The Hindu Business Line : GoaFest. Many firsts

Tomorrow the GoaFest begins. And all eyes are on this huge event. No one can speak of anything else, so Victoria and the team have culled out several interesting points in connection with the GoaFest.

This year marks the beginning of a new era of partnership. For the first time the Ad Club Bombay and the Advertising Association of India (AAAI) will jointly host a creative awards function.

For the first time in this millennium O&M will take part in a creative award organised (albeit in part) by the AAAI.

For the first time McCann will not be taking part in a creative award function organised by the AAAI. Talk about coincidences.

Many coincidences

For the first time in this millennium a major creative award function will have a non-media lead sponsor. For years the sponsors were Star, SET, NDTV and the like. This time, the lead sponsor of the GoaFest will be the Binani Group. One is told the sponsor was to be a real estate company from Karnataka but there was a last-minute change. Anyways, infrastructure rules. And please do not pay any heed to all the poppycock about the spat between IBF and AAAI which has probably led to old-time sponsors such as Sony, NDTV, Star and the like firmly refusing to open their purse strings for the GoaFest. Such rumours should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.

And then if you poke your nose where it should not be going and ask which was the only major media entity that did not agree with the IBF stand in its face-off with AAAI last October you will be told it was TV Today. Now please do not read too much into the fact that TV Today is one of the sponsors of the GoaFest. After all, it is not the only channel to sponsor a part of this festival. Now please do not say that Times TV had committed to three years’ sponsorship when Sunil Lulla was on the committee of the AdClub, and that is the only reason why it is still there. Just put it down to coincidence, OK?

Attendance

The GoaFest will have its 3,000 or so delegates, and please do not ask us how many of these are under 30 years of age. The fact remains that those under-30 types are the future of the industry and as the industry does not believe that Cannes and AdFest are great learning experiences, they are not sent to such festivals. Instead, they are all dispatched to Goa.

After all this is the real world. And it helps that it is highly subsidised by the cement industry. And now if you start counting how many of these 3,000 delegates turn up to hear the big speakers, and how many are guzzling beer on the beach, you only prove you are an old fashioned number-crunching prude.

Some silly fellow needlessly pointed out to us that the bigwigs of Star, Sony, Zee and NDTV who were either erstwhile sponsors of the creative awards or at least prominent attendees are all leaving for Washington DC instead of attending the GoaFest. Well, you should know that it has nothing to do with how they feel about the AAAI. The organisers of the IAA World Congress have not yet joined hands with the AAAI and AdClub to organise joint functions, so they went ahead and fixed the dates of this international Congress rather close to the dates of the GoaFest. Well, that, as you can see, is entirely their loss.

Excuse of the Year

Prasoon Joshi

Prasoon Joshi evidently said that McCann was not sending in entries for the GoaFest because it consumes too much time and energy. For crying out loud, you don’t actually expect us to believe Prasoon Joshi actually said that, do you?

After all he is probably the biggest entrant in the Mirch Kaan Radio awards and would be sharpening his pencil to send entries to Cannes. And, of course, he may have sent entries to the Adfest. Now please don’t ask us why then he has not sent any entries to the GoaFest. Maybe, just maybe, he felt that sending in entries for awards consume too much time and energy.

Place your bets

We are not betting people so we will not place any bets on who will win at the GoaFest. Also, we are told that this time there will be no toting up of awards to figure out which is the Agency of the Year. After the confusion that reigned supreme last year, the organisers have dropped that title completely.

Yet, some people (not us), are betting that if one had to add up the number of awards received by an agency, the title would still go to the agency that has not ever entered the GoaFest till now. Not bad at all. But then the really big prizes might just be eluding them.

Enough speculation. Let’s just sit back, gaze up at the stars and enjoy the GoaFest. And remember to inquire as to the date and media in which one of the Grand Prix winners appeared. Thank God they scrapped the scrutiny committees!

_ Victoria

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