MxMIndia

Tag: Lintas

  • He belonged to a breed of ad folks who have virtually vanished today though client pressures may have mounted up to more staggering levels, writes Ajay Chandwani

    Noshir was always the ever-smiling jovial human being: Tribute by Ajay Chandwani

    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 Desai in his younger days

    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

     

     

  • CVL Srinivas, Bhupal Ramnathkar and Raj Nair were felicitated as Covid Humanitarian Heroes

    Ogilvy, Lintas & Tilt share honours at IndIAA Awards

    Caption: L to R: Abhishek Karnani, Chairperson, IAA IndIAA Awards, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India, Sonu Sood and Megha Tata, President- IAA India Chapter

     

    The India Chapter of International Advertising Association (IAA) conducted the sixth edition of the IndIAA Awards on Wednesday October at a physical ceremony in Mumbai amidst a cross-section of the fraternity.

     

    Said Suresh Narayanan, Jury Chairman and Chairman & Managing Director, Nestle India: “It’s been a privilege and honor to be the Jury Chair for three years in a row. These awards are the most prestigious in the advertising and communications. This year IndIAA Awards received 200 plus nominations across all the 31 categories. I want to congratulate every award winner for their outstanding work, you need to be truly proud of your yourselves, your agency, partners, teams, customers, consumers stakeholders and of everyone who has been involved in the success of the campaign”

     

    Added Megha Tata, President IAA “A great jury, wonderful winning work, fantastic attendance of the who’s who of advertising media and marketing. The IndIAA Awards have truly set a new benchmark in the industry.

     

    Said IAA IndIAA Awards Chairman, Abhishek Karnani: “Any award is only as good as the people who endorse it. I view the presence of such a high powered audience here today, and the presence of repeat sponsors, as a great endorsement for the IndIAA awards. Keeping in mind the phase we are hopefully emerging from, we have sculpted our awards event around a theme – that acknowledges and inspires the need to show – that there is good in everything around us. It just needs to be tapped into by us”

     

    IAA felicitated three industry leaders as Covid Humanitarian Heroes: CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India; Bhupal Ramnathkar and Raj Nair, CEO Madison BMB for “being industry leaders with a heart, being the silent hands behind several initiatives for good, showcasing the power of design, for the many communication campaigns that sought to make a difference and for the ever-willing attitude to help a good cause.”

     

    (L-R) – Abhishek Karnani, Chairperson, IAA IndIAA Awards, Raj Nair, CEO Madison BMB, Sonu Sood & Megha Tata, President- IAA India Chapter

     

    The Guest of Honor at the event were Actors Sonu Sood & Bhumi Pednekar

     

    (L-R) – Mayura Shreyams Kumar,Director – Digital Business, Mathrubhumi, Sonu Sood & Immediate Past President IAA Global, and current Vice Chairman Asian federation of Advertising Associations

     

    (L-R) – Avinash Pandey, IAA Mancom Member & Chief Executive officer, ABP Network, Bhumi Pednekar, Megha Tata, President- IAA India Chapter & Abhishek Karnani, Chairperson, IAA IndIAA Awards

     

    This year a new category – ‘Voice of Change’: campaigns that challenge the gender stereotype in the industry was instituted. The winner of the category was Unacademy for their campaign #TeachThemYoung | Know When She Needs You.

     

    Caption- Team Unacademy winners of VOICE OF CHANGE category

     

    Caption- Ogilvy Team winners in the category – Online Commerce, Ticketing and Services for Amazon Karigar Hunar Hai

     

    Caption- MullenLowe Lintas Team (winners in the category Consumer Durables and Utilities for their campaign Havells – Feeling Fans)

     

    Caption- Tilt Brand Solutions Team (winners in the category Home Décor and Infra for their campaign LivSpace-– Don’t Try This At Home)

     

    Caption-Team Population First & UNFPA (Joint Winners in this category GOVERNMENT & NGOs)

     

  • ABD owns brands like Officer’s Choice, Sterling Reserve, amongst others

    Allied Blenders and Distillers says cheers to Lintas Live

    By Our Staff

     

    Lintas Live (eka GolinOpinion) has bagged the PR mandate of Allied Blenders and Distillers (ABD), after a competitive multi-agency pitch. Lintas Live is set to develop the PR communication strategy for ABD and its brand portfolio, which will include, PR content creation and corporate reputation building. LL’s Mumbai office will lead the business. ABD owns brands like Officer’s Choice, Sterling Reserve, amongst others.

     

    Anupam Bokey

    On the appointment, Anupam Bokey, Chief Marketing Officer, Allied Blenders and Distillers, said: “As we embark on a journey of reinvention and transformation we were looking to partner with a modern, forward-thinking agency that understood our vision and demonstrated standout capability of execution backed by strategy. This is where the Lintas Live team stood out on every parameter and in addition showed immense passion, which helped us close on this partnership decision.”

     

    Ameer Ismail

    Added Ameer Ismail, President, Lintas Live said, “Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt. Ltd., is one of India’s top alco-bev companies with powerhouse brands like Officer’s Choice and Sterling Reserve that have achieved great success and scale. This is an exciting time to partner with an excellent management team focused on a dynamic and audacious vision for the company and its brands. We intend to deploy our Lintas Live values of disruptive thinking and innovative & engaging storytelling, to reach new heights of success for ABD.”

     

     

  • … to drive the real estate major PR and communications

    Lintas Live bags Prestige Group mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    After a multi-agency pitch, Prestige Group has entrusted Lintas Live, the digital-first creative PR agency (eka GolinOpinion) with a mandate to drive its PR and communications.

     

    Irfan Razack

    Said Irfan Razack, CMD, Prestige Group: “We are happy to partner with Lintas Live, an agency that demonstrated a deep understanding of modern consumer needs and has similar values to ours. As we embark on our new vision of expansion in India, we believe collaborating with best-in-class agency like Lintas Live was the right decision taken at the right time. At Prestige Group, we are very passionate about our brand and our projects and a partner that shares our passion was an important contributor to this decision.”

     

    Ameer Ismail

    Added Ameer Ismail, President, Lintas Live: “We are delighted that Prestige Group has placed its confidence in Lintas Live. The real estate sector is evolving and this promises to be an exciting journey. In Prestige Group, we have found a partner that believes in our capability and our new offering. We aim to do some path-breaking work that will stand apart.”

     

     

  • She assumed the role last month after having been President, Colgate Europe since 2016

    Exclusive: Prabha Parameswaran is Group President, Colgate-Palmolive

    By  A Correspondent

    Prabha Parameswaran
    Prabha Parameswaran

    There has been much reason to sport a Colgate smile this Ganesh Chaturthi with the news coming in that Prabha Parameswaran has been appointed Group President, Global Innovation Group & Africa-Eurasia. She assumed the role in August after having been President, Colgate Europe since 2016.

    Parameswaran joined Colgate-Palmolive in 1995 in India and progressed through a series of marketing positions in India, the global oral care and toothbrush divisions in Asia and Mexico. She next led Colgate’s business in India as Vice President & General Manager starting in 2012 and, in 2014, became President, Colgate Africa/Eurasia. Parameswaran has worked in advertising in India at HTA (later J Walter Thompson and now Wunderman Thompson) and Lintas India (now Lowe Lintas).

     

  • Alyque was not just a star. He was an icon both for the advertising and the theatre industry. A tribute by Prabhakar Mundkur

    Prabhakar Mundkur: Remembering Alyque

     

    By Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die,
    Passing through nature to eternity.

    — Hamlet, William Shakespeare

     

    When I first met Alyque back in 1976, I felt so exhilarated after meeting him for a musical part in “Man of la Mancha” (the screen version had Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren )  that I regretted having declined his offer for a part in Jesus Christ Superstar a few years before.  But graduate studies had taken precedence.  He was tall and towering physically, just like his personality and reputation. A slight hunch made him look distinctive. It was the kind of hunch that tall people develop when they are young, when they want to compensate for their height and want to appear a little shorter, to make other people more comfortable.

    I was immediately taken up by this enormous personality and talent.  But talent alone can’t take you places. Alyque was extremely committed to whatever he was doing and for a creative person surprisingly organised.  For example, he would be constantly be making notes during our rehearsals with a small pad that was parked in the small of his back. Whenever he thought of something, he would pull out that note pad and make some furious notes, which he would recall in detail later.

    Like most stars, Alyque created volumes of folklore around him, typical of great personalities.   Even if you never worked in Lintas, any advertising person who worked during that time, would regale you with stories of God (as Alyque was affectionately and appropriately known) and Pope (his secretary whose real name was Jenny Pope).  They were all very funny and you couldn’t help a guffaw after hearing the punchline in the end.

    But it was not just people who worked with him that looked upon him with great respect. I worked at a competitive ad agency and although Alyque was the main competition, I daresay we were all overawed by him.  Seeing him at a pitch, for example made me terribly nervous.  Because in many ways, it was not just his advertising talent and creativity that had to be overcome but his personality and his showmanship.  Clients were equally awed by him. Somehow, I could imagine clients just eating out of his hands while we would go through several iterations of a creative idea until it was too dumb to produce.  I don’t think anyone would dare to argue with his advertising judgment. In fact, I was often asked by clients a rather uncomfortable question, “Who is the equivalent of Alyque in your agency?” I did not have a ready answer in spite of having painstaking pondered over it. In an era when suits became CEOs, after plodding for several years, Alyque proved that it was easy for a creative person to head an agency, something that is more fashionable today. What struck me most about him was that he was a perfectionist.  He was never happy with anything less than the best. Every imperfection made him angry and sometimes it was followed by string of expletives.

    He created many famous campaigns but perhaps some stood out more than others in public memory.  For example, the entire Liril campaign became the most talked about in the 80s and so did the Lalitaji campaign for Surf. Also, the first campaign for Kama Sutra condoms, which made a few waves in an India that was just coming out of the closet at that time and of course Cherry Blossom, Hamara Bajaj and many others.   He once grudgingly admitted that Lalitaji was inspired by his own mother who has a building named after her called Kulsum Terraces, the family home on Walton Road, a sleepy little lane in Colaba.  This was also where we rehearsed most of Alyque’s plays for the Theatre Group in the 70s.

    Alyque belonged truly to the Bombay of yore, so vastly different from the Mumbai we know now. When he spoke about the past, he would recall going to Olympia on Colaba Causeway for a ‘chai’ with Sylvester DaCunha because he was stressed out about something.  It somehow brought back images of an old Bombay flooding to your mind, with a young Alyque and a young Sylvester.

    About ten years ago we met at a party.  He was doing readings from Shakespeare then.  So, I couldn’t but help mention that Shakespeare wrote in Iambic Pentametre which is the same metre that the ‘blues’ is written in. He wouldn’t believe me.  So, I had to tell him that it was not my theory, but I had picked it up from none other than Leonard Bernstein, the famous American composer and musician in his speech on the “History of Jazz”.  Forever curious, Alyque invited me to his home for a demonstration of how Shakespeare could be sung to the blues. He found it remarkable and immediately ended his Shakespeare shows with a famous soliloquy sung to the blues, roping me in to accompany him on the guitar.

    Alyque was not just a star. He was an icon both for the advertising and the theatre industry.  And he showed us all that true creativity and leadership was multi-dimensional. Most people were shattered when they heard the news of his passing away on Saturday. Somehow, he had lulled all of us into thinking he was immortal.

     

  • GlaxoSmith-Kline's demand for sign-on bonus from advertising firms to do business with it seems to have divided the Indian advertising and marketing fraternity into two camps on the social media.

    Pharma giant GSK’s sign-on bonus demand leaves adland divided

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta

     

    UK pharma major GlaxoSmith-Kline’s demand for sign-on bonus from advertising firms to do business with it seems to have divided the Indian advertising and marketing fraternity into two camps on the social media.

     

    While GSK’s move is being condemned by international advertising agencies that have termed it ‘scandalous’, ‘lazy’ and ‘bullying’, some industry veterans in India support the rebate, saying it will put a leash on media agencies that, they allege, discreetly charge over 10% commission and show 2-3% on record.

     

    Following an Economic Times story on the matter on Monday, advertising veteran Preet Bedi, who has worked with Rediffusion Y&R and Lintas, wrote on his Facebook wall, “The concept of a sign-on bonus payable by agencies to clients is a masterstroke. As an agency man, I would obviously have opposed it but from the outside, I know it’s a great idea.”

     

    His reasons – “one, it forces agencies to pitch only for brands they really wish to be associated with and vice versa. Secondly, it forces agencies to make upfront investment in the new business; currently agencies spend peanuts on new client acquisition. Thirdly, it will force transparency in agency remuneration.”

     

    He also says that the move will lay bare a fraud, media agencies often perpetrate. “U (sic) will find media agencies agreeing to pay more than one or two year’s declared revenue as sign-on bonus. How? Because the actual margins are often double or even triple the declared margins. Quite brilliant; Martin has met his match,” Mr Bedi posted on Facebook.

     

    This sparked a virtual debate on Mr Bedi’s Facebook wall. Harit Nagpal, managing director and CEO, Tata Sky, supported GSK’s move saying, “Why are agencies complaining? If none of them is willing to pay, it won’t happen. And if even one of them is willing, and the client goes for it, disregarding the agency’s merit, he deserves it.”

     

    Kedar Anil Gadgil, principal consultant at Druid System, however, called the concept “an oligopoly of rich, established agencies creating a moat around their castle to protect it from the outsiders” and added that agencies should knock the door of competition lawyers to safeguard their interest.

     

    Mr Bedi, however, opined that nothing can stop sign-on bonus from getting implemented. “…don’t waste your money trying to fight it. If clients want it. (sic) It will happen,” he commented.

     

    He also wrote that while a client contributes an average of Rs 10 crore to an agency’s revenues, “the input on winning a brand is miniscule.”

     

    Vikas Mehta, head of Euro RSCG, Oman, countered it, “The average client does not give an average revenue of (Rs ) 10 crores. Even in the top 5 Delhi agencies, average client revenue will be less than (Rs ) 5 crores and average brand revenue still less. Not workable.”

     

    The fear of many advertising agencies is that if GSK is successful in implementing this, then other marketers may follow suit. In the UK, before GSK made its demand for sign-on bonus, Premier Foods that owns brands like Bisto and Hovis had parted ways with its media agency Starcom MediaVest over “investment payment”, head of an advertising agency said. “So it seems more and more marketers are warming up to it,” the person added, requesting not to be named.

     

    Industry bodies have come out against the sign-on bonus concept. While the Advertising Agencies Association of India has already said it should be “discouraged strongly”, International Advertising Association’s India chapter president Srinivasan K Swamy, said it is an “impractical concept.”

     

    “No marketer or a right thinking person would ask an agency to pay a sign-on bonus. A buyer has to pay for the goods and services he buys and it could not be the other way round,” said Mr Swamy who is also the chairman of RK Swamy BBDO. “If I have signed a contract with my client that says that if sales drop then I will have to pay a penalty then that could be worked out. Otherwise, why should an agency pay a penalty?” A mail sent to Indian Society of Advertisers chairman Hemant Bakshi, who is also the executive director, home & personal care at Hindustan Unilever, remained unanswered till late on Tuesday.

     

    R Ramesh Chandran, co-founder at Xtravision Media Associates, wrote on Mr Bedi’s Facebook wall that Reckitt Benckiser had tried something similar three years ago, with some tough demands such as fee to pitch for the business and penalty for not meeting CPRP targets.

     

    “…nobody pitched…it fell into ZOD’s lap due to international alignment… the situation at ZOD is quite a common knowledge now…Reckitt account is up for grabs again,” Mr Chandran wrote.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • BPN boss Suresh Balakrishna to take additional charge of Lintas Outdoor

    Suresh Balakrishna now also CEO of Lintas Outdoor

    Suresh Balakrishnan

    IPG Mediabrands has announced the appointment of Suresh Balakrishna as CEO of Lintas Initiative Outdoor. The leadership responsibilities of all the OOH businesses of IPG Mediabrands will now report to Suresh Balakrishna, with immediate effect, according to the official communique.

     

    Mr Balakrishna, a media veteran with over 25 years of publishing, brand building and media agency experience, had rejoined Lintas Media Group in January this year to roll out and lead BPN, the third agency network of IPG Mediabrands.

     

    He will be handling this assignment in addition to his current responsibilities as CEO of BPN India.

     

    Hemanth Shah, Managing Director of the company resigned a month ago and will be with the organisation till the end of August. His next destination is not known. He joined the company two years ago from Times OOH.

     

    Some of the leading OOH businesses in IPG Mediabrands include Nokia, Hindustan Unilever, Union Bank ofIndia, Coca Cola, Tata Consultancy Services, Expedia, Citibank, Monte Carlo etc.

     

    For the record, Lintas Initiative Outdoor has 22 offices around India.

     

  • An exclusive interview with Suresh Balakrishna, CEO of Brand Programming Network, IPG Mediabrands' all-new agency under the LMG umbrella

    Making brand the hero with BPN

     

    Just when you thought that the media agency space is getting crowded in India comes the news of another agency setting up shop in India. Brand Connections that was present in 12 countries across the globe excluding India and the United States, will now be rechristened Brand Programming Network. In effect this will be the official launch of BPN in India. And simultaneous with the rest of the world. This will make the agency the third such offering from IPG Mediabrands in India. It already has two in the form of (Lodestar) UM and (Lintas) Initiative. BPN will work under the LMG umbrella.

     

    Says Lynn de Souza, Chairman and CEO of Lintas Media Group in a communique, “For media agencies thus far, the starting point has always been the advertiser. Consolidation, portfolio management, aggregation etc. are all client focused and to some extent consumer data driven. BPN will focus on the brand. The time has come to turn back several chapters and make the brand the hero of all communication effort, and BPN has developed processes to do just that.”

     

    BPN will take on the service mandate of clients like Jyothy-Henkel, Bajaj Auto, Samsonite, and several other clients of LMG to start up with a billing volume of over Rs. 1000 crores, in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkatta and Cochin.

     

    In India the agency will be led by Suresh Balakrishna, who has assumed charge as CEO of the agency. While BPN will be essentially a media agency, it will play the game differently by focusing on the brand. “Everything that we are recommending is going to be from a brand strategy direction,” assures Mr Balakrishna, as he gave MxMIndia a quick peek of what to expect from the agency in India, hours before it was unveiled.

     

    In conversation with Pradyuman Maheshwari and Johnson Napier, Mr Balakrishnan delves on how BPN will be different from the others, on the increased emphasis that will be laid on social media and digital and the new initiatives to look forward to from BPN in the coming few months. Excerpts:

     

    Is Brand Programming Network old wine in a new bottle?

    No, it is not. The usual answer that comes up about a third agency is that it is created due to a conflict of clients, allowing you to take on more of the similar clients. But with BPN, it is a thought-out strategic decision. If you look at India, there is no immediate conflict business (from network agencies) that is being parked in BPN. If you look at Mediabrands, for the last 10 years it has had a network called Brand Connections in other countries. But as markets have developed, especially a market like India, we find that there are enough businesses out here to have a third agency with a different character, a different way of thinking…and of course help handle conflict in the long run. So it’s not a knee-jerk old wine in a new bottle reaction from our end.

     

    The reason we ask you this question is that you have reallocated some of your existing businesses here. Does this also mean that Initiative and BPN could be in conflict with each other?

    It could be. In our system we can compete for businesses for the same pitch and may the best team win. Therefore we have a Lodestar UM, an Initiative and a BPN; we have three networks here in India and all three can compete for a business if necessary.  We do believe there is enough business out there and why leave some money on the table…

     

    What is it about BPN that differentiates it from others?

    A few things actually. Firstly, we are turning the clock back as an agency. We are going back a little in time and therefore the name Brand Programming Network. The whole idea is to focus on the brand. Earlier, media used to be in one house there used to be much more brand focus, even the media guys owned the brand. But over a period of time, media has become more professional, accountable, larger, etc but somewhere in the process we believe that brand connect has got lost. Therefore, BPN would be an agency that would focus on the brand; everything that we are recommending is going to be from a brand strategy direction. To give an example, in the last four months we have won over four-five businesses and in almost all the business pitches the client fed back to us saying is this a creative agency presentation or a media agency presentation? So you can imagine the extent to which we are spending time to analyse the brand, looking at brand strategy, looking at TG, etc. We are focusing on that aspect of the business and of course at the end of the day media is just a delivery vehicle.

     

    In fact Mr Shashi Sinha even hinted in an interview with us that we need to return to the full-service agency model. Are you in agreement with that statement?

    Half-way house, I would say. We are calling ourselves a full-service media agency in the sense that the touchpoints today have become all-pervading. For example, the touchpoint would be you ride on content. But who creates that content? You have an instance where the customer himself creates content in digital and then you have specialists who create content. So content itself has no owners and therefore reaching out to the customer has become that much more complex and you can only do it of you have the fabric of the brand and what it wants to convey.

     

    But the same thing could even be said by the creative agency bosses like, say, R Balki of Lowe, etc who feel that creative is alright but we also need to add some media to it. They could also be thinking on those lines…

    So what if they think the same, but I think at the end of the day to deliver media, you need a certain size… in fact many media heads today are CFOs; they are not media people. They have a commercial bent of mind and manage money.

     

    So are you saying that a media agency can be a full-service agency but a creative agency cannot be a full-service agency…?

    In today’s context yes, I believe you can say that.

     

    Sorry to be asking you this for for the third time in different ways, but getting back to BPN, in a sense it will be a brand agency…

    Yes, and across the world in the 13 other countries that we are present in apart from India, we have a lot of retail businesses and that is another area of growth that BPN is seeing. That seems to be the character of the agency globally – handling a lot of retail clients on a local basis.

     

    Will you only handle products and not brands in other sectors?

     There will be no category and geographical limitation. What the agency will bring to the table is brand perspective. In many cases, we have seen that clients do not want a brand perspective from a media agency. They get enough of it from a creative agency and want only the media bit from us. So I may not be the right pick. But being part of an agency like LMG I may bring along a necessary clout; I am big enough to matter and small enough to care. But that is not going to be my reason to be.

     

    In fact for BPN, one of the things being discussed is India as the analytics hub for BPN worldwide.

     

    Is it likely to happen soon?

    Yes, it is going to happen very soon.

     

    Wouldn’t analytics have done better as a separate unit like what the other networks offer?

    Maybe if it did well it could become a separate agency but to begin with it will be a part of the service that we are offering.

     

    Somewhere in your press release you have emphasised on laying adequate stress on social media. Is BPN going to be basically a digital or social media agency?

    No. But globally, and in India, I believe that digital and social media has much more mindspace than wallet space. So it really has a long way to go. Having said that, digital is growing very rapidly globally. One of the things that you will hear from us is a tie-up of sorts with a large platform about which you will hear soon.

     

    Will social media be the mainstay for BPN…?

    Not in India but worldwide, yes.

     

    So here you will be doing the traditional stuff plus digital and social…

    Absolutely.

     

    Could you delve a bit on the team that will drive the function for you in India?

    We have Premjeet Sodhi as the COO, Patrick Gomes would be the head in Mumbai, Mahesh Motwani would be head of Kolkata, Vidya Nanda Kumar will be head of Kochi…we have identified a head for Delhi and Hyderabad that we will announce very soon. We have a staff strength of about 70 and about 40 clients till now.

     

    Going forward, will BPN and Initiative be sitting together and pitching for a business?

    All the existing businesses in Delhi, Bangalore etc will belong to Initiative while Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi etc will belong to BPN. We will be having separate offices which ever cities both of us are present.

     

    Any other plans on the anvil for BPN?

    Yes, we would be having a training and consultancy cell for media houses. The other thing will be branded content….

     

    Paid news?

    No (laughs). AFPs, in-film branding etc.

     

    You have always been a print man, do you still have a soft corner for the medium compared to television which is more popular of the two?

    Brands of course want television but I think print also works. Ours is the only country where print is still growing.

     

    But TV is growing a bit faster.

    Yes.

     

    What will the the revenue mix of BPN look like in future… if it’s 99 traditional and 1 digital?

    Going by your 99-1 yardstick, it will be 80 per cent traditional and 20 per cent from other mediums. Possibly even 75-25.

     

    If BPN has business worth Rs 1000 crore, how much will Initiative be?

    It would be the same. LMG as a group is Rs 2000 crore.  All the businesses in Delhi and Bengaluru belong to Initiative while Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi are now part of BPN.

     

    In Indian corporates, there is a tendency to guard one’s fiefdom. Did Initiative feel bad you took away some of its businesses?

    They haven’t expressed anything as yet.

     

  • Media owners will support bid to raise $1m to help its international charity and education partner, Free the Children to free children from poverty and exploitation

    Initiative masterminds global free advertising campaign for charity

    By A Correspondent

     

    Initiative, a performance-led media communications company, has masterminded the world’s largest free advertising campaign to help promote a better world for children. The agency is seeking to set a world record and help raise $1m in the process.

     

    Rather than spend money on holiday cards, Initiative will bring together its network strength and expertise to produce a global campaign – from conception to media placement – to create awareness of the important work being undertaken by its international charity and education partner, Free the Children (www.freethechildren.com).

     

    Initiative will run the campaign in over 70 markets around the world, without spending any money on media or creative. In order to do this, Initiative is partnering with some of the world’s largest media owners to run the campaign on TV, radio, online, email, outdoor and in newspapers and magazines.

     

    Last year, with the generosity of its media partners, Initiative managed to increase donations to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation by 300%, through its first ever free advertising campaign for a charity.

     

    Free The Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million young people involved in programs in 45 countries. Its mission is to free children from poverty and exploitation, and its signature event is “We Day”, which brings together entertainers, social justice leaders, and student leaders to help create positive change.

     

    Initiative’s campaign for the charity has been produced by Puerto Rican creative agency Sajo Garcia Alcazar (www.sajogarcia.com), part of the Initiative network. The campaign will run from December 26 to January 31. The campaign’s creative, focused on changing the status of young people living in developing communities, drives people to Free The Children’s “We Day” Facebook page, www.facebook.com/weday, encouraging them to ‘like’ it. For every ‘like’, Free The Children’s partners are donating one US dollar.

     

    Initiative is looking to help the organization surpass its goal of raising $1m, and in so doing, creating the world record for the largest number of likes of a non-profit organisation’s Facebook page.

     

    Initiative has also partnered with sister IPG network McCann Erickson, which has offered its services for free. McCann Erickson will be managing translations, adaptations and trafficking in all markets where the campaign is running.

     

    Mauricio Sabogal, president, World Markets, Initiative said: “It is really important that global companies, such as Initiative, play their part in charitable activities, and we are delighted to be supporting the important work being done by Free the Children. This campaign is a testament to the power of the Initiative network. We could not have produced this ambitious campaign without the generosity of our media partners and McCann Erickson, who are working so hard without payment.”

     

    Craig Kielburger, co-founder, Free the Children, said: “We are very grateful for the incredible generosity of Initiative and its media partners, helping us to form connections with people around the world that traditionally we would not be able to reach. Whether through fundraising or online engagement, social media plays a key role for us, and we are always looking for ways it can support and enhance the work we do with youth.”

     

    Lynn De Souza, Chairman & CEO, Lintas Media Group, said: “We are extremely happy to be a part of this initiative. It is a good cause, and we are thankful to all our media partners like Big FM, Radio City, My FM, Hello FM, Radio Mirchi, Colors, Times network, and many other media partners who have provided free space for this initiative. We have secured media space in excess of Rs 50 million for this cause, and it will go a long way in garnering support for the charity.”