50% more entries for Goafest this year

The organisers of Goafest, the advertising sector’s annual springtime festival, set for April 9 to 11, have reason to cheer. The entries till the end of last week, the final week for filing for the Creative Abbies, were 2,800. This, with the entries for the Media Abbies (674), shows a 50 per cent jump in the overall entries compared to last year’s (2,300).

The increase is despite the fact that ad agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, McCann WorldGroup, Creativeland Asia, Leo Burnett, and BBDO will not participate in the Creative Abbies. “The organising committee has not received any entries from these,” said Ajay Chandwani, committee member, Goafest. But Grey and Mudra, who hadn’t indicated whether they would participate this year, sent entries for the Creative Abbies, Chandwani added.

Those in the know say the organisers of the festival, including the Advertising Club of Bombay and the Advertising Agencies Association of India, see the inclusion of Grey and Mudra as a shot in the arm. They add many non-participating agencies are expected to track how the Creative Abbies are executed this year, before deciding on whether to participate next year.

The first round of judging for the Creative Abbies has already begun this week in this city and it is expected it will continue for the next few days. Typically, the first round involves shortlisting the entries received. These entries are then put up on the website of the Advertising Club of Bombay for those in the sector to give their feedback. At the same time, back-checks are made of the shortlisted work to weed out scam ads; this exercise continues for about a week. Subsequently, the second and final round of judging is held.

This year, the 10th anniversary of Goafest, the event will be a three-day affair, with award shows every night. Last year, the fest had introduced Abbies for promo-activation and public relations and added the broadcast and publishing segments in the branded content category. This was in addition to the Media and Creative Abbies.

The organising committee, meanwhile, appears to have addressed the issue of poor content at the festival, with bigger and better names lined up. This year, the list of speakers includes Ted Lim, chief creative officer, Dentsu-Aegis Network, Asia-Pacific; Alan Moseley, president and creative officer, 180, Amsterdam; Neil Stewart, head of agency, Asia-Pacific region, Facebook; and Guy Abrahams, worldwide strategic marketing officer, ZenithOptimedia.

Various new elements, too, have been added. “We are organising Youth Labs, an interactive learning session targeted at young people. A total of 20-25 people will be selected for this. And, we will have two sessions — one targeting media people and the other for creative personnel,” said Nakul Chopra, chairman of Goafest 2015.