By Ajay Chandwani
Noshir Desai was in Lintas the go-to person to while away your client stress and agency blues. In the ninetees I was one of the Lintas Mancom colleagues of Noshir who used to navigate the agency.
Noshir used to wear a few hats quite comfortably. From heading the media department of an agency. Before media got unbundled, Noshir used to deal with a bunch of achievers in planning, buying and rural activation. From Helen Anchan to Sainath Iyer, from Meenakshi Madhvani to Lynn D’souza there was always a delicate task which a generalist like Noshir played with much aplomb. Media in Lintas was the domain of the thirteenth floor of Express Towers which the honchos in management rarely visited and was often called the floor that actually worked and brought the money!.
The television industry was getting revolutionised with the onset of Satellite TV and the end of the domination of Doordarshan. Noshir led the Lintas charge in this with media associations and breaking the press stereotype role that most media heads played in those days. The focus had shifted from Pradeep Guha in print to Peter Mukerjea in Star TV and Rupert Murdoch. Noshir started handing over the media reigns to the specialists in planning and buying and rural activation.
Noshir then played a mancom coordinator of Regional Offices of Lintas . This meant he had to interface between regional heads of Lintas and keep Alyque Padamsee and Prem Mehta abreast of the growth of regional offices. The mancom had illustrious heads in regions like Asit Mehra and Ashish Bhasin in Chennai, Fali Vakeel in Bengaluru, Nures Sayeed in Kolkata, Preet Bedi in Delhi. Of these the Kolkata office which recently completed 50 years in 2020 had been managed by such luminary stalwarts as Stanley Pinto, Ajay Shrikhande, Pranesh Misra.
Noshir built amazing relationships with regional clients like Tata and Titan, Brooke Bond and Lipton in Bengaluru, ITC and Philips in Kolkata, Kitply and Polar in Kolkata, Modi Xerox in Delhi.
Noshir’s stint in MCM had made him understand how the creative output could radically improve in an agency. Kersy Katrak with Arun Kolhatkar and Kiran Nagarkar had set a pathbreaking trail in MCM and the likes of Christopher Rozario, Viru Hiremath, Alok Nanda, Vikas Gaitonde, Kamlesh Pandey were making Trikaya and Rediffusion rock.
Kersy’s advent in Lintas got Noshir excited to give shape to the dreams of Karishma the conflict agency of the Lintas Group. Kersy had broken down structures and formed art and copy partners using the MCM success model. In Lintas, Josy Paul and Neville D’Souza in special projects , Ryan Menezes and Sanjay Sippy in Lintas Bom 4. Agnello Dias and Mahendra Bhagat and Kiran Khalap in Lintas Bom 3, and Adi Pocha in Bom 2 etc spurred Noshir to get in Quentin Coelho and make Karishma a creative boutique to target entrepreneurs and start-up businesses.
Just round the time Noshir was consolidating Karishma, I had set up SSC&B Lintas at Lower Parel Phoenix which Alyque had fondly called Upper Worli to manage the drastic change from Express Towers in Nariman Point. At some point In the growth and development of Karishma, we had together found that the conflict management was the motivation.
For, a second or third agency in the group was not being met. Noshir and I used to discuss this subject with great interest and depth with examples of Contract and HTA and Interface and FCB Ulka. Noshir loved the hyper-creative structure that SSC&B Lintas had achieved with numerous International awards including India’s first ever Gold Lion at Cannes.
Clients like Tata Safari, Sierra, Mercedes Benz, Smirnoff, Marico’s Parachute and later HUL’s Nihar, Kwality Walls Max made Noshir want to borrow a thing or two from the second agency culture.
Noshir was the eternal optimist in all client relationships. He was the warm confiding friend or a patient problem-solver to others. He was passionate about building relationships most of which lasted a long time with many clients.
His only mantra of management was to spread happiness and laughter round. Most meetings Noshir would gravitate to end at the bar so that decisions could be taken! Noshir belonged to a breed of ad folks who have virtually vanished today though client pressures may have mounted up to more staggering levels.
Keep smiling Noshir… you will always be fondly remembered in our hearts.
Ajay Chandwani is a veteran strategic brand consultant. He was earlier Director on Lintas Mancom and President SSC&B Lintas
So while Cannes Lions 2020 has been put off as has our own Abby and Goafest, the 31st edition of the Montreux Advertising Festival is scheduled this year at Montreux on April 16, 2020. Now Montreux Festival has been a precursor to Cannes for 30 years and one of Europe’s leading Advertising and Media festivals. Judging this year will be entirely done using online voting. And the event will also happen virtually.
Commenting on the success of Indian companies, Ajay Chandwani Director Percept and Brand Engagement Consultant who was on the International Jury at Montreux said: †India has been steadily climbing up on the international festival performance in the last few years. Montreux Festival Switzerland has been witnessing a significant rise in participation from India and this year’s haul of 5 Golds and 16 Finalists is India’s best performance yet. It’s also heartening to note the Golds and Finalists from India were in varied Categories like Digital, Mobile, Direct, Design, Print and Film. It is now a matter of time when India will create its own culture of advertising like Brazil, Japan or Thailand.â€
