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The ninth edition of Goafest could be different in many ways. The organisers are getting ready to put on a blockbuster show, which will stretch over three days as opposed to two days earlier. The event will be packed with knowledge sessions on the advertising craft, social and digital media in the morning and award shows in the evening. And the glamour quotient, including the festival's popular rain dance and afterparties, will not be compromised despite it being an indoor event this year. But even as the organisers work hard to put on their best show ever, some of the biggest names in the business could skip this year's festival.
Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), McCann and Leo Burnett are yet to confirm their participation at Goafest slated for May 29-31. Creativeland Asia's founder & creative chairman, Sajan Raj Kurup, has said that his agency will not be a part of the festival. "I am not against awards or festivals. But unfortunately Goafest is not clean. Till the time it is not credible, we will not participate," says Kurup. This will be the second straight year of Creativeland's absence after Kurup's dramatic exit last year from the festival, where he was jury head for the digital category. Kurup had quit saying he needed to take a stand against scam ads - ads that are not legitimately released but are entered into award shows due to the rush amongst creatives to be recognised and rewarded by peers.
McCann's South Asia president, Prasoon Joshi, attributed his agency's likely absence from Goafest to the lack of motivation among his team. "For now, creative people in the agency collectively do not feel motivated to enter their work; finally it is they who have to see value in it," he says.
History of controversy
Billed as the Oscars of Indian Advertising, Goafest has had its fair share of controversies. Even so, what happened last year was unprecedented. O&M for the first time decided against participating in the Creative Abbies, a show it had dominated 15 times since its institution in 1997. This was in the beginning of March, just a month from the festival. By the end of March, Goafest was facing its worse credibility crisis. The Ford Figo campaign by JWT, which was panned worldwide for spoofing international names such as the Kardashian sisters, Paris Hilton and Silvio Berlusconi, was found to be a scam ad, which was entered into the Creative Abbies and even shortlisted in the first round of judging. It was withdrawn, but not after raising uncomfortable questions about collusion between agencies and clients over backing work that did not have a legitimate release.
Ironically, the furore over the Ford Figo ad happened when some creatives from JWT uploaded the campaign on the Internet. Had that not happened, then possibly the narrative would have been different, say ad industry sources, with the campaign even walking away with a few awards.
Goafest's woes did not end with this. Well after the curtains had fallen on the eighth edition came the news that Leo Burnett was withdrawing two radio spots for Tata Salt Lite because of aspersions cast over the work at a high-level meeting of the Awards Governing Council (AGC) of Goafest prior to the Creative Abbies. By the end of the first week following the awards, AGC had withdrawn some Abbies given to BBDO and DDB Mudra in the print and outdoor categories for being copycats. By the end of the second week, AGC had received 18-19 complaints against ads that had been given awards at the Creative Abbies.
To put an end to this, a super jury was instituted. To the huge relief of the agencies in question, it decided against entertaining any complaint after the festival, saying the Abbies given would stay.
The episode left a bitter aftertaste. K V Sridhar, chief creative officer (India subcontinent), Leo Burnett, says, "It was an unfortunate episode. We are yet to take a call on whether or not we intend to participate this year in Goafest." BBDO's India chairman and chief creative officer, Josy Paul, says he is yet to internally discuss with agency members on participating in Goafest this year. "We are yet to receive a formal mail from the organisers on the plans they have for the festival. Once that comes, we will take a decision."
The way out
The cry for an independent body that can run the Creative Abbies is growing in agency circles. The buzz grew louder with the successful conclusion of an independent design awards by a non-profit organisation called Kyoorius in August last year. Kyoorius has been running the design awards for close to a decade now as part of its annual DesignYatra event, also held in Goa. Last year, for the first time, Britain's famed D&AD Awards associated with Kyoorius' awards show, raising the profile of the event. There has been no looking back since. The two have now taken the association forward and announced the launch of creative awards to be held in June in Mumbai this year. Entries will be called between March 20 and April 20, Rajesh Kejriwal, founder of Kyoorius, says. "We are an independent and a neutral body. And the best thing about the creative awards is that they will be completely managed by the D&AD team."
This means that everything - from entering work, which will be done online, to identifying and inviting the jury that will consist of foreigners (40 per cent), Asians (20 per cent) and Indians (40 per cent) to ensuring that the judging process goes off without a hitch - will all be handled by D&AD.
"All the shortlisted entries will be displayed online as well as offline, with exhibitions to be held in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, inviting members of the industry to come and see the work and identify scams, if possible. Over and above this, D&AD will conduct its own internal back-checks on each piece of work entered. Hopefully, this should bring down the incidence of scam ads as well as copycats," says Kejriwal.
Sridhar is all praise for the Kyoorius-D&AD model of operation. "I really liked the design awards held last year. Sessions were held as part of the event, good work was rewarded. We met up with old pals and industry colleagues. It was brilliant."
Kurup of Creativeland Asia says, "I have been advocating that an autonomous body should run the Abbies. This will ensure fair play if the awards have to be credible. At a time when awards are considered a bad word in India, this will certainly help."
What response does Goafest have to all this? Pratap Bose, president of the Advertising Club and chairman of Goafest's AGC, says the process of judging has been made stringent following a meeting with noted creative directors a month ago. "A window of 10 days is now available between the first and the second rounds of judging for the creative awards, where shortlisted work will be put up on the Ad Club website inviting comments and feedback. Any issue pertaining to a piece of work can be put forth during that 10-day window. In cases of plagiarism, complainants will have to back their claims with proof so that it can be taken up by the AGC," he says. "Once the Abbies are given, they will not be withdrawn."
Will this bridge the trust deficit? Wait for a few months.
HOW AWARDS ARE RIGGED
The most common way of working around the set rules is to enter print or outdoor work in the public service category. Creatives believe they can flex their linguistic or artistic skills in categories such as these where there is no overt pressure from clients to stick to a brief or ensure that a campaign generates sales. Why these are regarded as scam ads despite being legitimately released is because these campaigns more often than not don't aid in brand-building. They are purely created for winning awards.
The second way in which creatives cheat is to release ads towards the fag end of the year across print, TV, outdoor or even radio purely with the intention of winning awards. Called December ads, this problem was acute earlier at the Creative Abbies, though now the incidence has come down after the outcry over scams in the last few years at Goafest. The same goes for unreleased work, whose entry has come down dramatically after the Creative Abbies introduced auditors, who would back-check entries sent and call up clients as part of due-diligence.
While the judging process is now conducted on camera and jurors prevented from voting for work from their own agency, opinions can still be influenced when arguments become heated or one of the jurors is of a dominating nature. Typically, the first round at the Creative Abbies requires jurors to simply vote for the work they wish to shortlist. Once that is done, the work is put up on the Ad Club website for feedback. This done, the judging moves to the second stage, when, by way of discussion and secret ballot, a second shortlist is prepared. The winners are selected from this list, again by discussion and vote. However, given that opinions can be influenced since creative heads from rival agencies are part of the judging process, bodies such as Kyoorius have opted to have non-Indians as 60 per cent of its jury to ensure there is complete neutrality during judging.
