Category: Awards

Text of the acceptance speech by Shashi Sinha after receiving the Advertising Agencies Association of India Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday, December 1, 2023

Many thanks to PK, Anupriya, Sundar and the jury and to all at AAAI, also special thanks to Nitin, Jayen bhai, Hemant and Mr Ravikant.

It is amazing that I am standing here before you on this occasion, I couldn’t have imagined this 37 years back when I started as an account planner at Ulka. I had been hired by my boss at UB – DD Saxena who had moved to Ulka and had sold me the job saying working in advertising was a short cut to brand management as till then I had worked only in sales. It is a different matter that 10 days into the job he shifted to Bangalore and left me reporting to Bal Mundkur the founder and CMD of the agency. Bal’s idea of account planning was being an odd job man, handling financial advertising clients one day or selling sponsored programmes the next.

However, luck smiled on me a few months later as on one rainy day in July, Dr Verghese Kurien of GCMMF (popularly known as Amul) walked into our office unannounced and there was panic in the ranks as all seniors were out either holidaying in London or attending client meetings, so I was paraded in front of him. That started a truly remarkable partnership which has lasted more than 37 years. It takes a great man to leave a legacy of client-agency partnership, a tradition continues with Jayen Mehta.

In September 1988, Bal decided to step down from the day-to-day running of the agency and in came Anil Kapoor. Anil had a reputation as a marketing legend but if one didn’t know him well, one could easily conclude that not only was he aggressive but also abrasive and bulldog-like. Within a few days of his joining, five to six of us decided to leave as this was not our cup of tea.

Anil quickly figured out that I was the unstated leader of the pack and took me out for a lunch which started at noon and ended at 7pm. Post which I decided it was easier to say yes to him then to  argue with him. He could wear you down with logic. That started a long partnership with Boss where every meeting would run into hours every presentation was recrafted many times and every headline rewritten to perfection. It was amazing to see his passion for the business and above all care and concern for his people. He taught us to be confident and try and treat every client relationship as equal.  He ensured that Ambi, Arvind Niteen, Nagesh and me made a great team inspite of being diverse personalities.

In a long journey such as mine, there were many highs and lows. Normally one tends to talk only of the success, but I do want to talk about a failure. We had worked on the launch plan of a major biscuit brand for ITC. Hemant Malik, the then CMO, gave our teams a free hand agreeing to many a whimsical idea we presented. However, when the launch didn’t succeed, he absorbed all the pressure. It is a testimony to Hemant’s leadership that not only did we continue handling the biscuit category, but the remit has expanded considerably.

In 2004, I made the transition to a full-time role in media. This was timed with disbanding of the Tata AOR. Consequent to this, Tata Motors, Tata Indicom/ Docomo and TCS along with Tata Corporate came to Lodestar which in a way created a strong foundation for our media offering. Mr Ravikant has not only been a client from his LML to Tata days but also a role model and a mentor. I marvel at his ability to look at the tiniest of detail in one breath and look at the big picture in the next. I will remain truly grateful to him for everything he has done for me.

No story of Ulka/ Mediabrands will be complete without mentioning our oldest client Zodiac and the wonderful Noorani family who have treated me as their own. I must also mention Mahindra and Nerolac paints who have been our clients for more than 35 years.  Rajesh Jejurikar and Anuj Jain have been big supporters of ours.

I have always believed that if our industry prospers, we all will also gain, consequently I have devoted a lot of my time in the last decade to industry work. it may sound easy now, but it was tough initially and I must thank Bhaskarda and Ramesh for showing the way. From running the Goafest Abby awards to BARC, I have seen and heard a lot, but rest assured it will remain a secret with me.

Finally, I do want to thank all my colleagues who have made this journey enjoyable, Apurva, Arpita and Nandini for helping create Lodestar from scratch. Nandini was part of the long journey till recently.

My MB leadership team of Anamika, Amar, Vaishali, Hema, Aditi, Manoj, Savita, Shantanu and Sanjeev,

I must separately call out Nitin Karkare – we started together in 1986 and are still together.

One cannot end without thanking the family, Riti, Dhruv, Karan and Ena.