Wrapping the gala three-day celebration of creativity, Goafest 2022 on Saturday announced the winners of Abby One Show Awards in 14 categories, including Video Craft, Radio & Radio Craft, Branded Content & Entertainment, and Diversity, Equality & Inclusion. 

The biggest winner for the night was Leo Burnett India as it was named the Creative Agency of the Year. Famous Innovations ranked second in the category, FCB was third, followed by Enormous, Grey, Creativeland Asia, Havas, Cheil, Script room, and Mindshare.

Cheil India, Leo Burnett, and Good Morning Films picked the Specialist Agency of the Year awards in the Branded Content & Entertainment,  Brand Activation & Promotion, and Video Craft categories, respectively. 

The Audio Visual Digital category saw six gold winners. FCB Group India topped the charts bagging three trophies for ‘The Punishing Signal’, ‘The Mirror - #Seemeasiam’, and ‘Two Bins Life Wins’. Other gold winners were Grey Group for ‘Shaving Stereotypes- Barbershop Girls of India’, Enormous Brands LLP for ‘Jaquar Bath & Lights’ and Leo Burnett for ‘Democracy’.

Enormous Brands LLP scooped two more gold in the Audio Visual TV/Cinema category for ‘Jaquar Bath & Lights’ campaign and another gold in the Branded Content & Entertainment category for ‘Christmas - Bodo Din, Bodo campaign.’

In the Branded Content & Entertainment category, Mindshare won for the ‘Apno Ko Apnaao’ campaign, Grey Group for ‘Shaving Stereotypes’ and FCB Group India for the ‘The Punishing Signal’ campaign. 

FCB Group India maintained its winning spree, picking another gold in the Brand Activation & Promotion category for ‘The Punishing Signal’ campaign. The group also won the Young Abby gold for ‘Can an imaginary girl help real children?’

In the Out of Home/Ambient media category, Famous Innovations won gold for the ‘Avoid Humans - Deceit’ campaign while Leo Burnett won gold for ‘There’s a Playlist for That’ campaign. Famous Innovations won the Grand Prix for ‘The Applegram’. 

The Video Craft category saw eight awards. Early Man Film Pvt Ltd won three gold for the ‘Machine-Gun Mouth’ campaign, while Good Morning Films won four gold for the campaign ‘Chotu’ and one gold for the ‘ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo The Edge of the World’ campaign.The much-coveted Green and Red Abby gold was won by VMLY&R and Cheil India for ‘The Killer Pack’ and ‘OOHO Replies’, campaigns respectively. The Integrated Abby went to the Grey Group for the ‘Shaving Stereotypes’ campaign.

None could secure a gold in the Still Digital, Radio, Still Print, and DE&I categories. 

Insta reels are just a platform to express myself, says actor Madhuri Dixit Nene, who has been quite active on the short-video platform over the past couple of years.

Speaking at the concluding session of Goafest 2022 on Saturday, Dixit said, “I enjoy doing reels. I wanted to do it for myself. Reels are just a platform to express myself. I have never second questioned any platform. For me, they are all ways to express. I love to dance and act.”

On the question of being a public figure but a private person, she said, “I am a people’s person but have boundaries on how much I want to share about my life.”

When asked if she ever anticipated that she would become a star one day, Madhuri said: “I never knew I wanted to be a big star. All I knew was that I love my work and I am glad that I chose a profession that allows me to do what I like to do. I have never worked in my life; just have been passionate about everything I did.”

Madhuri insists that she doesn’t take her star status very seriously and that little things in life inspire her. “Sometimes the kids on my TV show Dance Diwane inspire me or when someone has a smile on an audience's face. But my biggest inspiration has been my mother. She is a powerhouse. She is someone who kept me grounded.”

On her success mantra, Madhuri says, “I make sure to give my 100% each time I am in front of the camera. To be successful you should get the right opportunity at the right time, and there is also luck. But I didn’t know I would be successful here so I don’t know where else I would be successful but I would maybe be a microbiologist as I was studying that.”

Did she ever have bad phases and dark soulful nights in her life? “There was a lot of self-doubt before Tezaab happened. I had done a few films, but all were the second leads. I had started doubting whether I had made the right decision to join the film industry. My mother used to tell me that just give your best, everything will follow. She always instilled hope in me and said everything will fall into place once I would get a good film.”

So, things may take time but it will happen. Just keep doing the good work, she advises the audience.

On dealing with success and stardom and remaining grounded, Nene said,“I have not forgotten my roots. My childhood friends are still my friends. I have made new friends as well, but those childhood friends are still closest to me. I have tried to keep everything around me on the same plane throughout my career. Success has been success, and I have moved on soon.”

“A big part of my dream was to have a family and I enjoyed my time in the US. It was a liberating experience. I could do whatever I want there. I did not miss my stardom there as I was living my dream.”

Goafest 2022, the largest A&M industry gathering, is being held at Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, Goa. Now in its 15th year, the event offers knowledge seminars, industry conclave and interesting masterclasses along with exciting Award Shows featuring the best of the industry’s work. Thousands of advertising and marketing professionals, veterans from sports and Bollywood from across the country have been joining in the celebrations.

Take a look at some special moments captured throughout the day

Diversity, Equality & Inclusion panel with Suhela Khan, Rohit Ohri, Rathi Gangappa and Dheeraj Sinha

Indian Women's Cricket Captain Mithali Raj in conversation with Sharlene Lobo, Anchor Mirror Now

Influencer session with Ranveer Allahbadia, Niharika NM, Raj Shamani, Madan Gowri moderated by Viraj Sheth, Co-Founder & CEO of Monk Entertainment

(Left to Right) Suhela Khan, Country Program Manager, We Empower Asia, UN Women; Dheeraj Sinha, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer - South Asia, Leo Burnett; Rathi Gangappa , CEO, Starcom India and Rohit Ohri, Chairman & CEO FCB Ulka

Gowthaman Ragothaman,CEO, Aqilliz & Co-Founder, Web3 Marketing Association

Sandeep Bhushan,Director and Head of India GMS for Meta

“The true way for our businesses to invoke the superpower within is by introducing more diversity and inclusion in our workplaces,” says FCB Ulka Chairperson and CEO Rohit Ohri while highlighting the theme of Goafest 2022. He said it during a panel discussion on “Diversity, Inclusion, and Inclusion” on the final day of the festival.

The august panel included UN Women Country Program Manager - We Empower Asia Suhela Khan, Starcom India CEO Rathi Gangappa, and Leo Burnett CEO and Chief Strategy Officer - South Asia Dheeraj Sinha.

Starting off the discussion, Ohri emphasised that the diversity and inclusion in agencies must go above just numbers and must be integrated as a fundamental part of the organisational structure wherein women get the right work environment and culture.

Ohri brought Khan into the discussion by asking what makes DENI a challenge in South Asian countries, including India, where diversity and culture are diverse. According to Khan, everything boils down to the structural and cultural constraints and gender biases that are ingrained in societies like ours. “According to data, women spend 3.5 X more time doing unpaid care work globally and in India, this number is almost ten times higher. And this eventually reflects in the workforce participation too. Right now, women are just about 20% of the workforce and this number is continuously declining for the past few decades.”

The discussion then moved to Gangappa who talked about the issue of DENI-washing by several organisations wherein they hire a chief diversity officer and then don’t follow on with the whole cultural and structural changes within. “It shouldn’t be stopping in the script only but in merit and competency as well. To embrace diversity businesses would really need to embrace change in the way they are growing. More and more women must be taking leadership roles based on their merit.”

She also highlighted that Starcom has evolved a lot in this direction in the past two years, getting around 50% women in leadership positions. “There are positions and there are women who are capable and competent to take up these roles on merit. We need to give them these opportunities.”

Further, Sinha discussed how creative and communication businesses can work on the diversity agenda highlighting that many changes need to be made in how creative agencies function. “This culture of brainstorming late in the night over beers needs to be changed. We cannot be expecting women who have care responsibilities at home to spend 18-20 hours in the office too. We need to change how we function and make the environment more welcoming for women. Little changes like putting sanitary pads in female washrooms at the office will make a big impact. Advertising has the power to bring indelible change in culture and we should be working on creating content that helps us realise this agenda.” 

He added that organisations also need to cope with the rest 50% of the workforce that is the males, who should not be left feeling passive-aggressive or neglected in the process of women getting more chances.

ShareChat is focussing on the next 100 to 200 million content creators who will come from smaller cities and towns. On Day 2 of Goafest, ShareChat Director-Marketing Akshat Sahu during a masterclass session at the annual advertising conclave said, "We are talking about the next 100 million, 200 million creators who are not going to come from Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. They are going to come from Lucknow, Bhopal, Indore, Coimbatore, and Nagercoil."

Sahu also spoke about the opportunities that content creators present to brands and marketers. "Marketers find it challenging to find the right insight, right context and the right language. Creators can easily solve these challenges faced by brands," he stated.

Creators, he stated, have built a following that can help brands to bypass the clutter. "Followers have a certain trust in the creators as they have been following them on the platform," Sahu said.

He also noted that creators, particularly the regional ones, understand the cultural nuances which need to be built into the communication. "Regional creators understand the local cultural context better than those in Mumbai or Delhi," he said.

Besides helping brands to hone and sharpen their communication by putting it in the right context, Sahu said that the creators also give feedback to brands. "They are the ones who understand local languages and our platform is actually trying to create that economy," he said.

ShareChat and Moj, Sahu said, are giving a platform to creators to express themselves. "We are also helping them to create monetisation models. We bridge the gap between them and the brands. We are also enabling social commerce. We have a live commerce app with Flipkart where our creators work with them," he stated.

On day two of Goafest 2022, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) won the Broadcaster of the Year award and Mindshare walked away with the Tech Agency of the Year honour. Cheil India was named Digital Specialist Agency of the Year.

In the Broadcaster ABBY category,  Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) won two Gold for UEFA Champions League ‘Sona Mana Hai’ campaign 2019 and ‘Love for Cricket’ campaigns. TV18 Broadcast too won two Gold for ‘News Network18 and Byju’s Young Genius- A News18 Initiative’. Zee Kannada won one gold for Zee Picchar channel launch. Zee group won the second highest number of total awards in the category.

For Design Craft ABBY Awards, there were no gold awardees. Famous Innovations won the highest number of awards (Silver and Bronze) in the category. 

In the Technology ABBY Awards category, Sangbad Pratidin and Cheil India won one gold each for ‘#MaaClicks - No Selfie this Puja’ and ‘Samsung Goodvibes’ campaigns, respectively. Mindshare won the Tech Agency of the Year award. 

In the Direct ABBY Awards category, FCB Group India won Agency of the Year award. FCB won two Gold for ‘Two Bins Life Wins’ and ‘The Punishing Signal’ campaigns. Famous Innovations won a Gold for ‘The Applegram’. The agency also won the Grand Prix for the same campaign. 

In the Mobile ABBY Awards category, Cheil India Private Limited won Gold for the ‘Samsung Goodvibes’ campaign and FCB Group India won Gold for ‘The Nominate Me Selfie’ campaign. The Specialist Agency of the Year award was won by Cheil India. \

For Public Relation ABBY Awards, FCB Group India won the Specialist PR Agency of the Year award. The group also won four Gold for the campaigns ‘The Nominate Me Selfie’ and ‘The Punishing Signal’. 

For Digital Craft Award, Cheil India won Digital Specialist Agency of the Year. Famous Innovations won Gold for the campaign #LonelyNoMore. 

Keeping up with the spirit of the 15th edition of Goafest on day o2 of the celebration, Dentsu Creative Chief Creative Officer Menno Kluin shared some of the most pertinent learnings from his experience of working with clients like FTX, Oreo and Amex on pathbreaking campaigns like ‘Don’t Miss Out | Larry David’, ‘For the Throne’, ‘Proud Parent’, and ‘The Bunny’.

Kluin highlighted that celebrities lean into doing roles that can portray who they really are “The product should be the hero of a campaign; leaning into leaper clients; who want to do extraordinary things is important; it is pertinent to work with topic experts; riding on the most relevant topical events in a creative manner is very important,” he shared.

He further noted, “It might sound basic, but it is important to ask the clients full clarity on what their budgets are, what we are making and who we are making it for. That’s where excellence starts.”

Further, sharing what he takes into account for every creative review, Kluin highlighted three points: “how can we make the work better; is creative on brand/strategy; how best we can sell this (idea).”

According to Kluin, to make any work better it is important to add ambition, flexibility, and clear targets to the mix.

Kluin also answered how India can be the best country with the most awards by clarifying that finance plays a key role in winning awards for any agency. “The agency that spends the most wins the most,” he emphasised.

However, he also added that there should be simplicity in content and creatives should be knowing how to make both western and local styles work. “You need to be doing what people expect the least out of you.”

He concluded the session by answering how can one impact the agency culture by saying that the agencies need to understand that the change starts from within. “Agency culture is the agency leadership team. Make moves that help your people and not just your clients.”