Slowdown blues: Low turnout seen at Goafest 2009

As a result of the slowdown India's biggest annual advertising festival, Goafest 2009, was a low key affair. Delegates were down 30% and though entries were up marginally. CNBC-TV18's Pritha Mitra Dasgupta and Sweta Sriram report on the key winners for the best creative and media work for the year gone by.

Slowdown or not the party goes on. The organisers managed to pull it off with a budget that's 20% smaller. Goafest kicked off on April 2 with around 2,000 delegates, 4,494 entries for the creative Abbys' and 417 entries for the media Abbys. Besides the two award categories, international speakers added some sheen to this three-day advertising festival. But the organisers say putting up the event this year wasn't easy.

Madhukar Kamath, MD and CEO, Mudra, said, "We examined all the costs and we also knew that we would also play on the fact that travel costs, accommodation costs in Goa were going to be cheaper because of tourism. We carefully structured the costs for the festival this time."

MindShare topped the media Abbys with 10 metals. The second place was shared by three agencies with five awards each - Mudra MAX, Madison, and Maxus. TME with four awards came in at number three.

R Gowthaman, Leader - South Asia, MindShare, said, "I would say in the area of digital we have done very well. And that's my favourite sector."

Ogilvy & Mather once again swept away the creative Abbys by winning 50 awards. Its closest rival JWT, which won 23 metals, was the only agency that also bagged the coveted Grand Prix for its Times of India 'Teach India' campaign. Leo Burnett captured the third position with 17 awards and Mudra, Publicis Communication and Idea@Work shared the fourth position with 14 awards each.

The dancing, the drinking, and the networking is over and hopefully the Indian ad fraternity is raring to go back to create more magic for Goafest 2010.