Defining Moments: "Thums Up took me beyond advertising," recalls Ashok Kurien

The man wears many hats and a string of designations as long as your arm. Ashok Kurien - senior advisor Publicis Groupe India, chairman, Publicis India, Solutions Integrated Marketing Services, and Hanmer & Partners Public Relations, founder-promoter/director, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Playwin Lotteries, and Dish TV India, and co-founder, Flora2000.com, Yo4ya.com and Remindo.com - is a serial entrepreneur.

Kurien, who also runs his own brand consultancy, Ambience Business Services, stands by three tenets - Belief, Trust and Faith - that have changed him over the years. The runaway 18-year-old who was a crop-sprayer once because he was disinterested in studies, looks back proudly on a glittering career.

With little resources on him and pressing family needs, the plunge was risky, and the fall, too deep - particularly as the late 1980s were marked by slow growth rates. "You have to be either very brave or very stupid to start your own venture. I was extremely stupid, with such little money!" laughs Kurien.

His client's belief in him gave birth to Ambience Advertising. Kurien calls it "the true learning of entrepreneurship," as "the buck truly stops with you." Bringing in art expert Elsie Nanji as a partner (who took ownership of the creative product), was the beginning of understanding the power of true and successful partnerships. "All the half-dozen businesses I have been involved with have been with partners. The success mantra I learned was that my partner's strength should be my weakness, and my strength should be his/her weakness," says Kurien.

The second defining moment for Kurien was a campaign which rocketed him and Ambience to fame in its very first year itself: a campaign done for its second client, Thums Up, called 'Thums Up – Taste the Thunder'.

After 20 successful years, it is easily among the longest running national campaigns in India.

Once again, Kurien attributes this to a brave client, one who trusted him. This was Ramesh Chauhan, the promoter of Thums Up (and Bisleri). "Ramesh gave me the opportunity to come up with the entire business strategy of the 'Maha Cola'." Back then, Thums Up and Campa Cola were the only two major colas in the market. Chauhan gave Kurien and his agency the full freedom to draw up not just a communication, but also a product and business plan for Thums Up. "Very few people trust you like that," he says.

Kurien visited Thums Up's Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab plants. He involved himself in every aspect of the product - from changing the shape and size of the bottles, to their cost and ingredients, to a complete marketing, business and communication analysis.

"We wiped out Campa Cola - from a 30 per cent market share to a brand of the past," recalls Kurien, who currently is a consultant for Bisleri (Chauhan, again) and was also behind its re-launch recently (including a brand colour change from blue to green). "The Thums Up experience gave me the confidence to evolve strategic marketing and new business solutions. It took me beyond advertising," he says.

Kurien's third big moment arrived in the form of a chat over a cup of coffee with Subhash Chandra. As the duo watched a live telecast of the Gulf War on CNN (1991), they thought, "Why can't we do this in India? Surely there's a way." Those were the days when Doordarshan ruled TV, and Kurien himself had dabbled with the creation of some shows, including Nukkad. Satellite TV was unheard of. "Subhash could have got anyone he chose to partner his dream to launch satellite TV in India. But he said he wanted me on it," recollects Kurien (Essel World was Kurien's client). "We followed this up with a simple business plan that had me partnering him to launch Zee TV. Subhash put his faith in me."

(Defining Moments is a regular column which talks about the incidents that shaped great advertising, media and marketing careers.)