JWT, Taproot Dentsu & Contract on ruling Goafest 2016

Goafest 2016, drew to a close on Saturday night with a sum total of 419 metals, which included 38 Gold, 134 Silver and 245 Bronze. J Walter Thompson emerged the big winner, followed by Taproot Dentsu and Contract Advertising. Here is what the three winners who ruled Goafest this year had to say

J Walter Thompson

“We were clear that improving the quality of the creative work and winning awards was everyone's responsibility including that of Planning and Client Servicing”-Tarun Rai

J Walter Thompson emerged the big winner at Goafest 2016. The agency won 47 metals in all, which included 5 Gold, 21 Silver and 21 Bronze metals.

“It has been a very satisfying Goafest for us on many counts. We got the maximum number of short lists, the maximum metals and the maximum Golds. And we won on some of our biggest clients like HUL, Airtel, Pepsi, Godrej among others.  We also got the Young Abby Gold and the Bronze. The cherry on the cake for me is that Contract came in at number three,” said Tarun Rai, CEO, J Walter Thompson South Asia.

The highest number of Gold metals was also  won by J Walter Thompson , the agency bagged  Golds for, ‘Udaan’ for brand ‘Airtel’ (Brand Activation), Lux (PR), ‘MAMA’ for Godrej Dual Video Door Phone (Radio & Radio Craft), ‘Fountain of Eyesight’ for Eye Bank Centre (Ambient Media) as well as a Young Abby Gold.

"It feels like the captain of the team that won the National Games from Airtel to Unilever to PepsiCo to Godrej, we have won on regular work for our biggest clients, the journey is far from over and we will aim to top the awards tally at the undisputed National Awards again and again as I believe it is important to be on top of the creative charts to earn the respect of our clients and the industry as well," says a visibly upbeat Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, J Walter Thompson.

The agency has won this honour, of being the number 1 agency at Goafest for three straight years in row. However, surprisingly the agency did not make its presence felt in the Film category this year.

"We had a few shortlists in film but did not have any big winners in the category. Maybe it is because I have been pushing for media neutral and platform specific solutions for our clients. We are playing hard in the digital landscape but next year we will ensure that our work cuts across all categories, including film, which is still at the heart of every brand’s content even in the digital space but with a touch of innovation to drive engagement with consumers across mobile and digital platforms,” opines Kumar.

“When Senthil took over as the CCO of J Walter Thompson we discussed his priorities. We wanted to improve the overall quality of our work and ' raise the band' of work not just the bar. We wanted world beating ideas and work across platforms and across brands. And we wanted to especially win awards on our big clients and brands. We were clear that improving the quality of the creative work and winning awards was everyone's responsibility including that of Planning and Client Servicing” shares Rai.

Taproot Dentsu

“We have one office and 40 people. If I were to put an average it is one person per metal which is phenomenal”-Santosh Padhi

Taproot Dentsu ended its tally with 2 Gold, 19 Silver and 19 Bronze, taking their total metal tally to 40.

“If you look at our metal tally, we have won in eight different verticals; Integrated, Print, Digital, Outdoor, Direct. That shows the width of our work, though we are still very traditional by nature but our work across verticals has contributed to our total metal tally,” shares Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer and Co- founder Taproot Dentsu.

The agency has also been inherently strong in traditional media, in fact with Times of India (eleven editions, seven editions of Mirror and three editions of Maharashtra Times.) as its client it has produced close to 400 print ads last year.

Padhi agrees that the agency needs to work towards, areas like activation, branded content, and Digital.

“The minute we have one or two verticals more, it is only a matter of time, for us to do even better. Print and TV has been keeping us very busy”, confesses Padhi.

The agency won four Silvers in Digital, this year compared to not a single metal in digital last year.

“We have one office and 40 people. If I were to put an average it is one person per metal which is phenomenal” says an elated Padhi.

Contract Advertising

“In most of the important categories you will find the presence of Contract, that’s what makes us happy”-Rana Barua

Contract Advertising was third with 26 metals, which included 1 Gold, 9 Silver and 16 Bronze metals.

“What we have enjoyed as Contract about our win is that it’s the number of categories we won across the last two-three days. We have picked up metals in most of the categories for most of our highly active clients. Yes we have had some gaps, but we are really clear about how to go about it next year. We have also zoned into certain areas where we can do better .In most of the important categories you will find the presence of Contract, that’s what makes us happy” said Rana Barua, CEO, Contract Advertising India.

Barua also shared that the agency has a very large number of clients in Digital now, which will be an advantage for the agency next year.

The agency did particularly well in the Radio category with a total of ten metals.

“Our wins have been in categories which are a little tougher to win, there have been very few Golds and very few Silvers in Film or in Direct or Radio. One of our large clients which was a big winner last year, had a sudden change in the strategy mid –way, this year so lot of our films, about 9 of them were shelved after the production and approval stage, so we had to hold them back,” shares Ashish Chakravarty National Creative Director Contract.

The agency‘s work on Truly Madly also won a silver metal for #BoyBrowsing’ at a new sub category introduced for gender sensitive work.

“I have not seen and I am not aware of any work that has come out of Contract which is gender insensitive. We did not plan a gender sensitive facet, but we just realised that the whole idea of a dating service from a women's perspective has not been done before, inspite of being the most normal thing, only communication from a man’s point of view has been done in this category earlier. Kudos to our client for going ahead with this as well” adds Chakravarty.

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