At Lowe, Pops created a stir on businesses like Unilevers, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Jet Airways, Saint Gobain, Bajaj Auto and Parker Pens. While at Burnett, he initiated and led the agencys creative resurgence and, along with O&M in the late 1990s, managed to put India on the international advertising map with its cuttingedge print work on Heinz first, and then CocaCola, P&G and Fiat. It was during these years at Burnett that saw the agency not only dominate the local awards but also win over 50 international recognitions at the AsiaPacific Adfest, Cannes and One Show, including a Grand Global at the New York Festival. Recently, back for a second stint with Burnett, Pops was guilty of ensuring that Mumbai emerged "The Agency of the Year 2003" within the competitive Leo Burnett networkan honor so far the exclusive preserve of American and European offices.
Earlier
this year, the magazine, Fast Company, created
a ripple in the advertising industry when it mentioned
"advertising creatives" among the six jobs
that would cease to exist in 2016. The Indian advertising
fraternity reacted with characteristic gusto; with
one faction prophesizing that the day was not far
when consultants would take over the traditional advertising
domain, and the other stoutly proclaiming that advertising
could never fade away.
My
reaction to this wasand continues to bemixed. I certainly
don't see advertising becoming redundant in the near
future. In fact, I think that as new, innovative media
options open up, we are moving into a very exciting
phase in advertising. Now, more than ever before,
we will witness new peaks of creativity and have an
impact businesses more than we ever did. However,
I do believe that advertising and marketing, the way
we know it, is rapidly approaching its "best
before" date. And this time round, India does
not have the customary safety net of being "20
years behind the US" or for that matter behind
any other market. |
