Ravi, Chax, Pops to chair Goafest 2009 creative jury

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
Ahead of Indian advertising industry's annual advertising awards festival Goafest 2009, the jury heads for three of the nine categories of creative Abby Awards have been announced, while jury heads for other categories are in the process of being appointed.

Ravi Deshpande, chairman and chief creative officer, Contract Advertising has been chosen to head the jury for the Print Media category. Similarly, KS Chakravarty aka 'Chax', national creative director, DraftFCB Ulka, and KV Sridhar aka 'Pops', national creative director, Leo Burnett, will chair the jury for awards in the Radio and Out-Of-Home categories, respectively.

The nine categories include awards in categories like Print, Film, Integrated, Radio, OOH, Direct Media, Digital Media, Film Craft and Design. The Indian advertising industry is impacted by the global economic downturn that has companies across sectors cutting advertising spends. In this scenario, ads that provoke consumers and help brands gain market share are expected to gain favour even at the awards.

Says Deshpande of Contract, "I would be looking for ideas that are strong and disruptive, ones that get people thinking on brands."

Says Ajay Chandwani, director, Percept H and co-chairman of Creative Abby Judging 2009, "We are fortunate to have Ravi, Pops and Chax heading juries in their respective categories. They bring enormous talent and experience to the process."

The jury panel for the Media Abby's has also been announced. In this case, the judges have shortlisted 77 campaigns from 417 entries received across 13 categories. The shortlisted entries were judged by eight members of the media planning and buying business.

Divya Gururaj, managing director, Mediacomm; S Yesudas, chief executive officer, Media Direction India; Pratap Bose, chief operating officer, Mudra Communications; Ajit Verghese, managing director, Maxus; Sathyamurthy NP, president and COO, Lintas Media; Punitha Arumugam, group CEO, Madison India; Gowthaman Ragothaman, Leader – South Asia, Mindshare World, and Divya Radhakrishnan, president, The Media Edge are part of the panel, and will judge the final round.