The seventh edition of Goafest 2012 has come to a close and once again delegates have much to discuss about the thoughts and ideas that were deliberated at the forum. While for the discerning delegate, there would be a lot more that would have made it to their key takeaways, here are seven that were discussed the most in the course of the festival.

Creativity under constraints
The thought came through in Publicis Worldwide’s International Creative Director, Erik Vervroegen’s session, which was perhaps the most applauded session of the final day of the festival. Perhaps the Indian advertising industry has heard many times about how solutions can be most creative under pressure but Vervroegen’s presentation brought out the new limits that a creative mind can reach under constraints such as no money, no time, impossible briefs and tired creatives.

Creativity is connecting the dots in new ways that resonate
Connecting dots has been the buzz word for the global advertising industry and for a market such as India too. But connecting dots in new ways can be another ball game altogether because it can enable the mind to see what others have missed. The four critical dots pointed out were sound, picture, words and video. And going forward, there would be three new dots – participation, mobility and being connected.

Best brands invite people to participate
When the conversation is about inclusion, a key ingredient is consumer participation. In the case of brands, this could lead to anything ranging from the evolution of the brand and the product to generating content and even ideas that the brand can benefit from. User participation brings a brand alive and in future, brand-building is going to be the domain of all instead of the purview of a few, courtesy the internet, new media and mobile devices.

Listen to clients but challenge the brief
For some Adlanders this seemed to be the most important takeaway. The way of agencies replying to clients with, ‘yes, we can’ needs to be substituted with a healthy conversation of what should be done and how to get it done so that the brand engages the consumer in the right way. People today multitask – they are uploading, downloading, mailing, Facebooking, tweeting and working, all at once. Advertising still has to catch their attention. Brands need solutions that will help them blend in the consumer’s life.

Have trust and large ideas will work
An agency’s and even advertiser’s favourite word in a brief usually is ‘360-degree approach’. Jayant Murty, Director of Strategy, Media and Integrated Marketing, Asia Pacific Region, Intel brought in a marketer’s advice, when he suggested to ‘think’ 360-degree, not ‘act’ 360-degree. While thinking 360-degree, points that matter are generosity, experience, status, utility, transparency and eco-sensitivity but the most important aspect is to have trust in the details for a large idea to work.

Bring out the creative radicals
It is never easy to challenge norms and bust myths but the future belongs to those who can do it. Time and again agencies in India have demonstrated their creative capabilities but there is a need to encourage this more and see more such examples coming.

Celebrate creativity
And the final takeaway is that it does not matter what company you represent, whether it is a digital company, a broadcaster, an agency or a marketer, Goafest is about celebrating creativity in every form. The awards also attempted to encourage more breadth and depth of work from across agencies.

“What is creativity?” asked Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategist and Innovation Officer, VivaKi during the knowledge seminar at the Goafest 2012. He took up two quotations on creativity – that of Ferran Adria, the great chef who once said, ‘Creativity is not copying’ and ‘Creativity is copying in new ways’ (anonymous). Tobaccowala went on to say, “The most creative person in the last 60 years has been Steve Jobs, who had a unique take on creativity. Acc to Jobs, ‘Creativity is connecting the dots’. These are the three best definitions of creativity that I know.”

Based on these, he has worked out a fourth definition – ‘Creativity is connecting the dots in new ways that resonate’.

‘Resonate’ is important is this definition. As far as creativity is concerned, there are three things you have to be in sync with – people, culture and the brand. It is imperative that the idea resonates with these elements, only then is it creativity. The most important thing is having an idea, connecting the dots and then expressing it.

Today there are four critical dots – sound, picture, words and video. However, going forward three new dots i.e. participation, mobility and being connected, need to be added. The future will command some or all of these seven dots, he pointed out.

He gave examples of innovative ideas that have to an extent managed to connect the dots. To name a few, the Lynx Stream act that became very popular in US; the Mercedes Benz Tweet Race – the world’s first Twitter-fuelled race; a thermometer that targeted mothers and was advertised on mobile and internet before a flu was about to break – the product was sold out in every single store; and a Sweden-based band Kaizers that posted the score of their album-to-be-released on the internet to get an overwhelming response – their Facebook family increased by 3oo per cent. They got coverage worth $ 1million and with no advertising it became the fastest-selling album ever.

Session Video: Rishad Tobaccowala

The more constraints you have, it is more likely that magic will happen, said Erik Vervroegen, International Creative Director, Publicis Worldwide, while speaking at Goafest 2012. He went on to say that a little bit of magic and luck can lead to successful advertising.

Usually the constraints one faces are no money, no time, impossible briefs and tired creatives. Vervroegen shared that most of his best work has been born under these conditions. He then showcased some of his successful ad campaigns and how he and his team overcame many challenges to create them.

First he took up the challenge of ‘no money’. He illustrated the work done for one of his clients, Amnesty International. To meet its demand of a TV ad that would reach millions of people with no money being spent on it, a simple idea was launched. This idea managed to get 50,000 signatures in a day. McDonald’s ‘M Recycles’ campaign is another example of the same.

When faced with the problem of an impossible brief, he and his team came up with the ‘EMI music piracy’ campaign that won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2005. The client’s brief was to use famous people and create the campaign within two weeks as “we (the client) have free media space in a magazine”.

He spoke on the challenge of tired creatives citing the example of PlayStation that wanted to visually describe the feelings of a player. They wanted to depict that a player may die in a game but he can always be re-born. The ad Vervroegen produced pushed the idea in a bold visual. “The client was indeed brave to go ahead with such a campaign. Magic happens only if you don’t say ‘no’,” he said.

“Magic is a reward for hard work. It will come to you only when you don't give up. Never lose the beginner’s spirit and believe that your dreams will come true,” he added.

He said that there is so much more for him to achieve. “I’m still on a quest and trying to learn. The secret is to meet different cultures, people and learn more. We need listen to people and be interested in new challenges,” he said.

Session video: Erik Vervroegen

The Creative Abby 2012 was once again dominated without doubt by Ogilvy India. The agency takes home 51 metals, including one Grand Prix, 11 Gold, 16 Silver and 23 Bronze. Once again the Awards Governing Council has not suggested its criteria of number of metals or the nature of metals (Grand Prix, Gold, Silver, Bronze) as the deciding factor of which agency fared the best. However, since Festival organisers have been repeatedly quoted on stating that GoaFest’s vision is to be the Cannes Lions for the region, exchange4media has applied the Cannes Lions scoring metric to arrive at which agency was applauded the most for its creative excellence.

Following this, Ogilvy India has a score of 242.

The next high scorer is TapRoot India. TapRoot has pocketed six Golds, 12 Silver, 15 Bronze, giving it 33 metals in all and a score of 164.

Leo Burnett India bags 35 metals in all, of which 3 are Gold Abby, 11 are Silver and 21 Bronze. The agency’s score is 143.

DDB Mudra Group that had bagged the highest number of metals in 2011, stands fourth this year with a score of 134. DDB Mudra has won 32 metals including two Gold Abby awards, 13 Silver metals and 17 Bronze statues.

And Grey India has come back in the creative race taking the number fifth spot with a score of 67. Grey has bagged one Gold, six Silver and 10 Bronze Abby awards.

According to the Cannes Lions scoring metric, metals across categories except Integrated are awarded 10 for a Grand Prix, 7 for a Gold, 5 for a Silver and 3 for a Bronze.

The Integrated category is considered to be a tougher category, as it is designed to award an idea that was effective across media. The Grand Prix for this category is given 12 points, Gold is given 10, Silver is given 7 and Bronze is given 5.

Creativeland Asia has won the Grand Prix in this category for its work done for Audi India.

The results are in line with what young Adlanders had predicted to exchange4media at the beginning of the Festival.

As Day One of GoaFest concludes, interesting views have been expressed on stage, in sessions and in conversations. exchange4media is the exclusive online videos partner for GoaFest 2012.


 

Videos from Sessions of Day One:
YouTube’s Lucas Watson in action

The Coca-Cola Company’s Jonathan Mildenhall in an interesting conversation with Reliance Communication’s Sanjay Behl

Charles Wright, Wolff Olins, address the audience

As Day One of GoaFest concludes, interesting views have been expressed on stage, in sessions and in conversations.

Views from Industry Honchos
Google’s Rajan Anandan in conversation

Omnicom Group’s Tim Love on the sidelines

Dentsu India’s Rohit Ohri on GoaFest

Euro RSCG India’s Satbir Singh on what he looks forward to at the festival

Video Stories from Day One
exchange4media picked up some key issues on GoaFest and awards at the festival...

Should ads be made only for Awards?

How can marketers add more value to GoaFest?

Can GoaFest be the Cannes Lions for South East Asia

Media Abby 2012 handed out over 29 metals at the awards night, which took place on the first day of GoaFest 2012. Mindshare was the leading agency with six metals in all. The agency has won one Gold, two Silver Abbys and two Bronze Abby. But the high point of the evening was the Grand Prix, the first ever given at Media Abby, awarded to the agency for the work done for Surf Excel in the category Best Use of Content. The same entry has also earned Mindshare a Gold in the category.

The other big winner of the evening was Lodestar UM that had one Gold, two Silver Abby and three Bronze Abby. The agency has won the Gold in the category Pro Bono Marketing for the work done for Bombay Psychiatric Society.

Maxus has won five metals including two Silver Abby and three Bronze.

MEC has won four metals comprising two Gold Abby – one for Reliance 3G, entry titled ‘Feeling is Believing’ and the second for Colgate Dental Cream, entry titled ‘The Night Hammer’.

The other two Gold winners were Madison Media Infinity and Starcom Worldwide. Madison won the Gold for Parachute Advansed Ayurvedic Hair Oil and Starcom won it for Samsung Galaxy Tab.

User participation brings a brand alive and in future, brand-building is going to be the domain of all instead of the purview of a few, courtesy the Internet, new media and mobile devices. That was the key insight shared by Lucas Watson, Global Vice-President, YouTube at the inaugural session of GoaFest 2012 on Friday.

“YouTube is a platform that has made it possible for people to participate in the creation of magical ideas,” Watson observed, citing a video of people from different places all over the world dancing to Lady Gaga’s tunes on YouTube, that has gone viral. “Lady Gaga spends no money on marketing. Her video has gone viral not because she is a good musician, but because she knows how to make technology work for her. All she has to do is post on her Facebook page to reach out to 50 million fans...and her YouTube video has had two million hits. Fans have built Brand Lady Gaga,” he added.

The best brands invite people to participate, and YouTube has enabled this in a way that no one even imagined 10 years ago, Watson said. As millions of people constantly watch videos, upload and download content on YouTube, capturing what life is like around the world and recording human history, brand dynamics change. Watson mentioned www.dollarshaveclub.com promoting one-dollar razors that launched with a video on YouTube. While television advertising remained primarily the domain of big corporates like Coke and Pepsi, www.dollarshaveclub.com spent $10,000 to make the video and it made such an impact in the US market that Procter & Gamble had to reduce the price of Gillette razors. “The best part about building brands on YouTube is that everyone can do it and build passionate communities for as little as $25,” Watson said.

N Rajaram, CMO, Mobile Services of Airtel, later conducted a question and answer session with Watson. To the question ‘Should TV be worried now that advertising is moving to the Internet?’, Watson said, “There is scope for co-existence. It’s a win-win scenario. People will watch what is relevant to them.” On scope of search-based marketing versus the scope of local channels, Watson said, “If I can watch you and listen to you, it is much more compelling while deciding why I should buy you.”

The audience question prize (an iPad) went to Virender Wilkhu, who asked Watson whether people could start with the intention of making a viral video. “If your objective is that, it will never succeed. The objective is to appeal to the hearts and minds of people, only then does it work,” Watson replied.