A City Boy to a Rural Specialist

                                                                    Part -1

( Excerpted from my book on rural marketing titled `Don`t Flirt with rural marketing)

I am a city boy who  spent the first 29 years of my life in an urban environment. I was brought up in Bombay, as it was called then. I was still in school, when I first visited Rayalacheruvu a village  in Andhra Pradesh,. My maternal uncle was the Assistant Station Master there. It is a small station near Guntakal on the Chennai-Mumbai line. The visit gave me a taste of life in rural India. A taste that would lead to my getting involved in   rural marketing later in life. A good case study of a city boy becoming a rural specialist!

The modest quarters that my uncle’s family lived in was close to the railway station. Whenever a train stopped, the station became a beehive of activity—with travellers, vendors and beggars running around. For me and my sister, visiting the station two or three times a day became the desired pastime. After each train left, the lone tea stall holder would offer us a cup of hot tea with some biscuits—a privilege, courtesy our uncle, we looked forward to.

Not far from the station, there was a big well. My uncle and his colleagues used to swim there regularly. My uncle used to force me to take a dip holding me tight in his hands. A mere seven years old, I was scared of the water and used to scream, mad with fear. But I knew that my uncle meant well. He used to take us all on bullock carts to the nearby village haat (the weekly market). While my aunt busied herself with purchasing the many items needed for a household, we youngsters used to have fun playing games and gawking at the wares that were arrayed for sale. In the course of my career as a rural marketing specialist, I have visited many weekly haats in different parts of the country; yet that first visit is still green in my memory.

One thing I remember vividly about the visits to my uncle’s village, are the trips to the touring talkies. We went almost every Friday, to watch a new movie being screened. The ‘theatre’ was a temporary structure. The front part of the ‘theatre’ was for those people who sat down on the floor, some actually preferred. to lie down, and was called the ‘tharai’ ticket (floor ticket). The more genteel ‘balcony’ was at the back, and was separated from the front portion by means of a cloth partition. The higher rated ‘balcony’ was furnished with chairs. As an Assistant Station Master, my uncle was considered an important enough man in the village to get free tickets to sit in the balcony (!).Another thing that I clearly remember about my visits is that practically every day villagers would come to give us some of their farm produce, be it fruit or vegetable. Life in the village was not easy then, as there was neither electricity nor any other conveniences which city folks are used to. . All the same it was a different kind of holiday experience both my sister and I enjoyed as kids.

                                

                                      City boy to a Rural Specialist- Part 2

 

The next brush I had with rural India was in 1972 when I was associated with a Communication Education Programme on Nutrition in rural UP & AP for CARE, an NGO headquartered in US working in the area of Health & Nutrition. As part of its ongoing efforts, to choose a right communication strategy, CARE decided to conduct a study on Nutrition Education in rural India.and based on the findings  develop a communication strategy to be tested in two States before rolling it out nationally.

Advertising Consultants India Ltd., ACIL, as associate company of Clarion Advertising, where I was working , was appointed as the agency to handle the account. Tara Sinha,  CEO of the agency was  heading the task force. I was part of this team and it was my first experience of rural India as an ad professional. Based on market research findings we recommended two alternative communication strategies—one ‘positive’ to be tested in the villages of Uttar Pradesh and another ‘negative’ to be tested in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. While the positive campaign tried to highlight the benefits of good nutrition, the negative campaign  exploited the  ill effects of bad nutrition. I remember that the theatre film for the negative approached for AP was produced by Krishnaswamy Associates of Chennai and the film for UP in Hindi was produced by M.S.Sathyu of Garm Hawa fame. In the  absence of TV every other possible  media, both conventional and unconventional, were  used to discover their relative impacts. At CARE, a benchmark study and a post study were conducted by Ronald  Parlato, who was in charge of the project.The post study revealed that the negative approach, using fear, worked better than the positive approach. It also revealed the importance of the language press in reaching the opinion leaders in the villages.

 

A report prepared by Ron on the study, was printed and circulated to the relevant government departments and also to the media. Thanks to the publicity this generated, ACIL was approached by Madras Fertilizers Ltd. (MFL), a fertilizer company headquartered in Chennai to pitch for the change of name campaign (from MFL to Vijay Fertilizers). Tara Sinha assigned the project to Subash Chakravarthy, who undertook an exhaustive desk research and came up with an excellent background note on the fertilizer industry based on which we worked out a strategy. Tara Sinha and I presented it to client at their  office in Chennai. I remember both of us taking a Dakota flight from Delhi to Chennai via Nagpur. It was an aircraft that was used to carry mail in the nights, with only limited passenger capacity. We took that flight to save on cost, in spite of it being very uncomfortable! The client was thrilled with the insights we brought to the table and decided to award the account to us. There was great jubilation back in the agency as we had managed to wrest the account from JWT, the No. 1 agency in the country. I did not realize at that time (in 1973) that this was going to be the beginning of my long association with rural markets!

 

                          A City boy to Rural Specialist – Part 3

 

 In 1974, I moved over to head the Chennai office of Grant Kenyon & Eckhardt, a multinational agency. This was the No.2 Agency in the country in late fifties and early sixties.

I had the experience of  handling FMCG accounts like Forhans toothpaste, Colgate, Coke, Nestle etc. in the first decade of my career. When I shifted to Chennai, I found that there were hardly any FMCG brands to handle. When I heard that Shaw Wallace Agri Division was inviting agencies for a pitch, I immediately decided to try my luck.

Using the knowledge I had gained about the fertilizer market, while handling the Madras Fertilizers (MFL) account in ACIL, I pitched for the agri-business of Shaw Wallace. Clarion was the incumbent agency and R.K. Swamy, who had started his own setup a couple of years earlier, was also in the fray. `My big boss Tuku Ganguli came from Bombay on the day of the presentation to hold my hands! Impressed by the deep understanding of the fertilizer market evident in the presentation, Grant was awarded the fertilizer account (a part of the agri-division). It was not a big account, but for me it was an important breakthrough in the Madras market. Word spread around that despite  stiff competition, Grant Madras headed by a young man had managed to get the Shaw Wallace account,

 

. I had to put together a small team to handle the Shaw Wallace account .In the next two years, we did some good work for Shaw Wallace, which helped us bag the pesticides division’s account as well. To help develop effective communication packages, I started travelling extensively in the interiors of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where Shaw Wallace’s products were popular. I accompanied their sales force, meeting farmers and dealers. As part of the exercise, I spent time at dealer outlets, observing the purchasing habits of the farmers visiting the shops. I would go into the field shooting pictures of crops at different stages. I did not hesitate to share the frugal meals offered by some  farmers, sitting cross legged on the floor inside their modest homes.

There were days during my travel when I did not get any decent food to eat and had to be content with bananas and tea!

 

I remember a particular visit accompanying the AV van in the hill districts of Kodaikanal. After an arduous and rough journey through the mountain roads on a jeep, along with the Shaw Wallace team, we reached a village where we were to conduct a show in the evening. As we had reached by early noon, we spent some time talking to a farmer harvesting mountain garlic; a specialty in the area. This farmer was also the sole dealer of Shaw Wallace, serving a few villages nearby. The evening came and the projection team took out the 16 mm projector and was ready to show a popular Tamil film interspersed with  the promotional films of the company.

 

As the show time approached, there was a lot of excitement and a large crowd had gathered. As the show progressed, I realized that the audience constituted of 80% children and the remaining were men and women who were not the target audience of the products we were trying to promote. Some of the farmers who were expected to come had not turned up. They had gone to sleep after imbibing the ‘millie’ (country liquor known as ‘Nautak’ in the North), after a hard day’s work in the field.

The same picture was painted in the other villages where we had our shows. But the reports from the van crew talked about the success of the shows based on the number of people who attended the get-together. I was appalled and it got me thinking. The ideas that I recommended to clients based on these visits not only helped me earn more respect from them but also enhanced my reputation as a rural communication specialist. This led to my agency bagging the prestigious MRF Farm Tyres account.  Another important turning point in my professional career.

 

`                                          A City boy to Rural Specialist -Part 4

 

During my travels in the hinterland of South India, I also had the opportunity to visit a number of Haats or Sandhais/Chandies (weekly markets) visited by people from twenty to thirty villages nearby. Chandies were  held on the same day, time and venue every week. It was a great opportunity for marketers interested in rural marketing to promote their products. Though a few companies like HUL, ITC, Brooke Bond, and Aspro were already utilizing the Haats for their promotional activities, the idea I came up with for Shaw Wallace was a magic show  with a difference to be performed by a trained magician in Haats..

!

The difference for Shaw Wallace, was in blending the product story with the magic trick. We had to study all the tricks performed by the magician and identify items which could  be used in our shows.I also explained to our client, that conducting several shows in a day at the Haats, not only helped us reach a focused target audience of farmers, but also helped us reduce the cost per contact; because we were reaching more people from more villages for the same cost. While the results were encouraging, the efforts also taught us some useful lessons. Based on the experience, I wrote an article that was published by ‘Industrial Times’ the only business magazine of the time edited by Subash Rele. The review of my piece in the  popular weekly column of the legendary adman Mr.K. Kurien of Radeus Advertising in the Economic Times under the pen name ‘Zachary‘ got me some recognition in the marketing world as someone who was trying to do things differently in terms of rural initiatives.

 

 Later, when my agency bagged the Farm Tyre Division of MRF to handle their bullock cart and tractor tyre accounts, I applied the lessons I had learnt earlier in developing strategies for MRF. To promote bullock cart tyres, I recommended a slide and tape presentation at the weekly Haats in the UP market. It was a ‘first of its kind’ promotion. As the Haats were held during day times,  we had to provide a black cloth canopy on the back of the van to provide enough shade so that visuals projected from the van on the screen using back projector technique was reasonably visible to a group of fifty to sixty people. Further I recommended a journey cycle plan for the AV van which was considered unique at that time.

 

 As against the van  programmes prevailing then  where  Vans travelled from one end of the State to the other end without any breaks for the crew  leading to many setbacks in  the schedule, , I developed a plan under which the whole programme was centred round a district headquarters town, or a feeder market town. As soon as the van reached the town, the crew checked into a hotel and reported to the leading dealer of the town, who was roped in to supervise the programme. The journey cycle was such that the Haats to be visited were within 50 to 60 km radius of the town. Every morning, the van would proceed to a pre-determined site, conduct the show and return to the hotel in the evening; so that the van crew could rest and recoup. Besides, since their location was known during those ten days, communication with the families was possible. And if there was any change in programme, because of any unexpected development, the lead dealer was kept informed. If and when the company executives came for surprise checks, they could first check with the dealer, and then proceed straight to the village concerned. The whole process helped in vastly improving the performance of the van crew, besides drastically reducing the wastage of time and resources. Though this kind of journey cycle plans has become very popular these days, thirty years ago, we were the pioneers. Besides, these days, mobile  technology has made a huge  difference in dealing with rural markets.

 

 A City boy to Rural Specialist -Part 5

 

The year 1986 saw me turning into an entrepreneur after 22 years of service in two multinational agencies.. It was the year when Grant decided to merge with Contract Advertising, an associate company in the JWT Group. As I had opposed the merger, I quit my job and  started Anugrah Marketing & Advertising as a fully accredited  advertising agency  handling  both rural and general campaigns for a variety of clients. All our rural campaigns in the initial years were for  agri- input clients like Shaw Wallace, EID Parry, MRF (Farm Tyre Division), T Stanes, Mahindra Pumpsets etc.

 

Only in 1997, Anugrah, for the first time  got an opportunity to handle a major rural initiative for the Consumer Electronics Division of Philips in Tamil Nadu. The agency which was until then was dealing with only farmers , had to come up with a campaign targeting the entire rural community – young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, farmers and others. It was a fascinating experience. The `Enga Veettu Super Star – Philips` campaign  that the agency developed helped Philips register a substantial incremental sales when the whole consumer durable  industry was seeing a down turn.  It became a successful case study widely covered by business magazines of the time. The campaign helped Anugrah to get national recognition. It also brought the legendary Sam Balsara of the Madison World fame to our door steps.

 

Impressed with our credentials and experience in rural marketing, Sam Balsara mooted the idea of a joint venture with Anugrah  to be positioned as the rural division of Madison Communication and to  be called Anugrah Madison. This happened in 1998.The association with Madison certainly did open the doors of many blue chip clients to us but  did not result in addition of big business . The real breakthrough came  only when we began to handle  major integrated campaigns in rural India for  Shriram Transport Finance and ACC Cements.  Over the years  Anugrah Madison handled rural assignments for a long roster of blue chip clients gaining enormous insights into the functioning of rural markets.

 

At the end of the third year of the joint venture,  I realized the need for doing something to fight competition from agencies like Ogilvy Outreach and Linterland (both having pan India presence and also support from Hindustan Lever). I mooted the idea of starting a ‘Rural Network’ consisting of single branch agencies known for their involvement in rural marketing. Out of the seven agencies I contacted, Kashyap of Mart, Patankar of Sampark and Pradeep Lokhande of Rural Relations attended the first meeting in Delhi.

The Rural Network, was an informal association of four leading rural marketing specialists, with subject and regional specializations. The group had come together, to form a business alliance to take on the competition from multinational agencies. Though we did not land a single big assignment, all of us benefited from some business leads we got through reference from other members of the network. More than the business, the four of us became good friends ( we continue to be), regularly exchanging notes and gaining new knowledge on the subject. In this, the contribution of Kashyap of Mart, who was the first to respond to the idea of the ‘Rural Network’ was  phenomenal. His vast knowledge base of the subject, and also his ability to articulate his thoughts lucidly became an important asset to the network.

 

Once again, based on my initiative we converted the Rural Network into Rural Marketing Agencies Association of India (now known as Rural Marketing Association of India - RMAI)— an industry body to promote the cause of rural marketing in India and also help dispel several myths about Rural marketing. RMAI was formally launched in April 2005 at a press meet in Mumbai with 11 founder members that included big names like Ogilvy Outreach, Linterland, RC&M, Impact Communications et al.

 

I was elected the First President of RMAI at the ripe age of sixty three. My dream of presiding over an all India body had become a reality. I continued in the role for four years and thoroughly enjoyed being a spokesperson for the rural marketing industry. At a personal level, I had completed my dream journey, that began at Rayalacheruvu in Andhra and took me through all the pristine hinterlands of the country. In the process, I had  evolved from a city boy to a rural marketing specialist.  I was happy when RMAI recognized my contribution to the subject when I was conferred  the Life Time Achievement Award in 2009. It was at a two in one function of RMAI in Chennai where my autobiography `Courage my Companion` was also released. I continued my association with Rural marketing for a few more years until the publication of my book titled Don`t Flirt with Rural Marketing` in 2013. The book published by  Productivity & Quality Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Chennai became my swan song for a career I pursued  for over forty years.

 

These days I am enjoying my new Avatar as a writer/author, far removed from the  world of marketing and advertising! (Concluded)

Is Forgetfulness a Disease?

`Forgive and forget’ goes the old saying. But people affected by your forgetfulness are not willing to forgive you. Forgetfulness is a disease which every human being experiences in his/her lifetime. The disease is generally expected to attack people in their old age. But these days, even small kids complain of forgetfulness–not just relating to what they have studied for exams but even simple instructions that their parents give them. The most common loss of memory relates to birthdays and wedding anniversaries. How many times have you waited for a call from your son, daughter or spouse, wishing you a happy birthday or anniversary, only to find that the call never comes, nor does the gift!. These days Whats App has solved this problem. One person in a group sends a birthday greeting and every one else follows the leader like sheeps. There are people who believe in taking the bull by the horns and telling the person concerned about the importance of the date and demanding a gift! My late wife used an interesting route to solve the problem. She would buy the gift that she thought she deserved for her birthday/wedding anniversary, and tactfully present the bill to me on D-Day–knowing pretty well that I would not reject it. Clever, don’t you agree? Here are some kinds of forgetfulness that cause you embarrassment on a day-to-day basis: You ring up a number but forget what number it was that you dialled. And hesitantly ask the person who picks up the phone ‘Sorry, what number is this?’ Often the response is a furious: ‘You dialled the number, you should know’. And the call is promptly disconnected. The most frequent embarrassment I face is when I ring up somebody and say ‘Sorry Ganesh, I forgot what I called you for. Will call again when I remember!’ And there are instances of forgetfulness which are ridiculous:- Like searching for your spectacles all over the house when it is safely pushed up on your forehead! Or religiously preparing a checklist of things that you want to buy but forgetting to take it with you when you go shopping. The most common form of forgetfulness is when you keep something safely in a place and forget where you kept it when you need it urgently. Oh! The list is endless! Sometimes your forgetfulness can create havoc or lead to a major or minor crisis in your life! I want to share with you an incident from my life 35 years ago–when I was panic stricken because of a temporary memory loss! I had gone to Gorakhpur in Eastern UP to make a surprise check on an audio visual campaign for a tyre company which was to start the following day in a nearby village. Since I had checked into the hotel early and my evening was free, I decided to go for the evening show of a movie ‘Ardh Sathya’ featuring actor Ompuri,. I took a cycle rickshaw, carrying with me just enough cash to pay for the outing. The movie started and as I was beginning to get engrossed in it, I suddenly realized that I could not remember either the name or the address of the hotel where I was staying. All my efforts to dredge up the details from my brain were in vain. I started imagining the worst case scenario-lost on the streets of Gorakhpur, running from street to street to locate the hotel late into the night, sleeping on the pavement. With the poor telecom facilities prevailing then (no mobiles for instant connectivity), the idea of checking with my colleague back in Chennai at that hour, did not seem practical. I did not know a soul in the town and even the address of the local dealer was safe in my brief case back in the hotel. It was one of the worst 60 minutes I spent in my life before the intermission came. As I moved out of the auditorium to get a cup of tea in the makeshift restaurant inside the cinema hall, I suddenly saw the familiar face of the supervisor of the AV van whose team had also come to watch the movie. Without wasting any time on formalities I asked the guy whether he remembered the name of the hotel where I had checked in. He gave me a funny look and told me that the team was supposed to report to me next morning at Hotel Bambino on such and such street, where I was supposed to be staying. I thanked him profusely and sheepishly told him about my temporary amnesia, and we all had a hearty laugh. Needless to say, I watched the rest of the movie with total peace of mind.

Adventures

Book Review 

                AD Ventures: Reliving the Golden Era of Advertising

                                               by Dr.T.S.Nagarajan

This book by a veteran research analyst describes the path breaking advertising campaigns created by JWT/HTA during the years 1963 to 1973. As a core member of a group of dedicated advertising professionals led by the doyen of advertising  Mr. R.K.Swamy,  the author was fortunate to be involved with every one of the advertising campaigns that came out of  JWT during that period,  enabling him to offer the readers  a ringside view of the successes engineered by the group. As Mr N.Murali says in his Foreword,` It is a throwback to a bygone era of glorious , path-breaking, professional work.`

Nagarajan who acquired his doctorate in Astrology after he moved to USA in 1992, post retirement, has more than four decades of experience in marketing & advertising research . With a string of degrees in mathematics, teaching, economics, management and Sanskrit and a Diploma in statistics, he joined the Census department in 1961.  An accidental meeting with a friend landed him with a job in JWT, Madras in 1963, as a research executive. He quit JWT in 1973 and had  a brief stint with Ashok Leyland as a Publicity Manager. In 1975  he started his own market research company called CAMRA ( Communications & Market Research Analysis), which he wound up  in 1992 when decided to  migrate to USA to live with his sons.

The book, which deals with his experience in JWT, Madras between 1963-73,  is  divided into four parts.  Part 1  deals with  the professional set up in JWT then and extensively talks about the advertising tools adopted by JWT to create meaningful creative ads for its  clients. In Part 2 , the author, through 15 case studies covering  big names  like, HMT, BHEL, MFL, TTK Prestige, Binny, Ti Cycles, IOB, Amrutanjan, EID Parrys, Ashok Leyland, MICO, TVS  &  Ponds   explains the background to various campaigns bringing out every aspect of the campaign strategy. He also  briefly touches on the success or failure of the campaigns. Each case study is illustrated with reprints of Print advertisements,  used for the campaign, sourced from The Hindu archives.

While Part 3 briefly talks about his activities post his stint with JWT , the last part gives a glimpse about his early days and his journey in life with many ups & Downs.

According to Nagarajan the decade of 1963-73 was not only a golden period in the history of JWT, Chennai but for the whole advertising industry in Chennai. JWT achieved many firsts during this period like breaking  the lethargy and resistance to advertising in Public Sector Undertakings. It made them believe in the power of advertising and they became the major contributors to advertising revenue of the agency during the period. A new wave of advertising campaigns based on solid research for products and services helped clients understand the profile of their customers and find new users and new uses for them.  Many conservative consumer industries in the South were persuaded to accept the concept of integrated approach to marketing  and advertising.

The shifting of one major consumer account Pond`s from Bombay to JWT Chennai, opened up great opportunities for the development of infrastructure needed for the advertising industry in Chennai. New investments in printing, block making, film production, were made. Demand for ad professionals in copywriting, commercial art, modeling and research arose resulting in new job opportunities.

The author also says ,` the period was also one of remarkable change in the outlook of those born post independence who had opted for more liberal style. It was an era that saw more of `product class` promotion than `brand selling`  since customers had to be weaned away from the traditional perception of the usage of the products. Advertising was a major factor in bringing about that change…. JWT can take pride in that it was a major catalyst for this development  and a number of path-breaking advertising was produced by the creative team of of the agency during the period`.

There is also a reference in the book  to Umesh Rao, the legendary Art Director of the agency as the creator of the famous Air India mascot- The Maharaja, though the full credit for it has been always given to Bobby Kooka , the Commercial Manager of AIR INDIA at that time.

The book is indeed a valuable addition to the literature on advertising and market research in this part of the world. Published by the Chennai based Cre-A publishers, the hard cover edition of this book with 142 pages is priced at Rs 699/- and is available with the publishers. Visit www.crea.in

Growth of Advertising in Chennai

 

Mass media as we understand today took roots with the establishment of Print media in the  West during the 17^th century., which offered opportunities to reach a large and dispersed audience simultaneously.  It was East India Company of the British Empire that brought this media to India and to Chennai.

Evolution of Print media

Newspaper publishing started in Chennai with the launch of a weekly, The Madras Courier, in 1785. It was followed by the weeklies The Madras Gazzette and The Government Gazzette in 1795. The Spectator, founded in 1836, was the first English newspaper in Chennai to be owned by an Indian and became the city's first daily newspaper in 1853.

Early advertisements in Madras Courier  were in the form of classifieds.

In 1851 the Madras Almanac & Compendium of Intelligence carried public auctions, theft, theatre, birth and death announcements. 

In 1860 came the ‘Fort St. George Gazette and the Madras Times.  And it was in 1870 that the Madras Mail which occupied a pride of place on Mount Road was started.

In the decades that followed several Tamil publications were launched: 1881 – Swadesamitran (Tamil weekly), 1888 – Jana Vridhi, 1894 – Gnana Banu (religious weekly), 1897 - Pariyan (A Dalit weekly) – all of which carried relevant classified announcements.  But the history of journalism  and advertising in Madras, is very much linked to the growth of the MahaVishnu of Mount Road – The Hindu. While in the early years Madras Mail ( later became The Mail) was credited with introducing new printing technologies,  Hindu, under G.Kasturi became a trend setter in introducing  several innovations not only in terms of printing technology but also in terms of distribution. Hindu was the first publishing house to own aircrafts to distribute the paper to different cities and introduced facsimile editions of its paper printed from different centres.

Started in 1878 by G Subramania Aiyar as a weekly tabloid with M Veeraraghava Chariar as partner Hindu became a daily newspaper in 1889 which was bought over by Kasturi Iyengar in 1905.

It is interesting to note that in the initial years the first page of the paper was entirely devoted to advertising – mostly classifieds covering a range of topics from ballroom dancing to widow remarriage!

Several other publications followed , significant among them being Ananda Bodhini (1920), Ananda Vikatan (1926) and Indian Express (1938) all of which were successful in getting advertising  support for their publications.

Today, Chennai has six major print media groups that publish about eight major newspapers and magazines. The major English dailies are The Times of India, The Hindu, The New Indian Express and The Deccan Chronicle; evening dailies: The Trinity Mirror and The News Today. As of today, The Hindu is the city's most read English newspaper, with a daily circulation of over 5.5 lakh copies. The major business dailies published from the city are The Economic Times, The Hindu Business Line, Business Standard, and The Financial Express. The major Tamil dailies include the Dina Thanthi, Dinakaran, Dina Mani, Dina Malar, Tamizh Ossai, Tamil Murasu, News Today, Makkal Kural and Malai Malar.

Hundreds of magazines are today published from Chennai. The popular ones are Ananda Vikatan, Kumudam, Kalki, Nakkheeran,  Kungumam, Swathi (Telugu magazine), Frontline and Sportstar

Chennai was also a pioneer in starting free community newspapers. South Madras News by Speciality Publications owned by R.Desikan was the first community newspaper of India started  in 1974.  Today apart from the popular neighbourhood newspapers such as The Annanagar Times and The Adyar Times there are a whole host of neighborhood  papers catering  to particular localities all carrying local news and  advertisements targeted at specific target audiences. Madras  also has  a fortnightly exclusively devoted  to Madras  city & its heritage called Madras Musings - A Tabloid supported by  the leading corporates of Chennai and edited by S.Muthiah the well know Chronicler of Madras and Heritage specialist.

Newspaper representatives to advertising agents

Contribution of the legendary S S Vasan (Gemini Film fame) and T Sadasivam in the growth of the advertising business in Madras  during the 1930s is significant.  Vasan was into mail order and publishing business.  He started Vasan Advertising Centre canvassing advertisements for various newspapers and getting commission from them – one of the early  representatives of advertising agency business. He bought out Ananda Vikatan and also started  Merry Magazine in English.  Ananda Vikatan which was being edited by another legendary Tamil writer- Kalki Krishnamurthy had T Sadasivam as the advertisement representative charged with the responsibility of getting new advertisement business.  Sadasivam had a flair for writing very persuasive direct mailers appealing for advertisements.  It is said, thanks to Sadasivam’s efforts advertising income of Ananda Vikatan went up from Rs.6,000/- to Rs.72,000/- in six months.

Sadasivam left Ananda Vikatan  and started  Kalki with Krishnamurthy as the Editor. The magazine became a big success thanks to the popular historical novels penned by `Kalki`and serialized in the magazine week after week.

Paper advertisements in those days covered products like Keshavardhini Hair Oil, Asoka Beetlenut powder, Amrutanjan, Narasus Coffee, Binny & Co, Westend Watch Co., Himalaya snow, Horlicks Malted Milk, cars like Rover, Morris, Murphy radio, Macleans toothpaste, Andrews Liver salt etc apart from advertisements for announcing new film releases.

One of the earliest full fledged advertising agency was started by P S Mani Aiyer in 1939.  Mr. Aiyar began  his advertising career by canvassing advertisements for Swadesamitran and the Hindu.  It is said that he got 25% commission from these  newspapers for the ads he got for them.  Simpson and Spencer & Co were two of his well known clients.  He had innovative ideas.  He hired artists to create advertisements with interesting visuals. He is supposed to have persuaded Simpson & Co,  dealers of cars, to offer cars on hire purchase.  A car costing Rs.3,500/- was available on a monthly instalment of Rs.100/-.

Later V.G.Panneerdas & Co, popularly known as VGP made the hire purchase system popular for all types of consumer durables among middle class  households  making extensive use of Print and out door media.

It was in the early 1930s that advertisements which were essentially classified ads started getting a  new look with the introduction of visuals to support the catchy copy matter. Line  drawings and half tone prints of human figures were used to make the advertisements more attractive.

 The 1940s saw a number  of local agencies being started  like United India Publicity  Company(UIPC) (1939), Eastern Advertising(1944), Elegant Publicities (1945), Federal Advertising and Criterion Publicities (1946) . UIPC was perhaps the first among the Madras based agencies to get accreditation from Indian Newspaper Society (INS). D J Keymer  & Co. was the only multinational agency headquartered in Calcutta to have a branch in Madras at that time.  It was soon to be followed by F D Stewarts, Grant Advertising (1954) with Lance Dane as the Manager and J Walter Thompson (1955) with R K Swamy as its Manager. Umesh Rao, the art director who was working with JWT Madras around the time is credited with creating the famous drawing of the `Maharaja` mascot for AIR INDIA, conceived by Bobby Khooka of AIR INDIA.

Credit for introducing professionalism into the  advertising scene in Madras must go to R K Swamy.  He not only used research for the first time to develop effective advertising strategies  but also came  out with some very creative ads for his clients like TVS & T.I Cycles.

‘Set your watch on the arrival of a TVS bus’; ‘You can trust TVS’; ‘Hercules  Cycle – your life time companion` were headlines of some of the famous ads he and his team created.

When JWT denied Swamy  the CEO`s  post, he quit his job to start R K Swamy Associates in 1972. In addition to walking away with some prestigious clients of JWT Madras, he persuaded several large public sector undertakings to do advertising for the first time to build a good image for themselves.  Some of the ads that his agency created for BHEL, ONGC and SAIL are trail blazing  efforts of the time. His son Srinivasan K Swamy as the current chairman of the group has not only helped the group march forward with many diversifications but is, like his father, doing his bit for the cause of advertising through his involvement with several industry bodies.  He has the  distinction of being the President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAof I), a premier industry body, for three consecutive years.

Another legend Mani (S R) Aiyar  based in Madras office of BOMAS in the sixties was a hard core professional who made significant contribution to the Madras Advertising scene when he was in Madras.

Though 70s and 80s saw a steady growth of advertising business in Madras it was during the late 90s that Madras gained greater  importance in the world of advertising thanks to the influx of a number of new MNCs like Hyundai, Ford, Renault, BMW, Nokia, Citi Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and others. Even software giants like TCS and Infosys established large  bases in Madras – all leading to increased advertising spend originating from Madras. It was also the time when a few local brands like Cavin Care, the wellknown FMCG group, were putting their roots in the marketing world which were to give a tough fight to the multinationals  in later years.

Meanwhile, Madras had already become a retail capital of India. Departmental stores like Spencers and retail chains like Viveks, which had their origins in Madras, inspired a whole lot of new groups to enter the field. New textile and jewellery showrooms like Chennai Silks, Pothys, RMKVs, Saravanas, Princes and Joy Alukkas appeared on the scene dominated earlier by Nallis, Kumarans, Vummidis and Nathellas. These new retailers splurged big on media advertising, even putting many of the FMCG brands to shame in terms of advertising spend.

The 1980s to 90s saw almost all leading multinational agencies opening their branches in Madras.  Thanks to the efforts  of some of the best creative minds of these agencies, the standard of advertising, especially print & TV advertising went up,  reflecting in the top quality of advertisements generated at that time. This was the period when  advertising business in Chennai was at its peak..

Many local agencies started by executives and creative heads who left the multinational organizations to start on their own also contributed significantly to the growth in the standard & quality of advertising. One of the earliest was Gopulu, the well known cartoonist with Ananda Vikatan  who teamed with Mrs Vimala to start an agency called `Adwave advertising` which created  some interesting campaigns for the Madras based Shriram group.

Fountainhead, Insight Advertising, Rubecon etc. not only created good advertisements which won awards but also helped build brands.

Insights` efforts for Solidaire TV, Reubicon`s efforts to build a national brand ‘Color Plus’ a ready made garment unit operating from Ambattur near Madras are well known case studies.

Thanks to the growth of Television in the 90s, importance of print media for promoting Fast Moving consumer Goods (FMCGs), Consumer Durables and other services started going down from early 2000. Today print media is dominated by advertisements from retailers (Jewellery / Textiles), Real estate promoters, automobile companies apart from a whole list of educational institutions.  Consumer durable companies use the media only for promoting their discount sales during festival season or for announcing new launches.  The trend has definitely affected the volume of business emanating from Madras for print media.

Radio advertising

Until early 60s only print and outdoor advertising were popular.  However, in the early 60s Radio Ceylon  started offering commercial services to Indian advertisers  as AIR did not allow commercials to be played. Radio Ceylon  was represented in India by Radio Advertising Services owned by the Sayani brothers (Hamid &Amin) with headquarters in Bombay. S.V.Venkatraman ( father of actor S.V.Sekhar) was the manager of Radio Advertising in Madras. In addition L.R.Swamy & Co was also allowed to canvass advertisements for Radio Ceylon.

Thanks to the wide coverage of Radio Ceylon across the length and breath of India Mayilvahanan a popular Tamil voice and Amin Sayani of the Binaca Geethmala fame became household names in the 60s & 70s. Some of the memorable radio spots of the time were for brands like Gopal Tooth Powder, Ponvandu Soap & Woodwards Gripe mixture apart from Tamil versions of the well known multinational brands like Colgate Dental Cream,  Lifebouy Soap, Lux etc.

Though Vivid Bharathi was started by AIR in 1967 as a commercial service to counter the popularity of Radio Ceylon it never reached the heights of Radio Ceylon as an advertising medium because of the restrictions the government  imposed on the duration  & frequency of commercials.

Radio broadcasting in Madras  started from the radio station at the Rippon Buildings complex, founded in 1930 and was then shifted to All India Radio`s own premises  in 1938. The city has two AM and fifteen FM radio stations, operated by Anna University,

M.O.P. Vaishnav College, All India Radio and many private broadcasters.

 Starting of the FM stations by AIR and opening the radio medium to the private sector has favourably impacted this medium. These FM radio stations operating out of Madras offer 24x7 interesting programmes aimed at attracting a wide spectrum of audiences especially the youth which is moving out of the Print medium. However Radio is more popular as a mobile medium as people listen to it while they are commuting by bus, two wheelers or four wheelers. The extensive reach of mobiles with radio listening facility

has certainly made radio more popular. Because of  the focused target audience it offers Radio as an advertising medium is bound to grow as evident from the growing popularity of many of the FM channels in Chennai.

Film / TV Advertising

Madras in the earlier days was producing not only Tamil cinema, but was the hub of Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam cinemas. And later it grew in to a big industry. Cinema advertising, in the form of one minute ad films in all cinema halls across Tamilnadu  was started by the founder of AVM studios operating under the name of  Central Publicity which was  later bought over by Blaze advertising, Mumbai.  Cinema was a leading advertising medium of the time.

During the 70s and 80s.  film  advertising in Madras , essentially consisted of dubbed versions of Hindi/English spots produced in Bombay for famous brands, played in cinema theatres. Many of these commercials did not connect with local audiences because  they not only featured North Indian models but also the language used were totally outdated having been translated by writers in Bombay who had moved out of Madras decades earlier. To this scene entered S Krishnaswamy  of Krishnaswamy Associates,  the well known documentary producer and his brother S V Ramanan who attempted to create some original commercials in Tamil aimed at the Tamil audience.  Krishnaswamy even tried using puppetary animation  for promoting MFL (Madras Fertilizers Ltd.). 

Asian Games in 1982 opened up colour television and TV spots in colour came into vogue.  For quite some time even television commercials beamed on local DD continued to be dubbed versions of Bombay Production Houses.

Entry of Jayendra Panchpakesan, an ex-copy writer and film writer and P C Sriram the well known cinematographer / Director who together started  J S Films, changed all that.  As a team they came up with some good concepts and executed the same to the demanding standards of the Bombay advertising world.  Their role in helping create  famous brands like Rasna (I love you Rasna), BPL (Home Alone), Regaul  (Chottu Neelam) is well known in the industry.  At one stage they were flooded with assignments from all leading advertising agencies from Bombay handling a host of multinational brands.

Over a period of time the team split and Jayendra started Real Image, India`s leading provider of technology in the film, video and audio domains.  He also launched QCN – a digital out of home advertising solution provider with central  monitoring and control facility. Real Image also represents several global players in the field in India and abroad

Another Madras based advertising film producer who caught  the imagination of the Bombay Advertising world was Rajiv Menon who is also well known as a cinematographer and Director.  He produced some memorable ad films for Asian Paints and Titan watches.

The Madras ad world can be proud that it nurtured some of today’s celebrities during their days of struggle. Today’s icon A R Rehman was popular as Dilip in his earlier avatar – he used to compose advertising jingles for many products in his spare time. He pioneered the concept of composing background music for a jingle on his Casio keyboard and recording it with a dummy voice or his own, before calling a professional singer to sing the jingle -- saving a lot of time and money in the process.

Balakrishnan (Balki) National Creative Director of Lowe Lintas is another contribution  from Chennai to the national advertising scene.  He is also well known as a Director of feature films having directed Amitabh Bachchan  in his films- Cheeni Kum & Paa. 

Senthil from JWT Madras who conceived  the  Cannes Award winning Naka Mooka commercial for Times of India is another Madras boy who is doing well on the national advertising scene.

M.G.(Ambi) Parameshwaran and Ramanujam Sridhar are the other Madras boys  known for their intellectual contribution to the advetrtising field in the form of books on Branding &  Advertising based on their long association with the advertising business.

Outdoor:

Madras was well known for the huge, larger than life, hoardings on Mount Road promoting new and old feature films.  The idea was first conceived by the legendary film director S.S. Vasan for the block buster movie Chandralekha in the early 50s.  The idea caught on and over the years not only films but also products and services of all types started featuring their messages  on hoardings occupying every vantage point on the roads of Madras, leading to mindless  growth of the media.  Many accidents later the State Government passed a law in 2008 barring hoardings in public places.

 For over four decades thousands of talented artists made a living out of manually painting the big hoardings using miniature drawings as reference.  The advent of the easy to assemble flexi sheets printed with the hoarding messages, threw those talented people out of job. The banning of the medium completely in Chennai  has left many people dependent on this medium literally on the streets.

Technology has opened up new avenues for outdoor display of advertising.  The ubiquitous giant-size hoardings have been replaced by a slew of other outdoor media, now popular as OOH (Out-Of Home ) advertising. These include everything -- posters, banners, kiosks, bus shelters, wall sites, hoardings, mobile vans, all vehicles that move, dynamic display units in and outside the mega malls.  

Satellite and Cable TV

It was in mid 90s that the advertising through cable TV started penetrating homes in Madras.  The government`s decision to allow private channels to enter the TV space dominated till then by government owned DD,  has led to proliferation of TV channels. From just one TV channel in the early 80s, today nationally there are nearly 700 channels. covering almost every language of the country.

 In Tamil alone we have scores of TVchannels  offering a wide variety of programmes catering to different tastes of audiences. Almost every political party has its own TV channel Like Jaya(AIADMK), Kalaignar (DMK), Makkal  (PMK) and Captain (DMDK) to mention a few. Leading them all  is Sun TV, one of the most successful and profitable channels operating  out of Chennai that has today become a big multimedia conglomerate. The Sun Network, a Rs. 5000 crore public firm, is the country's second-largest broadcasting company, in terms of viewership share. Some of its TV shows have generated the highest television rating points in the country. In addition to owning 19 TV channels in all major South Indian languages, the group owns FM radio stations in over eleven cities and some Tamil magazines and newspapers.

 Sun TV was also a pioneer in promoting  regional and retail advertising which not only helped in their own business success but also in helping the explosive growth of the business of regional brands advertised on its channel.  Sun TV continues to be way ahead of its competition, even today.

Direct-to-home (DTH) is available in Chennai via DD Direct Plus, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct DTH, BIG TV, Airtel Digital TV and Videocon d2h.

Chennai is the first city in India to have implemented the Conditional Access System for cable television.

Rural Marketing:

Rural Marketing – a buzz word for several decades now has become a necessity for many brands of FMCG and consumer durable products. It has seen  some pioneering initiatives emanating from Madras.  Though promoting products in villages through road shows using vans was in vogue, right from the early 50s,  by companies like the TTKs,  it was  Thomas Maliakkal a well known Madras based  adman who started ORA( Outdoor Rural Advertising) to offer a well planned audio visual van operation to reach the villages of Tamilnadu. The idea of featuring multiple brands  in every operation  so that the cost of such an effort  is shared by advertisers was a pioneering effort of the time.  After his demise R Parthasarathy of Kripa Outdoor has been continuing to be an important player in this field for the last 30 years.

Grant Advertising and later Anugrah Marketing headed by R V Rajan pioneered several rural communication programmes  for their agri input clients and later for all type of products leading to more and more clients understanding the importance of rural marketing. Starting of the Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) in 2005 was an initiative of Anugrah Madison. RMAI  continues to be actively involved in disseminating new knowledge on Rural marketing to the industry.

Social Media:

Though Corporates in Chennai have begun to use social media it is yet to get the attention it deserves. There are a few Social Media specialists like Unmetric and a few individuals who are advising clients on Social media. The best known name ,ofcourse ,is Kirubha Shanker referred to as the Czar of social media by the The Hindu ,is based out of Chennai.

Role of Advertising Club, Madras

The Advertising Club Madras, which celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2006 is the third oldest Adclub to be started in the country, after Advertising Clubs in Calcutta and Bombay. The Club has been closely associated with the evolution of advertising in Chennai through its members who are a cross section of professionals from the advertising agencies, advertisers and the media. With a permanent Secretariat located in its owned premises in T.Nagar, Advertising Club Madras is the only Club in the country which has been successfully running a One Year PG Diploma course in Advertising for the last 20 years without a break. The seminars, workshops, national and international conferences conducted by the Club have brought to the city veterans in the field from across the world and provided an opportunity for the members to learn from their experiences.

Current Advertising Scene in Chennai

The last decade has seen a steady decline of traditional advertising spend in Chennai  by FMCG companies ( like Cavincare) and consumer durable companies (like Hyundai & Ford)  many of whom have moved their marketing departments to Mumbai or Delhi leading to a major setback for the Chennai  branches of the established multinational agencies. Though  there has been a tremendous growth in the advertising business from the Retail, Realty and Educational sectors, it has not helped professional agencies because many of the new generation advertisers representing these groups are not professional in their approach and go for media agencies who are able to offer them lowest rates. Many of them even negotiate directly with the media for rates based on bulk booking, affecting the survival of many traditional agencies depending solely on commission income. Besides technology has made it so easy for `hole in the  wall` design outfits offering creative services to clients at low costs, that the big agencies find themselves in a bind unable to compete with such outfits. Many of the multinational agencies have either closed shop in Chennai or drastically cut down their operations.. However for an adman who is willing to adapt to the changing scene in Chennai the profession still provides enough opportunities. As evident from the success of many local agencies.

Once considered an overgown village that went to sleep by 9.00 pm, Madras during the past decade has acquired a 24 x 7 reputation. The city has drawn people from all parts of India. Result: This metropolis can offer anything that anyone wants! Be it the choice of food, products, services or even entertainment!

Old, tradition-rich conservative Madras is today a vibrant cosmopolitan Chennai. The young are willing to try out anything new! What better challenge than that for the advertising professional? I am sure that the Chennai advertising world will soon bounce back to its glorious past!

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