Surprise winners steal the show at Goafest

Agencies like Linen Lintas, AutumnWinter, Early Man Films made it to the top 15 at the Creative Abbies. Even mid-sized agencies like Contract came to the forefront

The absence of big names at Goafest this year meant that small and upcoming creative shops were able to make their presence felt at the festival.

Names such as Linen Lintas, AutumnWinter, Early Man Films were among the top 15 list at the Creative Abbies, jostling for space with regular winners such as JWT, and Taproot, and other big league agencies like Publicis, DDB Mudra and Reduffusion Y&R.

Even the mid-sized agency Contract that earlier never figured in the top two at the creative awards, managed to emerge the runner-up ahead of favourite Taproot, which trailed JWT, last year. The latter retained its crown.

"Yes, this Goafest was characterised by wins by very different agencies. The promoters of these shops are known in advertising circles. However, they were unfamiliar to the audience at large. That is no longer the case. People now know of them thanks to their performance at the Creative Abbies," says Bobby Pawar, director and chief creative officer, Publicis, South Asia.

"The trend of smaller entities picking up metals at the Creative Abbies has been on for a while. But I would agree that it has gained steam now, which was visible this year," Ashish Chakravarty, national creative director, Contract Advertising, says.

He adds that most of these shops are led by very strong creative leaders, who have solid agency experience behind them. Their work stood out which is why they won big this year. Linen Lintas, for instance, was the only Grand Prix winner at the Creative Abbies for its 'Brave & Beautiful' ad campaign.

The campaign helped the agency, which is part of the Lintas Group, the same network whose flagship Lowe does not participate in the Creative Abbies, take home three gold, one silver and three bronze metals.

The campaign features a cancer survivor who is bald going to work with some trepidation. She is seen encouraged by her family to take the step and is welcomed with open arms by her colleagues.

Jaideep Mahajan, executive creative director, Linen Lintas, says, "Given the response the campaign had received, we were confident that it would do well (at the awards). Of course, being the only Grand Prix winner this year is something that we will cherish."

Besides 'Brave & Beautiful', Tata Docomo ('Bhallai Ki Supply') and Nike were two of the other big winners at the Creative Abbies this year.

Are standout campaigns becoming difficult to produce?

Santosh Padhi, co- founder and chief creative officer, Taproot India, says, "The quality of work was not up to the mark. I have a feeling that this year we will not win big at Cannes based on the quality of work that I judged as well as saw displayed at Goafest. Print and print craft in the past have delivered a number of metals, but this year, we only gave out a handful. There also has to be some course correction where the jury chairs are briefed in advance regarding what they are expected to do."

Prashant Godbole, founder, ideas@work, who was also the jury chair of the outdoor and ambient media categories, says, "Because the top agencies had stayed out, you had a scenario where you had fewer ideas that made it to the final list. Winners were eventually selected from this."

Godbole's categories were the more liberal of the lot, handing out a total of 13 golds (nine for outdoor and four in ambient). Most other segments such as print, film, radio and integrated were tougher in their judging.

"This was a tough year for advertising. Most of us were coming out of a slowdown and in such an environment, there is a tendency to play it safe," Pawar says. The latter led the film jury, which delivered only two golds.

Chakravarty says that he sees a better year ahead: "At least that is the target that we have set. Since coming on board (two years ago at Contract), Rana (Barua, chief operating officer, Contract India) and I decided that we would regain lost ground in a methodical manner. We acquired a string of accounts, brought on talent and gave them room to perform. This paid off with work that we did for businesses such as Tata Docomo. Next year there will be more to show."

With a one-year-old government working overtime to bring the economy back on the growth path, ad industry executives say that 2015 will be better than the previous years.

An economic resurgence could coincide with a creative resurgence as well.

"It is difficult to come up with great ideas all the time. But we continue with our efforts," says Karan Singh Rawat, founder & executive creative director, Autumn Winter Communications & Design. "We were surprised with our wins. The feeling is yet to sink in."