JBIMS-Mumbai Hosts
Gautam Rakshit, MD, Advertising Avenues
Gautam Rakshit is the
Managing Director of Advertising Avenues, Mumbai, India, a Trustee of the
Advertising Council of India, and the Chairman of the Asian Federation
of Advertising Associations (AFAA). He has been a member of the
Jury at Ad Asia in Bali, and at the Cannes International
Advertising Festival. He is also the Chairman of the ABBY Awards Judging
Committee, India's most prestigious advertising award. His agency, over the
years, has won practically every coveted award in Indian advertising. Gautam has
recently been elected as the Chairman of Asian Advertising Congress 2008
to be held in Jaipur. In his illustrative career, he has handled various brands
such as Onida, Live In, etc.
Being an alumnus of the
institution, Mr. Rakshit broke the ice immediately and in a session interleaved
with humour and relevant examples, he discussed various issues in advertising.
He stressed on how brand managers today are not realizing the importance of the
research in macro areas. Though a lot of time is spent on the vision and
mission, marketing people find it difficult to define the current status of
their brand.
Though, he said, segmentation of
the population should be done, he stressed on the fact that these segments
should be continuously redefined and made narrower or broader according to the
needs of the hour. He went on to speak about media specialization, knowledge,
reach and response talking about his experiences at Cadburys and otherwise.
He spoke of interactive media as
an opportunity for marketers in our country and as an un-utilized medium. Also
explaining why 90% of the advertising is done on soaps, he said that women today
are the decision makers for the family and are, thus, being targeted.
He then progressed to the
importance of observations in advertising. Saying that how an individual
describes his journey in an elevator can be the differentiating factor between a
potential candidate and an ordinary one in an advertising interview, he
compelled the students in the batch to extend their view on advertising beyond
creativity only.
He then closed the hour-long
session by explaining the difference between advertising and marketing saying
that marketing gives depth while advertising gives width. This was followed by a
Q and A session where a plethora of contemporary topics were discussed.
