Expect Variety and Scale at Goafest this year, say Jaideep Gandhi & Mohit Joshi

Goafest, South Asia’s biggest advertising festival, is less than a week away. Co-hosted by The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Advertising Club, Goafest 2023 will be held on May 24, 25 and 26 at Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, Goa. The prestigious fest will also witness the 54th edition of the ABBYs, South Asia’s Gold standard, that has been recognising creative excellence in advertising for over five decades.

Pushing the envelope further this year, the theme for the 16th edition of Goafest is ‘The Future of Creativity is Here!’. With advancements in technology, including machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, the boundaries of creativity are being pushed further than ever before. There is a rise in innovative tools and technologies that enable new forms of creativity; for example, virtual and augmented reality (VR & AR) technologies are already opening up new avenues for artistic expression, allowing creators to build immersive, interactive experiences that blur the line between the physical and digital worlds.

In conversation with Adgully, Jaideep Gandhi, Chairperson, Goafest 2023, and Founder, Another Idea, and Mohit Joshi, Co-chair, Goafest 2023, and CEO, Havas Media, share details about what to expect at Goafest 2023, the Masterclasses and sessions lined up, industry participation, sponsor partnerships, empowering the young brigade of the ad industry, and much more.

What to expect at Goafest this year? In what ways is Goafest 2023 different from the previous years? What are the must-attend reasons for Goafest this year?

Jaideep Gandhi: What to expect at Goafest this year. I would put it in two words – Variety and Scale. When I say variety, it is the variety of learnings, of different topics and sessions that we have lined up; and with variety comes the scale. To give it a number, we have 63 speakers, over 15 sessions, 11 Masterclasses on different subjects like storytelling, video optimization, creative production, how to use tech production – so, specific knowledge is going to happen in these Masterclasses. We have clients, agencies, the radio fraternity and everyone you can think of from the industry, who will participate in one way or the other.

What kind of conversations do you anticipate at Goafest this year, given the current situation in the economy and whatever that is happening in the overall advertising industry, not just in India, but globally?

Mohit Joshi: The theme of the festival this year is ‘The Future Of Creativity Here’. We’re talking futurism and generative AI being an important part of that future life that we are going to be having as industry experts. Largely, the discussions are going to be about the future, how technology and generative AI are going to enhance our creativity, media performance, marketing. We will have senior people from the industry, including clients, discussing these topics and giving their insights on how the future will be different from today, and how these disruptive technologies that are coming up will enhance and improve the output that we get either from the trade bit, creative domain or from the media domain or an overall marketing domain. There will be discussions on the importance of data, because data is becoming absolutely critical. There’s a panel that talks about how data driven marketing is going to be the intake for tomorrow. So, the discussions are going to be very optimistic. I think India is optimistic, hence, the discussions will also be optimistic.

Right from the beginning of this year, we have seen conversations around ChatGPT and Generative AI. In your opinion, how do you see them impacting the way creative ideation happens in the advertising industry today?

Jaideep Gandhi: How we use this technology is where we are today. Technology will always keep changing, but you should have an idea as to how to use that technology.

Mohit Joshi: Many people might say that there will be a lot of disruption, but in our view, that disruption is going to be positive. Everything will become better and companies will easily enhance the output in all ways. The human mind behind the technology is critical.

Could you tell us about the sponsor partnerships for Goafest this year?

Jaideep Gandhi: There are new brands who come onboard each year and helped us make Goafest better by getting more involved in the festival. There is a thin line between sponsorship and participation, it has become like a unison. Everybody has one vision – that is, to make Goafest larger and larger by the year. It is not only about sponsorship, it’s also about the industry bodies that we are associated with – The Ad Club, ASCI, AAAI, AFA, all of them are involved. It’s like one collective unit.

Year-on-year, what are your observations on the industry participation at Goafest – barring the Covid years? What does the delegation presence look like this year, especially since quite a few agencies that were non-participants in the previous years are taking part this year? Also, could you tell us about the presence of foreign participants at Goafest 2023?

Mohit Joshi: Last year itself we saw a very good turnaround after COVID and there was a lot of enthusiasm. This year is going to be a step up on that and we will see more participants. Let me just leave it at that, because as we speak the registrations are happening. The Creative ABBY shortlist was announced recently, so we are expecting a lot more registrations to happen in the next couple of days. So, it’s very clear that this year the participation will be higher than last year as interest levels are significant.

One important thing is that all stakeholders, including clients, are showing a lot of interest in being a part of the festival this year, so that’s positive news for us.

What steps has the Goafest Committee taken to make the festival more inclusive?

Mohit Joshi: Inclusivity is in terms of first – the gender, we have ensured that there is a good amount of participation from that perspective. We have been inclusive in terms of the kind of knowledge, inspiration and entertainment balancing that we do, we have been inclusive from the perspective of trying to create a stage for our own internal industry talents to be performing on stage. So, there is inclusivity practically everywhere in it. We have been inclusive from the perspective of having a much larger number of sponsors. So, it’s a significantly more inclusive festival than what we had in the past.

This year there are a lot of efforts being taken to encourage the younger generation of the advertising industry. Could you tell us some of the steps that you’re taking to empower the younger brigade of the advertising industry?

Jaideep Gandhi: Last year, we launched nine Masterclasses. We’ve observed that there was a lot of enthusiasm and excitement towards learning specific subjects. This year, we thought of having more sessions on relevant topics and subjects where people can learn, especially the youngsters, because 70% of the Goafest audience is youngsters.

Goafest is an advertising festival. What have you lined up, apart from the knowledge sessions, to make things more interesting?

Jaideep Gandhi: Like every year, this year too we’ll be having Advertising Rocks, which is going to be our own industry people performing and showcasing their talent. There’ll be a very qualified jury. The best performer will be chosen at the ball itself with real time voting. Besides that, on each day we have various entertainment lined up. We have celebrities coming in, we have comedians, we have the DJ parties, the after parties, too, are interesting this year.

Finally, what are the key takeaways that you foresee for delegates and participants at the festival this year?

Mohit Joshi: I think we should be taking away a lot more knowledge from the various sessions that will be happening. It should be more inspiring, that the industry is doing well. And all the technological advances that are happening are going to only enhance their performance in the future and they should go back entertained as well. I’m sure three days in Goa is good entertainment for anybody, a good refresher for people who will be there.