1996-98: PSLMcCann, McCann Erickson II

1996-1998: PSL McCann, McCann Erickson

1994-96: Lintas India , Lowe india

I was headhunted into Lintas by Andrey Purushottam. I joined after an interview with Prabha Parameswaran the head of Bombay 1. I was asked to work on the Wheel franchise. We went through a successful relaunch and with my Group Director on maternity leave had a chance to lead the team independently. We won a three rating(exceeds expectation) for cost efficiency and in media.
My contribution was however key in reconciling the variance between MIS figures put out by the Accounting Dept and the Servicing Teams. On Wheel, the variance was reconciled and we billed an amount of more than a couple of crores(a crore is ten million) which were missed out due to the new media accounting systems.

The Edison award was for an idea to tap the rural markets. It involved a tie up with Milk Federations and Unions that had a procurement network connecting villages and the town on a daily basis and a village centre where the whole village met on a daily basis.

1992-1994: Leo Burnett India

I joined Leo Burnett in 2002 and worked on the Telco (Tata's) account and the Procter & Gamble business. I handled the Old Spice and then went on to the launch of Camay International. Sunil Balagopal was the Brand Manager with Raghuvesh Swarup being the Brand Assistant. Vivek Kapoor was the head of the team. Godrej was part of the Camay launch with Sivaram and Hoshi Press representing them. Camay was a success. Arvind Sharma though the head of Mumbai ,was actively involved and played a key role in this. He was a brilliant strategist and I learned a lot just watching him handle the business. Arvind was more than an agency resource to most managers in P&G, he was an advisor, mentor, guide and sounding board.
Anand Tendolkar was my boss and I rate Anand Tendolkar as one of the best people I have worked with. A really great human being

FCB ULKA : 1991-92

My first opening into the big agency network started here. MG Parameswaran and Anuradha Iqbal hired me in Bangalore and shifted me to Hyderabad. ITC was the main client. Chandrasekhar Hinge, the Creative Director and his brother Sanju Hinge, a photographer, taught me the basics of print advertising operations and ultimately gave me invaluable help and support when I decided to shift to Mumbai in 1992.

BMM Students at VIVEKANANDA

Given below is a letter sent by some of my students from the Bachelor

of Mass Media batch at Vivekananda Educational Society for Arts,

Science and Commerce.I taught them in 2001when they were in

their first semester. They were allegedly recalcitrant, but I found

them extremely bright and talented. They were a lively bunch and

7 years later, they have turned out to be very successful professionals.

Students have turned out to be my wealth and letters like this,

prized possessions.

THE LETTER:
Hello Sir,

                    How are you? I couldn't decide

what to write to you. We gave our first University

Exams this time.They got over yesterday. We did

okay but not very satisfactory. We met in college

today to decide the faculty for the next semester.

The portion is vast in the last two semesters

and the professors just don't give justice to it.

We faced a lot of problem this semester because

of this.We dint have a clue what we had to study

for the exams.And today when we met for the

faculty we want for the next semester we

remembered you. And we remembered you every time

we talked anything about our faculty. 

It has been one year since we finished the third

semester and we appeared for two papers taught

by you.It has been a long time and we have missed

you every moment of it.The principal and the

vice principal think that we like professors who

are soft on us and are very lenient.But that's

not true. To be frank with you, you were never

very lenient with us. But the kind of inspiration

you gave us was tremendous.

None of our professors who have taught us for the

lat two semesters have inspired us as much as you have.

We still remember the time when you used to say "YES"

or "BINGO" when someone gave a correct answer.

It was a great feeling when you pointed at one of us

and say "BINGO".We made us feel special. We still

imitate you and say "YES or "BINGO".

One more thing that we have realized after these exams

is that our advertising basics have been very clear under

your training.We could answer a lot of questions even in

this exam after one year on the basis of what you had

taught us. Our foundation of advertising has become so

strong, thanks only to you. One more thing we have

observed is that we used to wait for your lectures.

It was a disappointment if you were not able to come.

We would wait in the corridor for the blue Santro.

There was healthy competition in class for being

the best in your projects. I can never forget my

Mercedes project. 

On this Diwali sir, after one year, we miss

you a lot. We feel each teacher should have the

kind of passion you had in your teaching.

But of course there cannot be another
Prof. Vinod Natesan. Whatever our success sir,

the credit goes to you. Thanx a lot for making

us better advertising professionals and mot of

all inspiring us with your actions. We still

feel inspired when we remember you. 

We would all like to wish you a Very

Happy and Prosperous Diwali. Please stay in

touch. We miss you a lot. We wish you were

here to guide us.

Best wishes to our best teacher

Missing you

The class of 2001 SYBMM

Your dream batch.

LG CARE - 2004

In 2004, I took up an assignment to set up and head an office for EICL, nee EBS, to service the LGCare business. After a rethink on EICL's part, they decided not to set up a full office in Chennai and to handle it out of the Head Office with a skeletal staff in Chennai. This prompted a revocation of the contract by the Client. The office was consequently shut down. However some great work happened, with the launch ad aimed at the channel, bringing in a lot of responses.The branch also pitched successfully for the Pondicherry Tourism account. (shortlisted). If my memory is right, the line "life's good" as a tag was used for the first time in our dealer ad by LG. The writer Mr Pillai coined it and as a matter of coincidence, Contract Advertising used it too, when they initially pitched for the business.