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Tag: Goafest

  • Gen-Now upbeat about GoaFest

    Gen-Now upbeat about GoaFest

    MUMBAI: The countdown to GoaFest 2014 has begun, setting the advertising and media industry aflutter.

     

    On the one hand, there is talk of some creative agencies sending only their key teams to attend the fest while on the other, some biggies have decided to give the event a miss altogether, citing budget constraints, as one of the reasons. In the words of a copy supervisor of a leading creative agency, “I don’t like the fact that the venue has been shifted. It was like a welcome break for all once a year.”

     

    However, as with all other things, this is but one side of the story. There are ripples of excitement among a host of digital, media and outdoor agencies which are really looking forward to participating in the extravaganza. Indiatelevision.com speaks to some of the young, up and coming delegates to understand their expectations from the fest…

     

    Great Expectations

     

    The Abby’s which were always considered prestigious by the creative and media fraternity has captured the imagination of digital and outdoor agencies as well. As ibs copy supervisor Karthik Krishnan puts it, GoaFest is a great platform many young professionals (in creative and servicing) to get exposure to the best in business when it comes to the jury and peers. “Ad people are slowly warming up to their international counterparts’ attention to digital. This year, in addition to mainline, I’m expecting a lot more attention being given to digital advertising,” adds Krishnan. 

     

    Milestone Brandcom account manager Nidhi Kavle feels it’s going to be an exciting experience attending the fest and meeting the cr?me de la cr?me of advertising. “Having chosen advertising as a career, I am looking forward to see the different faces of the industry and get some great insights into what the future of my career in this industry will be like. All the moguls of the ad world are going to be at the fest and to get an opportunity to see them, interact with them, and hear them speak is one that I wouldn’t pass for anything,” says Kavle.

     

    What about CQ?

     

    Sources believe that with the number of entries having gone down and with some agencies dropping out, the competitive quotient (CQ) has dipped. However, the ones attending the fest seem positive.

     

    “On the one hand, the opportunity for the industry’s up-and-coming talents to measure up against the Indian behemoths is sort of lost. But on the other hand, the stage is all theirs. It’s their event to showcase their very best, in front of the best,” says Krishnan. 

     

    Says Kavle, “I believe that the work we see on a daily basis, across the various mediums of communication should be the work that is selected for honours. This is the same work that traverses from one medium to another. Most of the organizers now have already become more process driven. So we are looking forward to another great edition of the fest with lots of new experiences to take home.”

     

    Guess we’ll just have to wait for a week to see who takes away what at the fest…

  • GoaFest announces Creative Abbys & shortlist online

    GoaFest announces Creative Abbys & shortlist online

    MUMBAI: The Awards Governing Council (AGC) of Abbys at Goafest 2014 has announced the team of jury chairpersons for the Creative Abbys.

     

    The jury chairperson for the Integrated Advertising category is McCann World Group president, south Asia, Prasoon Joshi. The film category will be chaired by it Taproot chairman and chief creative officer Agnello Dias. Alok Nanda communications director Alok Nanda will chair the design category.

     

    For Outdoor Advertising and Ambient DDB Mudra Group, India chairman and chief creative officer, Sonal Dabral will be the jury chair and for Radio Advertising it will be Contract Advertising National Creative Director, Ashish Chakravarty.

     

    Commenting on the jury, chairman of the Awards Governing Council, Pratap Bose, said “We are delighted to have such a remarkable line-up of jury chairpersons this year. All of them are creative stalwarts and I am pleased that they will be judging the Creative Abbys this year. The judging process will be transparent and fair. KPMG will be monitoring the judging procedure.”

     

    This year more than 3,000 entries were received. Shortlists for Goafest 2014 are being displayed at www.abbyshortlist.com.

     

    If any, then issues related to shortlisted entries can be brought to the attention of jury chairperson in writing. The matter with proof submitted will be tabled in the second round for the jury to make a final call on. Metals awarded by the jury after the second round of judging will be final.

     

    Goafest 2014 will be held at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, North Goa on 29–31 May 2014.

  • TBWAIndia names R. Venkatraman ‘Venky’ as creative director

    TBWAIndia names R. Venkatraman ‘Venky’ as creative director

    MUMBAI: TBWA India has got on board R. Venkatraman (Venky) as creative director. In his new position, Venky will join the creative team in Mumbai, reporting to TBWA India chief creative officer Parixit Bhattacharya.

    With eight years experience in advertising, Venky has worked at Grey Worldwide, Creativeland Asia and BBH India. His brand experience includes Appy Fizz, Mango Frooti, LMN, Johnnie Walker, Red Bull, Kinetic Honda, Café Coffee Day, Gili Jewellery, Movies Now, Vaseline Men and Google.

    In recent years, Venky’s work was shortlisted at Cannes Lions and has won metal at ADFEST, Spikes Asia and GOAFEST. He also holds the accolade of Business World voting him as one of the ‘Top 5 Young Advertising Professionals’ in India.

    Commenting on the appointment, Bhattacharya said, “Venky has a stellar work ethic and a very matured head on his young shoulders. I am hoping that our rich roster of clients will nourish him with new opportunities to create an enviable body of work. Needless to say, by having him around, the laughter index of the agency will rise significantly too.”

    “My quest for work-type fun brings me to TBWA and I am very, very excited to be here,” Venky added. “Now it’s all about turning that excitement into work that will make a difference to the brands we nurture here.”

  • Goafest 2013: The Amir Kassaei manifesto on clients, digital and creativity

    VARCA,GOA: Digital is not is not a media; it is not even a channel; it is the new infrastructure of the world, believes DDB Worldwide chief creative officer Amir Kassaei, a speaker at the Goafest 2013.

    “Digital is the electricity of the 21st century. In the next 15-20 years everything that can be connected will be connected. This will completely change the way we work, communicate, get information or get entertainment. The way we innovate, or collaborate, the way we do business or define quality, usage, design.”

    According to Kassaei digital can be used as a tool but a marketershould not confuse it with an idea. Technology cannot replace an
    idea,a marketer will always need that “idea”. One should make technology a device to implement an idea. Use digital infrastructure to come up with an idea that produces a brand experience in a completely different way than the way it was. Also, one must remember to keep the idea simple.

    “Creativity is “effectiveness.” It lies in producing results,” Kassaei highlighted. He went on to stress that if a creative person thinks that he is an artist, he is probably in the wrong business. A creative person is the one who proves to his client that his solution is the best and can provide the desired results.

    Talking further on the aspect of problem solving, he mentioned that in order to solve a problem one needs to define it correctly – whether it is awareness, brand loyalty or something else. It helps one to be more effective and more creative.

    In his opinion, one can never ever be in the advertising business alone.

    Explaining his statement he says, “We are in the business of making the product, services of the brand of our clients relevant. That‘s the business we are in. The goal should be to use your creative talent to help your client and change the world for your client.”

    Kassaei illustrated the importance of a brand‘s relationship with the consumer. He said that a marketer should start to see the people who are out there not as a grey mass or some defined target groups but as ‘friends.‘

    “We should look at them and ask ourselves what can we do for them to make their life better, easier, more efficient and beautiful? What do they really need in their lives? What could help them to overcome a bad situation? How can we start to build for them something that they will recognise as something with a meaning?,” says he.” By thinking that way everything will change. Because your goals are suddenly not numbers, sales figures or market share but to produce value, to develop goodness.”

    He accentuated on the fact that a brand is the sum of all the experiences that one has. A marketer as a brand has many responsibilities. “If you are promising happiness you should deliver happiness. If you are promising freedom, you should deliver freedom. I am not talking about disrupting your business but I am talking about how you can expand and also change the life of the people,” explains Kaasaei.” People will find out if you are not being truthful to them. They become very skeptical about wrong promises, about the false values and starting to rethink for themselves what is important and what not. They start to redefine value, wealth, meaning and happiness.”

    He pointed that the best advertising does not look like advertising.

    He gave an example of McDonald‘s train station campaign. On the right side of the train‘s schedule at the station, it mentioned the amount of time left for a train to arrive and what a consumer can order from McDonald‘s, and yet punctually get on the train.

    People don‘t want to be involved in advertising. They are interested in what‘s interesting and that‘s what the marketers have to develop, he expressed.

    “Also, the marketer needs to create relevance and not just awareness because if he is not relevant, awareness will mean nothing”, he concluded.

  • Interface Business Solution picks up the first grand prix at Abbys 2013

    VARCA: Day two of Goafest 2013 saw Interface Business Solutions emerge as the sole Grand Prix winner at this year‘s Creative Abbys. The agency took away the top honours for the World‘s first CRM powered personalised web banner it created for TATA Docomo in the Digital category of the Creative Abbys.

    The winners of the Digital, Direct and Design categories of the CreartiveAbbys were announced on 5 April at Zuri White Sands in Varca, Goa where the annual ad fest is being held. A total of 104 metals were awarded across the three categories – 46 in digital, 15 in direct and 43 in the design category.

    The digital category saw 46 entries take away metals which included one grand prix, four gold, 11 silver and 30 bronze Abbys.

    Hungama Digital was the forerunner in this category with a total of eight metal wins to brag about. The outfit which was recently acquired by JWT took home two gold, two silver and four bronze metals. The gold wins came for its work on the Mahindra Quanto and Mahindra XUV500 brands.

    BC WebWise and Thmbstrk won one gold each for their campaigns created for Sunsilk and Axis Bank respectively.

    Webchutney won five metals in the category – three silver (for work on Bacardi India,Mohan Music Palace and desimartini.com) and two bronze (for work on Bajaj Auto and desimartini.com). Other winners included Creativeland Asia, Grey Worldwide, Iprospect India, Scarecrow Communications, Contract Advertising and Ignitee Digital Services.

    In the design category, seven gold Abbys were awarded – three each to McCann World Group and XOX Designs and one to Leo Burnett. McCann won the metals creating Dish TV‘s Learnings campaign (in the poster category and the craft in design category) and Young Presidents Organisation‘s The Lighter Side of Heavy Weights campaign (in the best design in direct mail category). XOX Designs snagged the gold for its campaigns Confessions of a Typoholic (in book/diaries category and the craft of design category) and Creative Beings (in book/diaries category) for Paaper by Kyoorious. Leo Burnett‘s gold came for its work on Reflection of Music (installation) for MTV‘s Coke Studio in the environment design category.

    Fourteen silver Abbys were given out and 32 entries won Bronze Abbys. Taproot India won three bronze metals in the design category while JWT won six metals (four bronze and two silver) and Leo Burnett took home five metals apart form the gold (four silver and one bronze). Other agencies to win metals ion the category include Publicis Communications, Creativeland Asia, Umbrealla Design, Dentsu India Group, Grey Worldwide, Happy, DDB Mudra Group, andideas@work advertising.

    In the direct category, a total of 15metals were awarded which include two gold, four silver and nine bronze. McCann and Publicis Communications won a gold each. The former won the metal for the Cross Connection 1,3 campaign it created for Big CBS Spark in the direct response mobile marketing category while the latter won it for its campaign for Park Avenue Beer Shampoo in the direct response digital category.

    Silver winners included McCann (two silver metals in the direct response radio category), Taproot (in the direct response TV category) and Creativeland Asia (in the direct response digital category). Other winners in the category were BBDO Proximity and JWT.

  • All roads lead to Goafest

    MUMBAI: It’s that time of the year again when the who’s who of the advertising and marketing industry ditch their suits and don their sunhats to attend the annual Indian advertising extravaganza Goafest.

    Going with the theme ‘Just what you unexpected’, this year’s Goafest promises to be different and exciting. The focus is on listening to advertisers as to where they think media and creative agencies are falling short and what they expect from them.

    The knowledge seminars will see global experts discussing issues like maximising the potential of social media, democratisation of creativity, and what great work looks like in the present scenario.

    Perhaps for the first time, the festival also has speakers from walks of life different than marketing, advertising and media.

    This year attendees at the Goafest will get a chance to hear Prasanna Trust founder and chairman Swami Sukhabodhananda talk about “Uncertainty is also part of life’ and film maker Abhishek Kapoor (high on the recent success of Kai Po Che) narrates his views on ‘Do What Your Heart Says’.

    This is a year of firsts as the Abbys have introduced a new category named Branded Content. In the media category too, the committee has made a significant change by introducing sub categories in the digital segment. Explaining the move, Media Abby Jury chairman Ashish Bhasin said, “By having a broad category for digital, we ended up comparing apples to oranges. The digital medium has evolved rapidly to have a diverse range from website design to mobile campaigns to online activations. Introducing new sub-categories does justice to this variety of innovations that can happen on the medium.”

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with some of the delegates and speakers headed for the Goafest to know what they expect from this year’s edition.

    GCMMF (Amul) MD RS Sodhi who is one of the speakers at the Advertising Conclave on 3 April will be attending the festival for the first time. “I have heard so much about the Goafest and am really glad I’ll be attending this year. To be able to mix and mingle with the various stakeholders of the industry from India and abroad is what I am looking forward to. I’m honoured to have been invited to speak,” he says enthusiastically.

    For Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal, the annual ad fest is the perfect setting to meet the ad industry’s creative professionals and media planners and buyers and discuss matters in a relaxed atmosphere. He feels that more than a networking hub, the Goafest is a platform that allows the members of the industry to interact, debate and take discussions to the next level.

    The delegates coming to Goafest look forward to not only the seminars and networking opportunities, but also the various activities lined by the festival partners. Last year saw Disney UTV’s youth entertainment channel bindass line up some activities like water zorbing and the Hindustan Times had a photo booth where you could have your photo printed on the front page of a newspaper! This year too, delegates can look forward to a Rain Dance and many on the spot activities/games.

    Publicis Capital CEO Hemant Misra looks at Goafest as the time to take a break, meet old friends and see some stimulating work. He explains, “Goafest is a great opportunity for young talent. While we add value to our client‘s business we hardly spend time adding value to our own people, Goafest is an opportunity for them to open their minds, observe, discuss, argue…learn. Importantly unlearn the old and partake of the new.”

    On a lighter note, Misra adds, “Hope there‘s no free drinks this time so the kids spend more time listening than getting drunk!” Publicis Capital will be sending upwards of 50 delegates to the Goafest this year.

    Madison media’s Lara Balsara, who will be there at the Goafest with nearly 100 other Madisons, hopes there will be “some learning, lot of winning and lots of fun” this year. She agrees that the festival is a great opportunity to see some of the best work in the sub-continent at one shot. She has just one suggestion to make, that the venue be changed next year so that the ad industry can explore some new venues and beaches in Goa.

    Carat Media Senior vice-president Himanka Das will be giving the festival a skip this year, but is confident that the work portrayed is getting better every year. Having been on the jury for the Media Abbys, he has seen some of the projects submitted by the agencies and he is mighty impressed.

    Scarecrow Communications co-founder and director Manish Bhatt has a special bond with Goafest. He was part of the designing team at Goafest 2008 (he was at Contract Advertising back then). “The Goafest is fast becoming the Mecca of India’s advertising industry. It’s a great opportunity for everyone to meet and listen to the who’s who of the industry. The Abbys are the awards to look out for and this year, we are thrilled since of the 62 entries we sent, 33 have been shortlisted across categories,” says an excited Bhatt.

    The Abby Awards have seen their fair run of controversy and this year was no different. The recent sacking of top creative executive Bobby Pawar by the JWT India management over the Ford Figo ads raised a lot of questions. While on the one hand the industry debated the evil of scam ads, many also questioned why the creative department is made the scapegoat in such cases all the time? The controversy though does not seem to have dampened the spirit of the Goafest goers as they are looking forward to the festival excitedly.

    So it’s time for the ad industry to slap on the sunscreen, put on the shorts and head to Zuri White Sands in Varca Goa and have an educational, exciting and fun-filled time at Goafest 2013.

  • Goafest announces speakers of Knowledge Seminars

    MUMBAI: The Goafest Committee announced the names of four globally acclaimed speakers for Goafest 2013 Knowledge Seminars – DDB Worldwide chief creative officer Amir Kassei, MOFILM chief creative officer Dave Alberts, Razorfish chief technology officer Ray Velez- Global and Warc Asia-Pacific director Roger Mulchandani.

    Goafest 2013 Knowledge Seminars chairman M G Parameswaran said, “We plan to have a really varied set of speakers this year. The second set of names cover a wide knowledge net, from creative to digital to films to strategy. We have a few more names in our list and those will be released next week. So the excitement of Goafest 2013 is going to reach a new level!”

    Goafest 2013 chairman Nakul Chopra, said, “This is an enviable line up of speakers. Indeed they represent the best by global standards across disciplines. Listening to them will be a great learning opportunity for all of us – especially for the young minds from both the advertising and marketing fraternity.”

  • Abbys adds Branded Content & Entertainment category

    MUMBAI: The Branded Content & Entertainment Abby has been added as a category in this year‘s edition of The Abbys, the advertising awards that take place during the Ad Club‘s annual festival Goafest.

    Branded content and entertainment has been defined as the creation of, or natural integration into, original content by a brand. The purpose is to deliver marketing messages by engaging consumers via relevant content platforms rather than the use of traditional advertising methods. It has the following six sub categories –

    • Best fictional program, series or film where a client has successfully created a drama, comedy or miniseries around a product or brand
    • Including TV, mini-series, web series, cinema, DVD releases and online/digital
    • Best non-fiction program, series or film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s)
    • Including TV, mini-series, web series, cinema, DVD releases and online/digital
    • Best brand or product integration into a feature film, existing TV show and/or series
    • Including TV, mini-series, web series, cinema, DVD releases and online/digital
    • Best use or integration of experiential events 
      ” Creative positioning of a brand using events, festivals, flash mobs, installations etc.
    • Best use or integration of music
    • Including music in original branded content, brand integration into music distribution or promotion, the creation of a music-based program or platform
    • Best integrated entertainment content campaign which uses more than 2 media.

    The last date for the entries is 28 February. This year, the Abbys will be held on 5 and 6 April in Goa.

  • Goafest 2013 to be ‘Just what you unexpected’

    MUMBAI: Goafest 2013, the annual South Asian advertising festival, will be held on 5 and 6 April at the Zuri White Sands in Goa. The theme chosen for this year’s advertising festival is ‘Just What You Unexpected’.

    The theme selection is based on the trend experienced last year. “In 2012, the trend was that consumer attention has become very fleeting. Since he uses multiple screens, there is also a phenomenon of over-exposure and thus creativity calls for doing the unexpected,” said Goafest Committee chairman Nakul Chopra.

    Goafest was last year opened up for advertising fraternity from all countries in south Asia. This is for the sixth consecutive year the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Advertising Club are coming together to deliver Abby Awards, described as the Oscars of the Indian advertising to honour creative excellence.

    Abby’s will continue to be open to all who want to participate and membership of AAAI or The Advertising Club is not required.

    In 2012, over 225 organisations sent their entries. This year the entries are expected to cross 250 and have invited entries from the first week of February. The Goafest organising committee will be approaching advertising agencies from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for foreign entries.

    This year too there will be a Grand Prix for all nine verticals including Film, Print, Radio, Out of Home, Ambient, Design, Interactive Digital, Direct and Integrated.

    There will be a Grand Prix for Media as well. Media awards function will be held on 5 April, together with Digital, Design and Direct. The creative awards will given away on 6 April.

    Chopra said Goafest 2013 will focus on strengthening the new initiatives that were launched in 2012. “Last year we opened Goafest to all nations in South Asia and we also brought strong client participation through the Marketing Wizards initiative. Our endeavour this year is to further expand and grow these initiatives, apart from of course celebrating creativity and excellence,” he said.

    The Industry Conclave will be held on the day before Goafest on 4 April. According to the Goafest Committee, this year the conclave will focus only on speakers from client organisations to bring perspective to our industry.

    “Goafest is the festival for all in South Asia who are involved in creating ideas. Be it other countries in this region, the marketing fraternity or other allied professionals who participate in creating ideas – we want them all to equally own and participate in Goafest. We are taking a virtual conference/road show to neighbouring South Asian countries to increase awareness for Goafest and invite active participation,” AAAI president Arvind Sharma said.

    Goafest will continue to have strong participation from senior clients in the Knowledge seminars. “Clients are our equal partners in creating ideas – we naturally strive to have their equal participation in Goafest both as speakers and delegates – this year we aim to attract participation from over 75 client organisations and hopefully over 250 people,” Chopra said.

    Shashi Sinha, president of The Advertising Club and chairman of the Abby Awards Governing Council, the joint body of AAAI and The Advertising Club, said the committee will take on board improvements from their past learnings and continue to follow the stringent, well accepted norms for the Abby’s in 2013.

    A total of 3,167 delegates had participated in Goafest 2012.

  • Nakul Chopra is Goafest Committee chairman

    MUMBAI: Publicis CEO-South Asia Nakul Chopra has been appointed as chairman of the advertising event Goafest 2013.

    Chopra was a part of the core committee team in 2012.

    Prior to Chopra, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) president and Leo Burnett Indian sub-continent chairman Arvind Sharma was taking care of the role.

    The details of the festival will be announced at an event on 10 January.

    Goafest witnesses eminent personalities in the advertising industry speaking on the podium, panel discussion on various topics and Abby Awards that are given away in both creative and media domain.