It is true that many times the best sample size for a market research activity is ‘1’, but can we really do that when we choose media? Here’s a small example: Data says (at least if we still can trust RAM) that Radio One is the leading FM Channel in Bombay (yes, I refuse to call this city Mumbai. If you don’t like it, watch Russel Peters for the reason). However, the CEO prefers Malishka of Red FM over “Who’s that unknown RJ in 91.1 FM, which claims to be no.1? It is very Indianly common to have hoardings from the Airport to Office (even if it is just for a few days) for the ‘senior management’ to see & feel happy about during branch visits. It surely keeps the bosses happy!

That apart, it always is a good idea to take a hard look at one’s own media habits. It may just help plan better the next time you write the brief for the campaign plan.

That’s what I am planning to do now. How do I consume media? What do I watch? What do I do? Maybe some planner may get some idea from what I do (unconsciously). My routine can (hopefully) be the trigger for dropping that self-proclaimed omnipresent media vehicle! Here goes:

My demographics:

Age: 37

City: Mumbai

Occupation: Marketing head for a Financial Services Firm

SEC: I don’t believe in this classification. But am earning well.

MHI: ahem! See earlier point!

So what do I do everyday?

• 6.00 am to 7.30 am: The first media that I consume is Vijay TV. Judge me if you must, but Vijay TV in the mornings broadcasts spiritual stuff and it helps keep my mind clear of all the nonsense like corruption, accidents, murders, scandals and other such ‘outrage inducing’ news. So Vijay TV it is!
• 7.30 am: Yes. I do read ToI. But I just browse. I don’t find their editorial engaging enough. Not for me at least. Also, owing to business considerations, their news is filled with negativity. Read point 1 for what I would like to avoid and TOI is filled with it anyway. Lately, even the sports coverage has scandals as the pivot. But yes, I browse through that paper for just being abreast.
• 7.30 am: My modified Nook Color which is now an Android Tablet. I access NDTV app, Economist, Huffington post, NYT for a bit of world coverage. I prefer to read the politics and broader economy items rather than most other categories. Sports comes in too.
• Economic Times: Being in Financial Services, it is imperative for me to read this paper. Thought the colour is mildly yellow, this pink paper is a must read for me to ‘be in the know’. Also, this is the largest circulated / read (both are different) newspaper and I handle retail. QED.
• The Mint: For me, this is intelligent reading. This newspaper is actually where there is limited or no jargon and complex financial events can be understood, albeit with a little effort. Must read
• Google News: A site that is ‘almost permanently’ open on my computer to get my dose of news. I read through articles of varied topics through Google News and it’s constantly updating feeds
• LinkedIn: Provides me with business updates through links posted, people with whom I am connected and business related news.
• Twitter through the day: In intermittent spells, I tweet and read tweets. I follow some news junkies, stand up comedians, advertising, PR & digital media folks, and some politicians too. Most times, twitter is my first source of breaking news. In that same vein, Facebook is almost relegated to a weekly once kind of activity or ‘only when there’s time’.
• I also frequently visit Quora, Mashable & Rediff (not necessarily in that order) for reading about anything under the sun.
• Infrequently, I also read blog posts when someone tweets their links. Not much time.
• My evenings are typically spent with Raymond / AFV, followed by MasterChef Australia. Food is the new porn (as my wife called it) and Masterchef is the epicenter of it all for me! Despite knowing the result, one is always drawn to the edge of the seat with this programme. I try my best not to miss it. Also, I toggle sometimes with Super Singer on Vijay TV. Those singers are by no stretch of imagination ‘amateurs’. Continuing with porn takes the logical next step to Nigella Lawson. I may never eat a morsel of what gets cooked in Masterchef or Nigella’s show, but I seem to be relishing it with glee!
• Back to Nook Color, news & other apps before I crash.
• I drive to work & back. Outdoor is dangerous for me to keep track of! But hey! This is Bombay and traffic is always ‘almost still’. So I do watch out for the billboards too! I am generally a safe but distracted driver! J

I have conveniently and consciously left my personal life out of this!

So, does that make a generalization? Not at all. It is how I seem to be sharing my time with the various media vehicles that I consume / come across.

If this helps anyone while making a media plan, ping me.

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For many, these guys might look like the morons of the marketing world. To be honest, I have felt that way a few years back. And then it dawned into me that there is a very deep sense in what these guys do. Especially, after I happened to interact with some of the consumers. I must admit however that this is not based on any structured research. But Prof. Malay Chaudhuri (who taught me Market Research in campus) once told, “The best sample size for a research sometimes is 1”. I tend to agree with him.

When was the last time you bought salt? Do you remember what brand you bought? Can you remember the last occasion when you bought ‘rock salt’ or ‘powdered salt’ which didn’t carry a brand name and was packed in newspaper by your friendly neighborhood Kirana store?

Anil, Lion, Idhayam, Jeyam, Sakthi Masala, Gold Winner – You may not have heard these names outside Tamil Nadu. But within the state, these are names which the woman of the house swears by. These are brands, which I have learnt to admire lately for their ingenuity. A simple comparison between these two concepts shows that these marketers have borrowed generously from the Salt phenomenon and have executed seamlessly to taste success (pun intended).

Packaging started playing an important part in both these phenomena. Having the words ‘A trusted name’ would make a lot of difference in reaching out to large number of people. With packaging playing an integral part of brand building, they didn’t let go of their South Indian-ness and added a lot of color, brightness and attractiveness to it.

Once common salt became a ‘branded item’ and ceased to be a ‘kirana store’ buy, these brands started innovating concepts with respect to Salt. For instance, my salt is ‘whiter’ than the competition, OR one pinch of my salt is better than a spoonful of the other and so on.

Not the kind to be left behind, these smart marketers found once concept after another. I believe there is a ‘Z’ Technology to clean Tur Dal. Wow! It sure is something like the PUF which was in every refrigerator, but was made famous by Godrej.

There is a Urad Dal brand which claims that Idlys made with this brand is more ‘fuller’ than the others. I am yet to figure out how, but the brands are just hitting the right nerves.

There is another ingenious attempt. The brand is Lion Honey. Lion is a brand under which the company peddles ‘dates’, ‘date syrup’, honey, oats and many other food items. He was the first to attempt positioning Honey as a substitute for Sugar. The brand had their TVCs running which had honey replaced in almost every sugar usage including honey being mixed with milk, during cooking etc. This was also tried by a larger brand at a later date – Dabur – featuring Big B & MSD.

These brands have grown multi-fold that they can afford large advertising budgets. Today, almost all these brands feature celebrities (read film stars) and have well produced TVCs backed by a very impressive on-air presence.

Branding of essential commodities such as sugar, salt, pulses, spices etc, does the same job as branding any other product, say, T-shirts. It takes the pain out of buying. The consumer gets to choose amongst the many brands available and is able to make the purchase with a confidence that the product would be free of malicious content, adulteration etc.

Branding commodities help in achieving a straight line supply chain, thus making availability easy and the pricing affordable. By adding more value to the product (not just as a brand) but in say nutritional value much as iodized salt did to the salt industry, health is certainly a platform that the consumers would benefit on.

And moving up in the chain, branding helps create higher value for these products. This ensures that the manufacturer and the farmers who actually cultivate these items are benefited immensely.

As a consumer I have always been hit by their communication every time I get in front of the idiot box (especially with my mother around). And when I do look at it from a Marketers’ perspective, things fall in place.

• Branding essential commodities may just be a category starter
• Branding essential commodities adds its own value to the consumer, manufacturer, supplier and the economy alike.
• It is absolutely fine to copy a strategy as said by the legendary Sam Walton. Just be sure that the execution is better. Or at least, ensure that the execution appeals to the sensibilities of your target audience.

So when you enjoy your meal the next time (especially the South Indian meal), you can rest assured that a marketer has touched your life and your tummy .

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Living in Bombay brings its own idiosyncrasies. One of them is the various modes of public transport. No. I am not talking about trains. The reference points here are the Black-Yellow Taxis and Autos. The germ behind the movement is very simple. Three advertising professionals (Jaidev Rupani, Rachna Brar and Abhilash Krishnan) just decided to take the issue in their hands when they were facing the constant ‘nays’ by these ‘service providers’. Adding fuel to fire, a few weeks back the public transport system came under the mercy of the auto and taxi drivers when they decided to go on a strike demanding a fare hike.

Dubbed Meter Jam and designed like a reverse auction, Meter Jam is a reverse strike. While the taxis and autos be plying the road, the idea was to motivate the common man NOT to take either of these modes.

The movement appealed to the sentiments of the public because everyone has been affected by the ridiculous ways of these operators. It was initially promoted only through Social Networking Sites (SNS). But Six Degrees of Separation led this to become a national movement. Well almost!

To add fuel to the fire, news papers (read ‘tabloids’) picked up this cause and fanning it decently. With Mumbai Mirror starting it and Mid-day following right behind, the rest of the publications didn’t want to be left behind and covered it sufficiently. They actually interviewed the union heads and asked if they were afraid! PR picked up steam and the trio was nothing less than celebrities giving interviews to every channel / newspaper.

It has reached a peak and if you search for Meter Jam today, you would find the press articles before the actual site.

Meter Jam was held (or upheld) on the August 12, 2010. There are mixed reports on how successful the reverse strike was, but I felt the roads to be relatively easy to navigate. There were lesser number of black-yellow vehicles on the road and I personally offered a ride to a few colleagues on my way back.

The movement needed a mainstream support like that of PR for it to be known amongst a larger audience. It is absolutely true that it is not possible to build or retain brand salience only through Facebook and Twitter. It may be a very good starting point. Few reasons:

• The SNS user is looking at a quick bang. You don’t see a topic trending beyond say, 8 hours?!
• There still is a large audience outside SNS. Take me for instance. I have been bitten by the IT Policy bug and I don’t have connectivity to any social media (irrespective of the fact that I use them for official purposes too).
• The relevance of SNS may get restricted to a finite set of audience because amongst your connections / friends / followers, it is not a guarantee that everyone would be moved by your appeal. Striking the right chord at least for a movement should be more than just SNS.

The other one was a media sponsored movement along with an NGO of high repute. The NDTV Greenathon, which the channel conducts on its Flagship NDTV 24×7 every year, is generally a great success. The entire package is 360 degree in approach. The event is well promoted in all the channels owned or is part of the NDTV bouquet. The event is also taken on to other media including online. Today it is possible to connect with your favorite news personality through their website. They have their own social networking platform which is also activated during the Greenathon, which is conducted over a period of 24 hours.

Adding glamour is the presence of Bollywood personalities every year. They have some film start co-hosting it for the entire period, thus ensuring enough eye-balls for the key time-bands at least. The event is generally tied up with TERI and is in support of providing basic amenities in far flung villages of India. Some reasons why it almost always is a hit:

• Promoted by a large news channel, thus ensuring enough reach and visibility for the event.
• Presence of a celebrities (which Meter Jam lacked).
• 360 degree in approach thus ensuring a larger reach and awareness for the event.
• Sufficiently sponsored. With a lot of money going into running this ‘on air, on ground, online’ event, reaching and making it a success is not a great difficulty.
• Having a well known NGO brings in its own set of audience and credibility.

By bringing a serious issue out in the open, social movements take its own course to spread, propagate and in hopefully making this world a better place. However, not all such movements get to see as many reams of paper or footage time. Building a brand like ‘Jaago Re’ cost the Tata Group 2 years and sufficient funds to push the thought through. Even then, we had a key market like Bombay registering 34% votes in the general elections.

Though these social movements become large brands, effectiveness still depends on the buyer of the concept. Pity this is not a product / service.

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It was true for a long time. People ended up seeing music rather than just listening to it. Music Videos were a rage. They could see the stars in flesh and blood dancing in front of them at the comfort of their homes. Music proliferation with the advent of national and international channels meant great fame for the performers. Media became as big as the musician itself. They thought the airwaves will forever be filled with digitized signals containing audio and visuals.

And then Radio found its own space to co-exist.

When Weblogs (blogs) came to existence, everyone had one. It was like there was a surge in writers across the world. Every e-mail signature had a blog ID as part of it. Many lost steam after a while, but some wrote on. Some were on and off (like me). But blogs were still around with a fairly sizeable number of readers.

Then came Twitter! A 140 character invention, which took the world by storm. Everyone jumped into the bandwagon. It took me many reports about the November 26 attacks on Bombay to get on to it. I read reports about how people used Twitter to inform the world about what was happening inside the Taj Mahal Hotel. On many other occasions I saw the use of Twitter where people informed their status from inside a disaster zone. It was too good for me to stay away. I started my twitter account.

I had started to tweet and was learning the ropes, not that I am a pro yet! My topics of interest were quotes, news and satire. Twitter is filled with them. I realized that I was making friends through Twitter, attended Tweet-ups and wrote everything in 140 characters. At one corner of my mind, I felt that the blogger in me was giving up. Though I was not a regular in writing, I believe that some people like the way I write. I have been published a few times and it always is a good feeling to see your name on print or on a popular website.

I was actually a #ShamelessAddict in Twitter language. But I could figure that many of the popular bloggers were straddling both these worlds with consummate ease. It took some effort for me to get away from Twitter and to concentrate on blogging again. But today I find that twitter is actually helping me in my blogging too.

I have now connected my blog to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Network Blogging using Hootsuite & Facebook. With every post, the link for the post is automatically posted on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. Network Blog pulls data from the blog entry and posts an excerpt on Facebook. Many benefits and some issues.

Today I get a lot of traffic from Twitter and Linked In. Many read the blog post as part of my Linkedin profile too. The post is available as part of Network Blogs on Facebook. So many read it there. I have added a wordpress widget called SocioFluid which helps in posting the link to many social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and many more.

I have been writing today on a daily basis as a part of this blogathon and I am able to gain new friends, new associates and I am known within the professional circle because of these community building tools.

As regards to the purpose of my writing, I am not doing this for Google Adsense. If I make money, I would welcome it, but I am doing this for my own satisfaction. This trains me in writing which I enjoy. And it helps me voice my opinions and interact with other professionals in the field.

The world always comes around. Just when you think video killed the radio star, FM became an inseparable part of your drive time. And when I thought Twitter killed the blogger in me, I run a blogathon. And Twitter is only helping me find more readers and interact with them on different platforms.

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I am just unable to think of any advertisements apart from milk products from Aavin or Amul, uniforms by S Kumars or shoes by Bata. Maybe there were more, but can’t think of any more. Even Horlicks and Complan used to advertise to the mother with the message being good health for children.

Somewhere down the line the ‘line’ actually disappeared. Today every product can be targeted at children and they are!

I believe that it started with the retail revolution. We all would have seen the following even unfold in front of our eyes some time or the other.

Dad, mom and a young kid of about 4 to 5 years old visit the supermarket for buying provisions for the month. Generally kids are very inquisitive. But today’s kids are even more because the parents are genuinely unable to spend too much time with the child since both work! The little brat who is in control of neither parent runs around the store and pulls the store down for the big bar of chocolate. He is seen running away from the clutches of the mother and making enough noise to attract the attention of the fellow shoppers and the store attendants. Embarrassed, the mom hands him the chocolate from the counter just to keep the brat quiet.

What the parent calls ‘embarrassment’ is euphemistically referred to by the marketer as ‘Pester Power’.

Recently seven marketing companies (Hindustan Unilever, Coca-Cola India Inc, General Mills India, Kellogg India, Nestle India, Mars International India and PepsiCo India Holdings) have taken a conscious decision to promote a healthy and active lifestyle for children. Cadbury’s India has also committed to join the gang soon. These marketers have gone forward in signing a self regulation in which the main commitment is to not advertise any food and beverage products to children under the age of 12.

It is common sense that advertising unhealthy food products purely on its taste unmindful of the harmful effects that it may have on the child during its later years is not done. For instance excessive chocolate with high caffeine content results in an unhealthy child. So does that change the way these products get consumed going forward?

Children will be children and will continue to be adamant. They will still fight for that chocolate, but by not advertising such products during programmes targeted at children, one would expect that the kid wouldn’t know of it. So far so good! It is true that today’s children have much more opportunities to learn about a lot of things which we as children wouldn’t have heard about. Internet for instance, is a wealthy resource for children to learn anything under the sun.

So is this regulation going to change the world? Maybe not! But I am sure it is a step in the right direction. Few points that come to my mind:

For Kids & Parents

• By not exposing kids below the age of 12 (at least by these seven marketers) to advertising which doesn’t cater to them, it would help in reducing their role as ‘influencers’ in unrelated categories.
• I know of children who would ask for products where the advertisement is more appealing to them, irrespective of their worth. By stopping exposure of such ads to these children, we may reduce these instances
• The ads may not target the children, but even exposure otherwise can be harmful. For instance, it is very unhealthy for kids to get used to soda / Pepsi / Coke. But featuring children in these ads and exposing children to these products at young age would mean lack of health during later years. This may go down in numbers now.

For Marketers

• Products like ‘Happy Meal’ by McDonalds targeted at children may have to stop. However, McDonalds is yet to sign any such self-regulation.
• I am wondering what some product categories like Toothpastes for instance will do. They may have to change some product lines, some brand extensions may go out of the window, and a whole lot of advertising will change.
• Will this force (on a moral front) other marketers to do get into a self regulation? I am just being a devil’s advocate here. These marketers have done all they could to spoil the health of the kid and are now professing self-regulation. At one end it does sound like the USA imposing emission control on countries like India & China.

In any case, pester power may lose its power but will continue to stay.

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Anil Nair (Senior)

Mr. Anil Nair,  CEO & Managing Partner at Law & Kenneth India. Little introduction needed for people in the advertising and marketing industry. About 6 years back, Law & Kenneth (L&K) was considered to be a boutique agency. Today they are considered to be amongst the largest! A good part of that credit must go to this gent who was kind enough to answer a few questions for this blogathon. In fact, he is one of the inspirations for me to have started this writing attempt. Thanks Senior (as we all call him) for both pushing me to write again and for answering these questions!

1. With more and more clients looking towards the online medium, how do you think the amalgamation will happen between offline campaigns and online campaigns?
   It will happen simply because the effectiveness of separate campaigns for offline and online will stop yielding results. The only way ahead is media neutral conversations with consumers and this needs a total rethinking among marketing practitioners. Putting the TVC on Youtube or making a banner of the press ads are not what I mean by amalgamation here.
2. In this world of instant gratification, how do you think brands should mould themselves to be relevant? Especially in mainstream media.
   Move away from disruption to dialogue. Be ready to build relationships. Be honest and be brave.
3. How have brands been reacting to the sudden influx of online tools? Do they change their strategy or do you see a gap?
   I really can’t generalize this but very few brands have understood the role or opportunity of personal digital media like mobile internet. So they are currently being led by techno minded online experts who confuse the hell out of brand custodians by techno jargons and irrelevant applications. Many of them follow the herd and get lost in the virtual space. I have met few marketers who are really excited by the results that these online campaigns delivered.
4. How has Rural Marketing and advertising for the rural consumers changed? Is it still required to have specific campaigns for them or have they – in your opinion – been able to consume the campaigns which happen nationally with specific targets towards cities. Your views would be highly relevant in the telecom and FMCG sectors for example.
   Advertising guys always had this holier than thou approach when it comes to our brethren from hinterlands. Look at Bollywood! Do they make rural cinema and urban cinema? Brands have to make a choice about who they wish to have a relationship with. And once they do that they need to speak to the consumer in a tone and manner which is relevant irrespective of where they come from.  Am sure brands like Micromax and Bingo has managed to do that. The real problem is that most creative guys are creating communication to prove a point/impress the fellow creative crowd. The only thing marketers need to keep in mind is that they use the correct media to reach the rural consumers.
5. We have recently seen a large advertising organization group all its services under a roof (like the good old days!). Have we already come a full circle? Do you think the agency business will be re-cast again with being 360-degree approach rather than have specialists like we currently do?
   The future belongs to ‘media neutral, idea driven, fearlessly innovative, conversation creators’. The so called integrated or specialist groups have no clue on the Tsunami which is headed their way. The days of 360 degree big idea roll outs are over. The future is about participative, culturally relevant conversations at real time. Tell many how many brands or agencies are ready for a feedback from the consumer 2 hours from the time they have launched it. How open are they to listen to feedback and respond. It’s the end of the marketing as we knew it and thank god for that!

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My father used to tour a lot as part of his work and for time periods like 15 days at a stretch. Those were days when having a phone was a ‘luxury’ and the favourite mode of communication always used to be India Post.

If I am travelling today, I must SMS my wife before boarding and after reaching. Period!

Sets me thinking: Advertising, Communication and Marketing (they are separate according to me), used to be very different those days. There always used to be a sender and many receivers. A straight line! Lack of communication tools was the key reason.

Today we live in a ‘Matrix’ed world. And the pun is intended. The consumer has a powerful tool in his hand and (s)he can be constructive or destructive. And the best part is the fact that they know that they have the power. The customer has decided to talk back and technology has helped them do so.

1. Technology has helped cross-conversations
   Back then, the brands used to choose when they talk to their consumers. There was a seasonality associated with it. For instance, the marketers chose when to provide discounts on Air Conditioners or Airline Tickets. Prices used to be very different in different cities (and the reason was not just C&F, transportation etc). With price discovery mechanism taking center stage with liberal help from technology, the marketers are left with little choice but to listen to the consumer. Today, the customer is able to decide between two airlines or air conditioners and is able to choose the best within his price range with the best deal in terms of service / quality.
   It is now possible for anyone to talk to anyone, so long as there is a willingness to communicate. I can have a conversation with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and the only thing that can stop me from doing so is Mr. Bachchan himself. And brands are no different. Unless they engage the consumer in a conversation, it is impossible for them to reach out, be heard and be talked about. Today, that would be the space between success and failure of a brand.
2. Don’t call them consumers anymore
   ‘Consumers’ as a term has ceased to exist at least with respect to communication. Successful advertising during the earlier days used to be of two broad kinds. Great advertising with no money to back it up AND sad advertising with lots of money! Today, great advertising or not, if the offering (product / service) doesn’t live up to the expectations, chances are that the product will fail in the market. The allowed margin of error has gone down significantly. The customer now has a voice, is heard and ensures that (s)he is loud and clear.
   So if a brand is not engaging them meaningfully, they have the choice and the power to tarnish a brand’s reputation if they choose to.
3. Brand Loyalty – Heh!
   Options – A word that just used to exist in the marketers mind when discussing creative pieces with the agency. Now the consumer is throwing the same word at him and with a vengeance. Loyalty programs have failed like duds because he wants great service for the price he pays. And the quality of such service is always decided by him. If you don’t believe me, get on twitter. NOW!
4. Consumer engages you!
   Traditional Marketers used to believe that the message is always from them. And the messenger is the media. Such a strong decision is not taken by the marketers anymore. Neither the message nor the media. The consumer chooses to engage with any brand at his own convenience and expects that the brand is ‘available’ for his to talk to. All he has to do is to use any of the social networking tools and give a shout out. If you don’t respond, your competitor will. And you have lost this customer forever. If a consumer is not happy with my mobile service provider, he gets onto Twitter and calls out for the brand. If the brand is not available, he is more than happy to switch to another brand without the least of issues. Keeping customers has never been this difficult. So it is important to be present at a place where he chooses to talk to you.

Marketers have been talking all this while and they have just been interrupted. They now have to listen and engage. And if marketers are not willing to participate in a discussion, the brand will end up facing a slow but sure death.

Traditional marketing as was known is dead. Long live Traditional Marketing.

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“The account planner is that member of the agency’s team who is the expert, through background, training, experience, and attitudes, at working with information and getting it used – not just marketing research but all the information available to help solve a client’s advertising problems.” – Stanley Pollitt

To put it simply, planners need to study the market, the product category and the consumer and translate it as insights / briefs to the creative and the media teams to arrive at solutions that will achieve the marketing and advertising objectives.

Typically, it is the account planners’ job to write the creative and the media brief documents (which will be discussed in a latter section). The brief must contain the marketing and advertising objective, the proposed media used, the key consumer insight, key pointers from any research undertaken and finally the take-away that the communication should leave the consumer with.

Account planners must have the necessary skills and attitude to organize information about the consumer and the brand. The data can be derived from primary or secondary research, discussions with the client etc. This helps in the brand arriving at a proper positioning statement. The planner must also be involved in the creative development. This helps in meeting two objectives. First, to be convinced about the message, the take-away from the creative piece arrived at. This includes analyzing the creative from a consumer’s point of view. And second, to be in a position to convince the client about the creative produced by the agency.

Most account planning departments are also responsible for tracking the advertising campaigns taken up for a brand. The tracking of a campaign’s performance is by employing follow-up research with consumers and coordinate tweaking of the creative message (if necessary).

What is the planning process? Well, have tried to make this as a small diagram to ensure that this is understood easily.

In the Indian Advertising industry, you tend to always find the planner having ‘servicing’ executives reporting into them. The concepts of marketing, branding, research and case studies learnt during the B-school days get to be used here. However, a good part of the theory and life in real may be very different. Hence, on-the-feet thinking, quick response time etc, are key requirements of a professional playing this role. Though this job may sound ‘research intensive’, one would tend to encounter a lot of thinking and finding solutions the creative way.

This same process is also applicable for decision making on the media selection. Today, with the innovations in media including Outdoor and digital media and the convergence of different media vehicles, it is important that the above process is followed for media planning as well. All media agencies have ‘planning’ divisions which help in identifying the correct vehicles and the frequency to achieve the advertising and marketing objectives.

In subsequent posts, I will try to add examples from my experiences on each of these functions.

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• account planner
• account planning in advertising agencies
• what is account planning in advertising
• account planning advertising agency
• account planning in an advertising agency

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All agencies have the following departments:

• Client servicing / Account servicing
• Account Planning
• Creative copy
• Creative art
• Print Production
• Films Production
• Media Planning
• Media Buying
• Finance
• HR
• Admin

Some have specialized teams for:

• Events & activation
• Online and digital marketing
• PR (Though this has now become a separate industry in itself)
• Media Planning & Buying (Though part of the ‘Agency’ in traditional days, this has become a huge industry in itself)

Update: A good friend Ravi chose to correct me (see comment)! The past few years have seen Media houses spun out as separate entities and within media, Outdoor advertising (Out-of-home advertising) has become a specialised business.

Client Servicing: Simply, any individual in this department is the bridge between the agency and the client. So in front of the agency, the servicing person is the client and in front of the client, (s)he is the agency. Typically, this is the department in which most freshers from B-Schools join. These guys also are the ‘brand custodians’ for all the brands they handle. The servicing executive has to understand a bit of everything including media, art, print production, films, finances etc. So this series is focused on servicing executives to be the jack of all functions in advertising. And with fresh perspectives and lots of uncommon thinking with respect to branding, the servicing executive is bound to be a great communication professional. Good understanding of these basics, will help servicing executives manage every other department within the agency to provide the best results to the client. After all, happy client’s lead to great relationships and successful career! So watch this space…

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