‘This Goafest is going to be something truly interesting and different’
‘Agencies, like Leo Burnett, Creativeland Asia, TBWA, BBDO, which had not participated in the last five-six years have come forward to participate this year’
Returning to the ground after a gap of two years, Goafest 2022 kicked off to a great start today.
Rana Barua, Chairman, Abby Awards Governing Council 2022 and Vice President of The Ad Club; Partha Sinha, President of The Ad Club; Anupriya Acharya, President, Advertising Agencies Association of India; and Jaideep Gandhi, Chairman, Goafest 2022 Organising Committee, welcomed the delegates. In a press meet, the veterans talked about the challenges of returning after a long gap, the jury process for the Abby Awards, and the participation of many new players this year.
Noting that the nominees as well as the jury members for this year’s awards are outstanding, Sinha said, “Agencies like Leo Burnett, Creativeland Asia, TBWA, BBDO and a few others, which had not participated in the last five-six years, have come forward to participate this year.”
Sinha mentioned that 10 of the 22 jury members this year are women. He further shared that the jurors were so impressed with the quality of entries that they expressed their desire to come to the fest and meet the people behind them. “You have these rockstars of the ad world themselves coming to you and saying, ‘hey that work was damn good. Can I come speak at the fest and meet these guys?’ That’s never happened before in all the years that we’ve been doing awards,” he shared.
Also, with the pandemic accelerating the adoption of technology in the industry, there is a far more diverse range of players participating this year. Acharya pointed out that the schedule for the festival was a reflection of the changing times and the incredible growth of advertising and marketing across new categories and channels.
“We tried to bring in everything we could think of and touch as many points as possible -- Indian unicorns, OTT players, influencers, people from the sporting world, policy makers and other members of the government. We've realised there's a lot of interest in health and wellness so there'll be sessions on that as well as on gaming,” she said.
Concluding the address, Sinha said, “With the kind of participation and levels of energy we're seeing in people as they return after two years, this Goafest is going to be something truly interesting and different. I think we can put it in writing: you should have very high expectations of Goafest this year, and you certainly won’t be disappointed.”
A total of 147 companies from across the industry are participating in the fest this year.
