AAAI claims to have received more than 3,200 entries this year

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) is gung-ho about its expectations from the GoaFest this year. More than 2,000 professionals from the field of advertising, media and marketing are expected to make it to Goa. Furthermore, AAAI claims to have received over 3,200 entries this year for its 17 categories (comprising mainly press, television, outdoor, radio and six categories for DM and interactive marketing). This information was provided by Srinivasan K Swamy, president, AAAI, at a press conference recently.

Prasoon Joshi of McCann-Erickson will chair the press awards, while Ravi Deshpande (Contract), KV Shridhar (Leo Burnett) and Josy Paul will be the jury chairmen for television, outdoor and radio, respectively.

Apart from the usual seminars, interactive creative workshops have been launched this year, with panel discussions involving eminent speakers from both India and abroad. Furthermore, there will be learning sessions ‘on the beach’, during which creative group heads will interact with the under-30 populace.

The jury for the newly introduced media awards (19 categories – 11 for Use of Media and eight for Specialist awards) will be chaired by Sam Balsara of Madison Communications. So far, 192 entries have been received in this category from 23 agencies.

International speakers at the event include Donald Gunn (of the Gunn Report ); Trevor Beattie of BMB, London; Hermann Vaske, Ad Wizard director, producer and writer; Thirasak Tanapatanakul, CD, Creative Juice, Thailand; Fredric Joseph, CEO, Zed Digital; and Jamie Lord, marketing and business development director for Mindshare Asia Pacific.

AAAI plans on having an Advertising Conclave preceding the GoaFest (on April 19 and 20). This year, the theme for the conclave is ‘15 to 50: The Next Big Leap’ to get the participants to discuss strategies to move the Rs 15,000 crore industry to Rs 50,000 crore in the next three-five years. AAAI has invited industry leaders such as Subhash Chandra, Raghav Bhal and Pramat Sinha to address the participants.

The festival will take place on Cavelossim Beach, Salcette, in Goa on April 20 and 21.

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