2002-2005: Mayan Consultants International

Post my stint at JWT, I was in the Middle East. Initially with a retail chain called Landmark Group, I then went into freelance, with a license from Dubai Media City. In 2004, I took up a contract to set up an office in Chennai for EICL to service LG Care, which was launch a range of FMCG products. EICL later decided against investing in an office in Chennai and tried to handle it out of Mumbai, with a skeletal office in Chennai. That however resulted in the account being shifted to Contract Advertising,Chennai.
Ratnakar, whose letter is uplinked here was the liason from Mumbai and with his help we handled the first channel advertising which was a success. Ratnakar is now a very senior official in Reliance Info / Entertainment and rightly so ... he is a great talent.

PONDICHERRY TOURISM:
While at EICL we pitched for the Pondicherry Tourism account and we were shortlisted. It was an innovative campaign because there was practically "nothing" to promote!
Click here to read more.

2000-2002: JWT, HTA, JWT India

Appreciation Letters ( Summary)

1 De Beers- Analytical skills

From: Nicola Ellis AT CSOLON01@CSOLONDON_FWL on 2000-09-18 20:58 GDT
To: Vinod Natesan@JWT, Nicholas Graham-Smith ATCSOLON01@CSOLONDON_
cc: Raji Ramaswamy@JWT, Dhunji Wadia@JWT

>Subject: BTS Summary and ROI

Vinod,

>I have now as promised gone through your BTS summary and have to say it is excellent, very well thought through. It is great to have a new perspective on the results. Although many of the conclusions you came to have been discussed, I thought you clearly saw what issues we need to address and came up with some interesting ways to address them.
>
>I particularly liked you analysis of received versus giver as we have never looked at it that way, and I agree that the print could be used more effectively against men to give that extra push. We have always struggled world-wide with the balance between the messages to men and women. It is a tricky thing when you have one product which means such different things to two people.
>
>Anyway the debate will go on. Thank you for stimulating renewed thoughts on India, I will keep on thinking on this one!

>Well done with your first full summary of research, I look forward to the next.

> Letter no:2 DeBeers -Research Coordination
>
>Srinivas.Madani@dtc.com on 2001-02-20 22:07:33
>
>To: Vinod Natesan/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT
>cc: Nicholas.Graham-Smith@dtc.com,
>Subject: Research
>Dear Vinod,
>This is to express our appreciation for the excellent qualitative study
>conducted by you on the elite segment. The presentation of findings was
>very lucid and, I believe, addressed most if not all our queries regarding
>the concept we are working on for the elites.
>
>I would like you to thank Proact on our behalf - it is not often that
>qualitative research gives very clear directions, and I think they certainly
>deserve a pat on the back for this one!
>A lot of the credit also goes to the team at HTA for providing inputs on the
>stimulus material and discussion framework, and to you for co-ordinating the
>effort.

Continued….

Letter 3. Sunil Gupta. Ex-GM,JWT MUMBAI. Appreciation-Creative Development
> 2000-09-05 16:56
Sunil Gupta

To: Vinod Natesan/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT, Narayan Kumar/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT, Neville Balsara/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT

cc: Melwyn Dcosta/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT, Gopi Kukde/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT, Deepa Kakkar/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT, MeeraPatwardhan/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT

Subject: Very Impressive People !

Many thanks for the efforts and above all, patience! A special word for Vinod who worked tirelessly for many days, and especially on the research. I'm glad we did the research, as it gave our work and our presentation the added edge of confidence in our recommendations. And also for Narayan and Neville, who bore my incessant pushing with calmness!

We knew the world was watching, and we ensured we remained ourselves!

And you all know it's now a different trip!!!

Cheers

Sunil

Appreciation Letter 4. BlowPlast Industries. Appreciation-Strategic Direction
>
> Kurien Pothan <kurienpothen@vipbags.com> on 2001-01-25 19:19:29
>To: Vinod Natesan/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT
>cc: Melwyn Dcosta/Mumb/J Walter Thompson@JWT
>Subject: (no subject)
>Dear Vinod,
>I heard from Melwyn that you would be moving out of the VIP account as
>part of a reorganisation of portfolios within. I have not been able to
>speak to you and hence thought it best to mail you since I would be
>travelling abroad across the next few weeks.
>This is to tell you that we appreciate your efforts in helping us find
>newer directions in our search for a new and better communication.

> I am sure you would stay in touch
>
>Regards and best wishes,
>Kurien Pothen.
>

1998-2000: Mayan Consultants

In 1999 I took up an assignment with Interact Vision on a retainer fee basis. During the period 1998 -1999 I was mainly involved in providing advertising services to Goldstar Jewellers, Ion Exchange, Ricoh Cameras in UAE, Ministry of Defence, and a few freelance assignments for Zen Advertising for Indian Express Egmont, Elf Lubricants. I was also doing guest lectures at Somaiyah, Vivekanand and SIES Nerul .
There is a letter I still cherish from AGK which I got when I joined JWT.

----- Original Message -----

From: "a. g. krishnamurthy" <a.krishnamurthy@mudra.com>

To: "vinod natesan" <nvinod@vsnl.com>

Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 12:09 PM

Subject: Congrats!

> My dear Vinod,
>
> Congrats on your HTA job. Do your best. Live your Dream!
>
> God bless you.
>
> A.G.Krishnamurthy

1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson, McCann Erickson

1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson, McCann Erickson India iv

1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson, McCann Erickson iii

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.