Festival committee aims to include clients in every activity this year, and has introduced a special package for under-30 marketers.
As Goafest 2012 officially celebrates ‘The Magic of Ideas’ in April this year, the organizers’ accent is on strong client participation. The festival is inviting global leaders from major clients as well as major communications groups to participate in the Conclave to be held at Goafest. The Conclave aims to help the entire industry gear up for opportunities that lie ahead. Beyond the Conclave – themed ‘Ideas for impacting the full circle’ -- 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, and seeking the ISA’s help to popularize that offer. “We’re confident that over 50 major client organizations will take part in the festival this year. Senior clients are going to be speakers. We hope to make them a part of the seminars too and give them an ongoing role at Goafest,” said Sharma. “We want to make Goafest a better platform with a call for more innovation. We want to show how agencies can bring creativity in every area of marketing and get rewarded for it,” Sharma added.
THE 11-MEMBER GOAFEST COMMITTEE
ARVIND SHARMA, NAGESH ALAI, MG PARAMESWARAN, NAKUL CHOPRA AND SRINIVASAN SWAMY FROM THE AAAI AND SHASHI SINHA, SUNIL LULLA, PRATAP BOSE, AJAY KAKAR, AJAY CHANDWANI AND MADHUKAR SABNIS FROM THE ACB.
The festival will be held from April 19 to April 21 at the Zuri White Sands in South Goa. For the first time, the festival has been thrown open to creative efforts from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and industry leaders of these South-East Asian countries can participate as delegates as well as award entrants. In the words of festival Committee Chairman Arvind Sharma, this year, it will be an “advertising festival for everyone in South Asia involved in creating ideas”. The idea is to celebrate great ideas, no matter where they come from.
On being asked about the budget this year and the size of Goafest 2012, Sharma said, “If you consider the entire Goafest including what delegates will independently spend on hotels, etc, it would be a Rs 20 crore event. We are very proud of what has been achieved in these six years, and we want to take it forward, make it more inclusive in every way, in terms of countries, clients, specialist shops... we want to do more and earn more from Goafest.” Another first is the introduction of Grand Prix awards in new verticals. The Abbies at Goafest 2012 will have a provision for a Grand Prix award in all the nine verticals including for the first time Out of Home, Ambient, Design, Interactive Digital Advertising, Direct, and Integrated Advertising. Last year, Grand Prix were given only in Film, Print and Radio verticals. This decision is expected to encourage many more specialist agencies to participate in the show. Shashi Sinha, President, The Advertising Club Bombay and Chairman of the Awards Governing Council (AGC), the joint Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Advertising Club Bombay body that runs the awards, said the AGC will follow the “same tight processes as last year with some finetuning in 2012 to increase acceptance of the awards”.
The Goafest committee held a meeting with creative heads, on which Sinha said, “There were a lot of constructive suggestions, they welcomed the newly instituted Grand Prix awards. But the main demand was clarity in rankings and consistency among judges across panels and key juries.” Auditors KPMG will monitor the award selection process. In 2011, more than 140 agencies had sent their entries for the Abbies at Goafest. A large number of these were specialist agencies. “The Abbies are open to all those who create ideas. They do not have to be AAAI or Ad Club members,” Sharma observed.
“We have received a very positive response from countries in South Asia. We are looking forward to road shows to promote the festival in these markets,” said Nagesh Alai, President of AAAI. The road shows will begin from February 6. Consistent with its growing importance, Digital will find a place of pride at Goafest 2012. Digital Awards will be held on April 20 as will Media Awards. Design, Direct Awards will also be held on April 20. As in the past, for the rest of the Creative, April 21 is the Awards night.
The names of jury members is expected to be announced in a couple of weeks. Other details like delegate and entry fees too will be announced shortly. Also on the festival committee’s agenda are client back-checks to prevent a scam like the one that erupted two years ago, improving connectivity at the venue and upgrading the festival website. The committee also wants to promote the sense of excellence and spirit of freedom that Goa signifies, and spur the quest for superlative creativity even as the 3000 festival attendees chill on the sands.
