How An Entrepreneur in Advertising Space Can Live Up to Creativity While Exploring Diverse Industries It's about how 'desi' you are in India and international brands have also realised this

The definition of creativity differs within the ad industry, itself scaling from the small to medium to the top agencies.

A creative transforms into creativity only with the right media budget. Sometimes the best innovative ideas may not be blooming out of the Ogilvys & the Ulkas of the industry, but in those tiny studios who are trying to make a mark.

The ideas make it big along with innovative channels. They say ads that can make a person laugh or cry are good. I say, the ads that give cash backs are better than them today. But are creative ads more effective in inspiring people to buy products than ads that simply catalogue product attributes or benefits?

It's Not About Creativity Alone

As an entrepreneur in advertising, I believe it's not about creativity alone. It's about being a solution provider. There was always a distinct gap between the objectives of the client and our delivery. A good creative person just might be the objective of the client, but our approach is more of a brand consultant. Bringing the best to the table is our goal, which ensures our win.

A real estate account, we have been working on, was into affordable housing projects on the outskirts of Mumbai and could not get the desired result due to the competition overpowering the market.We could see the reason behind the unachieved objective and came up with sustained marketing strategy, which could not only get good sales but over a period would establish the brand as the front runner in that market & command a premium.

While a long-term marketing strategy along with the sustained media presence worked best for the above client, it may not be the case with the others.

An industry leader of computers in the world market came up with the initiative "PC for education' to reach out to the kids in the tier 2 & tier 3 cities. The objective was to make an anthem that could connect with people instead of just selling the product.

We refrained from any mention of the word computer or its synonyms and made the emotional song "Gyan ki dibiya khul gayi.'

What Sells in India is Indian-ness!

It could be the mention of "Desh ki Mitti' by Kajaria to "Desh ka Namak' by Tata Salt. It's about how "desi' you are and international brands have also realised this, hence take the example of Lufthansa — claiming to be "More Indian than you think' or Amazon — "India ke sapno ki apni dukaan'. Being Indian is a much used and abused positioning in advertising, yet has got the potential and can take more.

Digital Presence Today is De Rigueur

This is a time when digital media as a medium should be adequately excercised. We were working on a real estate project in Andheri for their marketing collaterals, when the client discussed with us about the digital front & wanted us to look after that as well; we took up the digital campaign & this is how we started Digital Marketing. From the time when social media was used as a corporate communication by only E-commerce centric brands, it has now become a hygiene like a website for everyone.

Straight Connect with Audience

Every industry is trying to make its presence felt and explore and innovative media options in the lookout for a better connect with the audience, then it could be a 70-year-old actor trying to generate app downloads for Justdial or an ayurvedic brand Patanjali promoting itself as a brand sponsorer with a dance reality show.

But talking about creating connect with the audience directly, I believe pharma as an industry is yet to travel the distance and it continues to bank on doctors for their business.

I can recall the time when we were working on a small campaign for a gastro product of one of our pharma clients, we had come up with a creative concept for it. But we were asked to focus more on the product composition and targetted to doctors as the audience only.

An Extended Marketing Arm!

With the expansion in services of PR & events slowly and steadily we became an extention of the marketing arm for lot of our clients, as many don't have a fully-fledged marketing team. We come in not just as a creative agency but as a brand consultant and try to become an extended marketing arm of our clients.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up"- Pablo Picasso. This thought keeps me running the show, we are a start-up and are doing well with some remarkable works for our clients.