The country’s top advertising honchos speak about their expectations from the Media Abby Awards that would be presented on Day 2 of GoaFest 2010.
How challenging is it to sell creativity to clients? Are they open to ground-breaking work, or do they prefer to go by the tried and tested? India’s advertising honchos respond.
Shashi Sinha is quite pleased with the way the Media Abbys have gone so far – 484 entries as against 417 last year. Moreover, the quality of entries that have been submitted this year is truly very good and inspirational. According to Sinha, immense progress has been made in the categories of Digital and Internet, and the presentation boards and videos have also improved dramatically.
The touchdown at Dabolim Airport this afternoon (April 8) was smooth and so was the GreyGoose at the hotel when I checked in. I was back in Goa for the 5th edition of the GoaFest, or as I call it, The Annual Advertising Re-Union, with a promise of lots of knowledge, celebration of ideas and a whole lot of fun, says Mudra’s Pratap Bose.
This year’s Conclave can easily be one of the best I have ever attended in the last five years with an array of speakers renowned in their sphere bringing a positive and forward looking views and pointers. Though as a practicing media professional, these topics have left me rather restless than being buoyed about the Indian media and advertising industry, says R Gowthaman.
DLD Munich, WEF Davos, Techcrunch Meet-up New York, TEDx… I have visited all these conferences over the last three months and am now attending GoaFest here in Goa. I must admit, I am impressed. It is the first time I attended a conference in such a relaxed atmosphere by the beach says Patrick Liotard-Vogt.
Mudra’s Pratap Bose gives a round-up of the sessions that rocked on Day 2 of GoaFest, what were the key take-aways from the international speakers, the Media Abbys and the eager wait for the Creative Abbys. Read on…
Wow!! Another GoaFest and another amazing and thrilling night of celebrations and creativity rewards. The whole coming together of the jury, judging it truly professionally inspite of running different agendas and work that all of us are truly proud of. Maxus winning 11 metals is probably an icing on the cake, says Ajit Varghese.
Creative Abby has come a long way from the iconic advertising award it symbolised for several decades. From the traditional print and TV excellence in creativity that it stood for a long time, Creative Abby touches a wide spectrum of fields, making it more than just an advertising award. Many a creative reputation has been built first on the Abby stage before making an impact at Cannes, Clio and One Show, says Ajay Chandwani.
The slowdown of last year saw a shrink in the advertising pie. The question that topped everybody’s mind: is the Indian media under-priced and how do Indian media CPTs compare with those of the other countries? Can the advertising pie grow without the corresponding growth of sales of products and services it promotes? To answer these questions were a set of eminent speakers at the session on ‘Time to Grow - The Advertising Pie (Media)’.
Preeti Juneja has joined Loginworks Softwares as Senior Manager - Brand and Sales. Prior to this, she has worked with CRY – Child Rights and You, UTV Entertainment Television (UTV World Movies) and Genesis Burson Marsteller (National Geographic Channel, The History Channel, Lakme, Sony Entertainment Television, GSK, The Park, Cotton Council International, adidas). Loginworks Softwares is a software development company for clients across sectors in India and abroad such as the US, the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands, among others. The company handles regular maintenance of office data, softwares and servers to lower down business costs, besides website designing, hosting and maintenance, developing customised softwares/ applications in both web and mobile formats.
Reliance Media World Ltd.’s radio arm, Big FM has appointed Saurabh Doshi as Regional Head – West Zone. Prior to joining Big FM, Doshi was with Reliance Big TV as DGM and handling all content on the platform. He will be reporting to Soumen Ghosh Choudhury, National Business Head, Big FM. Doshi has extensive experience across companies ranging from Bank of America to Dun and Bradstreet, to name a few. In his new assignment, Doshi will be responsible for the West markets of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra (except Mumbai). This appointment marks Doshi’s second stint with the company, the earlier one being from 2006-08, when he was one of the earliest employees of the company and an integral part of the team launching Big FM’s stations across the country.
Grey Group has roped in Divyapratap Mehta as Senior Planning Director for Delhi. Mehta has been on the forefront of strategising on a diverse set of businesses like Unilever’s Dirt is Good, LG, Nestle, Maruti, Fever 104 FM and Havell’s campaigns. With 14 years of experience under his belt, Mehta has gained extensive experience on consumer habits of women and youth across various geographic markets. Some of the prominent names that he has worked on include Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever and Panasonic. Mehta has led various new business initiatives in India, Thailand and Japan during his stint with Lowe Lintas as Associate Vice President Planning and as Regional Planning Director-South East Asia-Lowe Worldwide. Prior to this, he had worked with various agencies like TBWA, Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson.
Posterscope’s Hyperspace division has implemented eight new innovations for Philips music player, Big Bazaar exchange offer, Google IPL, Bharti AXA General Insurance, Marks & Spencer store launch, and new flights of Qatar Airways from Bangalore to the world via Doha.
John Players has launched new OOH campaign featuring new brand ambassador actor Ranbir Kapoor. The clothing brand has made use of innovative billboards with design elements to create a 3D effect. The billboard campaign has been ideated by Encyclomedia and executed by Mudra Max and can be currently seen in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Close on the heels of bagging the Muthoot Papachan Group and Dhanlaxmi Bank businesses, Mindshare’s Kochi office has now been appointed as AOR by jewellery group Jos Alukka & Sons. Though the account size could not be ascertained, a company source said that Jos Alukka & Sons had spent about Rs 20 crore in the last fiscal. This year, the ad spend is expected to be much higher.
Day 2 of GoaFest 2010 saw the announcement of the winners of the highly anticipated Media Abbys. Maxus scored the maximum with 11 metals comprising one Gold, five Silver and five Bronze Abbys. Lodestar Universal and Mudra Max won three Gold Abbys each, while Mindshare won two Golds.
With an aim to incorporate listeners’ choice and suggestions for content and music, Radio Misty has revamped the content and music of its Gangtok station. The FM station will run a multimedia campaign and has set aside a marketing budget of around Rs 5 lakh. Next in line for revamp is its Siliguri station.
The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure has given its approval to the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting regarding 11th Plan Scheme of Doordarshan for digitalisation of transmitters and studios in the DD network.
“We are still cautious from a regional perspective, but from the MEC perspective, both regionally and globally, we firmly believe in our proposition and our core positioning in the market place. It has not been a good 12-15 months, but I think we have come out of it stronger, we have got a good senior management in place across Asia and consistency is what people are looking for, so we are feeling positive about the whole thing,” says Mike Jackson, MD, MEC Access, Asia Pacific.
Day 2 of GoaFest 2010 saw eminent speakers dole out valuable information at the Knowledge & Learning sessions the theme of which was, ‘Survival of the Freshest’. Elaborating on the theme, Prime Focus’s Global Director Micheal Constantine and Grey Worldwide’s Chief Creative Officer Tim Mellor bought under the scanner details of the effectiveness criteria of advertising.
Besides the beach and the bubbly, the knowledge sessions are a big draw at GoaFest. Richard Pinder, COO, Publicis, during his session talked about ‘contagious’ ideas that change brand conversation. He talked about the changing world that we are living in, which is a new world of digital, mobile and viral marketing. Because of this, the way conversations transpire around brands seems to be a totally different landscape.
Following the welcome address by GoaFest Chairman Colvyn Harris, GoaFest 2010 started off with the knowledge sessions, the first of which was presented by Will Collin, Partner, Naked Communications. In keeping with the festival theme of ‘Survival of the Freshest’, Collin gave various points on freshness in communicating to the audiences.