Goafest gets bigger

The three-day festival, which begins tomorrow, has more delegates and agencies participating than earlier editions

Bags have been packed and ad folks are ready to take off on a three-day trip to Goa courtesy the adfest, which is held jointly by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Advertising Club of Bombay, every spring.

The seventh edition of the festival, which kicks off this Thursday, promises to be bigger and better. Here’s why: There are over 3,000 paid delegates who are making it to the fest this year – an increase of 15 per cent over last year. Included in this lot are people who are coming from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka – a first for the festival.

The total number of entries in both creative and media has also gone up this year unlike last year when creative saw no increase at all. “This year the total number of entries in creative is up 15 per cent to 4,253, while media saw a total of 628 entries, an increase of 17 per cent,” says Arvind Sharma, chairman, Goafest 2012.

While McCann-Erickson is a notable absentee in the creative section this year, Sharma insists that the agency has not boycotted the festival altogether. “Delegates from McCann are coming for the fest. So it is not as if they are out of Goafest this season. Yes, they haven’t entered any work this year,” he says.

Last year, McCann along with Contract and Saatchi & Saatchi had decided to participate in the fest after boycotting it the year before. This year, Contract, Saatchi & Saatchi along with last year’s absentees, Taproot, Publicis and Ambience, as well as regulars such as O&M, JWT, DDB Mudra and Leo Burnett are part of an over 160-strong contingent who will compete tooth and nail for the top honours at the fest. Last year, the total number of participating agencies was 150.

This year the judging is also stricter than last year, with three rounds for both creative and media as opposed to two rounds last year.

“The total number of jurors across ten verticals is well over 100,” says Sharma.

The categories for which work was invited this year include print & print craft, film & TV, film craft, radio & radio craft, out-of-home & ambient, integrated, design, digital & mobile and direct besides media. Apart from gold, silver and bronze trophies, jurors have also been given the option to hand out grand prixs for work that stands out.

More importantly, the screening of entries was made rigorous this year in an attempt to weed out work entered for the sake of winning awards. “This year we made it mandatory for everyone, who wished to enter their work, to back it with client letters,” says Sharma. “This way we are certain that worked entered is genuine, not fake.”

This is the first time that client authentication has been made mandatory at the entry-level itself. So far, client back-checks were introduced after the initial shortlist. “But not anymore,” says Sharma. “Client letters earlier were given by exception. We have now formalised that process,” he says.

The conduct of jurors has also been monitored closely to avoid issues such as self-voting, that is, judges nominating the work of their own agencies, a practice banned at all advertising award shows across the world.

Two years ago, Sharma’s own agency Leo Burnett was in the throes of a controversy following episodes of self-voting involving jurors of the creative awards at the Goafest that year.

DDB Mudra (then Mudra) had sent a legal notice to Leo Burnett and the agency’s national creative director K V Sridhar (popularly called Pops) over statements made about the conduct of its members, notably, Bobby Pawar, who was then Mudra’s national creative director, during the judging of the creative awards then.

What had irked Mudra was that these comments were made by Sridhar on social media, which had prompted the former to seek damages of Rs 100 crore from Leo Burnett and Pops for loss of goodwill and reputation.

Sharma refuses to be drawn into a conversation about what happened next following Mudra’s legal notice, but he does say that lessons have been learnt.