Goafest 2016 intends raising the bar

Goafest 2016 is a good six months away. The mood, however, is being set already and efforts are being made to make it a remarkable success. Key differentiators for Goa Fest 2016 are expected to be: Return of the three power advertising honchos: Piyush Pandey, Balki, and Prasoon Joshi (hopefully!); larger participation by marketers; a well-rounded speaker line up; an app for Goafest updates; and an inclusion in Gunn Report.

While a number of points were pondered at the round table organised by Goafest committee last afternoon, these were the big attention catchers. Present at the round table were Raj Nayak- President of the Advertising Club, Ambi M.G.  Parameswaran- President AAA’s of I, Nakul Chopra  & Ramesh Narayan, Chairman AGC. The round table saw participation from trade publications as well as leading business publications.

Piyush, Balki and Prasoon have been missing from the Abby Awards scene for quite some time and as per a few it has made ‘once the most coveted advertising awards in the country less aspirational’. Addressing the issue, Raj Nayak stated, “We would reach out to Prasoon, Piyush and Balki and try to address their grievances. Why would we want the biggest names in advertising to stay away? However, if the issue is not resolved in spite of our best efforts, we would have to leave it at that. ”

When asked if Goafest would consider creative presence in Awards Governing Council (AGC), he opined, “Creative people are usually the jury chairs. However, if big creative guys want to be a part of the AGC, we would request three existing members to step down and make place for them.”

Moving to next key discussion – Marketers presence at Goafest. Marketers who flock Effie awards are conspicuous by their absence at Goa Fest. Hence, efforts to rope in as many marketers as possible have already commenced. Raj said, “We are approaching a large number of clients and are optimistic that lots and lots of marketers would be involved this year.”

Addressing the issue of getting speakers from a larger universe, Nakul Chopra divulged “We have a dedicated team working on the speakers. Intent is to get good speakers from varied areas.” He added, “Last year too we had a different league of speakers. We had people from various fields including ecommerce and spiritual space.”

Plagiarism and unauthenticity of ads was another issue discussed. Ad club already has a system in place where the shortlisted ads are displayed and can be flagged by the fraternity and necessary action taken by the jury. Ambi Parameswaran opined, “The system is already in place. Perhaps we need to evangelise it a bit more.”

On to an interesting development now! To keep the information easily accessible and fluid, the ad club is launching an app. It would carry schedule, speakers’ information, regular updates, and changes if any.  It would not only make it easier to keep everyone informed but would also be ‘an environment friendly way to disseminate information’.

The committee was slated to have a meeting post the round table with the agencies to understand their expectations from Goafest. Ramesh Narayan informed, "We are meeting national creative heads of 38 of the top agencies today to understand what they expect of us and the festival.”