The head of PepsiCo India is expected to draw from his rich marketing experience to assess the creative output from 2002
The Annual Ad Review, organized by the Bombay Ad Club, is being held on the evening of Monday, February 17, at Hotel President, Mumbai. The annual event is aimed at putting the advertising from the year gone by under the scanner, analyzing the high and low points of the collective product and spotting broad advertising trends. This year's review is being conducted by Rajeev Bakshi, chairman, PepsiCo India. Bakshi, who was previously managing director of Cadbury India, is expected to draw from his rich marketing experience to assess the creative output from 2002.
Interestingly, this is the second year running that a CEO from the other side of the table - the client's side - will be delivering the Annual Ad Review. It may be recalled that last year, Britannia Industries' honcho, Sunil Alagh, had conducted the review. "For many years, we had advertising CEOs and creative stalwarts conducting the review," says MG (Ambi) Parameswaran, executive director, FCB-Ulka, and member of the Bombay Ad Club. "Then last year, we decided to get Sunil Alagh. This was because we thought it would be a good idea to get the client's perspective on advertising - which is important. It was also done for a change, but now that we know the experiment worked, we thought why not continue with it. That's why we have Rajeev Bakshi this year."
This does not, however, mean that client CEOs will conduct all forthcoming Ad Reviews, Parameswaran clarifies. "There is no such rule that we have decided upon," he says. "We have taken people with good marketing experience who follow advertising very keenly, yes. But we can revert to advertising CEOs whenever required. There is no hard-and-fast rule on this."
As of now, the focus is on what Bakshi has to say about the work that agencies put out through 2002… © 2003 agencyfaqs!