AgTalk | Advertising business continues to be highly exciting: Draftfcb Ulka's M.G. Parameswaran (Ambi)

M.G. Parameswaran aka Ambi, Executive Director and CEO, Draftfcb-Ulka Advertising, Mumbai has spent a good 30 years in the advertising industry. In an exclusive ineterview with Adgully, he shares his journey over the years and some of the brands that he and his team re-built. Excerpts:

Adgully: Can you share with us some of the key milestones of your career?

M.G. Parameswaran (Ambi): The first milestone in my career is the decision that I took at IIM Calcutta to take up a job in advertising; this was thanks to some heart to heart talk with Subhas Chakravarty, the then Brand Director of Rediffusion, Calcutta. I think I was the first IIT ' IIM product to enter advertising.

After three years in advertising, I decided to get into marketing, to experience the other side. That got me working with Anil Kapoor, the Director Marketing at Boots Company; and I have pretty much worked with him ever since. And you cannot ask for a better mentor, boss or guide.

I took over as the Head of South; Ulka had traditionally lost money in the South Operations for years and I had resolved to end this; that was my solemn promise to Anil (Bal Mundkur was not convinced though). I managed to achieve this in three years and at the end of five I had managed to wipe out all past losses. We have never lost money in our South operations ever since.

Unfortunately this has led to very narrow thinking; I won't be surprised if an average client servicing person in many agencies is clueless about GRPs, OTS and Unduplicated Reach.

Keeping this in mind we at Draftfcb Ulka Group make it a point to train our recruits across all the functions of advertising, so that servicing is aware of media; and media is aware of the creative briefing process etc. But all said the advertising business continues to be highly exciting with so many new brands, new products and new communication options.

Ag: Do you think in the profession of advertising there has been an erosion of ethics?

Ambi: We are seeing a lot of erosion of values in society around us, and we see this all around us every day. But that said, I don't think I have noticed any major change in the ethics of the advertising professionals. In fact the industry has set up bodies that serve as watchdogs; be it ASCI or other industry bodies like AAAI.

Ag: Is advertising more outspoken and young today?

Ambi: The industry is continuing to attract bright young talent and I am happy to see so many young people rising to leadership positions in agencies. Look at the flush of young film makers, photographers, and so on. I think the young in the industry need to speak out a lot more than what they are doing. They need to speak of what they want the seniors to do, and what they can do to make the industry better. Are all of them entering the industry for awards? Or are they here to pass time till they get to direct a feature film? Or is the pot of gold going to be at the end of an ad film making company?

How about entering advertising because it is an exciting career option that is mentally challenging and stimulating. How about entering advertising because it throws up greater variety on any week than any other career? How about entering advertising because it is all about changing habits of people, getting them to use new products and services? How about entering advertising because it allows you to interact with the creative arts, music, films, photography etc on a day to day basis?Can we have people who enter advertising because it is a great profession?

Ag: What roadmap have you charted for the agency now and are you looking at strengthening your digital offering?

Ambi: We had set up a digital unit in Mumbai to handle some of our key clients. The digital team today has the capabilities of delivering full fledged online campaigns, design websites, social media campaigns, online media planning/buying, search engine optimisation/ marketing, viral campaigns, online engagement campaigns etc. We have delivered online campaigns for clients in a wide range of industries including consumer products, automotive, financial services, IT etc.

We are planning to have these learning transported to other key cities of India, in the next few months. We are also looking at building some muscle in the back end so that we can deliver complete solutions seamlessly to clients.

Ag: Draftfcb Ulka is in its 50th year of operations, what do you have to say about it?

Ambi: I am proud of being part of this 50 Year heritage; all of us on the Management Board of this company have a great legacy to carry on; a legacy of being trusted partners for clients, staff and associates. No company can complete a successful 50 year run if it did not have its DNA right. We believe Ulka has the right DNA to continue at the top of the game for another 50 years.

We have lined up a number of events through the year including client celebrations, internal parties, books, seminars, workshops. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]