Category Archives: FUN IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE

Real life stories from advertising and marketing

THE CHERRY WIN

Tweet Follow @S_kotnala It was my  second year in Lintas. It was like any other usual day.  I was in my small little cabin on the 8th floor of e Mohandev building. The phone rang and that was the   beginning of a small interesting episode. RECEPTIOIST AT DELHI OFFICE : Sanjeev call from PREM MEHTA’s office, shall I patch… Read More »

THE PRESENTATION

Continuing with the brand GILLETTE and WILKINSON SWORD blade, I share with you something that I would not recommend to be copied in the era gone by and the era to come. This is a good revenge story. Simplicity is the key to being effective and efficient. This takes me to a time when RANJAN… Read More »

BLACK GOLD

This is somewhere in the early part of 1996. I had moved from HTA to LINTAS Delhi. I was servicing WILKINSON BLADE account at GILLETTE.  SAMIR VERMA was my boss and RANJAN my junior. It is tough to imagine the science, technology and the quality test for a simple Rupee one blade.  I was fortune… Read More »

BUFFERRED

Continuing from the last episode I share another episode involving brand HERO HONDA . It was a life and death situation – hilariously funny in its way. With hindsight I can now appreciate the humour in it. SO, WE START AT THE END I was on phone from PALAM AIRPORT sometime in early part of… Read More »

NOT FIRED

Business of advertising is exceptionally chaotic. Here age old relationship’s get destroyed in seconds. A good agency may overnight become untouchable. Many times agency’s self esteem may not allow further association with the brand. The relationship is always under pressure. Sometime it may have crumbled to such an extent that separation is just an excuse… Read More »

THE GHOST OF RANI JHANSI ROAD JHANDEWALAON

I know I will get flak for this one. Remember I am just trying to make sense of some experiences. Most of these have been narrated over drinks. So one cannot vouch for them. In nineties, Rani Jhansi Road, Jhadewalaon was the address of two of the largest media advertising agencies in Delhi. However, if… Read More »

ONE LESS DECISION

Pitch  campaigns are  magical. They are expected to be strategically aligned in sync with the brand vision. They are said to be  exercise in cautious passion and deep rooted consumer understanding – derived out of some hastily put-together Group discussion and Dipsticks. Unfortunately lot of EGO and DESTINEY rides these campaigns. Shortage of time between… Read More »

THE PROBLEM

WHAT’s THE PROBLEM ‘KEEPING AGENCY BUSY’  is one of the cardinal principle that the marketing managers operate with- or to sound politically correct USED TO . And in process if you could really do some ego boosting it takes the art to another level. There are many ways it can be achieved- Iterations- insights- dipstick… Read More »

BANYAN TREE AGENCY

This happened somewhere in early 1991-92. At that time the Mobile and Pagers were yet to be launched and I remember it was still the age of Fax and PC was replacing Electronic typewriters. Like every other agency, at HTA ( Now called JWT) financials were always under scrutiny. Still, the era of 15% commission… Read More »