Advertising festival Goafest 2008 set to roll from 3 April

Two heads are better than one – nowhere else is this adage better proved than in Goafest 2008, scheduled to kick off from Thursday, 3rd April at the picturesque Cavelossim Beach in a specially created ''Advillage''. And the two heads in question are the Advertising Agencies Association of India, or AAAI, and Ad Club, who had previously not seen eye-to-eye and had organised their individual awards before this happy confluence of minds.

The earlier discord between AAAI and Ad Club
Many major advertising agencies in India, who had earlier participated in the Abby Awards organized by Ad Club Bombay, had recently shifted their allegiance to the three-year old AAAI's Goafest, citing discrimination and other grouses. These included Saatchi and Saatchi India, Leo Burnett India, JW Thompson India and McCann Erickson (India) Ltd.

One of the major reasons behind boycotting the Abby Awards had been the issue of an overwhelmingly large number of awards being awarded to Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) India, which rival agencies attributed to faulty judging procedures. Hence, they had been participating at the Goafest for the last two years since its inception, while O&M restricted its participation to the Abby Awards.

Reaction to the united awards
Now, for the first time in three years, most of the country's premier advertising agencies will compete under the same roof for recognition of the creativity in their work. However, there are some notable absentees.

Lowe India, which has been shirking industry award ceremonies for some time now, will continue to stay away. McCann Erickson, a previous Goafest participant, has also declined to participate and has adopted a wait-and-watch policy as to how the unified awards work out.

Industry reaction has been largely positive, and many feel that the Abby at Goafest can become a viable Indian equivalent of the venerable Cannes. The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (IAF) is generally regarded as the most prestigious international advertising festival in the world, and is held annually over a week in the French city of Cannes, usually in the third week of June.

The two formerly warring, now-united organisations are most excited at the prospect of holding a show never before seen in the Indian advertising scene. Madhukar Kamath, president of AAAI, said, ''Last year nearly 2,300 delegates attended, of which, over 800 were under 30. This year we expect this number to increase substantially… The coming together of AAAI and Ad Club is a landmark event made possible by the desire of the entire industry to have one award and one glorious festival.''

The president of Ad Club Bombay was no less enthusiastic. ''The industry is witnessing challenging times for which we need to focus our priorities on doing things in a collaborative manner and not dissipate energy through frictional losses,'' Bhaskar Das said. In order to encourage participation, the organizers are offering free airfare and hotel stay subject to city-wise quotas.

The festival schedule
The festival kicks off on 3 April with an ''Industry Conclave'' where the who's who of advertising and media will reflect and debate issues and challenges facing the industry. The media awards will be presented on 4th April, and Abby at Goafest will be presented on 5th April. Seminars, panels and speakers will engage delegates during the day on 4th and 5th April 2008.

Several stalwarts from the advertising world have been invited to speak at Goafest 2008. These include Scottish advertising legend Donald Gunn of the eponymous Gunn Report, One Club's Kevin Swanepoel, JWT's worldwide creative chief Craig Davis, Scott Goodson, founder and CEO of Strawberryfrog, Lowe CEO Stephen Gatfield and Herman Vaske of Emotional Network.

The awards and their categories
The Goafest media awards will be declared on 4th April, and will have 13 categories – 10 media and 3 specialist categories.

The 10 media categories will be judged specially on great use of media regardless of product or service. The categories are best use of television, best use of cinema, best use of newspaper or magazines, best use of outdoor and ambient media, best use of special events and stunts, best use of live advertising, best use of radio, best use of internet and new media, best use of sponsorship, best use of branded content and best use of mixed media.

The three specialist categories for youth marketing, vertical marketing and pro bono marketing will be judged on their appropriateness to the target audience regardless of the medium used.

The Abby Awards will be handed over on 5th April, and in its latest avatar has been divided into 14 categories across the five verticals of print, film, radio, out-of-home and integrated advertising. Additionally, there are six other categories, namely ambient media, interactive digital advertising, direct category, film craft, print craft and radio craft. As a finale, there are Grand Prix awards for print, radio, film and integrated advertising where the winning entries from the first 14 categories automatically become contenders.

Goafest 2008 starts off with a conclave where thought leaders in the advertising business will get together to talk about the larger issues of the business, centering around this year's topic - Nailing the true value in the advertising industry a.k.a 'Show me the money value'.

Signing off
Amidst all this serious business, the fest also offers young and the young at heart a lot of opportunities for fun and frolic, including but not limited to beach sports, water sports, parasailing, a rocking rain dance and unlimited food and fun in the sun.