Goafest 2018: Celebrating Excellence In Advertising
At the 13th edition of the three-day advertising and marketing festival, many industry veterans graced the occasion and shared interesting insights By Ruhail Amin
Goafest 2018 witnessed the coming together of the advertising fraternity, from brand managers to industry stalwarts, who deliberated on the nuances of brand building in an environment that relies heavily on technology and big data.
The key highlights of the three-day event included leadership sessions by Patanjali’s Baba Ramdev who spoke about turning Patanjali into a global brand; Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on the controversy over the recent ‘Fake News’; and Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, Asia Pacific, and CEO and Chief Creative Officer at McCann India, on the role of artificial intelligence in advertising and brand building.
The other notable keynote speakers included sports personalities such as Jonty Rhodes and Sania Mirza as well as film personalities such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Siddharth Malhotra.
‘People Over Profits’ Is The Mantra
Baba Ramdev’s session on the inaugural day of Goafest 2018 was not a mere discourse on building brands, but an inspiration marathon.
He told his audience how Patanjali developed a Rs 50,000-crore empire by working on principles that place customers over profit making. Speaking about the essentials of brand building, Baba Ramdev said, “Risk aversion is one of the biggest limitations of success. I believe in giving my 100 per cent to any undertaking that is worth the effort. I believe brands are built on trust, uniqueness of the product, and most importantly placing people over profits.”
During his session, Baba Ramdev once again targeted the multi-national companies for their misleading advertising and exorbitant profit margins. “I have consulted many advertising agencies and media agencies, and they gave me budgets ranging from Rs 5 crore to Rs 15 crore for a single ad spot. To build a brand of Rs 500 crore, most advertising experts will tell you to spend Rs 100 crore on advertising, while we at Patanjali have built a product worth Rs 500 crore with just Rs 10 crore marketing spend. By next year, we will become the biggest brand in India in terms of annual turnover.”
Besides hinting at foraying into new sectors such as garments, packaged water and dairy products, he also spoke about making Patanjali a global brand in the time to come. “We are looking at international destinations such as Nepal (we have a plant there), Bangladesh and Africa. The only difference between Patanjali and other MNCs will be that we will not make profit from countries that are already poor, unlike other MNCs that are anti poor.”
