GoaFest does a Cannes as Advertising Conclave discusses real issues

As a prelude to the Goafest, the Advertising Conclave put together by INS, IBF and AAAI as a joint discussion forum saw industry leaders discuss and debate on "What ails the industry?" One almost got nostalgic, as, after the Ad Asia in Jaipur, this was one real industry event in terms of scale and participation. AAAI president Sundar Swamy would be a happy and proud man having pulled off a pioneering initiative.

The audience comprising senior executives from all areas of the industry were very participative. The discussions were moderated by Ambika Srivastava of Zenith Media Optimedia.

Aroon Purie of India Today Group and Subhash Chandra of Zee Group inspired the industry leaders by sharing their perspectives on what they thought ailed the industry and gave their dose of solutions. It was an honest assessment of where the industry was headed and how growth and ideas could be accelerated and sustained.

Purie shared with the honchos his views on what bugged him about the industry. He felt that as an industry we are not investing aggressively in content. “We are short selling the medium to advertisers and media planners,” he observed.

Chandra made a call for better interaction amongst the various constituents of the industry so as to “benefit and leverage from each other”.

The Advertising Conclave also saw G Krishnan, I Venkat, Sundar Swamy, Shekhar Swamy, Raj Nayak, Bhaskar Das, Lynn De Souza, V Shantakumar, Vikram Sakhuja, Santosh Desai, Paritosh Joshi and many others make important observations.

Shekhar Swamy, in his typically honest and critical approach, said something that is in some ways prophetic. He was of the view that one of the biggest ailments facing this industry worldwide and on the client side is that of a lot of finance and accounting professionals taking the top jobs in agencies and client set-ups. “In such a scenario, numbers rather than ideas start to dominate,” he said. Swamy felt that when the board of a group is dominated by accountants, finance professionals and lawyers, “you know the decline is not too far”.

Considering Swamy and his agency are a part of a large network, one thought it was a brave comment. Significantly, the Advertising Conclave saw quite some such plain talking.

However, a senior professional from the industry said that all these discussions are fine but one needs to have younger people in the room discussing the issues as they are the future. “We need to involve younger professionals who have a stake in the future. I am sure Goafest and the Advertising Conclave will factor this in next year when it is held in February,” he remarked.