As the captain of the Goafest ship,Jagdip Bakshi, CEO of Contract Advertising, has successfully navigated and made it the second-largest ad gig in the world after Cannes.
As the captain of the Goafest ship,Jagdip Bakshi, CEO of Contract Advertising, has successfully navigated and made it the second-largest ad gig in the world after Cannes. What’s more, his agencynever had it better. Bakshi spoke to Nirmal John on the festival and the industry at large. Excerpts:
What’s been your assessment on this years’ Goafest?
We had 3,061 delegates; just got the numbers yesterday. It would mean that Goafest is the second-largest show after Cannes. I think we did a lot of things right. We got the organisation right, we got the event right. Most of the agencies were there. So, I think we got a majority of things right, but got some things wrong.
Like?
Well, some of them are admin related; some are operations things, some on the awards.
There has been a lot of controversy on the awards. What will you do to ensure the process goes smoother the next time around?
I think we must have much tighter restrictions and a better entry form. What we will do next time is create a form which has must-fill parts for clients.
You got to fill in where you released the ad, who released it, all that. It could be electronic and easy to fill. So that’s one thing we are going to discuss and we must get it right. Point is that you should also scrutinise these forms closely.
So, one thing to improve would be to provide proof of the creativity. By making it stringent, I don’t mean that you discourage people from entering. What it means is that you scrutinise the entries properly. Ultimately, in our industry, you get full marks when you produce good stuff, go to the client and sell it.
What else can be improved?
We can certainly improve in terms of the inclusiveness of the event. For example, we can include design. It is very much a part of our industry, but it goes unrecognised.
There are a few design workshops which happen, but I don’t think there are too many awards for the designers. In terms of organisational improvements, one key thing was that not enough was known about the speakers enough time in advance. Also, may be we should try and get more clients into it.
Fourth year, it should become an event like Cannes where heads of companies like Unilever attend. Also, some more diversity in the entertainment would be good, adding to beach sports and rain dance and the like. But the signature improvements are design, more inclusiveness, tighter control of awards with it being more transparent and stringent.
How will the AAAI and Ad Club tie-up be taken forward?
I think we should at least try and make the agreement in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). What if the current arrangement disappears next year and somebody’s ego comes in the way?
Not that at the moment there is a chance of that happening, because Goafest was such a success. That kind of thing happens because of bitching from both sides. It is like a joint family which breaks due to bitching. Fortunately, this time it was such a success that it should not be happening. So, why not build on it and sign a MoU?
Away from Goafest, what’s new at Contract?
The good thing that is happening at Contract is that we had our best year last year. WPP doesn’t largely reveal figures, but one statistic is that our growth rate was 20% plus.
So, that’s one thing. It is a top-four performance for us in terms of awards, which is great performance. Contract had a sterling reputation for creativity. In fact in 1999, the last time Ogilvy lost to any agency, it was Contract.
If you go back and look at the charts of the Abby’s, it was always Contract, HTA (now JWT), Leo Burnett and Ogilvy. So, it is history repeating itself now. Brand Contract definitely stands for creativity; this means creative in the form of integrated communications. That is a unique thing about us.
Everyone talks of attrition and lack of talent in the industry. What is being done to address this issue?
Usually, people say that the most difficult talent to find is creative, and that is usually true. Great creative talent is always in short supply. But, where we have lost is in the quality of people in servicing.
Not many of the hardcore creative guys go elsewhere.
But, how many people who work in servicing today are management graduates from the IIMs?
Among mainstream management talent, the people who actually run the show, nobody is actually interested in advertising. We just can’t match the kind of salaries they are getting from corporates. Planning is just as bad.
Servicing people, who are true thinkers and not so good at operations and fixing meetings are the guys, who make up good planners. Any guy who is like that can find a job, which pays him five times the money.
You need to seriously address this as an industry issue. We should come together and appoint a CEO who unlocks value in the industry. One who stands tall and can drive value for the industry in terms of opening up sectors; who tries and gets clients to see value in a lot of things we do; and who gets people to try and export the absolutely fascinating Indian mind so that this industry comes back into the reckoning of the talented students.
n_john@dnaindia.net
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