Enters Ranjan Kapur! A very senior and distinguished O&M veteran, Kapur was based in the agency’s Singapore office, but made frequent trips to India and watched with interest and enthusiasm the seismic change happening. When he was picked to be the top gun succeeding Mani Iyer, he was very clear about the vision and values, direction and focus, he would bring to bear on the agency’s blue-print. “For the first time ever, the head honcho of O&M, India came out loud and clear, spelling out his agenda. He wanted the agency to be the biggest, riding on outstanding creative work!
This wasn’t an empty slogan because overnight he empowered the creative guys. He wanted us to re-invent the agency’s persona, give it a heavy-duty creative spin and take on the world with all cylinders firing!” Suddenly, the on-leash lunatics were unleashed and threatened to take over the asylum! Shortly after, the brilliant and resourceful Sonal Dabral came on board and helped Kapur and Pandey build a magnificent team of cheeky, out-of-the-box thinking, irreverent & unconventional creative people who vroomed the agencies’ credentials as a creative powerhouse to another level... The Cadbury (girl dancing on cricket field) TVC officially served notice to all who cared to see that a new, hungry & daring creative player had arrived. O&M was a hand grenade with its mouth open, as the countdown to explosion had begun!
The driving force behind it all explains. “We said, why shouldn’t advertising be endearing to people? Why should people – who switch on the TV – be subjected to brain-destroying dull ads which deal primarily in spoon-feeding? We will entertain them, delight them, bring them joy and laughter, and make them love our brands. That was our mandate. And that’s when stuff like the Fevicol, Cadbury and Perk started happening...” Pandey describes his role in typical bindaas entertaining style. “I see myself as a fair, fearless and passionate champion, custodian and protector of our core competencies – creativity. My job is to protect the barbarians from the bureaucrats, freaks from the rule book and defend the idea brigade from the stereotypical client-servicing types, who believed they ruled the company. I remember that in earlier times it was not uncommon for a client-servicing dude to pompously announce that he wanted his entire creative team changed because he wasn’t happy with them. In today’s scenario, the first question asked would be: What makes him believe that for everyone’s true happiness, he shouldn’t be changed?! Pandey is, however, quick to point out that it’s not – and never will be – about favouritism or taking sides, but putting things in perspective. He insists that the planning, researches and strategy guys are held in high esteem, and respected for what they bring to the table, but at the end of the day (to quote the legendary Bernbach), “Superior creativity remains the most effective way to sell an agency’s services. Every agency knows what to say. What makes the defining difference is ‘the way you say it’. Bringing dead facts to life and making them memorable.” From day one, Ranjan Kapur & Piyush Pandey shared the belief unconditionally in both letter and spirit. It showed in the work, the passion that powered the people behind the work, and of course, the growing buzz in the ad world. Thumped a confident Piyush, “When Ranjan & I walked together into a pitch, you could figure out by the expression of others that they had already lost it – were out of reckoning! To the best of my knowledge, a partnership like us, resulting in the kind of waves we made, was unique & the first one of its kind in the country...”
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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