February 18, 2014: The Goafest Committee today announced the dates for Goafest 2014, as well as new features for India’s only advertising festival. Goafest 2014 will be held from May 29-31. This year’s Goafest will be at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, North Goa.
“This year we aim to dial up the excitement by expanding the festival”, said Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman, Goafest 2014. He added, “While strengthening the initiatives undertaken in the previous years, this year will be about a bigger and better Goafest. Goafest will be a three-day event with the Knowledge Seminars being held on all the three days. The Advertising Conclave, which was ‘Only By Invitation’ so far and was held on the day before Goafest will now be held on day two and will be open to all delegates. The Conclave aims to create more engagement between Advertisers, Agencies and the rest of the Media industry. We will continue to have leading Advertisers talk on issues that have a strong bearing on the industry. And as for the three days at Goafest, none of the fun elements will be missing for which Goafest is known! It will only get enhanced.”
With the Festival now turning into a three-day event, there will be two options of delegate passes. A two-day delegate pass priced at Rs.14,000/- will allow the delegates to attend any two consecutive days of their choice. A three-day pass priced at Rs.18,000/- will allow delegates to attend the festival for all the three days. Under 30 delegates will continue to enjoy a special discount of 50% on these rates.
This is the 7th year that AAAI and The Advertising Club will come together to deliver ABBYs, India’s definitive awards that celebrate creativity. Pratap Bose, President of The Advertising Club & Chairman of The Awards Governing Council (AGC) said, “ABBYs will be augmented with new categories this year. ABBYs will include Promo-Activation and PR. The Branded Content category, which was added last year, will be expanded. And most excitingly, we are adding Broadcaster and Publisher Abbys at Goafest. These will recognize outstanding advertising and communication ideas for promoting broadcast and print properties. Broadcasters and publishers will be entitled to send in entries for these categories.’’ Pratap Bose shed more light on this by stating that, “These changes are being made with the aim of honoring the great work that is being done by all Media professionals.”
Continuing with the changes that were inducted in 2012 – there will be a Grand Prix for Film, Print, Radio, Outdoor, Design, Interactive Digital, Direct, Media and Integrated.
Award shows for various verticals will be held on the following evenings:
May 29th: Publisher Abbys, Media Abbys
May 30th: Design Abbys, Direct Abbys, Promo-Activation Abbys, PR Abbys, Outdoor Abbys, Print Craft Abbys, Branded Content Abbys, Broadcaster Abbys.
May 31st: Interactive Digital Abbys, Radio Abbys, Print Abbys, TV Abbys, Integrated Abbys.
There will also be significant changes in the judging process. There will be a window of clear ten days before the final judging round. During this window, shortlisted entries will be available for the entire industry to review. However, ABBYs once awarded will stay awarded.
Participation in ABBYS will continue to be open to all who want to participate. Membership of AAAI or The Advertising Club is not required. In terms of award entry fees, there is a modest change. The fee will be Rs.6,500/- per entry for general entries and Rs.9,500/- for integrated entries.
Goafest has been seeing growing participation from clients with over 100 client organizations represented at Goafest last year. Marketing Wizards, the initiative under which young client delegates can avail of the special under 30 delegate fees as well free accommodation will continue this year. So will the special ‘Rest of South Asia’ awards.
“Goafest is recognized as a platform for celebration of communication excellence and as a platform for exchange of ideas across the advertising, marketing and media fraternity” says Arvind Sharma, founding Chairman of Goafest and current President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). He added, “Last year’s Conclave, where leading advertisers shared their candid points of view with the industry was seen as a super success. This year’s changes in the festival format – including a client-led Conclave open to all and introduction of Broadcaster and Publisher Abbys – make it a true industry-wide platform. We look forward to celebrating excellence in communication and exchanging perspectives with all segments of industry”.
There will be Knowledge Seminars, which will be of interest to professionals from Media, Interactive and Creative fraternity over four half-day sessions. Announcements regarding the speakers for the Conclave as well as the Knowledge Seminars will be made soon. “We plan to add to the mix of speakers including a few Indian innovators from allied fields. We hope to make Goafest a continuing platform for learning, celebrating, fellowship and fun,” added Srinivasan Swamy.
About The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI)
The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) is the official, national organization of advertising agencies, formed in 1945, to promote their interests. The Association promotes professionalism, through its founding principles which uphold sound business practices between advertisers and advertising agencies and the various media. The AAAI today is truly representative, with a very large number of small, medium and large-sized agencies as its members. It is thus recognized as the apex body of the advertising industry at all forums – advertisers, media owners and associations, and even Government, as the spokesperson for the advertising industry.
About The Advertising Club
The Advertising Club, incorporated in the year 1954, is arguably the biggest Advertising Club of its kind in the world. And according to many, also the busiest. It has over 1400 members drawn from media organizations, marketing companies, advertising agencies and allied professional bodies.
The Advertising Club’s charter is to help raise the professional standards of the Indian Advertising Industry. The Club attempts to do this through awards, seminars, training workshops and meetings. It publishes a Club magazine SOLUS and hosts a comprehensive website. Some of the major awards of Advertising Club include: ABBY’s, EMVIEs, EFFIEs and Young Achievers Awards besides having other popular programmes such as Adreview, MediaReview, M.Ad.Quiz on its annual roller coaster. It also helps IAS, Singapore in getting them maximum number of entries for their APPIE awards since its inception 5 years back
The Advertising Club also sends a deserving advertising student up to the age of 23 every year to attend the Cannes festival. Over and above this, it also sends two young marketers below the age of 30 to Cannes every year.
For further details please contact:
Mariam Joseph / Shawn Xavier
MSLGROUP in India
M: 9892511933 / 9561432081