India’s annual advertising festival, Goafest, will commence today at the Taj Cidade de Goa at Dona Paula. This is the 19th edition of the festival, which will bring together over 60 industry leaders to drive over 20 knowledge sessions and 15 masterclasses over the next three days.
Among the speakers this year are industry leaders such as Prasoon Joshi of Omnicom Advertising and chairman at Prasar Bharti, Sam Balsara of Madison World, McCann Group’s Dheeraj Sinha, Rana Barua of Havas, Eugene Cheong of Euge Publishing, Gulshan Varma of Amazon Ads, Leo’s Amitesh Rao, Aditi Mishra of Lodestar and author and columnist Santosh Desai.
Given the rapidly evolving nature of the advertising business, the knowledge sessions will address various subjects such as the rise of AI influencers, the future of data ownership, changing media consumption habits and identifying new pathways for advertising-driven business growth.
Day one of the festival will have a special tribute to two advertising legends that passed away last year – Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey and Rediffusion’s Diwan Arun Nanda.
This year will also see the 57th edition of the prestigious Abby Awards that honours excellence in categories such as media, broadcasting, design, public relations, technology, digital and more. Organisers say that over 300 organisations have sent in a total of over 4,000 entries. These include agencies, brands, production houses and media platforms.
Dheeraj Sinha, president of The Advertising Club and CEO of McCann India, notes that the Abbys as a platform has been balancing legacy with agility in the light of the changing advertising ecosystem. “The Awards have been embracing global standards, AI, client inclusion and emerging marketing disciplines,” he says.
This year, new awards have been introduced such as the Creative Network of the Year, Media Network of the Year, and Independent Agency of the Year. This is especially interesting, considering that independent agency Enormous emerged the biggest winner at The Abbys last year.
Aalap Desai, co-founder and CCO of tgthr expects independent agencies to shine once again this year. “A lot of clients have retainers with network agencies but are coming to independents for projects where they want something different or better. When you multiply this with work throughout the year, the entries from independents stack up in numbers and are more interesting by nature. This obviously has better conversion into metals,” he remarks.
Desai adds that the forum also needs to discuss the effects of consolidation across networks. “We know that jobs are being affected in the industry. If the work has suffered as a result, it will show in the award wins,” he says.
As always, Goafest will have its share of sports and glamour with personalities such as Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, Bollywood veteran Rakesh Bedi, Bhangra star Sukhbir and Bollywood singer Neeti Mohan participating.
This year’s festival will also see the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). The event typically draws over 2,000 industry attendees each year and is co-hosted by AAAI and The Advertising Club.