The door bell rings. A young boy opens the door to greet his young friend. He coaxes him to wash his hands and take a selfie via the mobile phone. Hand-fie, they call it. He explains that the “hand-fie” showcasing their clean hands will go a long way in spreading awareness about the importance of hand washing among young kids. The ad is part of the Dettol “give life a hand” campaign and is one of the many campaigns entered at Goafest 2015, the annual advertising industry awards in the country. The ad awards is in its 10th year and has seen a 20% increase in the number of entries with some 2500 delegates likely to attend the event this year against 1700 last year.
MG Parameswaran, president the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and executive director at FCB Ulka Advertising said that the festival has crossed many milestones.
“This is the 10th year for the Goafest and the eighth year for the Abby’s. For two years, there were two separate industry awards run by the two not-for-profit organizations—the Advertising Agencies Association of India and The Ad Club. It was later that Madhukar Kamath the then President of AAAI and Bhaskar Das the then president of Ad Club sat down and did a handshake. So I think the first big moment was the creation of the festival, the first of its kind in South Asia,” he said.
The coming together of Ad Club and AAAI to host Abby in Goa was yet another first. Last year the festival was expanded to three days with three award shows and the industry conclave was thrown open to all delegates. New categories like the broadcast awards, media awards were introduced.
There are many firsts for the festival this year, too, such as the introduction of “youth labs” for the young delegates to mingle with the veterans and interactive sessions with people from outside the ad fraternity such as Bollywood writers and novelists.
Yet, 10 years later, Goafest faces almost the same problems that it did when it got instituted. Amidst the bright lights, the coloured confetti and the blaring music, what is missing is some of the marquee ad agencies and veterans of the industry. Conspicuous in their absence are Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett, Creativeland Asia and BBDO India.
Others such as the McCann WorldGroup have sent in token entries. Another ad agency Lowe Lintas has not participated in any domestic ad awards since many years. Also, in the works, is a breakaway awards show called “MELT” instituted by Kyoorius in association with the global awards D&AD, which is fast becoming the refuge of the rebel ad agencies.
Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, South Asia at Ogilvy & Mather says, “Goafest needs to clean up their entire awards machinery. They need to adopt a better way of deciding on juries. The jury should have names that are respected in the field. I will participate only if I know that the awards are free of bias and the process is fair and adequate.” Pandey says his agency planned to send entries for the Kyoorius D&AD awards because it was important to be part of one domestic festival apart from the international festivals that it participated in.
“While competing awards can exist, it is my belief that over time, one award will emerge as definitive. There will be one show that will dominate. My belief is in Kyoorius at this point in time,” he said.
Raj Kurup, founder and chairman at Creativeland Asia, is sailing in the same boat as Pandey’s. Maintaining that he will participate in the Kyoorius D&AD awards, he says: “The Goafest organizers have a lot to fix. The entire system needs an overhaul.”
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Advertising is introducing landmark categories this year such as the “Creative Data Lions” positioned around data and analytics and the “Glass Lion” which honors work that challenges gender bias. In this context, there are many who gripe that the Goafest is far more rudimentary in its approach and has a lot of catching up to do with some of the international festivals. Yet there are others who also gripe about the over-arching nature of the festival and its attempts to introduce new categories and forge new connections as with the media and broadcast community.
Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer at Taproot, Dentsu India says while he welcomes new inclusions, he hopes that the focus doesn’t stray from the creative ad awards, which in any case is the Goafest’s raison d’être. “Isn’t that why Goafest got instituted in the first place?” he asks. It is also a matter of concern to him that while international awards ceremonies such as Cannes Lions is witnessing an increase in the number of entries year on year, the Indian ad industry is sharply polarized and the participation is dwindling.
The stakes are high as far as the awards go. Getting an award is a sure way of attracting new business. Besides, an acknowledgment of the creative talent, the awards also help agencies in assuring existing clients that their brands are in safe hands. Winning an award is a pursuit that has landed ad agencies into trouble as well in the past. In year 2008, Leo Burnett ran into trouble with Luxor highlighters after it was revealed that it was not an authorized entry. In year 2011, a JWT India entry for Nike titled ‘Bleed Blue’ in the digital category courted controversy after the agency allegedly forgot to mention the co-creator -AKQA Shanghai in the credit list. 2013 was a water-shed of sorts. Ford Figo faced unprecedented trouble for leaked adverts that seemed to be celebrating sexual brutality and violence. It was later revealed that these ads were created for festival alone. Goafest in year 2013 withdrew the metals won by BBDO Proximity for work on DHL, after alleged plagiarism. DDB Mudra’s work for Electrolux also came under scrutiny. Later, the super jury, part of the Awards Governing Council (AGC) reinstated those metals, stating that any speculation on the authenticity of the ads, post awards ceremony will not be entertained.
Soon after Sajan Raj Kurup, founder and chairman of Creativeland Asia, also quit the festival in totality – from judging to the agency’s representation at the festival. “There is desperation among creative ad agencies for these awards. They are willing to do anything from plagiarism to entering pro-active work in order to bag these awards,” says a senior media professional part of the organizing team.
Alque Padamsee, chief advertising advisor to the Emami Group and former Lintas veteran, says that most of the problems for the Goafest seem to emanate from scam ads or proactive work. He suggests instituting a scam ads show to tackle the issue of such ads infiltrating the regular awards. “The ad industry needs to acknowledge breakthrough creativity, irrespective of whether it is paid for, or not by the advertiser. And they can do this by instituting a scam ads show. This will weed out pro-active work from the Goafest Abbys,” he says.