There’s no dearth of talent in our advertising

By all accounts, seventeen years is a long time in advertising. But MG Parameswaran, executive director, FCB-Ulka Advertising, does not display any fatigue. Perhaps, it’s to do how FCB-Ulka conducts its business. He tells Aditya Chatterjee of agencyfaqs! about the trends in Indian advertising, and how FCB-Ulka is performing. Excerpts of the interview.

Edited Excerpts

Ambi means big brother in Tamil. I was called by that name in school. Some of my school friends happened to join me in IIT Chennai as well. And, as luck would have it, some of my IIT batchmates were with me in IIM Kolkata. I guess that’s how the name stuck on

No, I don’t think so. I would consider myself as an ambassador of the industry.

We were brought into IDBI by the then chairman MG Damodaran. When he was the UTI chairman, he saw our work. I guess, he must have been impressed. We were given the responsibility of re-branding IDBI, and giving a facelift to the institution.

We redesigned the logo and introduced the two colours – orange and green. While orange is the colour of sun, green signifies the colour of money and freshness. Our work was appreciated.

But once Damodaran left, some of the other power centres at IDBI saw to it that a fresh pitch is called, and a new agency is roped in. I don’t know how they selected the agency, and what parameters were used.

We have always stood for value addition, and the agency has always been a true-blue brand consultant for its clients. Unlike some of the other agencies, who have worked with IDBI, we don’t see ourselves as a mere supplier of ads.

I guess some clients just do not want to hear the truth. Yes, we are certainly sounding boards to our clients, but we are also paid to bring our thinking to the table and vigorously defend our point of view.

Yes, that’s right. We were given the UTI business, when the mutual fund behemoth was facing some rough weather. I believe, Mr Damaodaran is instrumental in getting a sense of pride back in UTI. We came up with the campaign: Welcome to UTI country. We reached out to the 10 million UTI investors, and told them how UTI used the best of technology, and the best of brains.

Actually, I did my summer training with Rediffusion in Kolkata, and I fell in love with advertising right there. I joined the agency in 1979, and stayed there for three years. The next six years saw me at Boots Pharmaceuticals, where I handled Coldarin, Brufen, Sweetex, and other brands. In fact, I launched the Sweetex brand. Then I joined UDI Yellow pages, which was India’s first yellow pages. I stayed with UDI for three years during 1987-89. Then I joined FCB Ulka, and I have been around ever since.

We usually prefer to groom our executives to take up senior positions. In the recent past, there has been a spate of appointments out of India to countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Singapore. Naturally, there have been a few vacancies.

Right now, we are in the process of hiring a business head for Mumbai. We will be in a position to announce it in two weeks’ time.

But usually, as I explained to you earlier, we prefer promoting our own people. Joe Thaliat, who came from our Cochin branch, is now a vice-president in Mumbai. And Santosh Menon, who was in Mumbai, had moved to Bangalore as client servicing director for the Wipro Consumer business. He is now in FCB Sri Lanka as a general manager.

t’s not a question of choice. We need both. But it is a pleasure to see clients grow. We believe in long term associations with clients. I believe that good work automatically gets more business. Whether it’s a Whirlpool or Tata Motors, this principle has always worked for us.

The response to the latest Indica V2 TVC has been awesome. I checked agencyfaqs!, and found that there was hardly any reader opinion that criticised the ad. Now that is something what even Pepsi’s ‘Oye Bubbly’ couldn’t achieve. And, why only Tata Motors? Our work for Wipro’s Santoor soap was appreciated by the client, and that led to FCB-Ulka acquiring the business of the baby soft range, healthcare brand Sanjeevni, and Ayurvedic product Chandrika.

That’s right. When we got the business, we were told that these estate cars just don’t sell. We were told that the Baleno Altura sold only 200 cars a year. Every year, apparently the Fiat Sienna sold about just 250 pieces, while the Opel Corsa Swing sold 1,000 cars a year. Tata Motors was keen to sell 500 Marinas per month. I am very happy to say that the company has comfortably crossed the mark.

I violently disagree. I see pretty good talents around me. There is clearly no dearth of talent. Yes, it’s true that the Indian advertising industry is attracting fewer IIMs these days. But that’s not because advertising has lost its allure. Even the FMCG sector is seeing fewer IIMs than what it used to. It’s just that some other industries such as telecom, infotech and financial services are attracting the better people.

We recruit 30 management and 12 creative graduates every year. They know what they are coming in for, and they are passionate about advertising.

It’s difficult to answer this in percentage terms. But the rate of growth from direct, interactive and digital advertising is pretty healthy now. Compared to traditional advertising, it’s still very small, but it is growing steadily.

It is a misnomer that we don’t encourage creativity. We do that, along with strategic thinking. Strategy is the bedrock of whatever we do. Our creative product has to be likeable and noticeable. We are not in the awards game. We only work for genuine clients.

And, who says our advertising lacks creativity? If it is so, how come our TVC for ZEE Cinema – Paap ke Anth – won an Abby gold? And, how is it that we have won Effies for six years? We love awards, but we would rather win for work done for genuine clients and for work which has been successful.

The first one is passion. You have to have passion for this business.

The second aspect is partnership. You have to build partnerships within the organisation, with the media, film-makers and clients.

And, the third issue is performance. Whether it results in increased sales, enquiries or walk-ins, your advert has to perform in the market. For if it doesn’t, you don’t have any business to remain in this business.