Sonal Dabral has been chosen by The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as one of the 12 mentors of the ‘See It Be It’ initiative. The initiative invites 12 women, who have been chosen from nominations sent in by agency leaders across the globe, to Cannes Lions for a unique programme and filmmaking project. It will run from Sunday 15 June to Tuesday 17 June in Cannes, France, home to Cannes Lions.
The programme aims to further women’s careers in the creative industry, encouraging them to stay in the industry. Across three days, 12 women will be part of an inspirational and educational programme which will take place during Cannes Lions. The agenda will include guided access to the jury rooms, meet and greets with VIP speakers, dedicated sessions by industry leaders and by the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, and a mentorship event supported by SheSays.
Commenting on the initiative, Lions Festival’s Director of Brand Strategy Senta Slingerland, said, “We know a more gender-balanced creative industry will result in better work. This programme identifies the next set of female creative heavyweights – they exist, but need an extra push into the spotlight. Mentorship is an important part of this programme. Sonal has always supported what we were trying to achieve which he’s one of only two male mentors this year! The others are very successful and inspirational women from around the world.”
Sonal Dabral
Commenting on being a mentor for the initiative, Sonal Dabral, Chairman & CCO, DDB Mudra Group, said, “”See It Be It is great initiative by the Cannes Lions Festival, which focuses on one of the fundamental problems our industry is facing the world over. I am honoured and excited to be invited as one of the mentors and I look forward to interacting and sharing my experiences with the future stars of our industry. I wish this truly commendable programme long life and great success.”
It was celebration time for Piyush Pandey and team at the Kyoorius Advertising and Digital Awards last Friday. His agency Ogilvy & Mather took home three Black Elephants – for The Good Road campaign in the Technological Innovation, :{to:) CleftToSmile in the Use of Social Media category and Google Reunion in the Online Branded Innovation Category. Ogilvy was also the most awarded agency at Kyoorius. Shobhana Nair spoke to Executive chairman and creative director (south Asia) of Ogilvy & Mather soon after the presentation of the awards
Very impressed by scale, grandeur and elegance: Madhukar Kamath
DDB Mudra was awarded a Black Elephant for The Last Telegram in the Direct Response Category at Kyoorius Advertising and Digital Awards. Shobhana Nair caught up with Madhukar Kamath, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, DDB Mudra who was seen crediting his entire team behind this success.
Your thoughts on winning a Black Elephant?
Being recognised for the breakthrough work that we did on The Last Telegram is extremely satisfying. Â I wish the people who worked on The Last Telegram were here. I am going to thank Anil, Deepak, Andy, Mandeep, Sonal, Nitin. Very importantly, our client Ajay Kakar and his team were outstanding. We just went up with an idea to them and it was not an idea that was planned. It was an opportune moment. Andy and his team were totally outstanding in coming up with the idea and executing it. The entire execution strategy for The Last Telegram is phenomenal.
Your personal favourite from other agencies?
The Google reunion is completely outstanding. I particularly liked the work done by Grey on Duracell.
Content with winning just One Black Elephant?
It’s a good jury. I will accept whatever they have decided upon. Next time around we will make sure we have not just one piece of work getting recognized, but at least 3 or 4.
Your views on the award show by Kyoorius and team?
Let me be honest. I am very impressed with what we saw – in scale, grandeur and elegance. The entire award show has been exemplary. In fact, what they have done to this NSCI stadium is outstanding. I compliment Rajesh on not just putting this up but also putting up such an outstanding show.
won numerous awards in the past… how would you rate Kyoorius and why would winning here be important for you (and the others)?
Kyoorius is new but it’s fantastic. They have an association with D&AD that every creative person in the world respects. They’ve made an effort to understand what advertising in India is all about. They have matched world standards but giving a lot of importance to what matters to our audience. For me, that’s the most fantastic thing that has happened and I congratulate Kyoorius and D&AD for creating a level playing field in a very transparent fashion. I am very happy and I salute the organizers.
Obviously you are very proud of all the work that Ogilvy produces, but if you have to pick one favourite creative, which one would it be?
This is a very difficult question. All the work is the babies of my babies. I will not differentiate as they all are great pieces of work. I will not choose between them. I am proud of their work that youngsters are doing in the agency and I look forward to their work. But the rockstar work in my mind is Google Reunion.
And work from other agencies that you love?
I liked a lot of work from other agencies.  I missed Lowe. I don’t know whether they entered or not. But I have loved their work on Gundappa for Lifebuoy. I think it would have been a better place if some other good agencies were also a part of it.
Your thoughts on the show put up by team at Kyoorius and D&AD?
It’s amazing. They have done a stunning job. As a first-timer, they have created hope and if they continue doing this, they will probably be the best award show in Asia very soon. The Abby has done a good job in the past but has lost track and may be this award should wake ’em up.
Not our words in the headline; that’s what Prasoon Pandey of production house Corcoise had to say in a session titled ‘The Rise of Creativity in India’ at the Cannes Lions. At the session he shared the stage with his brother Piyush Pandey, chairman and chief creative officer at Ogilvy India. Pandey senior, however, quickly interjected to add, “But winning is the icing on the cake.â€
Be that as it may, Indian agencies appear to be in the running for neither icing nor cake this year. In the categories announced so far, there’s nary a Grand Prix in sight. McCann Erickson bagged India’s first silver Lion in Direct for ‘Share My Dabba’ for Happy Life Welfare and Dabbawala foundation. Lifebuoy’s ‘Help a Child Reach Five’, created by Lowe Lintas India, crashed out at the shortlist stage in spite of a slick AV and a rousing endorsement by the Pandey brothers. The campaign is one among the non-Ogilvy films showcased by them during the session.
Its exit has added fuel to the perennially raging fire about how some of India’s best and most celebrated work is too local to appeal to an international jury. Of India’s 976 entries just a handful have made it to the shortlists so far, dimming hopes for a glorious run on the awards front. Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO admits, “It’s going to be a tough year.â€
However, there are signs that Cannes may just become another front in a cross-border conflict.
This year, ‘Not A Bug Splat’ for Reprieve/Foundation for Fundamental Rights has popped up on multiple shortlists. The entry is being considered in Direct, Outdoor as well as Promo & Activation categories. Now why are we obsessing over one campaign in a sea of socially-conscious advertising?
Well, for starters, this piece of work may be Pakistan’s shot at winning its first-ever Lion. Created by BBDO Pakistan, it aims to create awareness about predator drones and the insensitivity of warfare that leaves countless faceless, nameless victims in its path. In fact, in military parlance victims or ‘kills’ of predator drones are sometimes referred to as ‘bug splats’. A group of artists put up a massive portrait of a young girl, clearly visible from air, in the fields of a heavily bombed region of Pakistan.
Google’s ‘Reunion’ from Ogilvy India, a touching story of two friends separated during the partition and Leo Burnett Chicago and Sydney’s ‘Coke – Small World Machines’ have attempted to bring Indians and Pakistanis closer to each other.
In doing so, they’ve caught the fancy of the advertising industry, consumers and media the world over. And they’ve won plenty awards too. But across the Indian border, Pakistan’s ad men and women are apparently scripting their own narrative at Cannes.
With 22 gongs, one would have thought the Indian contingent at Cannes would be rejoicing. Compared to last year, when India had bagged 32 trophies by this time in the festival, the mood in 2014 is veering towards gloom that even the sun, sand and beauty on display cannot entirely dissipate.
But as one ad agency head says, “There’s still a long way to go in the game. It’s like football; anything can happen in the last 15 minutes.” Of course, the Indian ad industry’s hopes were lifted when Hindustan Unilever’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ bagged three Gold Lions on Tuesday. Interestingly, while what is essentially a radio station in Bihar got the country its hoard of gold, the Radio category didn’t feature a single Indian agency win.
And now JWT India has made its appearance on the leader board with three metals – one Silver and two Bronze Lions in the Cyber category and all for the same work – Nike’s ‘Make Every Yard Count’.
The other winner in Cyber is Grey Worldwide India, which got a Bronze Lion for its work on Duracell Batteries.
Historically one of India’s strongest showings has been in Press, the most traditional of advertising media and categories at Cannes Lions. This year India had 152 entries in total, but only 6 made the shortlist (last year, it was 37) and 2 won metals this year. There’s a Gold Lion for Grey Worldwide India for Duracell Batteries and a Bronze Lion to JWT for Godrej Security Solutions. In Design, Ogilvy’s got its first Gold Lion of the season for their work on Cleft To Smile – Operation Smile India and McCann has added another Bronze Lion to its haul.
Three Grand Prix were awarded in the Cyber category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Taking home one of the three top prizes at Cannes in Cyber is ‘Live Test Series’ for Volvo Trucks or “the truck ad with Jean Claude Van Damme doing the split,” by Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg. The other Grand Prix takers are ‘The Scarecrow’ for Chipotle Mexican Grill, and ’24 hours of Happy’ by Pharrell Williams.
All roads from Pune lead to the temple town of Pandharpur with the procession of the devout Warkaris. But for the design community in the country, all roads lead to the DSK International Centre off Solapur Road where the judging for the Kyoorius Design Awards is happening. Being held in association with D&AD for the second consecutive year, the jury session of India’s largest design awards starts today. (*See Disclosure)
As many as 468 entries are being judged across nine categories, ranging from Branding & Identity, Design for Communication, Packaging, Space, Books to Writing and Editorial. The tally is up 37% from last year. With this the total creative awards entry count at Kyoorius Awards aggregate 1456 across advertising, digital and design in 2014.
The Kyoorius Design Awards offer a diverse range of categories that recognize both comprehensive design projects as well as individual components. To this end, the Design Craft jury is dedicated to illustration, typography, graphic design and photography.
A mix of the top international, regional, and Indian creative minds have been invited to ensure that work is compared against industry best practices, while keeping the Indian context in mind.
The Kyoorius Design Awards jury includes three international and three Indian design gurus. These being: Jury Foreman Michael Johnson – Creative Director & Principal, Johnson Banks, Brendan Mccormick – Creative Director, Fitch, Felix Ng – Creative Director, Anonymous among the international members and Alok Nanda – Founder & CEO, Alok Nanda & Company, Anthony Lopez – CEO & Principal, Lopez Design and Ram Sinam – Co-Founder, Trapeze as the Indian members.
All jury members are gathered at the DSK International Campus in Pune which offers professional courses in animation, game design and industrial design. All voting is private, never by a show of hands. The last day of judging – June 25 – will be open to the media and professionals and students. Visitors will have the opportunity to view the best in Indian design, understand the judging process and watch jury members debate entries.
Rajesh Kejriwal
Said Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder and CEO of Kyoorius: “Design is at the root of creativity. Over the last 5 years we have seen the role of design change in India – from being a non-essential to a critical tool for business development and growth. We’ve seen significant growth in participation both at the awards and at Designyatra not only from designer and studios but from clients themselves.”
Winners of Blue and Black Elephants will be awarded at Kyoorius Designyatra 2014, the annual creativity and innovation conference held in Goa from September 11 to 13, 2014. In-book winners, also considered nominees for Blue Elephants, will be announced in August. Alongside winners, nominees will be featured in the Kyoorius Design Awards Annual, an annual publication that is distributed to over 5000 corporates in India.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communications, has announced the final winners that will take home trophies from the 2014 awards.
India drew a blank at the Titanium and Integrated category which was presided over by Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, CEO, Chief Creative Officer, India/South Asia, McCann Worldgroup. However, the good news is that Indian entries earned metals in the Cyber and Mobile categories. After having drawn a blank in these two categories over the years, winning here was critical given that both media vehicles are growing worldwide, as well as in India where the smartphone and internet penetration has leapfrogged over the years.
The awards presented at the final evening ceremony were:
Lion of St. Mark to Joe Pytka in recognition of his outstanding contribution to creativity in advertising and communications
Agency of the Year was given to Adam&EveDDB, London. Dentsu, Tokyo came second and AlmapBBDO, São Paulo third.
Independent Agency of the Year went to Forsman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg. Second place went to Lemz, Amsterdam and third to Wieden + Kennedy, Portland.
The Palme d’Or, given to the most awarded production company, was presented to MJZ, USA. O Positive Films, USA came second and Outsider, UK third.
The Network of the Year award was presented to Ogilvy & Mather with BBDO taking second place and DDB in third.
The inaugural Regional Network of the Year winners were announced as:
APAC -BBDO
EMEA – DDB
North America – BBDO
South America – Ogilvy & Mather
Also awarded was the Holding Company of the Year which went to WPP. Omnicom took second place and Publicis third.
The coveted Creative Marketer of the Year trophy was presented to McDonald’s in honour of their consistency in placing creativity at the heart of its advertising and communications and distinguishing themselves by inspiring innovative marketing of their products. Steve Easterbrook, Senior Executive Vice President and Global Chief Brand Officer, was present to collect the accolade.
The winners of the Young Lions Film Competition were also announced, with the Bulgarian team, Vladimir Gerasimov and Zhelez Atanasov winning the Gold medal.
The Young Marketers Competition saw the dedicated jury award the team from Russia, Marisol Diaz Rozic and Marianela Frick from Pepsico, with the Gold medal.
Cannes Lions was been attended by 12,000 delegates and seen seven days of non-stop content delivered by more than 500 speakers, over 37,400 pieces of work showcased at the Festival, inspirational academies, seven young lions competitions, four awards shows, two galas and unrivalled networking opportunities throughout. Visit the Cannes Lions YouTube page, http://www.youtube.com/user/canneslions, to catch up on the highlights of the week or the official website, www.canneslions.com, to view the winners of the 61st Cannes Lions awards.
Given its stature as the largest milk brand in India, Amul has undertaken the initiative to educate the Indian consumer about the goodness of milk and milk products and encourage consumption. With this objective, it has conceived the ‘Eat milk with every meal’ campaign that has been created by FCB Ulka.
The press and digital campaign brings alive the nutritional benefits of various dairy products, be it milk, butter, paneer, ice cream or even ghee. The campaign started in July 2013 in national and regional press, comprising of publications like The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Telegraph, Deccan Chronicle and The Hindu. Simultaneously the campaign was launched online on Facebook. Later a dedicated website www.amul.com/eatmilk was also launched for better interaction with the consumers. The campaign was designed by FCB Ulka Advertising.
At the recently conducted World Dairy Innovation Awards 2014 during the 8th Global Dairy Congress at Istanbul, Amul bagged the best marketing campaign for the campaign, which was received by KM Jhala, Chief General Manager, GCMMF.
The other finalists in this category were Quench (US) for its Turkey Hill Dairy blog ‘The Ice Cream Journal’, Saputo (Canada) for Milk 2 Go Sport – Dufour-Lapointe Sisters, Muller Dairy (UK) for the Muller Rice Tasty B Campaign, and Cayenne (Austria).
According to the Global Dairy Congress, the judging panel considered almost 160 entries from 30 countries.
RS Sodhi
Nitin Karkare
R S Sodhi, Managing Director GCMMF Ltd. said that “expansion, innovation and brand building are the three pillars of Amul’s strategy to achieve the growth. We are glad that our efforts are being recognized at the global level.”
“We are delighted that GCMMF has won the best marketing campaign award from over 160 entries from 30 countries. The simplicity of the message – eat milk with every meal, has led to its universal appeal- with the consumers and the jury,” said Nitin Karkare, Chief Operating Officer, Mumbai, FCB Ulka.
Bates CHI&Partners has won the mandate for Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited. They were chosen over DDB Mudra and another local agency.
Dalmia Cement having usurped the No 2 position in the North East in just a year, is now set for more markets, and not just in the East. Dalmia Cement has their cement footprint spread across South and East India through a portfolio of regional brands. The brand is also a pioneer in super specialty cements used for airstrips, oil wells and railway sleepers.
B K Singh, Senior Executive Director, Group Marketing & Corporate Communication said, “We believe that successful and admired brands are built through well thought strategies and sustained efforts over time. In this endeavor, we needed a partner who has been through similar journeys of aspirational brands and more importantly the willingness to experiment with fresh thinking. In Bates CHI we found such a partner and we are happy to have Mr. Abeer Chakravarty and his team on board.”
Michael Johnson, Creative Director and Principal, Johnson Banks was in India to head the jury of the Kyoorius Design Awards as well as to conduct seminars on the future of branding in Mumbai and Pune as part of the Kyoorius FYIday series. His company Johnson Banks has re-positioned brands like Virgin Atlantic and Science Museum. MxM India’s Shobhana Nair caught up with Mr Johsnson to find out what’s the future of branding in India and more. Excerpts:
Do you think there’s scope for brand specialists and experts in India at a time when a fair bit of the branding exercise is done by advertising agencies?
The advertising agencies have seemed to dominate for quite a while. The design companies are at a second level. This used to be the case in UK and America several decades ago. In the ’60s, some of the most famous British design firms designed for advertising agencies. In the ’70s, they started their own consultancies and became independent. By the 1980s or probably by the 1990s, they were brand consultancies on their own. Now 20 years later, brand is powerful than advertising. We are often called first about a branding problem and then the advertising agency has to deliver an ad campaign. Things have changed but that has taken a while. It’s not easy to shift that paradigm.
How do people in India react to your kind of work?
I have been doing this for 30 years and we started by doing a logo in the corner. We did just the logos. In India, they think that they only design logos. This problem is not only here, it’s also in China. There aren’t that many countries in the world who understand this. Only people from Japan, UK and America and some clients in the Gulf understand the breadth of the project.
Will the paradigm ever shift in India?
It will but it’s going to take longer than we think. There’s a feeling that things happen quicker in a young, exciting and developing nation like India. But it will take a while. You need to be patient. It’s taking a while for an indigenous true design approach to emerge. A lot of work looks like a work of an American graphic designer. That has got to change. India needs to find its voice as well as an understating about the brand is. It will happen.
Any brand that has caught your eye from India?
To be honest, I am a bit disappointed. A lot of big branding projects look as if they are done in the Middle of Atlantic. Tata Docomo looks from Japan or London. It does not look Indian at all. Apollo looks primitive. Airtel looks dreadful. What’s happening is the very successful international consultancies are selling their international style to big Indian clients. India is more interesting in itself. The last thing that India needs is someone like me. India needs to find its focus. There’s so much originality there. I had spoken at Designyatra seven years ago. All the students wanted to design like me. I wondered why. Their clients demanded designs which looked western. I felt that these are early days and this will change. But not much has changed in seven years. The students don’t need to copy their American tutors. By doing this, India is denying their qualities. I think it’s a bit of shame.
Any successful branding story that India can learn from the global market?
Uniqlo is a nice, affordable, high street Japanese clothing manufacturer. Five to six years, they took the decision to put their Japanese and English logos on the main store in New York. They felt that that they are Japanese and why should this be hidden? I think this will happen in China and India too where brands will be proud of their roots.
Thoughtshop Advertising has won the creative mandate for the leading IT security solutions company, Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd. With this win, Thoughtshop’s mandate will include reaching out to consumers across multiple touch points and highlight the technical benefits of the product.
The agency will work in sync with the company at every stage including planning, strategy and execution. Subsequent to the win, the agency will execute the first 360 degree campaign for the brand that commences with a TVC, followed by print and radio simultaneously.
Commenting on the recent win, Vipin Dhyani, Founder and Chief Creative Director, Thoughtshop Advertising & Film Production said, “We are extremely proud to partner with a company that prides itself with a lineage of over 20 years. This new business will provide us with some exciting opportunities and shall hopefully result in effective branding and communication. Quick Heal has a wide array of security solutions which are distinctively customer centric and adds value to the core purpose of communication. We look forward to jointly work with them and convey it to our consumers.”
Kailash Katkar, MD & CEO, Quick Heal noted, “We were looking for an agency with proven background, and who has the capability and capacity to support our extensive and integrated needs. In ‘Thoughtshop’ we found that creative partner who can value add to our brand persona and can further augment it. We are looking forward to work in this partnership and add new dimensions to our brand”.
The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), the apex organisation of advertising agencies in the country, will felicitate veteran adman Ramesh Narayan with the Lifetime Achievement Award this year.
The felicitation will happen on Thursday, July 24 in Mumbai.
Mr Narayan, who runs Canco Advertising, has led various industry bodies like the AAAI, the Advertising Club, the International Advertising Association India Chapter and the Federation of Advertising Association. Â As a thought leader in the fraternity, Mr Narayan would also write for various periodicals including a column on advertising in Mid-Day some years back.
Goafest 2015 will happen at Goa – that’s as much certainty you have about India’s premier advertising-marketing event. Basking in the glory of a successful Goafest 2014, it’s natural for not to look at the issues and problems with it and try addressing them in Jan 2015.
As an industry that claims to be at the forefront of designing marketing and advertising solutions for client , we would have once again failed. Trust me, the debate if it would / should / could been a Festival / Celebration / populist /  Boycott / Barat / knowledge platform / scam will never be finished. It’s been a mix of all of them and will remain so.
There are more problems than solutions at Goafest.  And the Kyoorius Awards night at NSCI has upped the benchmark raising new set of questions. But, Congratulations is due to the team that made Goafest 2014 possible.  The 2/3 day pass was definitely a relevant innovation. Getting the I&B Minister immediately after the election was a coup. ‘AIB’ and ‘AAP developers’ a masterstroke. Publisher and Broadcast Abby a positive stroke towards wider inclusion. But these cosmetic victories does not provide the answer indstry and the young brigade been seeking.
Complicated and well-documented issues like Egos / Sponsorship / Permissions / International Speakers / Scams / Formats / Awards have been slowly eroding its percieved value of the fest. I fondly remember the euphuria when the first fest happened and again when AAAI and Advertisng Club came together to create one single award. After so many years, it remains an iffy. Come to think of even if spoken in humour, the Goafest signature seems to be ‘Beer & Rain Dance’.
It starts with the basic. Today we know the dates for Cannes. Spikes, MediaAsia and  AdAsia. But for Goafest, please, wait for the new president to take over in Feb 2015. Can Ad Club and AAAI not agree to give the Goafest President/Chairman a three-year tenure. And are we still so underfunded that we cannot have a full-time-paid -secretariat working on the event. Before we single out Goafest, let’s be clear: this is true about all the industry events. The large acclaimed advertising-marketing bodies have not been able to create signature events with fixed schedules.
I have attended all editions of Goafest. I personally found new ways to enjoy the differentiated offering every year. Â But most of them got nothing to do with the fest itself. The problems facing Goafest are well-known and mostly been stated in macro terms. More so and may be the same set ot people been trying to fight to on too many fronts. But truly seaking, the solutions are also with them.
Today, the time is just right with 10-11 months to go for Goafest 2015 for them to prioritise their problems to attack. The problems are so inter-leveraged that solution to P1P2 ( Priority 1 and 2) are bound to set series of domino crashing.
If you look at the Goafest – the problems are Participation / Boycotts / Bad publicity / not enough publicity/ Entries / Jury / Awards / lack of excitement / April-May / Fee and many more.
Sincerely, I believe that given the scope, time, experience and mutual respect, the solutions should not be really tough for an industry that has solved many complicated brand positioning and execution problem. The personal belief remains that Goafest is a deat of celebrating great communication and should be cosnidered the flagsip event of the industry in India. But then beliefs do not count for anything till the issues remain.
1. DATES / TIMING :
Easier said than done. Can we just adapt 1st Thursday of April start date?
Why can’t the Goafest committee be in place now?
2. FEE :Â
Oh, they have started moving northward but are somewhat manageable.Or we need to find innovative ways. What about a refund that is based on the number of knowledge seminars you actually attended.
The amount of activation- fun and energy creating stalls and activity centres have been decreasing with the years. Trust these add to the whole space and the kick of attending Goafest
3. SPONSORSHIP:
Unlike international festivals we don’t see any agency or marketer non-media sponsors. Depending on media like Discovery, Goggle, Hindu, HT, Colors, Star, Dainik Bhaskar is going to be suicidal in the long run.
4. SPONSOR EXPERIENCE:
One of the biggest issue. What is being done n the experience and promise part of the deal. Currently with the sponsor matrix of ROI and ROE not being answered we have to chase sponsors. If this is taken care of the sponsors would be willing to do a long-term deal.
5. OUTSOURCING. Or is it unthinkable?
I am also aware that a body of people did made a case of outsourcing the event with acceptable financial and on the terms that Ad Club and AAAI would have wanted. I am sure that may take it to another level.And if you do look within the industry many such consotiums willing to bite the bullet exist.
6. INDUSTRY UNITY:
Toughest of all. Divided we stand and united is the image we would want to project. Every year the issues get voiced nearer the event. They need then to be tackled with the back to the wall. Mostly full of illogical, irrational at times seemingly ego-centric personal agenda-led crap creating volcanic fires tending to polarise the industry. it definitely does is to give the event a bad name and dampens individual interest.
7. AWARDS AND JURY:
Time to re-categories and re-look at the number of awards and create a group for the 3 nights that remains consistent. The clubbing of awards are also by the categories / media / entrants and interest. Deep dive and understand the root cause beyond the apparent stated reasons and solve the participation issue.
8. KNOWLEDGEPRESENTATIONS :
For every delegate and participating company there has to be something of interest and relevance.  This year I was surprised at many under powered presentation. I thought they should have been booed not clapped. One clear case was the presentation that aimed at enlightening developing Indian advertising industry with  last year social media Cannes winners. I presume that delegates at Goafest mostly likely would have have seen / heard / read about last year Cannes winners. That is ancient for a dynamic subject  like social media. The claps were just an echo of ‘Athethi Devo Bhav’ syndrome.
9. Who is the P1TG ( Priorty 1 Target Group) :Â
The young professionals or the industry influencers or just the industry from metro centers. The bigger agencies or upcoming talents. Personally I have never seen a more diffused campaign than the  Goafest 2014 campaign.
10. TAKING IT BEYOND MUMBAI:
Would be nice to know what has been the % of delegates that came from places other than Mumbai. I am surprised that as an Industry body we have hardly made any successful efforts to rope in the Unmetro industry centres.
11. MARKETER DELEGATES :
How have we failed to engage them. What can be done to get them in ?
12. REPLACEMENT DELEGATES:
Where will they come from? Â Have we mined the data to see how the delegate composition and participation details. More and more people I met kept threatening not to come next year. Normally they would come for 2 more cycles from the period they start thinking in this way before Goafest drops out of their radar. If replacement delegates are going to come from Unmetro Markets- what we doing to tap them.
13. WHAT ARE WE :
Are we about INDIAN LEARNING AND RELEVANCE OR A GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM OR ARE WE ABOUT ADVENTURE AND NETWORKING?
14. INCONSISTENCY.
Oh that’s our signature. Otherwise, how could we have treatedwinners differently across the three nights with three different formats. You can’t be so casual that category and the brand names are referred as ‘this’ and ‘that’. You can’t in one night honour bronze winner on stage and next night decide not to give the bronze winners in other categries the celebratory walk.
15. EMPTY HALLS:
I would like to beleve that it was the function of the size of hall and not the content or the beer and networking. I know you can not force people to attend. Â Can / should we really give a cannes trip to lucky-dip winner with delegate badge scanned in more than 80% sessions. Ensure we fill the front rows frst before openning slots fro perpetual backbenchers.
16. SIMPLE OVERSIGHTS OR WHAT :
What about having the winning category plate on the trophy. What happened to the young professional contest designed and executed at the fest. Where is THINK PRINT – you would definitely find sponsor and get huge participation for it and it would definietly be a winner. Or even a campaign designed at the fest for a national problem / CSR or an NGO.
17. LEARNING ORGANISATION:
Are we analysing and learning from other successful international formats and events. Or we have pledged to remain the knee jerk tactical – ‘let’s get over with the fest this year’ attitude.
18. LACK OF BUZZ.
There is enough happening at Mumbai before the fest. But what do we do during the fest that would ensure that the buzz continues.who miss out feel really bad. Maybe it’s time that Goafest hired a PR agency. Trust me, it’s a Goafest for the advertising- marketing crowd of Mumbai with dismal participation from even Delhi, Bangalore, Kiolkatta, Hyderabad etc
19. RESTRICTIVE SCHEDULE.
Without parallel sessions you are too cramped for choices
20. TRANSPORTATION:
Can we get dedicated flights and trains (at least 1st class and II AC Bogies)Â off from main delegate contributory centres ! Â What a talk that could be. The bus shuttles at GOA working on time and with a wider route-map.
There definietly be many more hot urgent critical issues to be addressed. But one thing is sure that that theGoafest team definitely needs to prioritise its problems and attacked P1P2 (Priority 1 and 2) to make Goafest a benchmark in itself.
DDB Mudra was awarded a Black Elephant for The Last Telegram in the Direct Response Category at Kyoorius Advertising and Digital Awards. Shobhana Nair caught up with Madhukar Kamath, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, DDB Mudra who was seen crediting his entire team behind this success.
Michael Johnson, Creative Director and Principal, Johnson Banks was in India to head the jury of the Kyoorius Design Awards as well as to conduct seminars on the future of branding in Mumbai and Pune as part of the Kyoorius FYIday series. His company Johnson Banks has re-positioned brands like Virgin Atlantic and Science Museum. MxM India’s Shobhana Nair caught up with Mr Johsnson to find out what’s the future of branding in India and more. Excerpts:
