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While Lowe has consistently contributed to the existing Indian
ad effectiveness award function ‘Effies’ hosted
by the Ad Club Bombay, this year they even beat O&M to
pocket the Agency of the Year award. However, Lowe Pranesh
Mishra is of the opinion that they have participated consistently
at Effies which not only looks at creativity but also planning
strategy and results following an approach used world wide.
We have however decided for some years now to stay away from
creative awards, as we are hoping that the industry settles
down to institute one award show that is transparent and credible,”
says Mishra.
Building on the momentum received from its first year at
Goa in 2006, the AAAI will introduce interactive creative
workshops and panel discussions at the seminar room which
has been constructed on the beach to accommodate 600 delegates.
In addition, there will be smaller, informal 'learning on
the beach' sessions conducted by senior creative heads from
Indian agencies.
“We already have over 1200 delegates about three weeks
prior to our festival. Going by the response, well over 2000
people will be coming to Goa to celebrate excellence in advertising.
The numbers are likely to surpass the level of participation
at Adfest, Pattaya, the Asia Pacific Awards festival which
has now been running for about 10 years” said Swamy.
“This will be by far the largest gathering of advertising,
marketing and media professionals the country has seen at
any event in India. Goafest has received 3212 entries from
over a hundred advertising agencies across the country. Entries
are restricted to advertising agencies since we believe Goafest
is a platform for agencies to show case their work amongst
their peers.” says Sharma.
The jury chairmen include Prasoon Joshi for press awards,
Ravi Deshpande for television awards, KV Sridhar for Outdoor
awards and Josy Paul for Radio awards, each of whom will head
a jury panel of 10 members each. The awards will consist of
a Gold, Silver, Bronze, and even a Grand Prix. There are 17
categories for the creative awards comprising Press, Outdoor,
TV and Radio with six categories dedicated to direct marketing
and interactive marketing.
The media awards have been divided into 19 categories with
11 categories for ‘Use of Media’ awards and eight
for ‘Specialist media’ awards for which Madison
chairman Sam Balsara will head the jury.
The festival has attracted International speakers as well,
six of whom have been confirmed. The speakers this year include
Donald Gunn (of the Gunn Report ); Trevor Beattie of BMB,
London; Hermann Vaske, Ad wizard director, producer and writer;
Thirasak Tanapatanakul, CD, Creative Juice, Thailand; Fredric
Joseph, CEO Zed Digital; and Jamie Lord, Marketing and Business
Development Director for Mindshare Asia Pacific.
“The Goafest 2007 will provide an uncommon learning environment
for India's young creative, marketing and media professionals
and a rare opportunity for professionals from India and abroad
to interact with each other. The festival will present them
the opportunity to interact not only with the Indian gurus
of advertising, but also have the chance to meet some well
known international personalities well-known in their respective
fields”, says Sharma.
Josy Paul prefers to call the event “the Woodstock of
communication ideas to celebrate an exchange between the gurus
and the trainees, in order to bring about a new rising standard
in the industry.”
The AAAI is actually making it far easier for youngsters
to attend with a special offer for 800 under 30 year old delegates.
“AAAI is putting a lot of emphasis on getting young talent
in the industry to participate and learn at Goafest. For instance,
a special all inclusive delegate fee of Rs 5400 will allow
the participants under 30 years of age to travel to Goa at
AAAI’s cost. They will be put up in hotels for two-three
nights. They will be eligible to take part in every seminar,
interactive session, attend all awards ceremonies, have fun
at the beach, attend the gala lunches and dinners” says
Goafest Committee co-chairman and Contract Advertising CEO
Jagdip Bakshi.
Preceding the Goafest, the AAAI will also conduct an Advertising
Conclave along with Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) on
the 19th and 20th April to coincide with the advertising festival.
This will feature senior advertising, media and marketing
professionals from media houses, research, creative, media
and interactive agencies. This year the theme for the conclave
is “15 to 50: The next big leap!” to get the participants
to discuss strategies to move this Rs 15,000 crore industry
to Rs 50,000 crore in the next three to five years. The AAAI
has invited industry leaders like Subhash Chandra, Raghav
Bhal, and Dr Pramat Sinha to address the participants. A Panel
discussion is also on the cards comprising stalwarts like
Shekhar Gupta, Sunil Lulla, A P Parigi, Vikas Gupta, Sam Balsara,
Pradeep Guha, Tapan Pal, Paritosh Joshi, Lynn De Souza, Raj
Nayak, Ashok Das, L V Krishnan, Meenakshi Madhvan and Shashi
Sinha.
The Goafest has received sponsorship from Star, Big FM and
HT Mint and several other key media players.
Additionally, it was also announced that the AAAI will institute
an advertising effectiveness award function this year. Sharma
said, “We have decided to go through with this award,
but it is currently at the planning stage.” While many
ad gurus are anticipating one award function that could effectively
address the entire Indian advertising fraternity, the AAAI
has sensed some deficit in this domain to include yet another
award show.
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