MUMBAI: After a consecutive no-show for the last two years at the Abby Awards and Goafest, the Prasoon Joshi led McCann Worldgroup India has announced that the agency will take part in the 11th edition of the advertising festival.
The move comes close on the heels of the new Advertising Club president and Colors CEO Raj Nayak announcing his intention to make Goafest 2016 more inclusive.
Confirming the agency’s presence at the festival, McCann India Asia Pacific chairman and CEO Prasoon Joshi says, “We will send symbolic token entries to honour the festival in all the categories but our delegates will participate and attend the fest in large numbers. We believe that genuine efforts have been made by the organisers this year to overcome the shortcomings and we also want to partner them in this journey positively. In the future, we will see the festival touching newer heights.”
Last year, though the agency did not participate in the Creative Abby, Joshi did attend the ceremony where he was felicitated by the Ad Club.
On McCann’s participation this year, Joshi further adds, “We take immense pride in our creative product and the decision of participation in award shows is collectively taken by our global/local creative councils. We wish GoaFest the very best.”
Nayak’s intent to make the 11th edition of the advertising festival more inclusive was primarily in relation to reinstate the participation of major creative agencies in the country who had long refrained from attending the Creative Abbys. Word had it that ‘cheerful’ Raj, as the Colors CEO is often called courtesy his Twitter handle, had personally reached out to the respective executives and agency heads to hear and address issues that stood in the way of them and Goafest 2016. Therefore, the recent development with McCann definitely comes as a step forward in Nayak’s “inclusive” vision.
Now it remains to be seen whether other creative heavyweights like Ogilvy and Mather, Leo Burnett and Lowe Lintas will also follow suit and brighten up the spirit of the Abby and Goafest 2016 at large with their participation.
