As Goafest 2025’s curtains draw close, Javed Ali’s enchanting voice opens the day on a soothing note amidst knowledge sharing, creativity, and innovation. The three-day gathering of industry stalwarts left a lasting impression on the creative minds that gathered despite the rain.
The day opened with a keynote address by Marcel (France) chief creative officer and CEO Youri Guerassimov on ‘Creativity That Dares to Disrupt’. He urged brands to embrace discomfort and push boundaries.
Guerassimov emphasised that with consumers bombarded by over 6,000 ads daily, visibility alone no longer cuts it—what truly matters is courage. Drawing from data, he highlighted that 86 percent of consumers expect brands to take a stand on social or environmental issues, and 66 percent would switch allegiance if companies remain silent.
Presenting on ‘How AI is Rewriting the Language of Visual Storytelling’, Amazing Indian Stories founder and CEO Vivek Anchalia emphasised how AI is transforming the creative production process—replacing traditional animatics with high-fidelity AI-generated spec ads and reducing production time through tools like Integrated Production Modules. This was followed by a chat moderated by APAC Landor president Lulu Raghavan.
As Raghavan raised concerns about preserving the human essence in storytelling amid the rise of AI in film and advertising, Anchalia offered a compelling perspective saying, “The guy who is sitting on a machine is still visualising for you. It is still his vision. The machine is just enabling the vision. The value is still in the human being. The machine is still just enabling you to do it faster, better, with more control over things, and with things, with things, making things possible which are not possible, like on some brands.”
“I can tell you my personal experience. The business guys in my entertainment industry are taking it (AI) very, very seriously because they know that this is happening,” he added.
During the day, The Advertising Club COO Bipin Pandit launched his book. It is a culmination of Bipin’s extraordinary journey. The book features a foreword by Padma Shri Piyush Pandey and a special article by Padma Shri Prasoon Joshi, making it a collector’s delight. The cover was designed by renowned creative director Vikram Gaikwad, with photography by Himanshu Mestry, printing by Devendra of Mediaedge, and full support from Pandit’s AdClub team.
In another session titled ‘The Burnout Cure for Creative Brains’, holistic nutrition, integrative and lifestyle medicine expert Luke Coutinho engaged in an eye-opening discussion with VML India CEO Babita Baruah.
He cautioned against the trap of hustle culture, advocating instead for purposeful urgency over constant busyness. For workplaces, he underscored the importance of mental health support, emotional intelligence in leadership, and creating psychologically safe environments.
Up next, was another panel discussion titled ‘Beyond the 20 Second Ad Window – Crafting Meaningful Brand Moments in the Attention Economy’ which discussed the evolving need for brands to move beyond traditional short ads and craft meaningful, contextually relevant brand moments across formats and platforms. It brought together Airtel media GM Kanika Anand, Zenith chief digital and transformation officer Rashmi Sehgal and GroupM content & creative services head Ajay Mehta. The moderator of the session was Amazon Ads video Ad sales head Yash Chopra.
Goafest sessions concluded with a powerful session titled ‘No Filters. No Formulas. Just Fierce Acting,’ celebrating the raw, unfiltered power of performance and underscoring how true talent emerges through years of dedication, learning, and relentless honing of craft. Indian actors Vijay Varma and Jaideep Ahlawat engaged in an interesting conversation with celebrity host, performer, and producer Atika Farooqui.
Varma emphasised the importance of emotional honesty in performance stating that acting is about ‘being’ rather than ‘showing’, while Ahlawat, celebrated for his quiet intensity, spoke about the power of awareness in performance—being fully present in the moment.
Soon after, the energy soared with the grand finale of Advertising Rocks, presented by Muzartdisco. Advertising Rocks S3 concluded on a high note with Raghav Garg as the winner and Shetanshu Dixit as the runners-up for Indian solo category. Shachi Shetty won the International Solo and Anshita Singh was the runner-up. The Duet Indian category witnessed Anshita Singh and Raghav Garg emerging as winners and Shabbir Abbas and Monobina Bhattacharya claiming the runners-up position.
The inaugural season of Advertising Plays was highly competitive with significant participation from across the board. Havas Media’s Vikas Sheoran and Pulkit Grover won Table Tennis and TYL’s Kaustubh Pawar and Pushkar Deshmukh were declared as runners-up. Hogarth’s Shubham Nag and Meharzad Contractor won Pickleball and Havas Play’s Venkat and Vaibhav Sawhney were the runners-up.
Goafest 2025 drew its curtains with Mediakart presenting the ABBY Awards 2025 Powered by One Show, powered by ZEE5 and in association with Guinness World Records.
