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Tag: Ad Club

  • The review will be moderated by President, The Advertising Club – Vikram Sakhuja

    Ad Club announces inaugural digital event – D-CODE

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club has announced the debut edition of its India Digital Review – D-CODE. The review will be held on August 1 in Mumbai.

     

    Thirteen industry leaders will speak for 10 minutes each on a piece of work that they are proud of, a piece of work another brand has done that inspires them and three pieces of advice for marketers for winning in digital

     

    The advertising stalwarts speaking at the review include: Agnello Dias, Chairman & Co-Founder, Taproot; Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar; Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Media; Anuradha Aggarwal, CMO, Marico; Arun Iyer, Chairman & CCO, Lowe Lintas; Juhi Kalia, Head of Creative Shop – India & Indonesia, Facebook; Rahul Johri, CEO, BCCI; Ravi Desai, Marketing Director, Amazon; Sam Singh, CEO – South Asia, GroupM; Sapna Chadha, Marketing Director – India & SEA, Google; Shoumyan Biswas, Vice President, Marketing, Flipkart; Siddharth Banerjee, EVP Marketing, Vodafone; Tanmay Bhat, Co-Founder, AIB. The review will be moderated by President, The Advertising Club – Vikram Sakhuja.

     

    Speaking about the maiden edition of the review Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, media and OOH, Madison Communications & President, The Advertising Club said: “Brands are today operating in a globally competitive landscape making it imperative to ensure clutter breaking conversation and presence across dynamic digital mediums. With knowledge platforms like the Digital review, The Advertising Club endeavours to create awareness, facilitate ideas exchange and enable the Indian media and advertising fraternity to stay ahead of the curve on digital innovation and engagement.”

     

     

  • The Advertising Club COO Bipin Pandit is celebrating two decades at the Club and a successful run of 12 editions of his popular show, Khumaar

    Jaldi 5 with Bipin Pandit: 20 years at Ad Club, 12th edition of Khumaar

    It’s been two decades since Bipin Pandit has been at the Advertising Club. As Chief Operating Officer of the apex Ad Club in the country, Pandit has a 24×7 job managing the various affairs of the Club. But that doesn’t hold him back from what’s possibly his first (or second) love: music. On Saturday (Feb 10), he will hold the 12th edition of Khumaar, his ever-so-popular variety entertainment show. Excerpts from an interview with the one-and-only BipinPandit

     

    These last twenty years helming The Advertising Club have also been the most eventful for Indian advertising… what would you say has been your most memorable moment?

    There have been quite a few and in a journey spanning 20 years it has to be that way. The field is exciting. You may do an event for many a years but the person who chairs it changes every one or two years so the approach is different. The dynamics change.

     

    I will surely single out the India Advertising festival in 2001 which had a Abby, Effie, Emvie, Exhibitions, Seminars, Lunches and Dinner Parties all to be accomplished in only three days. It really was tremendously stressful to say the least. The fact that we accomplished it in style was very satisfying. To top it all I had put in only three years at the Ad Club then. It was a colossal effort but still memorable.

     

    How can I not mention Adasia Jaipur, 2003. The Mother of all events. Again being chosen by Pradeep Guha and Ramesh Narayan as Secretariat-In-Charge at that point of time showed the confidence they had in me and my team’s abilities. This event taught me many a things. There were so many varied activities happening at the same time in the course of four days further so many stalwarts and big names were involved. Delegates from different countries were to come. The event had an aggregate of 1200 delegates . Till today it is talked about as the best Adasia and I am happy I was an integral part of it and could contribute.

    What has been extremely satisfying is to read the industry stalwarts expressing their opinion on my 20 years with the Ad Club and the contributions made thereof. They have spoken about the man they have known and his passions. It will feature in a special four-page supplement I am releasing on Saturday, February, 10, 2018 at my Khumaar show. All the 10 Presidents have written a piece not to forget the other Industry bigwigs and people from Abroad. It will always motivate me to do still better. I will be ever so grateful to Pradeep Diwedi that the supplement has seen the light of the day.

    International commendation from Effies New York, Appies Singapore and Adasia  Korea and Singapore is also very satisfying.

     

    Many Presidents, many managing committee members and all with their own ways of working. How has the journey been for you?

    As many an industry stalwart tells me you have a job to do no doubt but managing the high profile managing committee in itself is no less a job. The best part is you have got to be a good listener and you learn a lot by doing so. I do give suggestions and also speak out because that has been my nature but surely in the same vein I hasten to add that your views prevail.

    The good part is they have appreciated most of my suggestions and implemented as well. Actually they all have been very nice and understanding. I have only positive things to say about my overall experience.

     

    These 20 years has also seen the rise and rise of the awards, the emergence of the Effies, the lows with the creative Abby… (your comments)

    As I have always said, in my 20 years be it any award that comes from the Ad Club stable the effort has been to evolve and look forward. Highs and Lows are a part of life and surely you will always be criticised if you work and put in efforts. We value the feedback and inputs of the industry and thus have the town hall concept before coming out with the entry form for every award. Ad Club is a 63-year-old association that is running Abby for 50 years , Effies for 17 years , Emvies for 17 years thus there is longevity which is a barometer of consistency which in turn is a hallmark of doing a good job. The Marquees launched recently also holds lot of promise and will be a property to watch. You will also hear shortly about the many a changes brought about at Abbys to be held at Goafest 2018.

     

    I know it’s an unfair question to ask you: but what would you say have been the significant trends in advertising that you have found very noteworthy? 

    The movement of big creative stalwarts from very big agencies to start their own Independent outfits is on a tremendous rise. Gone are the days when you found a big name being a part of one agency for a long time. As a result of this happening you also see that the awardwinning work has started to flow from these new outfits besides of course the major agencies who continue to do well.

     

    This year marks the 12th edition of Khumaar. With a hectic (and often stressful) dayjob at the Ad Club, how do you manage to find the time to practise and come up with new things in every show?

    This is one question that is often asked to me and let me confess very honestly: yes, it is hectic and surely stressful. Imagine deciding upon the date of the show, booking the auditorium, lining up sponsors, selecting singers and musicians, putting a song list, getting creative in places, publicity, backdrops, promotional material, inviting celebrities, VIPs and not to forget selling of tickets it is a one-man-show at Khumaar. It truly gets tiring and what people forget is I am a performer who has to be the anchor, mimicry artist a shayar and a ready reckner of all the anecdotes and interesting nuggets. But I conclude it is labour of love, passion, madness. And to reveal the truth: I have two wives: One is Nandini and the Other is Khumaar

     

     

  • PayTM was Client of the Year and Ogilvy bagged the Grand Effie for Star Plus Nayi Soch at Ad Club's Big Night for Effectiveness

    McCann wins big at Effies 2018

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was the Big Night for Effectiveness in advertising. The Advertising Club’s premier event for rewarding advertising effectiveness was held on Friday, January 5 in Mumbai. The venue was the usual – the lawns of the Taj Lands End, except this time there was lesser noise and hooting given the absence of the Mullen Lowe Lintas group. The agency did not officially enter the awards officially though some of its work did find its way.

     

    But it would be unfair to say that Lowe’s absence saw IPG group sibling McCann rise. The agency did have some good work to showcase and although its tough to say what the final roster would’ve looked like had Lowe and all the Publicis Communications agencies participated – especially Leo Burnett which had bagged the Grand Effie last year.

     

    Also, the margin with which McCann won over runner-up Ogilvy was significant.

     

    Other than being runner-up in the final rankings, the agency also bagged the Grand Effie for work done on Star Plus’ NayiSoch campaign.

     

    One 97 Communication Limited (PayTM) was adjudged as the Effie Client of the Year with long-time winner Hindustan Unilever coming second. Here the margin of win for the top rank was just 10

     

    Speaking  about winning the  Effies, Vikram Sakhuja, President of The Advertising Club and Chairperson, EFFIEs  said: “With the bar raised higher year on year,  winning an Effie has become more competitive and rewarding. This year we are seeing a new Client of the Year and a new Agency of the Year. My congratulations to them and all the 93 winners.” Adding: “The four pillars of effectiveness are Strategy, Idea, Execution and Results. To win an Effie we are finding that Effectiveness in Advertising is getting increasingly medium agnostic. Accordingly, ideas are being brought to scale in a remarkable number of ways. The one area I would like to further challenge us all is in the description of results.”

     

    Elaborating on the entries. Mitrajit Bhattacharya, Co-chairperson, Effies 2018 said: “The Effies 2018 once again witnessed  patronage from industry veterans and category leaders , establishing its eminence  as a  coveted industry award that recognizes great ideas and superior execution. Effies2018 saw  the entire fraternity come together to laud and celebrate successful campaign stories that are  ahead of the curve on innovation and engagement.”

     

    EFFIE-2018-AGENCY-OF-THE-YEAR

    EFFIE-2018-CLIENT-OF-THE-YEAR

    EFFIE-2018-RESULTS

  • Goafest & Abby Awards have been built brick-by-brick by them over the years, says Ad Club Prez Raj Nayak

    No industry event is as large as Goafest: Raj Nayak

     

    While he’s had the good fortune of trusted industry persons as part of his Advertising Club team, a glitch-free Goafest and more importantly the Abby Awards are feathers in his cap. Raj Nayak shared his thoughts with MxMIndia on Goafest 2017 and says his own role in raising the bar

     

    Your final thoughts on how Goafest andAbby 2017 have been? It’s your secondas President of the Ad Club…

    Last year, we got very good feedback. I wasn’t there due to backache, so as President of Ad Club, this is my first Abby where I’m physically present and seen what’s happening. If you look at numbers, we’ve grown over the previous year, more entries and things like that. That’s a good sign because it shows resilience of the industry and that it’s growing. That’s one good part. If you look at the sessions, the feedback from people also says the sessions this year were fabulous. Exceptions to the rule are one or two sessions that were not too great. The feedback that journalists also gave was that it was very well-curated.

     

    So what has changed?

    Many years ago at Goafestwe used to shy away from paying people to come and speak. We’ve broken that. Now we’re willing to pay for a good speaker, to fly her or him, we are willing to do things. I think that’s been a shift. Knowledge seminars have been excellent and Day 1 was packed, Day 2 was packed as was Day 3 was packed. Ah, the Day 3 morning saw lesser crowds as people were partying till 5 in the morning! I went to my room at 4am because it looked like a night festival! It was buzzing with activity! I think it’s a good thing. We’ve also drifted to a certain extent. That’s to be fixed. For senior management, giving four days is a challenge. I don’t have readymade answers on how to address this, but it’s one area we need to find a way a solution.

     

    Over the years, we’ve seen Goafest growing from a festival of advertising professionals to one for media and entertainment too…

    Yes! It’s a festival. I would like to change the name from Goafest to Goa Festival. It brings so many people together. There is so much of a camaraderie. It’s also a recruiting ground for seeking jobs. I know of my dear friends who conducted business deals in the two-three days. It all depends on how you look at it. Can we put a structure to it to say it can be a place to conduct job interviews and business? The problem is not in visualising or doing things. The problem is in the infrastructure.

     

    One of the things which a lot of people have said is that you have raised the bar after you took charge of Ad Club? But don’t you think you’ve raised it so high that it will be a tough act to follow?

    I don’t think I have. It would be unfair to all my predecessors in the past. It has been built brick-by-brick by them over the years. I’ve come at a later stage when three-fourth of the building is already built and I’ve put the roof and people say, oh, now the house looks complete.

     

    But you’ve put a lot of glitter and finesse on it.

    I think I bring a bit of passion to the table. I think that’s true for every person who’s been there before me and sometimes someone may have had a good or a bad year. And that’s the challenge. That’s what I want the whole industry to know. Next year, someone else will be the president. It’s a not for-profit kind of business. Everybody is giving their time pro bono. It’s an industry event, for god’s sake. If you’re from the industry, be a part of it. Don’t be an armchair critic. Drop in and say: “I will be a part of the committee. This is what is wrong with the Goafest, I want to fix it.” Have the balls to do it and you can quote me on it. Don’t criticise and say: “Oh no, we don’t want to do this.” Because there is no other industry event in the world which is as large as Goafest which is run by industry bodies. You heard Mr Amitabh Kant speaking. He said, “One of the things about the whole presentation. I was so inspired. All these were made by Indians.!” He mentioned Piyush’s and Sunil’s name.

    Your heart was swelling with pride because it was Make in India. Made in India. We have the talent, we have the people. This is an industry event where everything is about Make in India, made by Indians, for Indians… come be a part of it. I’m going to fade away into the sunset, but for the future generation it is important that leaders like us show the path and create something that the future generations should respect. It’s not about your or my ego. We’ll all go into the sunset. But, for the future generation, you have the opportunity to build something that history will remember you for.

     

  • The debut edition of The Marquees is slated to premiere in August 2017

    Ad Club’s ‘Marquees’ to celebrate gamechanging stories of brands

    By A Correspondent

     

    After conducting events as big as the Abbys, Emvies and Effies, The Advertising Club unveiled at Goafest 2017 an all-new annual property called ‘Marquees’ which addresses the needs of marketers who form a large constituency of the Advertising Club.

     

    The Awards intend to recognise brands for excellence in marketing, but also those who have come out successful despite facing numerous adversities iterating the well-known adage “That which does not break you only makes you stronger.”  The debut edition of The Marquees is slated to premiere in August 2017. Network18 has come on board as presenting partner.

     

    Speaking about the newly constituted awards, Raj Nayak, President, The Advertising Club said, “Brands operate in a dynamic and evolving environment where challenges are manifold and mostly unpredictable. It is hence important to recognise and honor creativity and effectiveness of brands that take challenges to their stride and emerge triumphant. The Marquees will play the role of acknowledging and cheering brands and marketing initiatives that have been gamechangers.”

     

    Commenting on the raison d’être of the awards, Partho Dasgupta, Chairman Marquee Awards said: “We believe that brands are a force of change and influence in society. The awards will recognise all the elements of marketing with communication being just one of them. We are sure that the awards will emerge as an ultimate benchmark for excellence in marketing.”

     

    Apart from the regular category awards for sectors such as FMCG, Banking, Auto, Insurance, Telecom & DTH, Consumer Durables & E-commerce. The Marquees will also have “Marquee Special Awards” and will recognise brands who have made a name for themselves differently. Some of the examples of the special awards are: conquering an impregnable fortress, riding on an emerging wave, reinventing for the better, carving out a niche and traversing unchartered waters.

     

     

  • Ad Club sets up new managing committee, Raj Nayak re-elected President, Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Media and OOH, Madison Communications Pvt. Ltd is vice-president

    Ad Club sets up new managing committee, Raj Nayak re-elected President

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club has elected Raj Nayak, CEO, COLORS, as its President for the second consecutive term.

     

    The new managing committee is as follows:

    • President: Raj Nayak, CEO, COLORS, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.

    • Vice President: Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Media and OOH, Madison Communications Pvt. Ltd.

    • Secretary: Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group

    • Jt. Secretary: Bhaskar Das, Group CEO, Zee Media Corporation Ltd.

    • Treasurer: Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands

    • Officebearer: Ashish Sehgal, COO, Zee Unimedia Ltd.

    • Member: Mitrajit Bhattacharya, President and Publisher, Chitralekha Group

    • Member: Partha Sinha, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, McCann

    Worldgroup

    • Member:Pradeep Dwivedi, Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer, DainikBhaskar Group, DB Corp Ltd.

    • Member, Ramesh Narayan, Managing Director, Canco Advertising Pvt. Ltd.

    • Member, Vikas Khanchandani, Chief Business Officer, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited

    • Member, Viral Jani, Head TV Partnerships, Twitter India

    • Co-opted Member: Partho Dasgupta, CEO, Broadcast Audience Research Council

    • Co-opted Member: Punitha Arumugam, Director, Agency Business, India and South East Asia, Google India Pvt. Ltd.

    • Co-opted Member: Ajay Chandwani, Director, Percept Limited

    Immediate Past President: Pratap Bose, Founder, Social Street

     

    Special Invitees:

    :: Preeti Vyas, Founder & Chairwoman, Vyas Giannetti Creative.
    :: Namrata Tata, Head of Sales, Colors Infinity, VH1 & Comedy Central.
    :: Sapangeet Rajwant, Head of Marketing, Hindi Mass Entertainment, Viacom18
    :: Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications Ltd

     

    Expressing his pleasure at his re-election, Nayak said: “I am extremely honored and humbled at the love bestowed upon me by the industry. I hope to continue working even more vigorously to realise The Ad Club’s agenda of acting as a catalyst in developing our vibrant and dynamic industry.”

     

    Said Nakul Chopra, CEO South Asia, Publicis Worldwide and President, AAAI welcoming the announcement: “I am delighted that Raj has been elected President Ad Club for another term. A dear friend, a respected colleague – Raj has always worked for the good of the industry via various forums. I look forward to working closely with him to further the already strong relationship between The Ad Club and AAAI.”

     

    Commented Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee and President, IBF: “I am most certain that with his rich experience, acumen and industry knowledge, Raj will continue to take ‘The Advertising Club’ to greater heights. The very fact that he is re-elected, speaks abundantly about his contribution made to the club and to the industry. Over the last year, the club has certainly been a catalyst in developing the industry and with its interactive platforms and properties, it has served as a brilliant platform for industry professionals to interact and exchange thoughts. I wish Raj all the success in this role.”

     

    Expressing his excitement about the announcement, Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman and MD, R K Swamy BBDO and President IAA India Chapter and Senior Vice President IAA Global, said, “I was delighted to hear that Raj was reelected to lead The Advertising Club. His passion and energy levels are infective. He has brought in many senior names‎ to join the committee and I eagerly look forward to next phase of accelerated growth for the Club under his stewardship.”

     

    Industry stalwart Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, also expressed his pleasure by saying, “I am delighted that Raj has agreed to continue as The Ad Club President. This augurs well for the members of the advertising, media and marketing community in general and members of The Ad Club in particular. Raj is everybody’s favorite person and is uniquely positioned to discharge this onerous responsibility which he has kindly agreed to, despite his hectic and I am sure taxing work schedule”.

     

    Industry veteran CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM, South Asia, commented, “Its great news for the industry that Raj Nayak has been re-elected President of The Advertising Club. Raj brings a lot of style and substance to whatever he does. His boundless energy, passion and commitment is so amazing. I wish him the very best and look forward to another great year with him at the helm”.

     

  • These entries were judged by 133 media professionals across 35 categories on 27th & 28th July, 2016 in Mumbai & 2ndAugust, 2016 at Delhi

    Emvies 2016: Shortlisted case studies to be showcased

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club received a record number of entries at EMVIES this year. The aggregate of 971 entries is the highest ever received by the Ad Club in sixteen years of organizing EMVIES.

     

    These entries were judged by 133 media professionals across 35 categories on 27th & 28th July, 2016 in Mumbai & 2ndAugust, 2016 at Delhi.

     

    Based on the aggregate scores assigned by the judges, the EMVIES Committee at the Ad Club has shortlisted 177 case studies that will be presented from Monday, 22nd August to Friday, 26th August, 2016 at Manik Sabhagriha Auditorium, Vishwakarma, M. D. Lotlikar Vidya Sankul, Opp. Lilavati Hospital, Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai from 2.00 pm to 6.00 pm. The entry to this function is free for all.

     

    The case study presentation is a final round of judging and the Jury comprises of big names from the Marketing fraternity. An added attraction is that the audience will also get an opportunity to exercise one vote everyday if and only if they are present before 2.00 p.m.

     

    The EMVIE trophies will be presented at the Grand Gala Awards Ceremony on Friday, 2nd September, 2016 at the Ball Room, 9th Floor, The St. Regis (Hotel Palladium), Lower Parel, Mumbai at 6.30 p.m.

     

    The event is powered by Colors and supported by Google.

     

  • This year the review was about who cares for advertisements and a lot of discussion on context and content.

    Aggie & Josy present Ad Club’s hosts Ad Review

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Ad Club hosted its annual Ad Review on Wednesday with the theme ‘Who cares? Vs Who cares’

     

    The highlights of the event included engaging and insightful presentations by Agnello Dias, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Taproot India, and Josy Paul, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India. Shubhajit Sen, Chief Marketing Officer, Micromax Informatics, moderated the event.

     

    Dias named his presentation – Everybody cares and no one gives a damn! The name had the audience in splits and made an interesting start for the event. He explained the reason for the name by saying, “We live in paradoxical times. Times, when the whole world seems to be hell bent on saving the whole world from the whole world, because every creative is cause and every person is a vigilante in a mission.”

     

    The focus of his presentation was on the target group aspect, basically, ‘Who’s watching?’ According to Dias, earlier there used to be a dialogue between the audience and the marketer in the form of communication, till the target audience understood what was being conveyed everyone else did not matter. But the communication now has become a ‘trialouge’; there is another party who is intervening between the above mentioned parties. So, now, there is this large group of people who are listening what the consumer is being told and they are adding their two bits to that which the consumer is listening to as well. Now, they are doing it the other way round, by adding their opinion on what the consumer is saying and conveying it to the marketers. The marketers cannot ignore this group since the audience is also listening to these communicators who act as middlemen.

     

    He explained how the audience has changed and it is about the product consumer vs. the communication consumer, where the latter influences the former. Dias gave the example of Lifebuoy’s Chamki campaign- which created awareness about using hand wash soap after child birth to avoid any kind of infection for the baby, through an experiment in a village, Ariel’s ‘Share the load’ campaign and Fortune oil’s ‘Mother exchange’ campaign to put across his point about the power of relevance today. “Content without relevance is art and content with relevance is advertisement,” he said. He concluded by saying, “So, what does this mean for brands? Welcome to a world where every ad is a corporate ad and there are no product ads anymore.”

     

    Paul started his presentation by showing an amalgamation of the ads which he thought made an impact and chose to call it ‘artistic stupid impression’. While the earlier presentation was more about content, this presentation highlighted the relevance of context in advertisement.

     

    “People care about context and not advertisement. Nothing matters unless there is context,” said Paul. He stressed that while everyone focuses on the content, it is equally important to focus on the context. “People respond to something that is deep within us, as the world gets more complicated, people want more roots. Contexts are about roots. They are seeking those collective roots so that they can make sense of this chaos that is happening. Contexts give reference to these roots,” he added.

     

    Paul stated that the consumer reacts to context which starts and grows the conversation. The authentication of content is through context. According him, while context is remembered, context is fleeting. Throughout the presentation he showed various national and international ads to explain it further. He lauded Truly Madly’s ‘Creep Qawwali’ as a good social context example in conveying the menace faced by many women. He ended it by saying that “Everybody cares,” as an answer to the topic of the evening.

     

  • The 15th edition of the Effie Awards happen this evening (Jan 27), and all eyes are on who will be the Agency of the Year

    Will it be Ogilvy or Lowe Lintas or… ?

     

    It’s the Big Night for all the advertising agencywallahs. The Effie Awards, or the Effie’s as they are referred to, are happening today. At the Taj Lands End, Mumbai, 7pm onwards.

    Over a hundred brands that ran campaigns in India from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015 were eligible for entry and only a select few will be vying for the top honors across 26 award categories this evening, as can be seen in the shortlist announced by the Ad Club on Monday.

     

    The Advertising Club introduced many changes to revamp the awards. For one, entries could be submitted online. A new category called New Product or Service – Best Campaign for a Start-up, had been introduced for the Effies 2015. The erstwhile digital campaign category has been rechristened to the Integrated Marketing Category, underscoring the emergence of the digital medium as an inclusive rather than additional channel of marketing in today’s day and age.

     

    The question uppermost in everyone’s mind is on who will emerge winner of the coveted Agency of the Year title. Will it be Ogilvy yet again, or will Lowe Lintas seek revenge this year. Or could it be a slew of other players who have entered big skewing the scene a bit?

     

    Here’s the detailed shortlist of finalists for each category as received from the Ad Club:

  • Making allowance for the holiday season, the Club has relaxed the last date for enrollments and payments under the existing structure till January 7, 2016. Individual Life membership to the Club stands valid at Rs 5,000 upto December 31, 2015

    Ad Club restructures fees, to make membership mandatory for entry to marquee events

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club has announced the restructuring of its fee structure effective from January 1, 2016.

     

    The new structure for membership fees will be as follows:

    1. Life membership: Rs7500

    2. Corporate membership

    a) Rs100,000 for 10 members for 15 years

    b) Rs250,000 for 25 members for 15 years

    c) Rs 500,000 for 50 members for 15 years

    3. Annual membership Rs 2500 for 3 years with Renewal fees of Rs.500 every year

    4. Student membership Rs1000 for 12 months

     

    Making allowance for the holiday season, the Club has relaxed the last date for enrollments and payments under the existing structure till January 7, 2016. Individual Life membership to the Club stands valid at Rs 5000 upto December 31, 2015. That’s today!

     

    Going forward, the Advertising Club also intends to make membership mandatory for industry professionals participating in ad club events such as Effies, Emvies etc. Guest per member will also be restricted to two each.

     

  • Ramesh Narayan declared the chairman of AGC for Goafest 2016

    Ramesh Narayan to helm Abby Awards Governing Council for Goafest 2016

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club and Advertising Agencies Association of India has announced the Awards Governing Council for Goafest 2016. Ad veteran and industry leader Ramesh Narayan, founder at Canco Advertising Pvt. Ltd. has been appointed theChairman of the AGC. The other members elected to the Council are:

     

    Chairman (CEO, Publicis South Asia & Vice President) of Goafest Organizing Committee – Nakul Chopra; President Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAA’s of I) & Advisor, FCB Ulka Advertising – Ambi M G Parameshwaran; Chairman and CEO at Dentsu Aegis Network – Ashish Bhasin; President, Sony Pictures Networks – Rohit Gupta; CEO at Group M, South Asia – CVL Srinivas; CEO at Mediabrands – Shashi Sinha; CEO at Percept H Pvt. Ltd. – Ajay Chandwani; National Head, Sales, English Cluster at Viacom18 – Namrata Tata; Chief Executive Officer at Contract Advertising – Rana Barua; Founding Partner and Chairman at The Social Street – Pratap Bose.

     

    Announcing the appointment, Raj Nayak, President of The Advertising Club said, “We are pleased to announce that Ramesh Narayan will be the Chairman of the Awards Governing Council of the Goafest. He brings his unique experience as one of the very few people who has been President of the Advertising Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to this post. He has also been Chairman of the Abby Awards Committee twice, and was the first Indian to judge the Effie Awards finals in New York. Ramesh is the only person to have been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the AAAI and been inducted into the International Advertising Association’s Hall of Fame.” 

     

    Welcoming the announcement Ambi M G Parameshwaran – President, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAA’s of I) said “Ad Club is a wonderful institution. I am delighted to hear about Ramesh Narayan’s appointment. With his unparalled understanding of India’s advertising scenario, and his years of valuable experience, Ramesh is sure to bring in a whole new perspective which will definitely drive the council to greater heights of success.”

     

    Nakul Chopra- Chairman of Goafest Organizing Committee, showed his excitement about the new appointment as well. “I’ve known Ramesh as a visionary leader who embraces change and is open to new ideas. I’m sure his appointment means an interesting phase for the Council is on the anvil.”

     

  • That's what the new Big Boss of the Advertising Club hopes to achieve as President of the premier body of the ad frat

    Collaboration is key: Raj Nayak

     

    One of the first things senior mediaperson and Colors CEO Raj Nayak did when he was elected President of the Advertising Club a fortnight back was to register a Twitter handle, and start reaching out to the fraternity.  He has several other plans up his sleeve, including collaborating with other industry associations to work for a common cause. In an interview with Pradyuman Maheshwari last week, Raj Nayak spoke of some of his plans for the Ad Club, on doing things beyond Goafest, Effies and Emvies and how he manages to find the time to do all of it…

     

    One did get an indicator that you were looking at bigger things when you took on the responsibility of the secretary of the Advertising Club two years back…

    You should be a fortune-teller or an astrologer because two years back I had no inkling of this when I was roped into the Ad Club as secretary. I’ve been a part of the advertising community – whether it’s the Ad Club or IAA, but to be honest with you, this hasn’t happened by design.

     

    As someone who has been tracking Ad Club events for the two-plus decades since you’ve got into the profession, what are the things you remembers most from then to now?

    I’ve grown up with the Ad Club. When I started my first job and became a member of the Ad Club, I remember having contributed two articles in Solus. Ad Club used to organise events on a regular basis. It used to be in the Nehru Centre in Worli or other venues and the entire industry would attend them. It used to be a big thing to be invited or for your boss to say, “I’ve got a pass for you to go to an Ad Club function.” Today if you look at the Ad Club, we do some big functions. We do the Emvies, the Effies and of course the Goafest. We do a lot of things. But these are all big events. I think the constant engagement that we used to have with the fraternity, with the industry, has somewhere got eroded. That too for me was the uniqueness of the Ad Club. It was a close fraternity which not only came together during big events, but there was constant engagement happening.

     

    So, Mr President what do we expect from your tenure?

    The Ad Club has been one of the best institutions in our industry. It’s 60 years’ old, there have been many past Presidents. There have been many committees before and I think that they did a phenomenal job. My sole aim is to build on it. To try and see how do I take it to the next level. As you wrote on your website, one of the first things I did was to start a Twitter handle for the Ad Club. I plan to start a website for the Ad Club which will be a one-stop shop to get curated content for the industry.

     

    The Ad Club has become more of just the Goafest, Effies and Emvies. Surely it should be doing lot more than just these big events.

    Yeah. I agree with you completely. We are all non-profitable organisations and are working for same cause in a way. We are working for the fraternity. We do similar things. I don’t see any reason if IAA is doing an event why can’t Ad Club be a partner of it. If Ad Club is doing an event why can’t AAAI be a partner of it? If all three of us work together because the objective is the same, the purpose is the same. We are actually giving our personal time from our daily routine to give back to the industry. I’m going to initiate it with the IAA and AAAI. Say, let us work together on some projects so that we can amortise costs, instead of doing more of the same, let’s do quality events. Let’s bring the fraternity together instead of doing things alone.

     

    A few years back the Club changed its name from The Advertising Club Bombay to The Advertising Club with the objective of taking on a national footprint. It hasn’t really happened in right earnest except for the fact you’ve jury meetings and a few events happening in Delhi.

    I don’t think it’s the right way to look at it.  It is the Advertising Club of India because everything that we do has national participation whether it’s the Emvies or theEffies. What we need to do is to find some ways of engaging with people in other cities that’s not just by going and doing events. I used to be the Secretary of the Bangalore Advertising Club in 1990.  A friend of mine Arvind Kumar, ex-Times of India, is now the Executive Director of the Club. He sent me a congratulation message this morning and said  “Raj let’s look at doing something together.” I would like to reach out to advertising clubs in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi. Why don’t we partner and do things together? On the national level, we’ll give you the support. On the local level you extend your support to us. That’s the way we should do things rather than do things in isolation.

     

    Do you think the Advertising Club awards – the Abby – should be held as a part of Goafest?

    The Goafest is established in spite of all the minuses, controversies and everything. I have no hesitation in admitting that it is the biggest advertising festival this country has ever seen or the country used to see. The participation last year was around 6-7000. I don’t know the exact number but it’s not easy to gather such a kind of number. One is to get number of people. Second is to curate it and make it better…

     

    But a majority of the advertising folks are based in Mumbai and they find getting to Goa a pain.

    I don’t agree because if the people are ready to make the effort to go to Cannes, I think they can come to Goa. It’s just an excuse. If you don’t want to do something, you won’t do it. The fact that if 4-6000 people can come to Goa, then anyone can. But what is important about Goafest is that we don’t plan our calendar well in advance. If we are able to fix the calendar and say this is when Goafest happens and try and fix a date every year then nobody can make an excuse. If you’ve a board meeting, you can make an excuse. Then we should be able to tell the industry these are the dates, block your calendar and please be there. Then, nobody will have an excuse.

     

    The advertising industry has changed considerably from being the 10-15 big agencies of yesteryears. The media fraternity has also grown considerably. Do you see the Ad Club adapting itself to the new reality?

    We have to. I want to be more inclusive. One of the reasons I opened a Twitter handle and intend to have a website is to send the right signals that we are evolving. There are lots of small agencies and they are doing very good work. It’s not just the big agencies. There are small agencies whether it’s in the media or creative. Look at the composition of my managing committee. Prasoon Joshi has been appointed as the creative advisor to the club. You’ll see some more names. It was just that I was out of the country when everything happened, I put up everything in a day. I’ve already a client there. We’ll soon see another creative person or client coming on board. So, I’m trying to put together a team. We have Bhaskar Das and Shashi Sinha ensuring continuity because they know how the club has worked, what are the pluses and the minuses. I can learn from their experience and knowledge. At the same time I’ve brought in a lot of new people, fresh blood who will bring in fresh ideas. Keeping in mind a very clear structure as to who will do what. So, one of the things I’m going to do is to start a membership drive. There is going to be a sponsorship drive. So, in every area,  I’ve identified people who I think will be best suited for particular role so that clearly roles are earmarked for everybody. Then we work like any corporate structure works.

     

    Loads of plans, how are you going to manage the time, especially with a busy job as CEO of Colors?

    A lot of people say when you become CEO you are supposed to be extremely busy. I actually work the other way round. I believe a CEO should free himself and make time for himself. My KRA is just one thing: to make sure that every person who works with me wakes up in the morning and says I want to go to work. If I’m able to create the adrenaline rush in that person, my job is done because they do the work, I get the credit. Delegation is the key. That’s how we work at Colors and we delegate roles and responsibilities. We clearly have a marked calendar for our meetings. We don’t need too much time. At the end of the day, if you plan well I think you can manage.

     

    It’s too early to ask you this question. You’ve just taken on the job of the President. If there is one thing you would like to be remembered for having achieved as Ad Club President, what would it be?

    Too early for me to answer as well. But I come from a school of thought where if you ask me what’ll be my one contribution that I’ll bring to the table: I will say passion. Anything I do, I’m passionate about it. I firmly believe everybody does a job. Very few people are remembered for what they’ve done. I would like to be one of those people, hopefully someday to be remembered for whatever I’ve contributed to the Ad Club. What it will be, I don’t know. As you said, it’s too early for me. But, once I get into the pool and start swimming, probably I would know how deep the water is. Hopefully I’ll swim well.