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oafest 2013kicked offwith astellar

lineup ofthe

whos-who of the industry talk-ing on a wide range ofsubjects.

Right from its incep-tion, the festival has fo-cused on ideas to gener-ate great ideas.There is asaying in advertising;Innovations happenwhen your ideas haveSEX and this was theforeground for exercisingthat. As the industryhead honchos put it: itsa festival for all peoplewho believed in the pow-er of ideas.

Whats New?-IndustryConclave

Agencies are used tofacing this question fromits clients and thus, inorder to understand theirclients better and share ahealthy agency-client re-lationship,the fest decid-ed to organise the Indus-try Conclave, an agency-client interactive sessionwith the theme,Time toListen (see lead pic) . Itwas the perfect opportu-nity for the clients to airexpectations from agen-cies through a series ofpanel discussions.Theevening witnessed mar-keters sharing concernsabout the agencies, thedynamics of client-agency relationships andtheir experiences and ex-pectations of advertisingagencies.They also spokeabout advertising ethicsand trends that raiseconcerns.

And thefestbegins

Whenever we think ofGoa/Goafest, we tend toassociate it with Sun,Sand and Beer - threedays of sheer intoxica-tion thanks to the un-limited or free flow ofbeer and whiskey (andalso cold drinks; just tokeep the non-alcoholicshappy!).But Goafest hasmore to it in terms of thekind of speakers whograce the fest.The organ-isers endeavoured to pro-vide enough food forthought along withdrinks by bringing in

thought leaders fromaround the world tocome and share theirown unexpected experi-ences.Needless to say,the halls were packedwith adwallahs eagerlyabsorbing every wordthat was spoken.

The first day of the festkickstarted wi th WARCs

Asia-PacificDirector,RogerMulchan-dani whosetopic wasSeriouslySocial. Asthe topic

suggests, Roger spoke onthe power of social mediaand how the business ofcommunications haschanged with the evolu-tion of social media overthe past few years. In hispresentation,he pitchedon the fact that brandsshould experiment withcontent today.It is es-sential to generate con-tent that is shareable andbrands should breakrules or taboos while de-signing content for so-cial. It is also essentialthat content on socialhas a humourous flavourand make use of quirkyuse of celebrity. Accord-ing to him, contents onsocial have the power toadvocate a cause that canbe inspirational, he said.

After Rogers insightfulpresentation on SocialMedia and Social Net-working, it was time for

Ray Velez,RazorfishsGlobalChief Tech-nology Offi-cer to talkabouttransform-ing busi-

ness marketing strate-gies through the use oftechnology. In the lastdecade,he said,market-ing has gone through afacelift and technologyhas helped businessesand its marketing strate-gies to transform. Ac-cording to him, technolo-gy added with media andcreativity, creates newbrand experiences. Butthis doesnt mean thatcreativity is not impor-tant.Velez felt that the

convergence betweentechnology,media andcreativity helps in creat-ing business insightsthat allows brands toimagine, create and en-able customer experi-ences. He also stressedon rejecting silos andemploying agile method-

ology and rapid proto-type for brands.Maxus

WorldwidesGlobal Plan-ning Direc-tor, NickVale empha-sised on theimportanceof sticking to

the basics in communica-tion. He said that commu-nication is all about peo-ple and ideas in mind.Ac-cording to Vale, its impor-tant to hone the ability ofdriving simplicity in acomplex communicationsituation. He also stressedon the ability to transformBig Ideas to Long Ideas,seeking examples fromthe campaigns of NikePlus and American Ex-presss campaign on Face-book.According to him, along idea has the strategicability to travel acrossmedium.

Speaking on the topicDemocrati-sation ofCreativity,Dave Al-

berts of MoFilm saidthat for afilmmaker,the most

important aspect of de-mocratisation is freedom.He said that independ-ence of thought was thekey to making ground-breaking and memorablefilms. Any filmmakercan make a film of broad-cast quality, he said,quoting Francis Ford Cop-pola who had once re-marked,Some little fatgirl in Ohio is going tomake a beautiful moviewith her fathers cam-corder.

Advertising as an in-dustry is known for itsunconventional ways ofworking and Goafest was-nt any different fromthat. Taking the uncon-ventional route,Day twoof the fest began on a dif-

A CONSUMER CONNECT INITIATIVE

AN ECONOMIC TIMES PRESENTATION,WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24,2013ADVERTORIAL & PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

GOAFEST 2013 saw the celebration of creativity, creativity and more creativity. It lived up to its promise of Expecting theunexpected. From top industry leaders to young adlanders, the fest proved to be a great place to learn, network andunwind.Sheetal Srivastava Reddy and Rounak Guharoy get you the details

G

Gold, Silver, Bronze Beer!and

DAY 01

DAY 02

ferent notewith spiritu-al keynotespeakerSwamiSukhabod-hanandastalking onUncertainty

is also a part of life. He

started his session by giv-ing a reference of snakesand how 75 per cent ofsnake bites are non-poi-sonous. But still 75 percent of the time, when asnake bites,people die outof fear,he said adding atouch of humour to histalk to the full house. Hespoke about how uncer-tainty can be tackled.Theentire experience was asoothing and calming oneon the nerves of all thenominees.According toSwamiji, uncertainty in itspurity is not an experi-ence.One never factuallyexperiences uncertainty.The translator translates itbased on the programming

(of the past),he said.

TomBernardin,Chairmanand CEO, LeoBurnettWorldwidediscussed

the various aspects of ad-

vertising.Looking at theglobal competition amongbrands, Bernardin saidbrands need to identifyfour key mediums in com-municating with todaysconsumer first keymedium was Social inthe form of social media.To substantiate his theory,he presented a case studyof the brand, Samsung.Heshowed how Samsung ini-tially was cluttered withtoo many Facebook pages,irrelevant activities andfragmented loyalty.To rec-tify the process,Samsungalong with Leo Burnett,created a social mediacentre.This resulted inless clutter on the media

and increased the numberof followers on the digitaldomain.Bernardin con-cluded that having a one-point social handle to coverthe entire spectrum is morecredible than having multi-ple solution social points.

Another interesting ses-sion was byPepsis GlobalHead-Digital,Shiv Singh.He spokeabout how intodays per-fectly com-petitive mar-

ket, no one cares aboutmarketing anymore andthus, its important to do

what matters the most.Ac-cording to him, it is neces-sary for brands to leveragecultural elements for theircommunication plans, evenif it is social the youngestemerging media vehicle. Itcan be observed that Pepsias a brand has incorporatedculturally elements such asmusic and being an integralpart of various large scalesports properties in variousglobal markets. Singhpointed out that social cancreate wonders when itcomes to building brandconversations. He was ofthe opinion that investingin social will help brands tothink about experiences asmore than advertising re-sponse.

Ace film directorAbhishekKapoor spoke

his heart outto the audi-ence as heshared howhis earlyyears hadbeen a time

of struggle and self-doubt.Still, he said,he had perse-vered because he believedin what he wanted to do.Starting a career as a failedactor and director and thenpersisting with the latter

just because he enjoyed do-ing it, was one of the mainreasons he attributed to hissuccess.According to him,it becomes very difficult fora person when everyonearound him is continuouslycasting doubts on his goal,but the mantra he re-marked was to have self-belief.Seeking an examplefrom his own career path,he added, that after his filmRock On, it took him four

years to make Kai Po Che.And finally, it was AmirKassaei, ChiefCreative Offi-cer, DDBWorldwide,who the or-ganisers fi-nally man-aged to get toGoafest, after

trying for two years.Takingcue from his previousspeakers, he stressed onthe fact that brands shouldstart creating strategieswhich are customer orient-ed. He highlighted the ex-ample of Apple,about howthe brand is building allthe possible touch pointsfor the customer, startingfrom building a great prod-uct.He also added thatbrands dont have to rein-vent the business to build

brand networks. In fact,hesurprised the audience bysaying there is nothingcalled social media.Brands,he said, can suc-ceed by just being socialand creative.

ARVIND SHARMA

President,AdvertisingAgencies Association ofIndia (AAAI)

We are very happywith theparticipation fromour neighbouringcountries.TheConclave andKnowledge Seminarswere moreproductive than anyof the previousyears.

NAKUL CHOPRA

Chairman,Goafest 2013

There were manyareas of vastimprovement thisyear at Goafest interms of theConclave andKnowledgeSeminars.Therewere many areas oflearning, especially

the award processand we hope to takethese learnings tonext years fest.

PIC:SOHAMP

ISAT

A panel discussion at the Advertising Conclave of Goafest themed 'Time to Listen.' From L TO r: Nitin Paranjpe, MD and CEO, HUL; Arunabh Das Sharma, president, BCCL;Sunil Alagh of SKA Advisors, Suresh Bandi, deputy MD, Panasonic India; RS Sodhi, managing director, Amul India; Arundhati Bhattacharya, managing director, SBI CapitalMarkets and Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO, Tata Sky

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