to be built on an unsound premise,” he said.

    Added Madison Media Group CEO Punitha Arumugam, “The same data getting reported on a monthly basis instead only delays the decision making process.”

    Will a monthly ratings system clean up content? “This will certainly reduce pressure on the editors,” said Pankaj Pachauri, NDTV Managing Editor – Special Projects and VP of the Broadcast Editors Association. “Editors were often constrained to make last minute changes in the fixed point charts or the content of the various news programmes on the basis of weekly TAM reports.”

  • Nagesh Alai re-elected as prez of AAAI

    Nagesh Alai re-elected as prez of AAAI

    MUMBAI: Interface Communications executive director Nagesh Alai has been re-elected president of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2011-2012 at its Annual General Body Meeting held on 29 July 2011.

    Leo Burnett chairman and CEO India Subcontinent Arvind Sharma has replaced Lintas Media Group chairman and CEO Lynn de Souza, as the vice-president of the association.
     
    In 2010-11, Alai had replaced JWT India CEO Colvyn Harris to become the president of AAAI.

    Other elected members of the executive committee for the ensuing year includes, Madison World chairman and MD and GroupM CEO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja.

  • Goafest 2011 to kick off on 5 April

    Goafest 2011 to kick off on 5 April

    MUMBAI: Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Advertising Club Bombay (ACB) said Thursday that the sixth edition of Goafest will be extended to five days and the theme this year would be to “Spot the ideas”.
    The biggest advertising and awards festival of India will be held from 5-9 April. The event will be held at Zuri White Sands resort in Varca, South Goa.

    The Media Abby will be held on 8 April, followed by the Creative Abby on 9 April.

    The speaker‘s list at the fest includes Talenthouse creative director and founder Amos Pizzey, Engine CEO Peter Scott, Lowe & Partners Worldwide global CEO Michael Wall, TBWA Worldwide chief marketing officer Laurie Coots and LiquidThread president and MD Brian J Terkelsen.

    The creative and media Abby‘s will be managed by the nine-member Awards Governing Council (AGC) under the chairmanship of Shashi Sinha. Other members of the AGC include Arvind Sharma, Sundar Swamy, Sunil Lulla, Ajay Chandwani, Ajay Kakkar, Suman Srivastaa, AAAI president Nagesh Alai and ACB president Bhaskar Das.

    Says Goafest 2011 chairperson Lynn de Souza, “Goafest 2011 will provide a unique learning environment for creative, marketing and media practioners and the opportunity to recognize and award excellent work from all over the country. We hope to take this event onto newer heights and bring it on par with other international events.”

    The Festival of Media, Montreux, will specially host two of its categories – ‘best communication strategy‘ and ‘best contribution to a campaign by a media owner‘ at the Goafest at specially reduced entry fees. The winners and runners-up of these categories will be fast-tracked into to the Festival of Media finals.

    Shashi Sinha adds, “We will be coming up with the complete list of the categories in a few days. The Goafest is all about creativity and networking.”

    The five-day festival will kick off with a unique event in association with Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) specially featuring 100 young creative people. They will be required to conceive and execute installation art works based on the theme ‘Creativity with a conscience‘. The final pieces will be displayed in the Ad Village for the duration of the festival.

    To be held on 7 April, the topic for the Industry Advertising Conclave this year is ‘Preparing the profession for the new decade‘ and will be led by Sundar Swamy.
  • News channels, govt welcome BARC; no to weekly ratings

    News channels, govt welcome BARC; no to weekly ratings

    NEW DELHI: News television channels have welcomed the formation of the independent, media-run rating agency, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), saying competition will be good. However, they also insist that this will be meaningless unless weekly ratings stop.

    The government, meanwhile, says competition in the rating sector will be good, provided the BARC partners are serious about implementing their stated goal.

    Currently, Television Audience Measurement (Tam) gives weekly ratings of channels, and it also provides programme ratings each Friday, and this, according to one editor, is “what is polluting television news.”

    BARC is a combined effort of the Indian Broadcast Foundation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA). Over the next two years, it will invest Rs 900 million to set up 500,000 peoplemeters across the country, with a mix of urban-rural households.

    IBN 7 managing editor Asutosh says, “Broadbasing the households is going to be good and we shall get a much clearer picture. If they are going to bring in those many boxes and spread across the country, that will have a positive impact.”

    However, he adds, “So long as the Friday blues remain, there will be unnecessary competition and chasing TRPs will remain as usual, so that has to be done away with.”

    Asked whether the channels have taken the issue of weekly rating up with Tam Media Research, one editor said, “No we have not, because we have only recently figured this out, and this is the real polluter.”

    Aaj Tak news director QW Naqvi says, “The core issue is weekly ratings, and I do not see why it should be like that because if that remains, there will be no change in the scenario.”

    Naqvi wants staggered rating announcements, arguing, “The newspapers are not judged daily, and the NRS just comes out once a year, stating simply how much each paper sold and what was the market share.

    “This is a must, but look at us; we are judged weekly, programme-wise and even story-wise, and whatever clicks becomes a holy grail to be chased by the rest, so it spoils the whole ethos.”

    “Even if someone does credible work, like a report on the possibility of life on Mars, and next Friday’s report says that was a hit, everyone will start going to Mars and Jupiter, distorting the whole scientific issue, and this is what is spoiling news television,” adds Naqvi.

    B.A.G Films & Media Ltd MD Anurradha Prasad, who launched Hindi news channel News 24 last November, says, “It is good that a second currency is coming up, and I agree that weekly ratings is a big problem, but we cannot have just an annual report on ratings and channels share.”

    She stresses while the weekly rating system must go, there could be monthly reports, saying that even a biannual rating announcement would be too long.

    While Trai is scheduled to hold a meeting on rating system on 7 March and finalise its recommendations latest by April third week, sources said that the I&B ministry is happy with BARC being formed. “Let there be competition, that is good,” said I&B officials.

    Tam had remained absent at the meeting with a Parliamentary Committee on broadcasting that met in Mumbai last year, and the officials said that this was not looked upon kindly by the ministry.

    Though admitting that weekly ratings end up skewing the news television scenario, officials say that the ministry itself was not doing anything; it has left the issue for Trai’s recommendations, expected next month.

    In the meanwhile, officials added that once there is competition, “even Tam will start behaving like a good boy”.

    But they also asked, “Is BARC a serious thing? We had heard of this company in a meeting here at the ministry itself, but this is the first time something has actually come out of it.”

    They added, “If the channels and advertising agencies have got together and if they are serious, this will be a very positive thing.”

  • ‘The challenge in a high growth economy is shortage of talented, trained manpower’ : Arvind Sharma – Goafest Committee chairman and Leo Burnett chairman India sub-continent

    ‘The challenge in a high growth economy is shortage of talented, trained manpower’ : Arvind Sharma – Goafest Committee chairman and Leo Burnett chairman India sub-continent

    As the sun and sands of Goa beckon the Indian advertising, media and marketing community for the AAAI organized ad festival Goafest from 19 – 21 April, apart from the celebration that lies in its wake, the event seeks to address more critical issues faced by the industry. Amidst all the hectic last minute schedules, Goafest Committee chairman and Leo Burnett chairman India subcontinent Arvind Sharma very co-operatively took time out to share his perspective on the current standing of the Indian advertising community, the progression towards growth and expansion and the pitfalls that need to be resolved.

    In an exclusive tete-a-tete with Indiantelevision.com’s Renelle Snelleksz, Sharma highlights the point that the fundamental objective for the festival is “to provide a platform for conversations, debates, ideas and celebrations between the rock stars and the aspirants.”

    Excerpts:

    What are the key proponents that necessitate AAAI’s endeavor to capture an untapped area of the Indian advertising fraternity through Goafest?
    As a member of the executive committee of AAAI, it was early last year that we decided to host a National Ad Festival. National because we recognized that epicenters have a way of moving and so different advertising capitals keep springing up across the country. At one point Kolkata was at the helm but today Delhi is huge, only 20 per cent smaller than Mumbai. Therefore AAAI endeavors to promote advertising work from across the country.

    Secondly, there is a fundamental difference between a one off award function and a festival. The former is largely focused on the work of the individual but we chose to go with a festival because it allows an opportunity to display the work and think of ways in which it can be bettered. Unlike award shows, the festival has been designed to not focus on the ‘agency of the year’ concept which selects one winner and a dozen losers. As an industry that is growing at 20 per cent we would rather have 1,000 winners and our attempt is to encourage and nurture those winners.

    By design, there will be no agency of the year but instead a Grand Prix award to recognize work that represents excellence. This will help develop the industry more rapidly. The fundamental objective for the festival is that it aims to provide a platform for conversations, debate, ideas and celebration.

    What are the key differentiators for Goafest as a festival, as compared to existing one off award functions?
    This takes shape in four ways – Firstly, the work that has been entered is displayed so that delegates have the opportunity to make their own judgment on the entries that have won and those that have not. The festival also brings successful International speakers and local jury members as well as aspiring youngsters to exchange their thoughts and ideas.

    Secondly, there are a host of formal seminars and thirdly, apart from the exchange between the aspirants and the rocks stars, the festival brings 2,000 people from various locations, specialist fields intermingling and sharing their experiences.

    Lastly, it brings the rising stars from across India to Goa. As is known, all industry functions like these are expensive and only the senior executives get to go, which ultimately makes development of the industry slower because the exposure is less. Thus we have provided a special package for 800 under 30 year-olds.

    While Goafest is an event of celebration, what are the larger underlying industry issues that the event is looking to address? How can these be remedied?
    The challenge for the advertising industry in a high growth economy is the shortage of talented trained manpower and this will be the primary focus at the event.

    The Ad Conclave that precedes the festival will get 150 leaders of the industry and much like town hall sessions, will get them thinking together. On an every day basis, the nature of competition exists, but this is a platform where we can all put our heads together to finds ways to cope with the existing issues.

    At an individual level, there will be competition but we need to work collectively on this front. The gurus of today spent their first 10 years in a pre-television environment with DD as the only means of TV. Youngsters on the other hand, are acquainted with the growing multimedia environment, though they may not know the craft. It is fundamental for us to listen and learn from them just as much as they learn from us.

    The industry faces a shortage of talent. It is believed that AAAI plans to unveil an ad campaign that would lure youngsters towards the profession. Is that still on the cards?
    Yes, it is still very much on the cards and will follow closely after Goafest.

    What is the growth that the industry has seen over 2006?
    Various sectors have grown differently – The creative agencies have grown at 15-20 per cent, the marketing services at about 30 per cent and the specialist’s media agencies at 25 – 30 per cent. So overall, the industry has grown by 20 -25 per cent and from a global point of view India features in the top five advertising industries. Although our base may be small, our growth rate is impressive.
    ‘Creative agencies
    have grown
    15-20%, marketing services at about
    30% and the specialist’s media agencies
    at 25-30%‘

    In order to leap ahead in the next three to five years, as the Ad Conclave theme suggests, it would require the combined effort of the industry at large however; two mammoth agencies O&M and Lowe seem to stay aloof? What would be your advice to them?
    In any industry, one hopes for 100 per cent participation. But we have received enthusiastic support across centres and agencies. Sometimes people choose to wait and watch, but as and when they decide to join in we will welcome them. We will go forward with what we believe in, we will just have to give the others time.

    What is your opinion on a having a common Indian advertising body and a single credible award function, a proposition that many professionals have vouched for?
    Our belief is in an advertising festival and not just an award show that will include seminars and interactions. However, there will always be a second and third viewpoint.

    You mentioned earlier that an investment of Rs 50 million was being pumped into the event. You also have a big kitty of sponsors, what will be their contribution to making the event a success?
    Goafest is a non profit event and while no association has complete funding of its own, the whole industry has supported us directly through sponsorship money. We are extremely excited and grateful for their contribution.

    What are the logistics that have to be taken care of when planning an event on such a lavish scale? When did the planning commence and how long has it taken you to set up the agenda?
    The logistics are extensive as one has to get International speakers and coordinate dates that are convenient, to book hotel rooms and check availability. To accommodate and make arrangements for the 800 under 30 delegates as well as senior executives has been a real challenge. We started planning and preparation six month ago.

    With the inclusion of media awards and with a host of International experts and commentators – what are your expectations of the event this year?
    We are hoping to prove to ourselves and to the world that we are capable of hosting an advertising festival comparable to any in the world.

    What advice would you give to the 2,000 media, advertising and marketing professionals that are gearing up to come to Goafest this year?
    (Laughs) My only advice is to come and freely share your thoughts and ideas, as I believe this will finally help to catalyze the growth of the industry as a whole.