JWT India and its sister agency Contract India dominated the Creative Abby Awards on the final day at Goafest 2015. Of the total number of 344 awards given away under the Creative Abby awards, both the agencies combined to sweep away nearly 20 per cent of the medals on offer.

The other agencies that came out shining in Goa included Taproot Dentsu, Ideas@work, Scarecrow communications and Publicis India.

Prior to the awards it was an unusual, yet divine, morning on the final day at Goafest 2015.

Renowned mythologist, leadership coach and consultant Devdutt Pattanaik kicked off the morning proceedings with a talk on God as brand. For an industry that has got used to re-launching the same brands every few years, Pattanaik stressed how the brand messaging of God was consistent in India over the last 2,000 years.

Alan Moseley, president and chief creative officer, 180 Amsterdam used the story of croissants being served by his agency to visiting clients. After the meeting the croissants would be untouched. The agency thinking that the clients did not like croissants replaced that with Danish pastries. Still No one touched it. It then enhanced look and feel by investing in expensive cutlery and so on. Still clients did not want to eat. One day someone in the agency decided to cut the croissants into half. "It changed everything. The same client who did not eat better, sweeter and more delicate croissant was now eating what was on the plate." This was a metaphor Moseley used to describe the advertising of today.

"If you Tackle problems in a normal way, you will never solve it," he said giving the example of renowned film maker Francis Ford Coppola while directing apocalypse now, turned out to confront his problems with full force. The horror fuelled his creativity, said Moseley, who was inspired by one of Coppola's quotes in a magazine to start his agency.

Moseley's advice to the young creative guns at Goafest was to immerse themselves in the product. "Passion is not enough but a fresh perspective. We Need to be bigger than the cause and reframe the issue to find better solutions and changing human behaviour," he said warning that it is hard to shift perspective when everyone feels safe with the obvious.

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