Live Issue: Future adventures of the young and restless

It was a landmark year. India lifted the cricket World Cup trophy. It was also the year which saw tremendous young and scintillating energy in the creative space. Therefore, we decided to speak to young people from the industry on their key learnings from 2011.

“Keep it simple, honest and direct without complicating it through technology, processes or metrices”, said Rizwan Burji, associate manager, client services, Digital Law & Kenneth as he looked back at his learnings from the year gone by.  

He added, “We really do not need to make things so complex that the people who it is meant for miss the point. The other yardstick is to keep challenging yourself and the rules every now and then. The digital world is never static,  its whole raison d’etre (reason for existence) is to be dynamic and that is why we need to be innovative and adaptive in our approach and thoughts. In this space there are no boxes to work within. It is a brave new world where innovation is always welcomed and a disruptive engaging idea never goes unnoticed.”

Rohan Jadhav, business executive, Mediacom, started the year as a fresher in the media industry when he joined Mediacom. On 2011, he said, “The best part of working with Mediacom was the company’s culture which nurtures close relationships between employees which in-turn facilitates completion of tasks with relative ease.”

On his learning’s for the year, he said, “Planning for Volkswagen helped me better understand the media scenario of the company and how media plays an imperative role in effecting sales.”
Like Jadhav, Yohan Daver, copywriter, BBDO India, made his breakthrough to the advertising industry this year. He said, “2011 was my first year in advertising and I got the chance to work on iconic brands”

Zainab Kapadia, account associate, Hanmer MSL Communications, labelled 2011 as a mixed year with its shares of ups and downs for her. She said, “Although I met my targets for the year, it was a mixed year in terms of opportunities and setbacks. Opportunities came through lots of new work coming in but there were setbacks that arose in global environment. Overall I would call 2011 a balanced year.”

On his learnings from the year, Punit Thakur, programming manager, BIG CBS Networks, said, “We have learnt to place the consumer at the centre of all our businesses and accordingly plan and execute strategies. Also, identifying key trends and building today with an eye on the future is something which the organisation teaches us.”

For his expectations from 2012, he said, “Moving forward in a challenging new year, all the highs and lows of 2011 would be important to identify the key opportunities and threats and equip ourselves with wiser insights and details. Indian television is at a historic point in its life cycle, where the final script will be etched once digitisation sets in. The savings from distribution costs would help improve investments in content along with brand building exercises, which in effect would exploit the true sense of being a consumer centric business and in turn offer the best of international and local content to the audiences. This would help the TV business experiment more, bringing in unseen and fresh content and we would see some very exciting local programming based on key consumer insights, shaping up in the new year.”

Media agency

Rohan Jadhav, business executive,  Mediacom, 25

“My goals for 2012 would include working in a well set up, healthy environment with a clear vision, mission, goals and newer challenges.  I would also want to contribute positively along with the team members to achieve the best business practices and increase efficiency through clarity of job tasks.”

Media

Punit Thakur, programming manager, BIG CBS Networks, 27

“2012 is going to be a new challenge, given the current turmoil economies are facing. It’ll be a year where values like innovation, service and excellence in execution will separate businesses in green from the ones in red. Media, especially radio, will witness the dawn of third phase licensing, which will change business approach and application in the domain. Only large networks and robust organisations will successfully chart out the course for the future. Organisations with a culture of successful adaptability and processes will lead from the front and set the rules for the industry.”

  

PR

Zainab  Kapadia, account associate, Hanmer MSL, 22

“For 2012, I hope for growth in terms of new avenues, breaking from clutter by identifying opportunities and informed transparency.  Vanilla client servicing will only lead to flat growth so value addition by means of thinking differently and quicker execution will help in better servicing ones clients/accounts.”

Advertising

Yohan Daver, copywriter, BBDO India, 22

“From 2012 and BBDO I expect more great work, late nights, awards and arguments. Having met and exceeded my expectations from my agency and myself for this year, I’m expecting more of the same next year. I got the chance to work on iconic brands, learn a lot and  even win awards. Couldn’t have asked for a better year.”

Digital

Rizwan Burji, associate manager, client services, Digital Law & Kenneth, 26

“2012 overall  promises to be  a year with a whole lot of opportunity for the digital industry overall and my agency and me in particular. There is a lot of youthful drive, talent and hunger in the agency which will only improve the quality of work and make each one of us challenge our limits and belief systems . I expect the agency to grow not just by numbers but also with reference to the quality of work we produce.”