If the big boys from creative land were missing, the mood and atmosphere more than made up for it. The show, as they say, went on. And that's what made the difference.
Day 3 of Goafest was the Big Night for Colvyn Harris and his team at JWT. After his agency bagged the coveted 'Grand Prix' for Direct on Friday, after the last of the awards were presented on Saturday, the JWT recorded 40 metals and emerged the agency with the highest number of awards won. Taproot India was the second-most awarded agency with 29 metals. There were three Grand Prix awarded in Creative – other than JWT, Alok Nanda & Company for Design and Digital Law, and Kenneth for Digital.
In terms of Golds, JWT won five, followed by Umrella Design with four. There were many agencies/organisations taking away three Golds – Alok Nanda, Bennet, Coleman, Digital Law and Kenneth and Taproot India.
As reported earlier, Lodestar UM won the maximum awards this year at the Media Abby. Said Pratap Bose, president, The Advertising Club and Chairman of the Awards Governing Council, "I am very satisfied. The onus was on us to deliver an award which is rewarding the best possible work in terms of processes by being fair and transparent. I think we achieved that."
Around 1,700 delegates participated in the 2014 edition of Goafest which was held indoors. "This year Goafest has been refreshingly different and what we are not used to seeing it earlier. Bringing it on the beach was really repetitive for the last few years but this time it has been nice. It has given the much needed change that was needed," said Lara Balsara, executive director, Madison World.
"It was a successful Goafest," said Arvind Sharma, president, Advertising Agencies Association of India and former chairman & CEO India Subcontinent at Leo Burnett, adding: "And I hope that it is not a view of a few people or the many people that I have spoken to, but a majority of people who have been there."
Srinivasan Swamy, CMD, RK Swamy and Hansa, who took on the role of chairman of Goafest 2014 organising committee in February was satisfied with the arrangements and turnout.
"We put in a good amount of effort to make this happen. From the feedback we have received, a lot of people have said that they are very happy with all the arrangements and quality of speakers."
Meanwhile, the concluding day of Goafest 2014 was a fitting finale to the three-day extravaganza. Information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar appeared to have impressed most in the fraternity with his honest, no-nonsense address.
"I absolutely loved what Mr Prakash Javadekar spoke. He was prepared and made a lot of sense. He left the room with lot of positivity." said T Gangadhar, managing director, MEC Global.
The pre-afternoon knowledge seminars were conducted by Vanitha Narayanan managing director, IBM India and Ajay Chaturvedi, founder and chairman, HarVa. Founder of Arsha Vidya Mandir, Swami Paramatmananda Saraswati reminded the 'always loaded with work' delegates about the fundamental principles of life through his seminar.
Pearls of wisdom like "plenty can give temporary satisfaction and not permanent contentment" were shared by the Swami. "There are some basic things in life irrespective of which industry you are in. He said things like chase happiness which is what we are not doing. You do forget what you are doing in your day-to-day life," said Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network, Chairman Posterscope and psLive – Asia Pacific.
Alicia Souza, illustrative designer and e-commerce entrepreneur stressed the fact that ideas are always around us. Norm Johnston, chief digital officer, Mindshare got the audience hooked with his graphical illustrations on the power of digital. "85% of users watch TV and have a mobile device handy at the same time," he said. Said Colvyn Harris, on the session: "Johnston was very insightful as to where our entire industry is moving. His way of showing interactivity through the dart board and the tennis table racquets were nice. What I liked was how marketers are using this technology in different ways. His width and depth with what he showed us today in a short time was good."
The other speaker who struck a chord through his seminar was Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director, Google India, who said, "The real power of the internet is to tell stories and tell them in an amazing way," said Anandan. Kunal Lalani, managing director, Crayons Advertising, said, "Rajan Anandan's session was on how digital will change most of the things in the world. It was all about how interactive the world is going to be, how connected the world will be and how information access will happen."
In arrangement with MxMIndia.com
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