Feature | adasia 2011: An Insight in to some key takeaways from the gala advertising event

Advertising industry's one of the most prestigious event Adasia 2011 concluded in New Delhi a few days back. Bringing creative minds from across the continent, the 27th edition of Adasia 2011, witnessed three days of intense discussions on, advertising scene in India and globally, rewriting the rules for advertising, understanding the consumers, survival tactics etc. The multi-cultural platform provided speakers and delegates present from across Asia an opportunity to share insights based on their experience and learning. While the congress had a lot to offer the attendees, the attendees in turn had a lot to take back as well.

Adgully caught up with a few of the delegates and speakers, to try and understand the key takeaways that they have and how the congress worked as an added knowledge base camp for some.

Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman and Regional Executive Creative Director Asia Pacific, McCann Erickson (India) Pvt. Ltd on this occasion said, "It is all about popular culture. The fact that a company like Coca-Cola is trying to be a part of the popular culture and genuinely being a part of the conversation, is a very unconventional thing to do. As a result, even the role of advertising changes here; because personally, I believe that, the basic aim of advertising is to communicate. With the session held at Adasia, what I learn is that, a company / brand needs to reach out to it audiences and talk to them, be it through a 30 second television commercial, or a webpage or mobile app or a stage show. So the key is to communicate with consumer and try and become a part of their everyday life."

Vikram Sakhuja, CEO - South Asia, GroupM, appreciating the session on "Contagious Ideas' by Will Sansom, Writer & Consultant, Contagious Communications, Sakhuja said, "In his session, Samson, very beautifully and simply explained how technology can be used for simple digital solutions. People today talk of digital as though it's a new jargon that the fraternity should learn. Through his, examples, what we learn from his session is that technology and digital mediums etc are just enablers and tools to communicate with one's audiences. According to me, that session brought out the entire usability of digital medium very well." Adding further, Sakhuja said, "The other reinforcement was the power of integrated marketing, coming from inspirational brands like Coke and their workings on this aspect."

On the other hand, Will Sansom, Writer & Consultant, Contagious Communications opined that, "One very interesting thing which I found in here in India is that the relationship between the client and the agency is quite different from other countries. There are lots of agencies in U.K and USA who charger the clients for ideas. But here in India, it does not work that way; the client only pays for execution. So it's interesting to know that with this how one acquires the faith by the brand. I think with this, the clients will become more willing to invest with agencies that are more willing to push things and that they might have to invest in ideas as well the execution. So it's interesting to see how this relationship dynamics changes over time."

Kitty Lun, Chairman & CEO, Lowe, China was of the opinion that, "For a conference of this stature, the enthusiasm and excitement does not seem to slowdown. The line-up of speakers is very good, who spoke very "today'. Be it the internet, social media, what's the next big thing, future of mobile in advertising. So we had more questions than answers and I personally think that's very good for the creative muscles."

Over time AdAsia has become the continent's most prestigious event. AdAsia 2011, hosted at the national capital in a large way successfully flexed the creative muscles of agencies, clients' and marketers. What we Adgully could take away from the gala event was that, the digital and social media space utilization, not a new concept though, is gaining higher importance with time. Marketers no want to talk to consumers through all possible channels and agencies are not letting them down.

The elaborate line up of speakers and delegates, numerous facts and figures, business tactics floating around, the multi-cultural gathering provided an opportunity to the professionals of the advertising fraternity to share, exchange and experience their mantra's of each one's respective business and creative deals, know the current global trends, the strengths and weaknesses, projected trends in terms of creativity, business, consumer behavior and technology. With so much said and done, Adasia 2011 truly was one intellectually loaded international affair. Bringing down the curtains for this year's edition of the ultimate advertising fraternity gathering, Adasia for the year 2013 will be held at Vietnam and inevitably, all eyes are on the event to know what's next! | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]