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Goafest Creative Abby jury chairs announced for Integrated, OOH/Ambient, Branded Content and Public Relations
MUMBAI The Awards Governing Council of Goafest 2016 has declared the jury chairs for Integrated, OOH/Ambient, Branded Content and Public Relations. DDB Mudra chairman and CCO Sonal Dabral will chair the OOH/Ambient Jury of Creative Abby, J. Walter Thompson CCO Senthil Kumar will chair the integrated category. Reliance Broadcast Network CEO Tarunl Katial will be jury chair for the branded content category while Madison PR CEO Paresh Chaudhury will chair the Public Relations category.
Dabral has over two decades of experience in advertising industry and has curated many winning campaigns for major local, regional and multinational brands. He began his career in Lintas and after a brief stint in Mudra Delhi, went on to have an extremely successful stint at Ogilvy Mumbai. He then went on to head Ogilvy in Malaysia and make it one of the top creative offices in the region. Thereafter, as the chairman and ECD of Ogilvy Singapore, he helped the agency become the hottest agency in the region and the no.1 creative office of the WPP global network. In 2007 he led the agency for it to become the third highest awarded agency in the world at Cannes Lions. He is a prolific winner in most of the regional and international award shows like Cannes, Clio, D & AD, One Show, LIA, Andy Awards, AdFest, Spikes etc,
Kumar has been celebrated in India and recognized globally for the ability to amplify deep local insights into simple ideas that solve complicated marketing challenges. He has won India’s first and second Film Gold Lions at The Cannes Lions International Festival in 2009. His ideas have helped build several brands in India including: Levi’s, Nike, Google, Ford, etc. Kumar can be spotted in several creative books under the classifications of writer, creative director, designer, photographer and film maker. His work has risen beyond successful marketing case studies to mine over 100 international creative awards.
Katial is at the helm of one of India’s youngest media houses and is considered to be one of the most successful executives in the Indian media industry. A stint in adverting followed by over a decade of experience in broadcast with brands like Star and Sony and now Reliance Broadcast, Katial has successfully led high decibel launches of industry tent poles and has always been able to rightly tap the consumer’s pulse. Other significant achievements in Katial’s cap include being voted the NewsCorp Achiever for Asia and being included among the best in the ‘India Today 30 on 30’ list. He was also part of the team that won the first Media Gold at Cannes.
Chaudhry has over 24 years of brand communication and reputation management experience across industries and key global markets and is also founder president of the “Indian Forum Of Corporate Communicators” (IFCC). Chaudhry’s last assignment was as group president -corporate communications, Reliance Industries, prior to which he was head of communications at HUL and communications leader, Unilever South Asia. From building the corporate brand of Ranbaxy in North America, Europe and India, to aligning regional communication country teams to bring alive ‘the transition to one Unilever brand’ and driving the corporate name change from “HLL” to “HUL”, to putting together systems and processes for effective global (internal and external) communications at RIL, Chaudhry has led communications for many iconic and tentpole campaigns in India.
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Brands push beyond compliance as trust takes centre stage
ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026 spotlights shift from legal checks to credibility.
MUMBAI: In a world where a disclaimer can be legally sound yet socially suspect, brands are learning that compliance may tick boxes but trust wins markets. At the inaugural ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026, a panel on “Beyond Compliance: The New Currency of Trust” unpacked a growing industry reality: the gap between what the law permits and what consumers accept is widening and fast.
Moderated by Meenakshi Ramkumar of National Law School of India University, the discussion brought together leaders across law, marketing and academia to examine how brands must evolve in a digital ecosystem increasingly shaped by scrutiny, scepticism and speed.
Ramkumar set the tone by highlighting a critical shift, advertising today operates in the same digital space that fuels misinformation, scams and fake news, making credibility harder to establish. “The challenge is not just about what brands do, but the broader context of low institutional trust,” she noted, adding that when violations go unchecked, trust erodes not just in brands but in the regulatory system itself.
This vacuum, she said, has given rise to consumer activism from boycotts to social media backlash as a parallel accountability mechanism.
For Amit Bhasin, Chief Legal Officer at Marico, the distinction was clear, legal compliance is non negotiable, but insufficient. “Compliance is the minimum threshold. The real challenge is staying aligned with changing consumer expectations,” he said.
He pointed to how advertising narratives have evolved from traditional depictions of gender roles to more shared responsibilities reflecting a broader societal shift. “Earlier, it was fine to show one person doing the household work. Today, that may not land well. Consumers expect brands to reflect reality,” Bhasin observed.
He also highlighted internal debates where campaigns that may be legally permissible are still rejected for being culturally insensitive, noting that responsible advertising often requires asking uncomfortable questions before the public does.
If compliance is the baseline, reputation is the battlefield.
Bhasin noted that reputational risk has become a far greater concern than legal exposure, particularly in an era where campaigns can be dissected within hours online. “Earlier, a controversial ad might invite a newspaper editorial. Today, within hours, you’re at the centre of a storm,” he said.
Brands, he added, now evaluate campaigns through a dual lens legal viability and reputational vulnerability with the latter often proving more decisive.
From a healthcare perspective, Satish Sahoo of Cipla Health underscored the complexity of operating within fragmented yet stringent regulatory frameworks, spanning drugs, food, cosmetics and Ayush. “Anything under a drug licence is the most tightly regulated,” he said, adding that this necessitates proactive, not reactive, compliance.
He shared an example from the oral rehydration salts (ORS) category, where Cipla resisted the temptation to position products aggressively despite competitive pressure. “Our product is WHO compliant, and our communication reflects that. We chose not to blur the lines, even if others did,” he noted.
The long term payoff, he suggested, lies in credibility built over consistency, not quick wins.
Yet, as Harsha N of National Law School of India University pointed out, even perfect compliance does not guarantee trust. Drawing from historical and modern examples from exaggerated product claims in the 1800s to contemporary environmental and health advertising, he argued that legal frameworks often lag behind consumer expectations. “A brand can be fully compliant and still be perceived as misleading,” he said, citing instances where fine print disclosures fail to reach or convince the average consumer. He added that larger companies carry a disproportionate responsibility to set ethical benchmarks, even in areas where the law remains silent.
The conversation also turned to digital advertising, where the challenge extends beyond content to how ads are experienced. From algorithmic targeting to personalised messaging, brands now operate in an environment where regulation struggles to keep pace with technology.
Sahoo noted that social media has amplified awareness, with influencers and consumers increasingly scrutinising product claims and calling out inconsistencies. “Awareness has gone up dramatically. People are questioning what goes into products and what brands are saying,” he said.
The role of self regulatory bodies such as Advertising Standards Council of India also came under the spotlight.
Harsha acknowledged that while SROs play a crucial role, they are not immune to criticism, particularly around perceived conflicts of interest and enforcement gaps. “SROs have a higher threshold of responsibility not just to interpret the law, but to anticipate societal expectations,” he said.
He added that failures in self regulation often push the burden back onto government intervention, underscoring the need for stronger, more proactive oversight.
One of the more nuanced debates centred on whether building trust comes at a cost. While Sahoo acknowledged that quality and compliance can increase costs, he argued that companies must absorb them as part of their long term strategy.
Bhasin, however, framed the challenge differently not as cost, but as competitiveness in a market where not all players play by the same rules. “The real tension is when others cut corners and you choose not to,” he said.
The panel concluded with a call to embed trust into business metrics.
Sahoo suggested that organisations must go beyond revenue targets to include consumer equity and trust based KPIs, ensuring that ethical considerations are not sidelined in the pursuit of growth. “Trust sounds abstract, but it can translate into measurable consumer equity,” he said.
As the discussion wrapped up, one message stood out: the rules of advertising are being rewritten not just by regulators, but by consumers themselves. In an ecosystem where attention is fleeting and scepticism is high, brands that merely comply may survive, but those that build trust are the ones that endure.
