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I’ve often debated the merits of being an assertive, lead-from-the-front, the-boss-is-always-right kind of leader, versus being a nurturing, i-am-right-behind-you, what-do-you-think kind of leader. And for me, the latter has always won the debate.

However, I hear plenty of arguments in favor of the former school of thought, and also see great merits in it. Today I read a feature article by Knowledge@Wharton, in CD from The Economic Times. Titled “Perfect Pairing” it talks about how effective leadership is determined less by leadership and more by the personalities of the people they’re managing!

“Effective leadership is determined less by leadership and more by the personalities of the people they’re managing”

This of course fits with my thinking, and challenges conventional wisdom that tells us that leaders are the men and women who stand up, speak out, give orders, make plans and are generally the most dominant, outgoing people in a group… the extraverts.

This feature points out that introverted leaders are more effective in circumstances where there is a strong second-line of command, and where you want to enhance employee proactiveness.

This belief is supported in a soon to be published paper titled “Reversing the Extraverted Leadership Advantage: The Role of Employee Proactivity”. The paper is co-authored by management professor at Wharton – Adam Gant, Francesca Gino of Harvard Business Schoool, and David Hofmann of Kenan-Flagler Business Schooo, and will appear in the Academy of Management Journal.

The paper points out while assertiveness or extraversion is a strong predictor (and even common evaluation) of  who becomes a leader, it is not necessarily the best way to be a leader.

Extraverted leaders are less receptive to others and their ideas, and can respond in a way that’s discouraging for employees and makes them less willing to work hard and share ideas. Grant further points out that Introverted leaders on the other hand, are more likely to listen carefully to suggestions and support employees actions that make them more proactive.

But point is not about which type is better, but the point here is that you have to choose whether to be extraverted or introverted depending on the kind of people you work with. Because a mismatch of personalities is what leads to leadership-employee conflict and attrition.

Some employees need vision and hand-holding, prodding even… while others simply need vision, a platform, and the space to think, act, and grow. You have to decide which type they are, and then act accordingly.

On a personal note, I have benefited greatly from introverted bosses who nurtured and pushed me to do my best. Of course, being brilliant also helps

No seriously, I have been fortunate to work with and under leaders who have been secure and confident about themselves and hence not challenged by my ideas or work style or anything! They’ve listened, questioned, waited, supported, and done whatever it took to make me apply myself. These are the same people, who on the other hand have given others no rope, except the kind they could hang themselves with!

I myself tend to be more introverted than extraverted. I recognise, like the paper points out, you don’t have to be loud and commanding all the time to lead all the time. Sometimes and with some people, you have to just hand over the wheel, and let them know where you want to be led. And I’ve been fortunate to have been with some really great drivers!

ps. now coming to the relevance of the image above, what I am talking about here. While the Porsche 911 Carrera GTS is a thing of beauty overall – the most powerful incredible thing about it is the engine – which incidentally, powers this beauty from the back

Continue reading »]]> Yesterday, a kid who joined my company just 2 weeks ago, quit her job with us, because she got a job with one of “the most wanted” creative agencies in the country.

The bizarre thing is, she has no idea who she will report to, nor have any idea what clients she will work on! But it’s “______” she said, “and I have always wanted to work with them”

Well mine is a new digital agency, and I am used to hearing a lot of creative people from mainstream advertising not wanting to leave the space, even if all they do is get to write a 4 second voice over in a 30 second commercial, or claim a client written ad as their own!

Then came the bigger, bizarre twist in the story. She said she realised the above, but was joining them in their digital arm. Okay, now this is really ironic, I said, and explained that my digital agency, even though just a year old, is probably bigger than the place she’s joining. We have equally good, if not better brands. And the one’s we’re in the process of signing on, are bigger than anything they can lay their hands on, because of their global alignments.

“But none of this will make any sense to you” I said “if you don’t know what accounts they have and what you will work on… so why don’t you call them and find out? Take an informed decision” I told her, and “if you’re getting to work on something better than what we have here, I will happily let you go”.

She called them with her questions, and this is what she told me they said. The large agency’s HR woman abruptly told her on the phone “you will only know when you join us and come to the office” almost threatening that if she asked further questions, she may not get the job! “So are you still going?” I asked. “Yes” she said “it is ______”.

So what’s in a name? A lot it seems. Despite having no job description, no career plan for new recruits, and no basic human resource management courtesies, they still get people lining up their doors!

And that’s life in big name advertising agencies!

Continue reading »]]> Excerpts from the Inaugural Speech of President Barack Obama… thinking and vision we could all use.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom…”

Read the full text here on CNN.

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Last Saturday evening, I spent around four hours with some of the friendliest, most unassuming bunch of people I have met in a long time.

Which is surprising, considering I was at the IndiBloggers offline meet in Delhi. And Bloggers, as their reputation suggests, are a volatile and unpredictable bunch of people.

“True, Bloggers around the world have displayed the power to rock countries, bring down companies, and generally cause much damage with their words when provoked, or when they raise their voices against something they feel is not right – for them, or people around them.”

What’s not talked about as much, is the fact that Bloggers often announce important news before daily press and even television channels pick them up; they are known to share knowledge and insights on things both popular and obscure; and they are known to provide great reading (and watching) content that keeps people around the world addicted and waiting for the next post.

So how come there were no fireworks? How come this meet didn’t become the starting point of a revolution that would address the scores of issues around us?

Well there were two reasons for this as I saw it – 1) the Agenda, and 2) the real nature of Bloggers.

The meet’s objectives/agendaitself, was primarily to get Bloggers from the NCR to meet and get to know each other. For this there was a “One Minute of Fame” session, where all the Bloggers stood up and spoke for a minute about their blogs, and why they do what they do.

The next objective was perhaps to begin a dialogue – which translated into a tentative discussion (“this is not a presentation” claimed the organisers) on the issues most bloggers face – of ethics, of responsibility, of censorship, of self-governance, and of course revenue generation, which naturally led to discussions about Google.

Personally, I think this session could have been better planned, because the issues themselves are very important, and while everyone had a point of view, the discussion went all over the place, without reaching any real conclusion or even direction.

“But it was a great start, and I hope to see more such discussions in this area. Because while we Bloggers are all free-spirits, I do believe we have to be good spirits and be spirited for the right reasons.

The fires we create in our rants have to be to shed light, not singe innocents. And the glow we create with our raves have to be natural, not drug-induced.”

I guess you get the drift. So let me get to my next point.

Bloggers are just human. As I watched the gathering that consisted of writers, coders, photoshoppers, a cartoonist, a fitness instructor (she was one, of the two women Bloggers at the meet), a titilator (for want of a better word for a guy who shares ‘sexy’ clips from popular movies on his blog), and other such Bloggers, it struck me that they were no different from each other!

Their reasons for Blogging may be different, but they are all just regular Joes (and Janes) out to voice their opinions, share their passions, and generally aim for the moment of glory or fame that perhaps eludes them in real life. Or perhaps they have just chosen Blogging as the channel through which they will get their moment of glory, get themselves heard the big bad world out there…

These people are not here to harm anyone, not pick unnecessary fights, or rant unreasonably… They all have good intentions, and will hopefully have a positive effect on whoever comes in touch with them. Which is far from what you will get from the average Joe on the street!

And then I realised, I was really proud to call myself a Blogger, and be one of these people. And if the folks behind IndiBloggers and IBNMSget their act together to address serious issues, and develop a gameplan to nurture or channel the energies of Bloggers better, the world will be a whole lot nicer place to live in!

You can quote me on that.

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Desert, anyone?!

So there I was sitting in the office of a large financial institution in Dubai. I had just met Sandra at the reception. Vinod brought me a cup of tea. And I was about to sit in on a meeting with Gaurav, Rajan, Michelle and Aman* .

As I looked at my fellow desis buzzing around the office with purpose and efficiency,  I suddenly wondered - “am I really in Dubai? am i really not in India?”. And then it struck me, Dubai is the perfect BPO Model!

“Amost every business process in Dubai has been outsourced to foreign countries. Except the people that do their work, actually work and live in Dubai!”

An estimated 85% of the 5.4 million population of the UAE is expatriate! That’s a lot of foriegners running around the country, and running the country. Or at least believing they are…

Because quite simply, even though you may be doing real important jobs out here in Dubai, you are playing by the rules of Dubai.

Here’s what I’ve seen about the structure of businesses/organisations:

• The Boss/Owner is always a UAE national – who sets the tone and vision/mission for the company.
• Professional Managers from around the world – are the 1-downs who oversee the day to day business.
• Below them there are professionals of different nationalities – who do all the day to day ops and dirty work.
• 40% of the above two levels are UAE nationals.

Why I think this is great:

At the social/business level there is no loss of income, or insecurity usually felt by local companies when the MNCs set up shop. They are part of the set up. Which is quite different in other parts of the world, where there is a lot of angst against MNCs!

In the UAE, at the larger level:

• The companies are all local, belonging to local nationals – they get to keep the profits.
• Every foreign company that wants to set up/do business here, has to have a local partner – who again shares the profits.
• The system allows for silent partners – so many locals make money by just being partners on paper, and not doing any real work.
• At the common man/day to day level – 40% of all professional jobs are reserved by law for local nationals.
• And in small businesses and services – the expats end up doing the things locals wouldn’t want to do anyway!

At other levels, what’s happening is:

• The country with its infrastructure and way of life is a big attraction for talent and people with ideas – especially from the Indian subcontinent who want some sense of law and order around, besides great material benefits.
• Paperwork and Bureacracy is almost non-existent, when it comes to setting up shop or home here. If you qualify and have the right documents, you’re in, in no time with least effort. That’s a big entry barrier removed.
• Pricing in the country is cleverly designed – it’s cheap to buy, set up and run homes and offices here. So the next entry barrier is gone too!

The beauty of all this is:

• You pay a lot of money to outsiders to come do all the work your people cannot, and/or will not do.
• You provide the outsiders an attractive environment and remuneration model to live and work here.
• The outsiders earn and spend the money within the UAE itself (they buy and spend more in UAE than they repatriate home)
• More and more money is coming into the country, in order to feed the booming economy, which in itself is created by these people coming in. There is no real local population to exploit, as in India or China.

And all this is happening in a land, which is in reality a very hot and empty desert. Which until recently, had only one thing to offer the world – oil.

I think Dubai and the thinking of its Rulers is a case study all marketers and management consultants should watch and learn from closely. Just like I am.

Related Reading:
Dubai Diaries Part 1: First Impressions
Dubai Diaries Part 2: Paradoxes Galore

*(names changed, nationality reflected)

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Look! Mine is bigger than yours!

 I landed in the middle-east for the first time in my life yesterday – into Dubai. The first glimpses I got of the land below courtesy of the forward and downward camera of the Emirates Boeing 777, was of endless desert covered in a carpet of dust and heat.

But as the aircraft landed and I stepped into Dubai international airport, it was like I was transported into another world!

“Dubai is an eye-opener in terms of what success one can achieve in a short span of time if you have the vision, the will, and the passion to succeed. Of course, having a whole lot of money to do it also helps!”

In a land that was just dry desert (a lot still is) just a short while ago, what rises up into the sky today is a proud and modern city that compares to the best in the world, and even surpasses many of the so called modern global cities I have travelled to.

The two things that struck me most about Dubai – is the great emphasis on infrastructure and discipline. While having these two elements in place is a basic requirement, it is unfortunately something that most other cities in a hurry to grow forget to provide and develop.

Let me dwell a bit on both, as they are physical manifestations of the two elements of ‘will’ and ‘passion’ to achieve a vision:

Infrastructure:

Non-stop Electricity - Imagine living in a country where the power supply is so consistent in supply and quality that, as my host remarked, you probably never have to change a light bulb once you’ve installed it!

Roads- There are roads everywhere, and very good multi-laned roads, well lit and marked with signages including thoughtful ones like “Warning, new traffic signal ahead!”

Construction - At a glance Dubai is a city ‘under-construction’. But incredibly this doesn’t mean you have to live with building material and construction crew all around. The construction goes on keeping in mind the convenience and hygiene of everyone around. Even the manual labor from other countries act more responsibly, unlike the way they would back home!

Water- Yes, water is more expensive than fuel here (1 Gallon 98 octane petrol = 6.75 AED | I Gallon water = 10 AED approx). But there is water all round, for drinking, to develop greenery, and even to take a boat ride in the middle of a mall!

Transport - Almost everyone above a certain income level here owns a car. And for everyone else there is public transport, including not just air-conditioned busses but AC bus-stops as well! And soon there will be the Dubai metro.

Food – I am adding this to infrastructure, because quite simply we all run on our stomachs whether we admit it or not. And in Dubai, you can get food and your favorite chilled Coke anywhere at anytime!

For a country so young to provide all this in top order, that too in the middle of a hot desert – that’s truly amazing.

Discipline:
I cannot believe how disciplined this place is. From the cleanliness, to the traffic, to the way people move around in malls – there is order all around. And from what I hear, there is no crime!

What’s interesting to note, is that there is no obvious enforcement of discipline or law.

On one hand it is the basic culture of the locals of wanting to be seen as the best people in the world.

On the other hand, law enforcement is all technology driven, and punishment for breaking the law is swift and hard. As an outsider, breaking the law means you don’t get to live here anymore – you get deported. And because life is so good here, you don’t want to jeopardise that!

To my mind, if you have these two basics covered, rest assured success will follow. This applies to corporates as well.

But for corporates, infrastructure and discipline take on a different shapes:

Corporate Infrastructure:
Defined objectives
Defined Goals
Information Technology
Work Processes
The right tools
The trained people
Best Practices
And of course, a comfortable, conducive workplace

Discipline:
Sticking to objectives and goals. Objectives become the religion.
Sticking to processes. Processes become rituals.
Respecting roles and responsibilities. This becomes the culture.

Related Reading:
The Dubai Strategic Plan 2015

Dubai Diaries Part 2: Paradoxes Galore
Dubai Diaries Part 3: The Perfect BPO Model

Continue reading »]]> Yesterday I read an interesting article in Mint, where CEOs of six of India’s large advertising agencies shared their perspectives on attrition and how they’re coping with it.

The article, because it appeared in Mint which is a “business paper”, set the context as “attrition being a part of reduced ad spends and global slowdowns”. The CEOs likewise, donned their CFO/leaderspeak hats and spoke about how the market is affecting/not affecting them.

Good show gentlemen, I am sure most of your clients who read the article are going to sleep easy now, knowing that you have your resources under control.

Or can they really rest easy..?

With all due respect to the six CEOs, three of whom I have personally worked with, I think they left out some key factors which affect attrition, and advertising agencies in particular.

It’s not that they are not aware of these issues, and it’s not that attrition is something that’s popped up with the recent global slowdown. Attrition and Advertising are synonymous in many ways, since forever.

Here’s my perspective; the perspective which the fully aware gentlemen did not share…

WHY DO PEOPLE LEAVE?

The obvious answer is a combination of remuneration, individual ambition, scope for growth, relationships, brand opportunities, and such. These are always discussed and then ignored as “part of life in our business”. By accepting this as so, little or no mentoring is done. And ironically, attrition is nurtured instead.

WHY DO PEOPLE STAY?

While the answers to this question is the same as the above, little or nothing is done to go deep into the matter, and make a concerted effort to make people stay. Remember, it is cheaper/easier to make people stay, than constantly be on the lookout for newbies to join the ranks.

In my opinion, here’s what you can do to make people stay:

DEFINE A CULTURE:

The longevity of a employee/company relationship is almost always based on culture fitment. You either fit in, or don’t. So you stay, or you don’t.

In most agencies, culture is neither defined, nor practiced as a religion. Instead the agency culture remains a closely guarded secret of the top management. And in a best case scenario people are second guessing the culture in order to fit in; or in the worst case, doing their own thing.

And if you think about it, some of the elements of culture are the same reasons for leaving or staying.

So:

Discuss Define common goals (we want to be seen as the best vs we want to be seen as the largest…)
Discuss and Define ambition (we want individual stars in our agency vs we emphasise teamwork vs …)
Discuss and Define remuneration (financial, emotional, short term, long term…)
Discuss and Define work style (slave drivers, pushovers, proud professionals…)
likewise…

IMP: Do this as a part of culture and pre-emptive process, not as a last-ditch effort in exit interviews!

While culture should be the umbrella thought/practice, here are some specific drivers of attrition:

Role Definition:
In most ad agencies roles are loosely defined and bastardised to suit the moment. Which is why you find people duplicate some and ignore other aspects of their job.
As a result people either slack off, or clash with each other, never attaining efficient use of talent.
Result: You stay until you feel good and useful. You leave when you feel you will be useful elsewhere.

Documented Best Practices and Process:
Very few agencies have best practices and processes in place. Even if they are documented, they are not always practiced.
This leads to arbit functioning, varied interpretations of briefs and deliverables, and general overall ‘might/desig is right’.
Result: People don’t really learn and take away anything satisfying. Because the next day, “the best way of doing something” will be another way!

Working Hours:
Working late, working nights, and weekends at a stretch seems to be the way of life in most agencies. Worse, people flaunt their late hours as greatness and valor, and as a sign of their committment.
This is actually delusionary greatness, covering up for the above lack of role definition and best practices.
Result: You don’t have a work life balance, and even though most agency people live in denial, they keep shifting agencies thinking the grass is greener on the other side, until they eventually reach creative flameout.

Training:
Few ad agencies today can claim to provide adequate professional training and refresher courses to its people. Add to this the fact that most people hired from scratch haven’t been trained to be “an advertising professional”.
Everyone is plug-and-play, brining their own set of values, protocols, beliefs and way of working.
People swim or sink.
Result: You swim until you get tired, or discover you don’t know how to swim. Then you go to another pond, hoping you last longer, or they don’t realise you cannot swim. And so on, to another pond. 

Respect:
Respect comes in many forms. Financial and Emotional. Agencies often believe by throwing money at people they can ignore emotional respect. Or by providing “good work” opportunity they can ignore financial needs.
But keeping “business and client needs” usually over-rides everything leading to a “do what we can to deliver” attitude which then over-rides role definition, best practices, and working hours leading to a total lack of respect for fellow human beings and their individuality.
Result: People leave, not just for other agencies, but as the trend suggests, for other industries!

The Bottomline:
While we complain about bizarre salaries being given out to our people, and their subsequent demands for more, we forget who perpetuated this practice in the first place.
We ourselves over the years have pursued talent with sky-high salaries and fancy designations. We have created legendary stories of growth, and perpuated himalayan levels of management that now only create and feed expectations all around.
At the same time, our industry has grown much faster than our resources and talents have professionally.
Result: We find ourselves today constantly fishing in a sea of mediocre flotsam and complaining about their demands for name and fortune! Complain we do, but we pay, and then pay some more when they leave for some other bait.

Okay, so this is not rocket science. And it can be seen as the perspective of someone who has left the rat race of advertising to pursue other things “less challenging”.

Yes, life in advertising is challenging. The question is, does it have to be?

What are we as leaders doing to reduce the challenges and make the industry happier, more efficient, and more effective.

What are we doing to gain the respect and loyalties of not just our clients, but also of our own people?

What are we doing to stand proud as an industry that can add incredible value to the lives of all those it touches?

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In a move aimed at making the advertising and marketing business more professional and scientific, rather than amateurish and arbitrary, top agency heads and corporate leaders are expected to meet today and arrive at certain common guidelines for recruitment, training, work processes, and campaign evaluation.

The meeting is supported by all the Ad Clubs of India,  various Advertising Agency Associations, various Associations of Marketing Professionals, and the United Front for Marketing Standards.

“Our focus will be on hiring qualified people from good art and management schools, and not just picking up those who don’t get jobs in other more demanding industries” said the head of one advertising agency, refusing to be named in this article.

“The attempt will be to design and develop systems and processes that will make our work more scientific, and measurable rather than getting away with saying there are no right answers in our business” quoted another agency creative head.

On the other hand, the Country Head of a large multinational corporation said “We have treated our agency people like idiots for too long. And ignored the fact that we put clueless junior people at the helm of things in marketing. I admit these people take it upon themselves to create tension for the agency, or else they won’t be seen as doing their jobs! All this will change post our meeting today!”

Another CEO admitted to this reporter “Well honestly, I get involved in the advertising process at the last minute and end up creating confusion because my objectives and requirements from the campaign are unknown to the teams until then… plus my people have been second guessing me, and nothing makes sense anymore. I will give clear written briefs to my teams to pass on to the agency from now on!”

“Egos, high-handedness and time-wasting tactics will be a thing of the past from now on” reads a joint statement of the agenda released to the press today “the focus will be for timely delivery at low cost, accompanied by mutual professional respect all around” the release added.

Needless to say, advertising and marketing professionals all over the world are looking forward to the guidelines and way ahead as defined by this group, in their unprecedented and historic meeting to be held today, Tuesday the 1st of April 2008! 

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Last week I was chatting with the CEO of a brand new company in the entertainment business. And as we talked about his business strategy and marketing plans, the conversation naturally veered towards advertising. It turned out he was on the verge of signing on an agency, which he admitted gave him the second best ideas during the pitch!

It turned out, he chose the ad agency which gave him the second best ideas, because it was a small local agency, and he felt that they’d give him more importance and better service than the large multi-national agencies!

This conversation brought up a subject that always got me thinking. It made me wonder about the decision making process when I was in an agency myself. And it still confuses me, when I help some of my clients choose an agency for themselves.

What is the right way of choosing an advertising agency?

Admittedly, like everything else in this business, there are no right answers; only calculated risks, based on some experience, some gut-feel, and mostly relationships.

Whether it is hiring people for the agency, the marketing department, or choosing the agency many of us follow this basic thought-flow:

1. Are their ideas good?
2. Is their idea for my business their first good idea, or are they consistently good with other brands?
3. Do they have the bandwidth to handle my business?
4. Do I like these people?
5. Are we culturally similar, and will we be able to get along if the business gets tough?

Note, I said “many of us” before I started the list, because I believe that while many of us go all the way down
to point 5, most of the people/brands I know stop at Point 3.

And most people stop at Point 3 because of two reasons:

1. They think liking people and getting along with them is irrelevant if the work is good, and you get good results. They’re here to do work, not make friends.
2. They are ignorant of the fact that cultural mis-matches and not getting along with people is the biggest cause of strife in the world today, and it is very relevant in the workplace, and in business as well.

But putting these two points aside, let me just address points 1 to 3, and share some thoughts with a list of questions you as client must ask during the pitch process. Forget “Pitch consultants” because, as experience tells us, pitch consultants are a complete waste of time and money (But more on that later!).

Here’s 20 questions for which you must get answers:

1. Do I like their Credentials?
2. Are their Credentials relevant to my business and category?
3. Do I like the case studies they used to showcase their capabilities? 
4. Will the teams that worked on the case-study brands work on my business, or will I get some other team? If its the latter, what have they done?
5. Are the people who led the teams that did the showcase work, still with the agency? Will they be leading my business as well?
6. Will I get dedicated resources? If shared, whom am I sharing my resources with?
7. Are the teams in place, or will they take a while to get going on my work?
8. Does the agency have a clear structure, or is it ambigious? Is leadership clear, are roles clear within their setup?
9. Is there a clear line of contact? Is there a clear process for escalation of issues/problems?
10. Do I like the ideas they presented for my business?
11. Are the ideas long-term and sustainable?
12. Do these ideas give my brand a differentiator, relevant to my value proposition?
13. Do they look like they can implement these ideas?
14. Am I willing to implement these ideas?
15. Do I have the money to implement these ideas?
16. Do I like these people, or am I going by reputation?
17. Do they like me, or are they just here for the business?
18. Do our organisations cultures and aspirations match?
19. Can I imagine a long term association with this agency?
20. Am I willing to trust them with my business, and will I give them the respect due to them, especially since “yes” seems to be the dominant response to all my questions above?

If you get the answer “yes” to the questions above, go for it!

And after you go for it, don’t ask these questions again for at least 2-3 months. Because it takes that much time for an agency to settle in. Quite like it took time for your brand to settle in with your customers.

Finally, here’s a bit of advice for both agency and client, on maintaining boundaries of mutual respect.

For the agency: When you get full of yourself, you don’t leave any space for improvement.

For the client: You don’t keep a dog, and then try to do the barking yourself.

For both agency and client: Perhaps the other guy is right…

Note: You can apply the same principles to:
How to choose a PR Agency (no, not the “they’ve got nice babes” method)
How to choose a Website Design company (no, not “the lowest quote” method)
How to choose a Media Buying house (no, not the “they’ve got the best cricket deals” method)

Continue reading »]]> There was a time when reading ads was a pleasure. We could enjoy an intelligent twist of phrase, smile at a clever use of words, and get amazed by the wordsmithery of a writer passionate about the product and the consumer whom he was trying to sell it to.

It was a time when names like Mohammed Khan, Chris Rosario, Neil Johnson, Alok Nanda, Freddy Birdy, Swapan Seth and many other witty and brilliant people challenged themselves to entertain our audiences and enrich our industry with intellectual and literary value.

Admittedly, things are quite different today. While advertising has become slicker, and budgets have become bigger, unfortunately the art of writing has all but disappeared.

Headlines, Taglines, Bodycopy (err, um… what’s bodycopy?) are no longer as classy, dramatic or influential as before. What we get to see today, is more often than not unedited, and reeks of the thoughtless ramblings of immature minds, amateur creatives, lazy bosses, and ignorant clients.

As a copy trainee (yes, I was trained to write copy, unlike the keyboard wielding wannabes of today) I learnt about the 3 different ways you can use headlines:

• You can used headlines to target the Brain of your consumer (expect to attract the consumer, and expect to attract a good raise for yourself)
• Alternately, you can Baffle, or Bullshit your consumer (expect a short burst of sales, but then expect a rocket to burst up your ars*)

Unfortunately, in an attempt to be ‘cool and creative’ a lot of writers today are doing the latter, without even realising it.

Some top of mind classics of today, which will go down in the annals of history (pun intended):

• Isko Laga Dala toh life Jingalala! Cannot crystallize your product promise? use Birdy Num Num… Or in this case, Jingalala. Yes, the same as in those scary, naked men who danced in the background of Helen aunty’s songs – meaningless and gross!
• Whatta top ka is my world, is my music, is my P***i. I actually had to look this one up on their website to check if it was actually what I was seeing on TV – in fact, I’m still not sure I’ve got it right! Yes, this dyslexic schizophrenic arrangement of words is their headline or tagline… or something!
• The (car name here) is like a powerful Olympic athlete. Heart pounding, muscles pumping, impatient for red to turn to green. Don’t make it wait. This was one of the headlines in a 3 ad campaign for a top car brand in India. The writer obviously knows nothing about athletes, has never driven a car, and probably lives in Delhi coz he’s encouraging people to jump the light!

Look around you today… there’s more such pedantic, pedestrian writers with delusionary assumptions of greatness, churning out such asinine classics every day!

Which brings me back to my question… Where have all the writers gone??!