Gillette grabbed gold at the ABBY awards 2022 for their advertisement campaign that addressed gender stereotypes prevalence in rural India

The 15th edition of the advertising world’s GOAFEST 2022 took place for three days from May 6, 7 and 8, 2022 at a luxury hotel in Goa. It was three days of knowledge seminars, conclaves by industry experts and leaders, master classes and parties for delegates to interact with the advertising fraternity. GOAFEST is perceived to be one of the finest meetings of minds in the country and this time it was all-in-all triumphant in its goal to showcase the best in advertising.

By Special Correspondent

THE first GOAFEST took place in Cavelossim in South Goa. A special package was offered to young copy writers and advertising associates which included accommodation and access to all the events organized. By unanimous consent Goa became the permanent venue for the Goafest. Since Cavelossim is poorly connected vis-à-vis poor transport in Goa the venue shifted to the Grand Hyatt Bambolim near capital city Panaji this year. The objective of this meet has expanded to include new categories as media has expanded with social media playing a major role, and changes have taken place in the print and electronic media – not to forget the addition of Netflix and other OTP platforms.

ABBY AWARD WINNERS
WRAPPING up the gala three-day celebration of creativity, Goafest 2022 also saw the giving away of the 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.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
THIS year’s theme was “The Super Power Within.” AAAI’s new logo, created by Tempest Advertising’s art director, Lohidasu, was unveiled during the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. There was a super talk by Dr Kiran Bedi (former Lt Governor of Puducherry and Ex-IPS), she highlighted the importance of leadership, saying, “Leadership is internal – you start with yourself; if you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead people.” She added that one must live by one says and there will automatically be followers. An inspiring and insightful speaker addressing one of the seminar was PV Sindhu, India’s No 1 badminton player and two-time Olympic medal winner. .
The audience also lapped up what legendary cricketer Kapil Dev had to say and the exchange brought up numerous poignant topics like styles of leadership and what it takes to be a leader. Later there was an enthralling conversation between delegates and two stalwarts of the Indian film industry. One was Padmashri awardee and visionary filmmaker SS Rajamouli, followed by actor-author-motivationals speaker Anupam Kher. Both speakers focussed on their personal journey to make in it the film fraternity.
Final day had Mithali Raj, Indian Women’s Cricket Captain. She spoke about her initiation into cricket and highlighted the reason she got into cricket, her father. Her father, she said, enrolled her into sports to inculcate a sense of discipline. There was a digital conclave presented by Meta. Sandeep Bhushan (director, head of India GMS for Meta) gave the keynote address and enthralled the audience with his insights on the road to the metaverse – interaction and immersion.
Post the lunch break comedian Aiyyo Shraddha brought the house down with her stand-up act. This was followed by an impactful influencer session with Ranveer Allahbadia, Niharika NM, Raj Shamani and Madan Gowri moderated. Notably, this forum shared the inception of their journey into content creation. It was revealed that all of them were in different fields before taking on the role of an influencer! Knowledge Seminars by India Today were led by Kash Sree (executive director/writer) who presented the ads he had worked on, Kash stressed on the importance of being data-informed and not data-driven, wherein ads and your communication need to contain relevant truths.
Whistles and cheers from the audience greeted actress Madhuri Dixit as she came on stage for a conversation with actress Tisca Chopra – the talk had the actor recounting the highs and lows of her career in Hindi cinema and future projects she is working on. Needless to say GOAFEST ended on a gala dinner note fuelled by the after-hours party by Spotify with DJ Kilogram! The advertising and media folk know how to keep the juices flowing in between knowledge dissemination and poignant discussions – much merriment concluded a fruitful and successful GOAFEST.