The Hindu Business Line : Goafest seeks to unlock value keys in advertising

Goa, April 4 Sitting on the beach at Cavelossim, Salcette, with a bottle of beer in hand and ruminating on the calming rhythmic pounding of the waves is, admittedly, not the most conducive of locales for an interview. But Mr Jagdeep Bakshi, CEO of Contract Advertising and Chairman of the ad industry’s extravaganza, Goafest, has a zillion things to tie up before the festival gets cracking. A day before the event, the venue on the beach looks like a huge construction site and Mr Bakshi is tying up loose ends faster than they can unravel.

Ask him what is the big change in this year’s Goafest, now in its third edition, Mr Bakshi says it’s the coming together of two major ad industry awards festivals — the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI or 3As of I, as it’s known) and the Ad Club Bombay Abby awards. Also, the scale and scope of this year’s fest is much larger; with 3,000 delegates from various ad agencies expected, the organising needed to be scaled up. “We’ve learnt to cope and correct the mistakes we made last year,” he adds. And, now that the Abbys too have come on board, the industry, he says, has got onto one platform.

A learning forum

The fest, with its youth-centric focus (it’s free for the under-30s), can have a lot of takeaways for those who want to learn, he explains. “If you’ve been in the industry for a few years you will know that every year creative standards change; you would like to see what has been the best work in the industry, the best film, interactive developments, best in print; the GoaFest has become the signature forum for it.”

With seven international speakers, including Mr Donald Gunn of the Gunn report fame, which set benchmarks for creative standards across the world, young people from the industry can interact with some of the heavies of the global ad world. There are learnings for the seniors as well on the new trends sweeping media all over.

Ask him what would be the main takeaways from the fest, and Mr Bakshi says that last year’s GoaFest’s focus was on what ails the ad industry, most of all the huge discounts that the industry was forced to give clients. “This year we wanted to be more positive and the conclave’s focus is on what value the industry can give clients, not so much on money. Money is always the end result of yesterday’s strategy.” The debate will centre on how the industry can unlock value, whether it could be from digital or new media or traditional forms.

Mapping out values

Mr Jagdeep Bakshi

Admitting that discounting and undercutting was not either in the industry’s or clients’ best interests, Mr Bakshi says that it is a terrible vortex to go down and all value will be destroyed. He says that the top 20 ad agencies would be responsible for 80 per cent of the industry’s revenues. “We need to get the top 20 agency heads together and sit down and work out some common principles of what value this industry is delivering, otherwise tomorrow we can’t charge or hire or get lousy talent which means the ideas they produce will be of no use to clients.”

Mr Madhukar Kamath, CEO, Mudra Communications and Chairman of the 3As of I, which is the prime mover of the Goafest, too is gung ho on the Goafest. Says he: “Now that the GoaFest has leapfrogged to a new level, it is time to build on it and make it a festival of international acclaim. We believe the success of the fest this year will see it as a permanent fixture in the international array of festivals.”

Spirit of inclusiveness

Mr Kamath said that it was time to “relook the constitution of the 3As of I” which admits only full service agencies as of now. “We need to take cognizance of the existence of creative and digital boutiques and the presence of new media.”

The spirit, he said, is of inclusiveness. Never mind the fact that a couple of large ad agencies such as Grey have stayed away from the fest, the bulk of the industry is here, says Mr Kamath. Those who don’t come stand to lose. Even Lowe and McCann, which are not participating in the creative awards, have sent in large contingents. And beyond the seminars, as Mr Bakshi points out, the idea is to have some serious fun, of which large doses have been lined up: water sports, beach volleyball, a rain dance, and, of course, a bar on the beach.