THE ABC OF HT TOI BATTLE

I am enjoying the TOI-HT fight for Delhi-NCR supermacy. Are you? You may love TOI for the action and pity HT for pathetic explanation or be completely neutral with ‘I don’t care -WTF’ attitude. The lines are drawn depending on ‘who you hate’ and ‘who you love to hate’. Trust me, you will enjoy this,… Read More »

LEARNING FROM MAA DURGA

It’s the first day of Navratri, tomorrow. The start of 30 days of festivity till Deepawali.  As much as 35% of Indian advrtising spends are expected in this short period.  Keep your fingers crossed and pray to Ma Durga for a real media spends revival, more than just a feel-good factor. The 9 nights of… Read More »

Pregnant BARC. Delivery Date unknown

Yesterday, the weather in Mumbai was cloudy with some areas reporting scattered rains. Inside the Nehru auditorium BARC’s promising session remained uneventful. The mystery hardly got resolved. What one heard were futuristic promises. With the IRS episode fresh in mind and BARC many months away from data release, this status update seemed more aimed at… Read More »

RAIN CLAUSE – I

            32nd EPISODE. Year 2000. Lowe Lintas Delhi. 9th floor Mohandev Building.  Pawan and team were in a celebrating mood. After countless scripts, finally the client MARUTI approved script titled ‘BONDAGE’. The budget was decent enough for the team to think of talking to Namita Roy Ghose and Subir Chatterjee… Read More »

LETHAL COMBINATION

            31st EPISODE : 1994. Delhi. HTA (Hindustan Thompson Associates),  35 Jhandewala, Rani Jhansi Road. I was servicing MOTOROLA account and reporting to SAMIR VERMA. He was a relationship-oriented person and converted most of his clients into good friends. RAHUL VERGHESE of Motorola was no exception. Rahul Verghese had recently… Read More »

SELF REGULATE OR BE REGULATED

First published in mxmindia.com on 3rd September. F.N0. N-4407/10/2014-BC-1 dated 21st August 2014. Govt of India, I&B Ministry. Shastri Bhavan. Government intervenes to help ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) ensure channels do not telecast banned ads. A reason to rejoice for consumers. But a clear signal to the industry. REGULATE OR BE READY TO… Read More »

Time we recalibrate UnMetro Consumer Understanding

            I am surprised that there is still an ambiguity among Citizens of Planet ‘Media Buying and Planning’ and ‘Marketers’ about UnMetro market potential and possibilities. Because, it  silently crept in while they remained glued to their ivory tower windows with a limited view. The result: no one understands it.… Read More »