Marketers need to appreciate the potential of brand-driven event properties

Riding the event bike

Business Standard

MG Parameswaran

As the New Year approaches and clients and their agencies gear up to assess their creative output in the year that was and plan for future, let me ask a simple question. Has the joy gone out of advertising? Has the spontaneity all but disappeared? When was the last time an agency went into a client meeting, presented a script and walked out to meet with potential directors? Well, it still happens, but chances are that more often than not, several additional stages intervene. No, I am not talking about the client's super boss or his global boss or his ultimate boss, his wife.With the growth of marketing research culture, clients across industries are sacrificing their own gut instinct at the altar of pre-test research. The research culture is also encouraged by CEOs who ask their CMOs, "Did you research the campaign?" The film script that is loved by all in the room is often put through the wringer called pre-test. It sometimes comes out unscathed, but very often it comes out badly brui

Do not let research take out the joy of great advertising: MG Parameswaran

The influx of high quality MBAs brought about a seismic change in the advertising agency business in India in 1970s

40 years ago... And now: Shifting sands of time

I joined advertising in 1979 and my first exposure to the legend called Bal Mundkur was a quick visit to his wonderful home, a recce for the famous Bombay Dyeing film (I had been seconded by my first employer Rediffusion to work for a week with film maker Prahlad Kakar who was making the film for Ulka). I met Bal the man for the first time at his office in 1989. I was to be interviewed by him for a position to head Ulka South.

MG Parameswaran

MG Parameswaran

Mg Parameswaran

Riding the event bike

Do not let research take out the joy of great advertising: MG Parameswaran

40 years ago... And now: Shifting sands of time

Bal Mundkur: The legend