GOAFEST 2009
Goafest 2009 was held at Goa from the April 2 - April 4, 2009. The festival entered its fourth year this year. Most metals this year at the media abbys were taken by team Mindshare (it is the WPP company headed by Gowthaman and is a Mumbai based firm) with a total of 10 abbys - Mudra max (Mudra Max is the media arm of Mudra communications), Maxus (Maxus is a global communications consultancy and a part of Group M) and Madison were tied for the second spot with a total of 5 metals.
There were two rounds of judging by known faces of the media fraternity with the likes of Gowthaman Ragothaman from Mindshare, Pratap Bose from Mudra who were the judges for the final round. Sam Balsara from the Madison Communications (Madison Communications headed by Sam Balsara is one of the most reputed firms in the advertising business) touted these awards as the most fair and unbiased of the lot.
Goafest 2009 had 12 different categories and the following were the awardees.
In the
Best Use of Television, Maxus took home the Gold for their TATA Sky Plus work, with Mediacomm and Mindshare both taking a Silver each for their work for Gillete and Glaxo Smith Kline repectively.
In the category -
Best Use Cinema only, a Bronze was awarded to Madison Teamwork FP & E Pvt Ltd. for their work on Asian Paints - Chalk Board & Glow Wall.
In the
Best Use of Newspaper & Magazines, Mindshare took home a Silver for their Virgin Mobile launch.
In the
Best Use of Outdoor & Ambient Media, Mudra Max was awarded the only Silver for Hindustan Times for their opinion poll.
In the
Best Use of Sp. Events & Stunt/Live Advertising category, Mudra Max took one of the few golds for their TVS Scooty activation. A Silver was also given to Mindshare for their Surf Excel playground activation. In the Best Use of Radio category,
Madison Media Infinity was awarded a Gold for Saffola Life.
Maxus and Maxus Mumbai took a Silver each for TATA Sky Plus and Vodafone respectively.
The category,
Best Use of Internet & New Media, saw two Golds being awarded to
Mindshare for HSBC and Star World. The Silver metal went to Mindshare again for AXE Deodarant.
In the
Best Use of Sponsorship category, Madison Media Plus took a Gold for their Airtel integration in Big Boss- Season 2. A Silver in the category of Best Use of Branded content went to Mindshare Fulcrum for their Ponds Age Miracle activation on a reality show
Salaam-e-Ishq.
Best Use of Mix Media saw just a Bronze being awarded to TME for Colgate OHM.
In the
Best Use of Youth Marketing category, a silver was awarded to Mudra Max for their TVS scooty institute.
For the
Best Use of Vertical Marketing, R K Swamy Media Group was awarded a Bronze for their work for Pedigree dog food.
In all, most metals were taken home by Mindshare that included 2 Golds.
GOAFEST 2009: MEDIA PRESENTATIONS 
GOAFEST 2009: WINNERS OF CREATIVE ABBYS