Goafest 2019: More real work is winning this year, says Shashi Sinha

On the last day of Goafest 2019, Phil Kemish, Co-Founder, Disrupt Marketing & Brandtrepreneur, spoke about the four Ps of marketing attitude. He spoke about how brands need to understand human connections in today’s digital age and how they have to earn attention.

Kemish said, “I have been at the forefront of marketing revolutions in the last 10 years. I started my own agency which is based in London, eight years ago in 2011. The whole idea behind Disrupt is to find out what brands feel about marketing. To shift their thinking. We worked with leading brands in the world and we helped to create brand stories and build communities. We were often questioned as to how we managed to win the hearts and minds with our brand stories. To do that you have to know how they are thinking. That’s what marketing is all about. It is changing the thoughts and beliefs of people towards marketing and how to build a connection.”

Speaking about the new revolution which is underway, Kemish pointed out, “I fundamentally believe the difference between brands now and then is a two-way relationship. Thanks to social media, the relationship between brands and the audience has changed. Does anyone know what all the brands here have in common? None of the brands were here 10 years ago. We are going through an unparallel shift. It has billions of users and it is predicted that in the next 10 years, over 40 per cent of Fortune 500s will no longer exist. The way we communicate, the way we consume content, the way we interact will change. Welcome to the Revolution.”

Kemish believes that in today’s time no one cares about advertising. “No one wakes up in the morning and feels ‘I can’t wait to see an advert.’ There is a generation of people who love ‘skip ad’ button. And another 600mn people use an ad blocker. I pay for Netflix, Spotify, you cannot get to me. There is more choice and less time. And attention is all-time low. You can’t buy attention anymore, you have to earn it. This is the fundamental principle of our agency’s philosophy. You can’t pay for adverts, you have to earn attention,” he explained.

Explaining it further, Kemish listed out the four Ps of marketing attitude – Purpose, People, Passion and Physical. “Having a purpose sparks your brand’s story and it is the first step to get your Ps right. The second P is people. People are your brand’s tribes – the citizens that make up your brands. Two third of your marketing is done by the consumers. People trust people. If the trust is broken from the advertising point of view, we need to relook at how we use and connect with our consumers. The third P is passion. You need to know what people care about. Passion is a thing that amuse us. We all have different passion. Its brands getting involved with communities. Connecting to people’s passion builds communities not consumers. And the last P is if you find people and understand their passion, you need to get physical. Physical to bring the brands alive. Take out the digital world that you are living and connecting to people, social humans are really important. Ninety one per cent of consumers feel more connected to brand after experiencing it,” he concluded. 

Surprises continued on Day 3 of Goafest 2019 as Viacom18 Media bagged the title of Creative Company of the Year. Viacom18 picked up one Gold, three Silver and three Bronze metals and garnered 38 points to emerge on top. Cheil India bagged three Golds, one Silver and one Bronze to finish behind Viacom18, with 34 points.

Dentsu Webchutney’s winning streak at Goafest this year continued as the agency bagged the Digital Specialist Agency of the Year with three Gold, four Silver and nine Bronze in this category. In the same category, Cheil India and WatConsult won eight and three metals respectively. Digital creative agencies have bagged more awards this year compared to last year.

Another big winner was Hungry Films which walked home with three Gold and two Bronze metals to finish with 32 points and the title of the Video Craft Specialist of the Year. Storytellers.in and Flying Saucer bagged the second and third position with three and two metals respectively. Asylum Films bagged a gold in the cinematography category for their work on the brand Durex (Durex Air).

Cheil India took home the Branded Content and Entertainment Specialist of the Year title with two Gold metals. FCB India Advertising LLP also won one Gold and one Silver in this category.

Four Special Abbys were awarded in the Gender Sensitive Category. Ola (#Myindependence) and Mahindra & Mahindra (Ladki Haath Se Nikal Jaayegi) won a gold each while UrbanClap (No Makeup Day Peerzada) and Reebok (#Bruisescanbegood) won a Bronze metal each. 

Dentsu Webchutney won three Silver metals in the National Geographic Green Awards while FCB India Advertising LLP bagged two Bronze and Ignite Mudra and RepIndia won a Bronze each.

No specialist title was awarded in the Radio category. In total, 19 Gold, 35 Silver and 65 Bronze were handed out on the final day.

At the ongoing Goafest 2019, Navi Radjou & Jaideep Prabhu, authors of famous books Jugaad & Frugal Innovation, spoke about the importance of frugal innovation and how India is playing a central role in it.

Radjou spoke about how ‘jugaad’ has become a new trend in the western world owing to optimal use of resources and efficiency.

“We looked at jugaad because we both spend time in the western world and companies there spend billions of dollars on R&D etc and yet they are not productive. There is research that suggests that by just spending more on R&D, you will not necessarily get better results,” he said.

“In a resource-constraint environment like India, we started looking at entrepreneurs at the grassroot levels, social entrepreneurs, MNCs etc, and we understood jugaad as something that is frugal, flexible and has an inclusive approach to innovation.”

According to Jaideep Prabhu, “Jugaad is a wining mindset that Indians have and it is ingrained in our culture. It is also about resilience and agility that can be transformed into opportunity. Jugaad denotes the ingenuity of Indian people,” said Prabhu.

“For a lot of people, jugaad is also a negative connotation and we have acknowledged that in our book. But we don’t have to get defined by that and we should take it to the next level. So through our book, we have conveyed how jugaad can be ethical and high on quality and not about cutting corners,” added Prabhu.

A lot of interesting stories have been shared at the 14th edition of Goa fest and Day 3 saw Olympic boxer Mary Kom inspire the audience during her interaction with sports journalist Boria Majumdar.

Chungneijang Mary Kom Hmangte better known as Mary Kom from Manipur is the only woman to become a World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times. She is the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the seven world championships. 

“During my early days of boxing, I had to struggle a lot. I walked miles to practice. Coming from the north-eastern part of the country, where facilities are almost nil, I faced many problems. My family at that time did not support me and so I kept my dream of becoming a boxer confined to myself,” Mary said. 

“When I started, boxing was not given much hype in the country, forget about the international scene. As a player, I have survived a lot of difficulties and struggles. As a states and national-level player, I used to travel in sleeper class with no other facilities. But that’s okay. We all evolve from our hardships and by our hard work.”

Sharing a funny incident with the audience, Mary narrated a story about how her father came to know about her passion for boxing and the new name she had given herself.

“One fine morning, my father saw my photo in the newspaper which obviously came as a shock for him but what even more surprised him was my new name which I had given to myself because nobody could pronounce my original name properly when I would go for practice. My father got into the argument with the newspaper man when he congratulated my father about my victory at states-level championship. That’s when my father looked at my name and said “that’s not my daughter”. He was finally relieved when he saw my original name mentioned in the last,” she said. 

Speaking about her personal life and life with her kids, Mary shared an emotional incident about how her husband supported her and turned around the proverb “There’s always a woman behind a successful man”. Mary said, “My husband has been there with me through thick and thin. It was during one of my championships that I got to know my son wasn’t keeping well. I decided to give up to start taking care of my son because at that moment I thought as a mother who was on the verge of an emotional trauma. My husband always stood beside me and pushed me to pursue my dreams. And he always took care of my kids.”

Concluding her session on how she was going to prepare for the Japan Championship 2020, Mary added, “These are my crucial years as we have a selection period in October and November. I have to make the most of my time in practising and knocking out the rival team. My only aim was to bring pride to our nation and I’ll keep doing it.”

While the ongoing discussion in the creative world is that the industry is facing its most challenging time in its history with complex client demands, Ross Jauncey, Head, Create With Google, believes that “we have never been in a more amazing time to be in a business of creating ideas.”

At Goafest 2019, Jauncey was speaking on the topic ‘The World of Possibilities’. 

“Technology, modern media platforms and all the advancements that we are seeing should be seen as tools to take creativity to its heights and in all new directions. These opportunities need creative people who are willing to march into the unknown and lead the charge,” he said. 

Sharing campaigns where brands used the Google canvas, Jauncey laid down themes on how brands re-defined story telling.

The best way for brands to connect with people no longer needs to look like advertising. With the limitations on length of the ad and which medium it is watched on no longer existing, communication has become all about messaging and this can be communicated through thoughts and experiences which can solve brand challenges, he said.

He also commented on how technology has enabled stories to come to life in ways that would never have been imagined before. But all prevalent technologies have still not been tapped by the creative industry, he said. Jauncey added that when brand communication is mixed with technology it can create campaigns that are meaningful for users.

Commenting on the need for brands today to take a stand, he said, “There has been a huge shift in the industry. For a long time brands have been alluring to disruption as a status quo. But recently, we have seen brands taking a stance, and showing the values of the brand are just as important as the products they sell.” 

He shared the example of Nike that has seen incredible success with its recent campaign with Colin Kaepernick that has led to consumers having a stronger affinity to the brand than ever before. Other brands too have followed suit by taking a stand on critical issues.

On a final note, he added, “My job is to share all of Google’s capabilities. But creative agencies can show us what are the possibilities. We need you to work with us to get there.” 
Create With Google was launched in India last week. The offerings createwithgoogle.com is live in India.
 

At the ongoing Goafest 2019, we asked young delegates from the industry what makes them prouder of their work, an award or social media validation? Take a look at what they all said:

AKSHARA SHARMA,
STRATEGY MANAGER,
INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE

It’s almost like having to choose between a critics’ choice award and a Filmfare award! They’re both important. Of course, we would like to see validation from respected people in the industry who clearly know the work and who built the entire industry as we recognise it. However since I am a planner and much of our work is behind the scenes, it’s really the biggest high when a regular person on the street recognises and acknowledges my work.

TINA SARMAH
CLIENT SERVICING MANAGER,
KINETIC ADVERTISING

It’s a mix of both. Social media recognition, which consists of our target audience, definitely has a bearing on how we feel about our work. Likewise, it is always great to have eminent jury members recognise your work. So I would say both social media recognition and award recognition are equally important.

ADELINE NEHA
DIGITAL EXECUTIVE,
MINDSHARE

To be honest, it is a great feeling to be shortlisted at any awards. The brand that I work on had a new product launch recently, and I have to say that social media also works as a great platform for a new launch and makes a difference when it comes to building awareness. It’s great to have people speak well about your new campaign, whether it is on social media or at award platforms.

NANDAN KRISHNNASWAMY
COPYWRITER, CARTWHEEL CREATIVE
CONSULTANCY PVT. LTD

It’s always good to get critical recognition from a jury of established industry people. However, social media recognition feels special too. It means that you have already been recognized before you even receive an award for your work.

VARSHA NAMBIAR
MANAGEMENT TRAINEE,
LODESTAR UM

For me, recognition in terms of jury is more important than social media. Social media is not real whereas jury recognition feels more rewarding. It feels good to work on something with passion and be recognized for that effort.

FALAK KHAN
DIGITAL MEDIA EXECUTIVE,
ISOBAR

It all depends on your perspective. Everyone may view this differently. Personally for me, an award is much better than social media because that lasts for a very limited number of time. An award will remain on my shelf for a while and that’s something that really matters. That’s why it is much more important.

JHILLI SWAI
SENIOR MANAGER, MEDIA PLANNING,
MADISON MEDIA GROUP

Both social media and award recognition have their own importance. Both help us in terms of growing, in terms of recognition in the industry. It all depends on what your preference is. It’s more of a personal thing.

SIMRAN BHATIA
DEPUTY MANAGER,
ADITYA BIRLA SUN LIFE INSURANCE

I liked the sessions at Goafest and the fact that I have been nominated this year for one of my creatives. Admiration on social is great and so is jury recognition. It gives you a sense of pride in your work and achievement.

SAURABH GANGOTRI
FOUNDER & HEAD OF PRODUCTION,
CELLAR DOOR PRODUCTIONS

Awards like the Abbys help, considering there is a jury that consists of the bigwigs in the industry. That gives you validation for your work. What you get in social media is basically validation from your audience, and that’s different kind of validation. However, validation from industry experts is special to me.

VASUDEVAN C
ART LEAD,
BE POSITIVE 24

Awards are nothing but the means to move forward in life. Also it is important to remember that certain good work may not get awarded but that doesn’t mean that your work isn’t good enough. On the other hand, social media recognition is also very heartening and it means you have managed to create a connect with your target audience.

TANVI BOSMIA
GROUP ACCOUNT MANAGER, BRAND
EXPERIENCE, SOCHEERS

It’s very subjective, really. Social media recognition to an extent matters more because those are the people you are trying to reach out to at the end of the day. Also, eventually the social media recognition leads to the award, so if you think about it, the two are actually linked.

DEV
CREATIVE PRODUCER,
MADBOYS CREATIVES

Honestly speaking, I am someone who goes for audience feedback more than any awards because you never really know how honest or transparent the awards platforms are. Personally it is more satisfying for me to see people respond well to my work. That is perhaps the best feeling for me and the most rewarding.

(Compiled by Neeta Nair, Beryl Menezes and Christina Moniz)

Day 3 of Goafest is all set to award Abbys in Video Craft, Radio, Radio Craft, Branded Content & Entertainment, Digital & Mobile, Digital Craft, Out of Home, Ambient Media/Activation, Still Content, Audio Visual Content as well as the National Geographic Green Award, Young Abby by MTV Award, Special Abby (Gender Sensitive) and Integrated Abbys. 

Here is what some nominees had to say…

Satbir Singh, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Thinkstr
We worked with a start-up firm called Pariz, which is in the menstrual hygiene space. We have three entries for that brand, one of which is in the outdoor category. We are definitely hoping to win. On a lighter note, the mind is such that even if there were no nominations I would have been hoping to win through some wild card entry or magic. 

Abe Thomas, CEO, BIG FM
The Abbys have over the years raised the bar in recognising and commemorating the creative excellence showcased by the different industry sectors, including media, broadcasting and radio. Seeing the quality of the nominations going up a few notches every year, the Radio Abbys have clearly become the most sought after and the benchmark for creativity in audio entertainment. This year, the range and quality of creatives for the Radio Abbys augurs well for the future of audio. We are thrilled with the two Gold Abbys picked up by our partner agencies for our campaigns – Close-up's 'Basant loves Nidhi' and Stayfree's 'Maa beti ka rishta'. It showcases how brands are using radio in the most innovative manner to get hyper-local connect reach. We look forward to more such awards which showcases our story-telling formats and data-driven marketing expertise.

Arnab Mitra, Managing Director, Liqvd Asia
We have had a great year as an integrated agency, because we launched #ZeeHindustan as their creative agency, sold pizzas on Truecaller for #SmokinJoe as their performance agency and became the first-ever agency to produce a full-fledged web series going live on an OTT platform like SonyLiV called #TheGoodVibes for Legrand as their partner for every communication. We are glad our work has been shortlisted by the esteemed jury of Goafest 2019. With 16 shortlists from across categories, we are going to Goa with butterflies in our stomach as a single integrated independent agency fighting for its place with specialised agencies.

Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia
This year has been good in terms of the number of nominations. On the media side, we have the Reebok India- UnRest- #DoneResting campaign and the campaign we did for Estee Lauder Companies - Bobbi Brown India Use of Weather Based AI banners to Drive Sales. On the creative side, we have Reebok’s #BruisesCanBeGood campaign, which we have a lot of expectations from. That is one campaign that has been nominated under several categories. Among our Digital campaigns, we have done a lot of work for National Geographic India around sustainability and environment conservation, and we feel that will be a top contender. I am also very proud of the work we have done on the #EnergiseMom Campaign for Duroflex Mattresses which has come out of our Bangalore office and has been nominated in the Gender Sensitive Abby category. Irrespective of what campaign wins, we are very proud of all our work this year.

Sooraj Bhalla, Co-founder & CEO, Mates
In the branded content space, we sent two entries this year and both have been shortlisted. We had done an association with the movie ‘Gold’ for Cadbury Bournvita and the other one was for Noble Hygiene’s Friends Adult Diaper where we associated with the movie ‘102 Not Out’. The competition looks interesting this year. The good part about content is that it is exploding. Every client is looking at content more seriously and making it an integral part of their strategy. I’m looking forward to Goafest. Overall, there are some great campaigns that have been done, good campaigns will be recognised and some very interesting awards will be given away this year. The content space will be heating up quite a lot and I look forward to it.

Nitin Naresh, Managing Director, Magnon\TBWA
The year 2018 saw not just highest-ever financial profitability for the Magnon Group since its inception but also creative profit. We won a lot of industry awards in the year. And this wouldn’t have been possible without creating exhilarating and meaningful work for our clients. From oiling the ‘social engine’ for a global lubricants brand across South East Asian countries to making viewers drop TV in favour of mobile-screen during FIFA’18 and helping brands overhaul their digital-video advertising, it was a year that made us run faster, jump higher and punch harder. Our FIFA’18 campaign for SonyLIV is among the closest to our hearts, and I am hopeful it will bring us glory at the fest.

Moosa Khan, Head of Digital Creative, Cheil WW India

The number of shortlists Cheil has received at Goafest this year, though not entirely unexpected, have come as a pleasant surprise to us. Out of the 50 entries, which have been shortlisted this year, 25 shortlists are in digital and tech categories alone. For the first time, the number of digital shortlists Cheil has received has rivalled the number of traditional media shortlists. For me, it’s a sign of how advertising is headed towards a new digital-first era. In fact, I really look forward to seeing some digital-led integrated work at Goafest this year. My favourites for the win? Powerful work backed by real tech like 'Bixby Voice Forever’, by Samsung and campaigns using sharp pop culture insights like Adidas’ Connected By Colours.

Anusha Shetty, Founder and CEO, Autumn Grey
We are always thinking of possibilities for our client Samsonite. This time, we decided to tell the story of millions of Keralites who were out of job because of tourist cancellations post the floods. We wanted this to be a story of the people of Kerala. The small business owners who were ready and waiting to welcome tourists. We wanted to tell the story of a brighter tomorrow for Kerala Tourism. This campaign was pure heart. We knew it would touch a chord amongst people. We just didn’t know it would touch that many. The film got picked up by Kerala Tourism Minister Shashi Tharoor, Virat Kohli, Resul Pookutty, Amitabh Kant, Incredible India and was in almost every WhatsApp group. It was truly a humbling experience. Also, the hashtag resonated with people and still stands as the phrase uplifting Kerala Tourism. When Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh got married, we saw tweets inviting them to Kerala because #KeralaIsOpen. The success of the campaign remains close to our heart and we were glad to be the ones to tell the world the story of Kerala and to proclaim that #KeralaIsOpen. We are delighted to be shortlisted at Goafest 2019. Feels great to be acknowledged by our customers first and now by our industry.

Anusheela Saha, Group Creative Director, FCB Ulka

It will be interesting to see the winners of branded content at Goafest this year – that would explain what the jury is looking for in this specific category. It’s not just what the creative piece is, but where it resides and how well it connects with the end user that all forms a part of creative thinking. Looking forward to this category the most.

Arjun Modayil, Executive Director, Innocean Worldwide India
Hyundai Brilliant Moments campaign is extra special, because agencies rarely get the opportunity to create work that’s endearing and also path-breaking enough to gather global reach on social media in a matter of weeks. It’s great also because our client believed our ideas, understood it as the want of the time and backed it wholeheartedly. The overwhelming response for the campaign on social media with over 500 million views and 18,000 consumers writing in their stories has been a true testament of our love for the work we do for our clients and catapulted #BrilliantMoments with Hyundai into becoming the world’s biggest and most viewed campaign of 2018. The shortlist of all entries just reinforces our belief further that good creatives always win hearts.

Shrenik Gandhi, CEO and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media
This year in Goafest, I expect to see a lot more chatter around digital campaigns, digital-only campaigns and digital-driven mainline campaigns. Along with it, I hope to see a lot more boutique digital first agencies bagging metals compared to last year. This year, the advertising industry in India has seen some record-breaking, eye-opening and never-seen-before campaigns and to see the best amongst the best win a metal up there on the stage shall be a 'marketing high’.