Goafest 2014 | Lodestar UM regains top slot at Media Abbys 2014!

The excitement at Goafest 2014 Media Abby night was palpable  on the first day of the festival as it ushered in the event where media agencies and publishers fight it out to be the best. Amidst much hooting and celebrations, Lodestar UM was the cynosure of all eyes as the agency regained its number one position after nearly two years. In a stupendous win the agency this year bagged 11 metals including 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 6 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to PHD India.

Following that was Maxus and Mindshare at number 2 with seven metals in their kitty. The third position was taken over by Milestone Brandcom and PHD India with five metals which is the only player to have won The Grand Prix. Madison Media Pinnacle followed with 3 metals.

Speaking about the number of entries and the judges, Bipin Pandit, COO, The Advertising Club said, “There were 619 entries this year, out of which 150 were shortlisted for further assessment by the round two jury members. There were four judging sessions, three for round one and one for round two with 76 judges. Also, 53 agencies participated this year, as against 49 last year thus giving a 10% increase in this year’s entries. These entries include 19 entries from South Asia. Since this is the first time the publishers’ category is introduced, the jury members have expressed the delight of having 62 entries in seven categories in the umbrella category of publishers”.

The publisher’s  judge’s panel included Ajit Nair - Lokmat, Nandan Srinath – TOI, Mitrajit Bhattacharya – Chitralekha, Shree Kumar Menon – Malyalam Manorama, Malcolm Mistry – DNA, N. Parthasarthy – The Hindu Group, Abhishek Karnani – Free Press Journal, Jwalant Swaroop; led by D. Purkayastha – ABP Group.

Speaking about his experience of chairing the Media Jury of Goafest 2014, Ravi Rao, Leader, South Asia, Mindshare said, “I think the media jury is always much more easy-going, where we discuss issues if there are any as we debate every single final entry and this, we believe, works very well for us. For us it was another good smooth year, with some of the senior most people of the fraternity were a part of the second line jury like CVL Srinivas, Nandini Dias, Satyamurthy Namakkal, Divya Gupta and Gautam Kiyawat.”

Adding further Rao said, “The jury process was simple; where while the second category is being assessed, the scores of the first category are put up in the rank of order from maximum to minimum and put for assessment of the jury member’s approval or disapproval. The judging process was not very straight away mathematical, but also had qualitative inputs by the jury. I think this time the best part was open discussion, good debates on why a campaign deserves a gold or a silver or even contemplating the mere existence of an entry in a particular category; thus we looked at the quality, ability, innovation and the whether there was justice done to the ‘innovation’ factor.”

“Lastly, the best part was the Grand Prix where among all the gold medal winners, the best one is picked by show of hands on the basis on quality, justifying innovativeness, adding brand value, creating buzz and more such yardsticks. I believe, we have done a good job this year!,” Rao said.

Sharing his thoughts on the entries CVL Srinivas, CEO at GroupM South Asia said, “Well, I think the overall quality of entries in the Media Abbys, frankly, just about OK; it could have been a lot better. I have been judging the Goafest for some years now and I feel this year, the mass media entries looked pretty weak, even those who have made it to the final round. However, what was hearting to know is that this year we have received quite a few interesting entries from digital. So it is very clear that as far as our industry is concerned, it is heading towards the right direction, be it resource, using content and so on. I strongly feel that the entire judging process was done very professionally and went on without any hitches.”

On winning the number 1 position, Nandani Dias, CEO, Lodestar UM said, “It was a great experience being at number one but a lot more could have been done and achieved if we would have participated in more categories, as we missed on nearly 6 to 7 categories. But, I am really proud of my team and their efforts that have made us reach the position that we are in today. I am super thrilled with the awards…”

The Grand Prix winner, PHD India’s Avinash Jhangiani said, “Well, I am too glad to have won The Grand Prix award and though this is my first year at Goafest Abbys but I strongly feel that such events and awards are a great motivation factor to work more passionately.”      

Srinivas expressing his thoughts further on their win said, “I am delighted that GroupM's agencies have done very well as always at Goafest. We have quite a few awards for Mind share, Maxis and Mediacom. I am especially delighted to see our agency sweep away metals in the South Asian category. Honestly, our offices in Sri Lanka and Pakistan are doing some really good work and now them winning awards at Goafest is the true highlight for me.”