Goafest 2023: The last word

Chiefs from the AAAI and the Ad Club spill their minds. 

Goafest 2023 is done. Plans for 2024 may have hatched already. This year’s edition started on a shaky note because of an uncertain economic climate and the funding freeze which hit the start-ups, but it ended on a high.

Here are chiefs from the Advertising Association Agencies of India (AAAI) and The Ad Club who talk about some of the aspects of the Goafest and the Abbys. 

On getting sponsors: 

Rana Barua: We were aware that a number of the usual sponsors are not going to be coming because a lot of them had to fix their budgets and a lot of them were holding onto a lot of their marketing spending.

Our first challenge was to get the sponsors. 

We were not concerned at that time about participation, or how many entries will come because we knew the interest and engagement of people were very high so people were coming.

Jaideep Gandhi: One of our meetings was about it not being about sponsorship, it's about partnership. This year we saw partnerships from various industries like print… Tata Motors was there, a client participating is a big thing, and then there’s MakeMyTrip. Fundamentally the sponsorship angle is gone.  

On agencies known for doing something but winning in different categories. Ex: Media agency Mindshare won the Mobile Specialist Agency of the Year 

Ajay Kakkar: Today the question we have to ask ourselves is can only a specialist agency do specialist work and win work under a specialist category? That is proving to be wrong.

All agencies are participating to benchmark that their baby is beautiful, does the industry think my baby is beautiful? This is the stepping stone in the Indian context, then they get bold and say if in the Indian context, I am competitive and well-considered, can my work stand the test of global awards?

On an A.I.-specific category at Abby’s 2024: 

Rana Barua: The category of tech is open; we don't have categories that we will open further. One category which Ajay and I are excited about is the Young Maverick category. 

Plans for 2024: 

Rana Barua: What we two bodies (AAAI and The Ad Club) have decided is it is not more excitement or enthusiasm anymore. We all feel we have arrived at a sweet spot and the only way is up. Things are going to get bigger, better, and superior.