What could have been better?

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Last year in 2007 when I went to Goafest I wasn’t sure if we would be able to give the same performance. But accolades to Jagdeep Bakshi and Madhukar Kamath, and others for the increase in scale. It was not only bigger and better—it was far better organised in terms of logistics and the quality of international speakers. Personally I felt very good as some mainstream creative work got awarded. The grand prix winners were real good heavy stuff like Nike. Also, the merger with Abby gave out a positive feeling. Although a few agencies stayed away from the awards but we got physical participation from those agencies. So it was more inclusive in that sense. It was a feeling that we’ve chewed a lot more.

From the media standpoint we had far less awards than the creatives. Wherein media had around 29 awards and creatives had more than 270 awards. But the quality of media work was extremely good. The creatives maybe have won some awards for mainstream work however a lot of work that got awarded was not ‘mainstream’.

There were a number of sub-categories created in creative awards. But I am most proud about the fact and it is a real high for me that all the awards in media were mainstream work—for example, the Vodafone roadblock campaign, the Amul Voice of India sponsorship and Reebok integration in the Hindi movie Goal. All three of them are gold winners. Second biggest thing was unlike creative agencies all media agencies participated in the awards. The number of media entries also went up this year from 200 to about 472.

What could have been better? I thought the controversy was needless over the leak of the news of the awards to the publication. It basically took away the fun. I feel that instead of blaming the publication we should blame the individual who leaked it out. It is extremely unfair that somebody did this to fulfill personal motivation. Because of this tempers got frayed. I think these individuals, do not belong to the industry. Although it is very difficult to find out who did it but I am sure time will tell.

For me the best part of this year’s Goafest was the conclave that was held on the first day and was organised by Vikram Sakhuja of GroupM, where a number of pertinent issues were raised. Instead of talking about arbitrary hikes (referring to the IBF recommended ad-spot rate hike on television channels) it speakers talked about value. The key point made by everyone is that value is going to go up and one needs to look out for value. While something will be available at an easy access nevertheless we need to look at additional value. For example Shiv Kumar, CEO, of Nokia India said that some kind of a media explosion would happen on mobile. We are all aware of this information but the advertising industry is not equipped to build on it, monetise it and leverage it. So that’s area for food for thought. Similarly on the session on media value, speakers talked about how some television properties are selling at a premium like ‘Panchvi Paas’ on Star Plus. But at the same time some media like digital are under-leveraged. So if there is any learning that we could bring from television and print and implement on digital. That was the basic thought. And in that value a number of good ideas came out. It was 500% better than last year’s conclave and it addressed specific issues faced by the industry today. A number of marketing professionals and specially clients participated this, which was lacking last time.

The sense I got that there are three aspects to the Goafest. One was fun for the youngsters. Second was the award. Third was deliberation of the future of the industry.

This was brought forward mainly by the speakers from Nasscom and they gave a very vital point. They gave an analysis as to how Nasscom came together to held the IT industry in the power economy. They said that though the advertising industry was critical it is a bit divisive and so we need to get together and represent it to the outside world in one voice. And the whole Nasscom story that they revealed was very motivating. When they initially came companies were reluctant looking at their own organisations interest rather than industry interests. They were looking at short-term gains because of the multinational culture. And then Nasscom made the industry more inclusive. So advertising and media industries should look at the Nasscom example and become more inclusive. The whole eco system including broadcasters, print, radio, advertising agencies, media agencies, digital agencies, Out-Of-Home agencies and everyone involved in the process will be benefited. And the most important thing they raised that the industry needs a secretary general.

On a macro level there are a couple of things with which I am disappointed. I feel as an industry we need to be together. The bitch-iness amongst creative agencies—especially with awards that needs to be sorted out and they need to get together. Otherwise there will be a big problem.

Individual egos are coming in the way. Vis-à-vis this situation I am proud to represent the media industry that stood strong, together and united.

The author is CEO, Lodestar Universal