KV Sridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett:
In conversation with Rishi Vora.
Excerpts...
How is it celebrating advertising in Goa?
Very good. GoaFest is a true festival format,
and truly celebrates Indian advertising, by
not just giving away creative awards but also
by bringing in creative legends from all over
world for seminars.
Do you think the event has set
international standards, good enough to be recognised
as an Asia wide event?
Certainly, better than Spikes and as good as
AdFest. But than AdFest and Spikes are regional
festivals while GoaFest is just an Indian (With
little stretch south Asia) festival.
How do you think this year’s
event is different from last year and since
the time it was launched?
I hope it would be the same. Only difference
would be the Abby awards at GoaFest. On a serious
note last two years GoaFest did 9 out of 10
right, while Ad club got 9 out of 10 wrong.
And I wish combine show to get 10 out of 10
right.
Apart from coming together of AAAI
and Ad Club for hosting one single event, what
do you think are the key changes that the industry
has seen say over a period of one year?
This is the biggest thing as far as awards
are concern. Other healthy trend is creatives
becoming chairman of agencies, now we already
have half a dozen of them, Piyush at O&M,
Prasoon at McCann, Balki at Lowe, Sonal at Bates,
Josy at BBDO and Thomas Xavier at Orchard.
What areas according to you needs due
consideration? What do you think the industry
is doing about it?
Agency compensation, I think requires due consideration.
Good agencies are undercutting when they actually
should charge premium, and while this is happening,
the Industry is busy manipulating agency rankings
at different surveys.
What difference do you think
it makes to the young creative minds of the
country?
I believe the best should automatically be
the richest, which would be the motivation to
the younger ones.
If you were to select a 360 degree
campaign- as the campaign of the year, then
which one would it be and why?
Lead India by far the best the country have
ever produced. The Idea and execution both are
big only TOI with its might and vision could
pull it off.
