Goafest #5 - Party

Lovely party at Goa. Starry night. Hot babes. Wet bodies. High spirited. For more photos visit my flickr, here. And a small video here. Thank you, AAAI for putting up a great show.

(PS: I have on purpose not taken pictures of the winning entries and the award distribution ceremony. Now, don't ask me why.)

But yes, apart from the Scam Ad scandal, there were some real cream of creative works put up for judgment and viewing. I personally liked the entries in the Radio category. 'Sania' for Sprite, 'Safed Baal' for HDFC, 'Interview,' 'Babycry,' 'Match Stick Laugh' for Happydent were great inspiring work.

Happydent was the clear winner of the show. Hats off Prasoon.

Enjoy.

Goafest #4 - Being Brave

Thirasak Tanapatanakul, the celebrated ECD of Creative Juice\G1 showed us how to be brave. He showed us how he is 'Being Brave in Bangkok.' He has some wonderful, awe inspiring, great pieces of creative work in his portfolio. Something that was so thought provoking that the audience could not stop applauding, again and again.

How to be true to your cultural and create great works - should have been the ideal name of his presentation. And that's exactly what Trevor Beattie mentioned later to us in his presentation. No need to copy formats from the west when you have millions of indigenous cultural cues to bank upon. Being in the business of creative communication, shouldn't we do that more often.

His works on Bangkok Insurance, Chiclets, Wrangler Jeans are hilarious yet straight to the point. Strategy meets creativity and vice versa. That is the way it should be.

Goafest #3 - Free Ferry

Free booze, free food, free fun, free party, free spirit and FREE TAXI. Really thoughtful, our MSN. Made life easy for people to commute. This also gave me an idea. Idiotic, copycat idea though.

How about starting a Free Taxi Service in Bangalore? Great idea, isn't it? Well, if you don't want the service to be free, you have the option to make it a paid service. A cheaper commute service If Commute Easy can be an entrepreneurial effort and become successful, am sure this will become superhit.

Who should start it? A Motorbike brand. For example, Hero Honda Splendor - Hero Splendor Ka Bharosa. So, the Bharosa part of Hero Honda Splendor is taken good care off.

What do Hero Honda get our of it? Free publicity, a great cause and a long term brand property. The Free (or Paid) Taxi concept can provide employment to hundreds of uneducated people.

How will Hero Honda Splendor achieve it?
You require to provide them a Splendor Bike and two helmets (one for the rider and the other for the pillion rider). Create several Bike Taxi Points - where they can wait at busy Bus Junction/Stop. Brand the bike and the rider. And they taxi people around. Say within a 10 kms radius from the Bike Taxi Point.

This will not only ease the traffic congestion, help people move faster and allow Hero Honda to take up a good and a genuine cause upon which they can create a long term brand property for the future. Now isn't that a better scam ad? ;-)

Suggestions anyone? Splendor are you listening?

Goafest #2 - The Trevor Tremor

He came, he saw and he thrashed it all. Trevor Beattie of BMB was the star attraction of Goafest. Known for his fiery work and firepower words, Trevor in his true style thrashed the shit outta Indian advertising.

"Those who creates scam ads are nothing but cheaters. They cheat the client, they cheat the consumer and they cheat themselves," said Beattie. He criticized the work put up at the gallery next to the seminar section. And very true he was with his observation, 90% of the work entered were scam ads. And how much I liked him say that in a clear and loud voice.

The four important points that he made and I hope the Godfathers of our industry heard what he said:
1. Do Care - "Care for the idea, care for the client, care for the consumer and care about yourself. Doesn't matter whose baby it ('Baby' is his favorite advertising cliche) , if it's a baby, do care for it."

2. Scam Ads - "Makers of Scam ads are cheaters. Period. "

3. Commerce not Art - "Advertising is COMMERCE not ART. So let's be clear and make sure we do a good commerce out of advertising. "

4. Big Idea - "There are only two big ideas that I've come across in my life, the making of the Universe and Space Tourism. So there is no point searching for a big idea. What we can do in return is create a whole bunch of small ideas and present it to the client." (Faris, he is talking about Transmedia Planning here?)

The last point that Trevor made by giving the example of work done Thirasak of Creative Juice\G1, Thailand, "The time for Asian advertising is NOW. Be true to your Indian culture, ethics and values. Don't try to copy western culture or adopt western values in your advertising. The marketing fort in west is already shivering, so guys make the best of it NOW. "

Guys gear up and stop scam ads.

Goafest # 1 - Sorry

Clouds above Goa as seen from Flight IC919

I am extremely sorry about the live update thing. And I am truly disappointed with Reliance DataCard service. The promise of Internet - Anytime, Anywhere is false. For the last two days, I've been trying to connect from my hotel room to update you people on what's going on. Unfortunately, it was not working, leaving me kinda frustrated.

On the way to the Goafest Venue

Well, I've somehow managed to connect now, using the hotel's system admin's comp and here you goes things live. Oops, the highlights. Lots of pretty pics, just for you. Visit My Flickr.

The Entrance - Goafest 2007

I'm trying to rectify the my internet problem. Hopefully, you'll see more post and interesting notes about the fest, speakers, entries, people and parties. But that'll be today evening, once I reach Bangalore. So please bear with me and hang on.

Going Goa

Off to Goafest for the next three days. Promise to send you live updates from there. Photographs, seminars and winning entries. Happy wekend.

Coming, anyone?