If big agencies awarded themselves, smaller agencies would not win: Srinivasan Swamy

As Goafest faces questions around relevance, credibility, and whether India’s advertising industry still needs a legacy festival in a digital-first era, Srinivasan Swamy is in no mood for diplomatic answers. In an interview the veteran industry leader defends Goafest’s place in the ecosystem, dismisses allegations of bias and declining relevance, takes aim at “scam ads” chasing international glory, and argues that the festival’s real purpose has always been equal parts celebration, networking, and learning. From agency politics and marketer participation to Gen Z engagement and AI-driven masterclasses, Swamy lays out why he believes Goafest still matters — and what must evolve for it to stay relevant in the years ahead.  

Edited excerpts: 

Do you believe that Goafest today still serves the same purpose it was originally created for?

The festival is growing every year, honestly. It always had its bunch of supporters and it always had its naysayers. It's not as though Goafest was always supported by all agencies earlier and that suddenly we now have a lot of agencies against us. That's not the case. Ogilvy, for instance, has always stayed away. Ogilvy participated in tokenism and continues to participate in tokenism now. Lintas had stayed away too. There are agencies that have stayed away for various reasons, and just because some agencies stay away doesn't take away the importance of Goafest.

I'll tell you why some of them stay away — I'm calling a spade a spade. We are very strict about calling scam ads as scam ads. If we believe a piece of work was not genuinely run in India, we make sure it does not get awarded. We want only genuine work that has been published here to get awarded. In Cannes and other global festivals, the scrutiny is significantly less. And therefore, if you submit something here and get found out, the chance of you going and submitting it elsewhere becomes very low. People would rather take the chances and submit directly in major international festivals, where they can throw around impressive-sounding numbers on results and make it look very good. They have a better chance of winning a major award there. That's the reality. We understand those compulsions and we respect whatever they choose to do. We don't want to be judgmental.

There is a perception that Goafest has become more of a celebratory event and is not helping the industry transform. How do you respond?

What transformation are we expected to have? We started with a one-night show. Then we went to two nights, then three nights. Three nights of celebration, three nights of different awards being given away, three nights of about 2,000 people getting together.

How does AAAI address concerns around transparency, jury composition, and perceived bias — the allegation that agencies are essentially awarding themselves?

I think this is a baseless allegation, honestly. If you look at the last three years of winners, you will see that lots of small and medium-sized boutique agencies are winning significant numbers of awards. If big agencies were awarding themselves, there would be no chance in hell for those smaller agencies to win anything at all. There is very, very little fact in the statement that only big agencies reward themselves.

This is true not just in Goafest — even at a Chennai-based award show called Maddies, you see lots of agencies winning awards while many of the so-called major agencies don't do as well. Today, the creative equilibrium has shifted towards mid-size and smaller agencies where they have better control over their clients and their product. They seem to be doing much better than the large network agencies, at least on the creative side.

When it comes to media agencies, however, that is a different basket — media is driven by volume and size, so large media houses tend to have the competence and the wherewithal. But on the creative side, a lot of digital agencies — most of which are not part of the so-called network agencies — are winning awards today. They are very work-driven companies doing extremely good work.

Look at the ratio of submitted work to winning work — that's what's critical. If a large agency submits 200 pieces of work and only eight get picked up, while a small agency submits ten pieces and three get picked up, who is seeing bigger success? All of this needs to be put in perspective before making broad statements.

There are contentions that there are no marketers or clients present at Goafest. Can a creative festival remain influential without a stronger advertiser presence?

In 19 years of Goafest, nobody has ever said it is overwhelmingly seen as a marketer's domain. It is seen as an agency domain, a publisher's domain, a television domain, a digital agency domain. But even this year, at least 50 different marketing companies are confirmed to be present at Goafest. It is not a small number.

Yes, if you have 100-odd marketers against 1,500 others, the ratio is still not in favor of marketers. But 150 numbers is nothing to scoff at. Let's even take Cannes. What is the ratio of marketers coming to Cannes? It's not even 10%. Let's go to AdFest — do you get lots of marketers there? We need to be clear about what expectations we are measuring against. The fact that at least 10% of attendees will come from a marketing background and at least 50 companies will be represented — to my mind, that is nothing to be laughed at or scorned. It is important to start looking at this positively rather than with dark glasses.

Should Goafest be viewed as a festival, an awards platform, a business forum, or all three?

The name itself — Goafest — means it is a festival. A festival of ideas, of great work, a festival to celebrate the various dimensions of the advertising industry. From day one, a fun element has always been included. Knowledge seminars are there, celebrations through awards functions are there, after-parties are there. From the very first edition till today, nothing significant has changed in how we look at Goafest. There is something for everyone. If you are not submitting for awards, you can attend knowledge seminars. The knowledge seminars this year have been extraordinarily well-formulated. There are lots of masterclasses — very hands-on, focused on making a difference to our business and reconfiguring ourselves.

What about the declining participation numbers? Is that a sign of something going wrong with Goafest?

Let's be real about what kind of business environment we are operating in. The last two years have been a rocky environment. It's not easy to generate the level of revenues that we generated last year. People are in a different mindset today. Despite all of that, we are not doing badly. We will probably still meet last year's numbers — we are not going to significantly exceed last year's number in terms of sponsorship income, delegate numbers, or work entries. But nothing as of now is actually going down.

We also have a competing award ceremony conducted in Mumbai. Are they doing significantly more than what they did the previous year? I am 100% sure there is a dip in their revenue as well. Despite all of this, if somebody is holding their head high and conducting this without compromise on anything, it is Goafest. And to say we are not doing well — we are doing this on a pro bono basis. We are not looking at this for profit. We are doing this for building the industry and keeping it together. When somebody comes in and says you're doing rubbish work, it kind of hurts. At the end of the day, you don't need garlands, but you don't need brickbats either.

Industry leaders have said that young talent — Gen Z professionals — are not participating in Goafest. How do you look at this changing stance?

I honestly don't know who is saying this, because the number of young participants coming to Goa is not going down. We give them a 50% concession to come there. The numbers have not gone down and will not go down. There could always be someone who doesn't want to come and finds an excuse — perhaps their companies are not supporting them financially to attend, and therefore they have an axe to grind. It's the classic sour grapes situation.

If you were to redesign Goafest from scratch for 2027, what are the first three things you would change?

I can't do anything for 2026 — it's already done. For 2027 onwards — first, I would focus more sharply on the Knowledge Seminar and bring in more workshop-oriented, masterclass-driven courses so that people come and actually learn. We already have masterclasses, but I would redesign them so that instead of just imparting knowledge, participants actually internalize what is being taught and put it to good use. Particularly for the next generation, these masterclasses should teach them how to use AI tools in a manner that makes them better professionals.

Second, I would look at all the existing gaps in the industry and design the masterclasses specifically to fill those gaps. Excellent content with excellent teachers would make a big difference to the quality of the industry.

For the rest — the celebrations, the awards, the networking — those remain important and have been working. The first priority would be to deepen the knowledge and learning dimension of the festival.

Should Goafest become a platform that actively tackles industry pain points like undercutting, unpaid pitches, talent burnout, AI disruption, and agency economics?

We have discussed all those subjects in previous editions as well. It's not as though these topics haven't been attempted. We have had marketers on stage telling agencies what they expect. We have had agency panelists telling clients you can't throw peanuts and expect monkeys. We have discussed how indiscriminate pitching leads to major cost burnout and talent burnout at agencies.

Everything that needs to be said has been said. But some of these conversations are better handled bilaterally between associations— not necessarily on a public platform like Goafest. You don't want to be seen taking things back to each other publicly. What is appropriate for public debate gets public debate. What needs to be handled tactfully gets done tactfully.

What is the one criticism of Goafest that you believe the industry is genuinely right about?

People come there and some choose to only drink and party rather than learn. But look — there's a cigarette on the table, I'm not telling you to smoke it. It's entirely up to you. You want a drink, have a drink. You want to have a serious time, go sit in the conference room and listen to the lectures. What you come there for and what you take out of it is entirely up to you. Don't blame the organizers for providing opportunities for drinking, for learning, for celebrating work. All submitted work is on display — the videos, audio, outdoor, print — everything. We spend a lot of money putting that work on display. I have seen people standing in line one behind the other just to listen to a piece of audio in a booth. It's very easy to criticize something that is actually encouraging people to learn from one another. There are always two sides — you can go to Goa to drink or to learn. The choice is yours.

What does success look like for Goafest five years from now?

Success is not a single sentence — it is not evenly distributed. People come with different expectations, and success means something different to each person. I go to Goa for networking — that is success for me. A young person might come to learn a new craft in a masterclass — that is their success. Someone else gets inspired by the great work on display and improves their own craft — that is success. And yes, there are people who come purely for the free drinks — that's success for them too. God help them.

For me personally, success is being with my industry colleagues, exchanging views, having good conversations, and expanding my own thinking about where the world is moving. For a journalist, it might be interviewing people on the sidelines and getting a new perspective on how the industry is moving. Everybody has a different definition. I'm answering it in a holistic manner.

If younger professionals increasingly choose creator summits, communities, and digital-first forums over legacy festivals, how should AAAI respond?

We will also be providing platforms for digital-first people to showcase and excel themselves. The awards ceremony already includes enough work from digital platform-oriented participants. Digital videos, digital films — and going forward for next year, we are already talking about giving awards to micro-dramas and similar formats. We are also looking at expanding the broadcast awards to various OTT platforms. Digital-first people will certainly get encouragement. We are thinking about how to keep expanding to stay relevant to where the industry is going.