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65th Episode. Another party another story.
VENUE: a five-star Hotel, near Mumbai International Airport.
EVENT: The Divya Bhaskar Dandiya party.
Not the party referred in the earlier episodes
PERIOD: 2005 or 2006, within 2-3 years of me joining Dainik Bhaskar group.
Dandiya Party was the annual hyped event of Dainik Bhaskar group. It was the buzz event. Eagerly looked forward to by the media agencies. A night of informal interactions, music and dance. It started with the traditional Garba and ended with latest Bollywood jhinchack numbers.
This party was a super duper success and a failure. It was a success with more than 1200 people attending and a failure for us not
Girish Agarwal and Sanjeev Kotnala enjoying successful party.
able to control uninvited entries. Divya Bhaskar Dandiya party was known for being bindass, informal, highly energetic with good music, food and never finishing supply of hard drinks. A party that broke only by 2-3 AM. A party where invitee’s friends and their friend’s friend would tag along. In later years we did find a way to manage this, but that particular year we had a problem on our hands.
Credit goes to the hotel for ensuring serving some 1000 people dinner on a minimum guarantee if 450. They helped prevent a huge disaster. They went out of their way and arranged food from the surrounding five-star hotels in Sahar International Airport area.
Everything went fine. We all were feeling sleepy and getting to leave. It was around 4 am the team had finished eating what ever was available and asked for the check. I found myself staring at some 1o Lakh plus bill over and above the advance paid to the hotel. This was thrice the budgeted value and some 40% higher than expected even after accounting for the extra guest. But there seemed nothing questionable. We knew the number of people and the plates used. We had provided all drinks other than beer.
Virendra Singh of our admin office with hotel experience picked up a high quantum and high value item in the bill. Beer consumption was an absurd amount. It was the only drink that we took from hotel.
DAINIK BHASKAR TEAM AFTER THE DANDIYA PARTY
Viren did his own calculation and told the hotel team that the beer consumption has been over charged. He went ahead to say that 40% more bottles were being charged. I was bit uneasy. Even if what he said was true, there was no ay to prove it. The team that was at the Bar had not tracked beer as they were busy taking care of wine, malts, whisky, vodka and my bottle of Old Monk. I also considered the way hotel had helped us in arranging diner but Viren was adamant. He said he could prove.
Viren asked them to line up all the empties. We had the area full of empty beer bottles. The bottle collection covered a large area. Viren with his team helped separate beer bottles according to the batch order. Once done, pointing to two sets of bottles he confidently said ‘these have not been consumed in this party’. I was watching the banquet and the event manager and their expression confirmed my doubt.
Here is the trick and learning for me. Viren asked for the purchase register. Hotels work under the FIFO (first in and first out) mandate. The identified bottles showed a huge gap between batch numbers or too many batch numbers. We were in no hurry, willing to wait for the documents. The hotel quickly agreed it was a mistake. In no time they accepted that those were not from ‘Divya Bhaskar Dandiya Party’. The bill stared looking better and trimmed, in sync with the expectation. I remember finally settling this beer fat free trimmed bill for Nine Lakh Forty Thousand with a pre-signed cheque.
……….. OTHER ADVERTISING MARKETING EPISODES …
● THREATENING TO DANCE WITH TWO LEFT FEET – just to get the party going THE CHASE that could have got us killed ● SHARING IS CARING The coded message by a PSU client ● SLEEP How Swaraj Mazda account was won by Anil Maitre ● The other semi-final – How beer has answe to everything ● RUMBLING – amplifying the peace ● COWARD – A sad smiling face had lot of unanswered questions ● OVERDOSE – What happened with a good B2B initiative at holi. ● CAN YOU MAKE SOMEONE AN ENGISHMAN OVERNIGHT ● THE WATCH: How do you know what your client is signalling ● IRRATIONAL DEMAND – how clients expect agencies to do things ● DOUBLE SURPRISE– Never walkin a party not knowing the occassion ● DING DONG EXCITEMENT AT MACAU – the addiction to casino ● HOT RIDE AT PUSHKAR – adventure ● THE WALK : How we discovered the culture at Macau ● The Jump – a team of 7 go skyjumping during annual conclave at Pattaya ● HIGH SEA GAMBLING – the merry making in international waters ● KOTI ANGLES: Gambeling in Goa ● MISSING LIPS : How friendship develops to create different expectations ● The Trap: How the AE searching for adventure got duped ● Equal Opportunity to Indulge: How HR finds itself ina spot in Pattaya ● THE LOST HAUNTING MUSIC– An experience ● UNNAMED SPIRIT- A SPOOKY EXPERIENCE at Mcleodganj ● PUNJABI LINTAS – Amrit Puri takes over Lintas ● DELAYED LAUNCH – Why HT Delhi Colour supplement launch was delayed ● UNDERGROUND – Printing fake currency could have led to jail ● STRATEGIC RAIN BREAK – How ZID KARO DHONI film was shot ● THANK YOU ● RAIN CLAUSE – I – The fight with Whitelight film over Maruti film ● LETHAL COMBINATION ● APPETITE – It does not matter where you get the appetite till you eat at home ● Puncture – how not to get caught ● ADULTERY- THE MOMENT – Its all for you to decide how far you would go ● ASSET – how a famous Indian model was rejected ● I AM SANKAR – soft ragging of new trainee ● THE COUNT ● INTRODUCTION ● TIME BOMB – How to avoid embarrassing situation ● SMALL TILE – eye for detail ● SHOOT REPORT – junior saving the issue by innovative process ● SARDAR KHUSH HOGA – the agency reaction to a demand ● SHOOT AT MUD ISLAND – shooting with Denzil ●KAALI PEELI PICTURE – what do you do you’re your model is featured in Debonair ● UPGRADE – Bangalore ITC ● JUHI EFFECT– there is something called lady luck in gambling ● POWER OF PUNJAB ● OUT – let game be game ● TWO MORE – how not to pay for the drinks ● ELEVEN MINUTES – client tackles late agency ● THE CHERRY WIN –Team plays a prank ● THE PRESENTATION – junior takes revenge for last minute changes ● BLACK GOLD – A lesson on TVC presentation ● BUFFERED –delivery at airport ● CONTINUE WITH CLIENT – The management supports a high pitched battle with client ● NOT FIRED – just in time action by agency ● ONE LESS DECISION – a campaign thought represented umpteen times● HIGH JACKING THE GOAFEST DELEGATES – a ground event that took Goafest by surprise ● THE GHOST OF 35 RANI JHANSI ROAD JHANDEWALAON – The unsiad stories ● THE PROBLEM – Agency tackling a no-brief from client ● IMPORTED ART CARD – a quick retort to finiky client ● BANYAN TREE AGENCY – Agency tackles cost issue on unapproved estimates
