Goafest 2012: The festivities and the aftermath

This year, Goafest is known to have laid extra emphasis on quality in the awards. But, the overall industry participation was on the weaker side.

From the hot to the bold, from bronze to the gold, Goafest 2012 concluded on a dark breezy night, glittering with the winners' sheen and stride. Ogilvy's black picked up one Grand Prix, whereas Creativeland Asia's white held the other.

Held at Zuri White Sands, Goa, this year's Goafest was witness to several new additions. From calling for entries from the South Asian countries for the first time, to giving away the first Media ABBY, there were several steps taken to improve the quality of the awards.

The audience at Goafest was also enlightened by the knowledge and experiences shared by a plethora of international speakers.

Unfortunately, there was a downslide in the footfalls, from both the agency side and the media as well. While some agencies blamed it on cost-cutting, some others passed the buck on clients for burdening them with too much work.

afaqs! spoke to some key industry people at the festival on the final night of Goafest 2012, to garner their reaction on the awards.

Piyush Pandey, chairman and creative director, Ogilvy South Asia

It (Fox Crime campaign) is very special because it should have won three Grand Prix, not one! I think it's the most fantastic work that the youngsters have done at the agency, with digital and advertising working together. I personally believe that it won less than it should have. It should have won a lot more. I think it should have won in Integrated (category) but that's my opinion and I respect the jury that was judging it. I think Fox Crime is just great; I wish I had done it!

Shashi Sinha, president, Advertising Club Bombay (ACB) and chairman, Awards Governing Council, Goafest 2012

Earlier, there were process problems so we brought KPMG on board. We followed the process tightly and that went off really well. But, since it's a passionate and creative business, it's not just about process. So this year we decided to get onto the quality angle. We encouraged discussion and got large juries. A lot of our discussions with KMPG about this were wonderful. This year, the work has come out better - there were so many more metals, there were no controversies; this goes on to show that large juries lead to unbiased voting and good quality discussions. This is the best way in which you can celebrate Indian advertising.

Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer and managing partner, JWT India

This time it's (wins) a tad bit shorter than I expected... but the trick is to push. I mean, we've got to do good work every single day; there's no secret about that. The secret to success is obvious. It's the doing of it that's incredibly, incredibly hard. This is going to test our will and our desire to push and do famous work that makes our brands, our clients and us famous. You have to be relentless; there's no two ways about it. It's (our awards this time) a tad bit less but that's how it goes. And more or less we're where we should be. But we've got to raise our game; there's no two ways about it. Not just for the awards. We just have to raise our game; that's how you do great things.

Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman, Creativeland Asia

We've always stressed on quality over quantity. We don't do proactive work. There are very few entries that come from us. This is a victory for real creative work and is a message for people that you can do real, good work and still win the prize. It doesn't matter how many golds or silvers you get out of doing proactive work and scam work. Every account of ours is a claim-to-fame account - not just Audi - but it is doubly special because we won this account without ever pitching for it.

Pratap Bose, group chief operating officer, DDB Mudra Group

All in all I think it was a great performance by the DDB Mudra Group. I don't know how many metals we have won; yet to do the maths. The two campaigns that I particularly liked were the Shredders campaign and the Great Fire of London campaign, which have the potential to win internationally at Cannes. So I really think those two should go ahead and win. What's particularly exciting for me this year is that we managed to win a metal in every single category. That's something that we have haven't done before. Winning in every single category gave us a lot of satisfaction.