Keeping few element constant, – this episode of Marketing and advertising also involves shoot at ace photographer Denzil’s studio and another fabric brand being handled by Mudra Ahmedabad – VIMAL.
I think I was standing in for Kandarv Jani ( who was unwell or out of station) the executive on account. Think Vijay Nagrare was heading it & Subrato Bhowmick was the creative head. Raju Murugeson was as usual involved in the account. And need not to say that AGK (A G Krishnamurthy) was completely involved in every piece of business.
In Vimal campaigns were well planned. Yet, tactical shoot even for layouts was not a rarity. This was one such case. It was a very basic 1-day shoot at Mumbai that I had to oversea. Client servicing was king in those days. We had a real cushy job at shoots. Almost like a vacation with few customary inputs. This one was different- there was no art director. I had the sketches for the shoot.
The shoot went off well. It was a single model indoor shoot with minimal props. Yet, I was exhausted through the day. I must have watched the same model with classic sari knot teasingly placed below the naval. Multiple designs of semi backless- armless- low and high cleavage blouse passed before me. It was late by the time we finished. I was to wait till next day evening to collect the transparencies and leave for Ahmedabad.
Coming out of the studio- I stopped a kaali peeli and told him to drive to the Mudra Guest House at Dadar. I saw a Debonair (many kaali Peeli used to keep newspaper & magazines) , it was the latest issue and the face on the cover looked familiar. It took some time and opening of the center cover to realize that she was the girl I had been shooting with. Oh, sure I saw her in a different light.
I carried Debonair with me and called up Raju Murugason from guesthouse. (This was pre-mobile era). I was excited. He said to keep calm. Not to tell any one. He would handle it. And when he said that he meant that.
The shoot was cancelled. Without anyone being wiser, it was re-shot next day with another model at no additional cost. Advantage of in-house coordinator and a long established relationship with photographer.
I am told that the transparencies shot on the first day was not even sent for processing but then I had the debonair with me.
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LESSONS:
- No situation is unmanageable.
- God news travels- bad news must travel faster.
- If you don’t have a solution- immediate escalate the situation upwards.
- Get into detail and check your bearing
Yeah, No way I would have checked if the model has ever modeled topless for Debonair. Look, What was the chance of me getting into a Kaali peeli – that had the debonair issue where she was featured? And what were the chances I would have picked and looked through it. (Well the last one was a certainty)
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In VIMAL main campaign models were anyway well known names. It was a prestigious to have modeled for VIMAL but after this even for a scratch the teams were very cautious.
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NEXT EPISODE- HOW MY ACTION CREATED A NEW RULE IN MUDRA
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Other episodes in Advertising and marketing
● Thank You ● Rain Clause – I ● Lethal Combination ● APPETITE ● Puncture ● Adultery- the moment ● ASSET ● I am Sankar ● The Count ● Introduction ● Time Bomb ● Small Tile ● Shoot Report ● Sardar Khush Hoga ● Shoot At Mud Island ● Upgrade ● Juhi Effect ● Power Of Punjab ● Out ● Two More ● Eleven Minutes ● The Cherry Win ● The Presentation ● Black Gold ● Buffered ● Continue With Client ● Not Fired ● One Less Decision ● The Ghost Of 35 Rani Jhansi Road Jhandewalaon ● The Problem ● Imported Art Card ● Banyan Tree Agency
