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