columns

Aug 27, 2010

Of circuses and of unforgettable experiences

Sandhya Srinivasan, managing partner and chief strategy officer, Law & Kenneth, talks about being inspired by the circus, and all its surrounding paraphernalia

Aug 10, 2010

Anant’s blog: Lessons from Coke and RComm

Two huge developments in the last week; the Coca Cola account moving to Lodestar UM and the Reliance Communications account moving to Grey. As in movements such as these, you have big winners and big losers. The winners will, undoubtedly, rejoice. The losers will not. While the winners will not care too much about why, precisely, they were awarded the account, the losers will. Which is the point of this post. Increasingly, we see more and more brands calling for ‘reviews’, which is a shitty euphemism for pitches.

Aug 03, 2010

Anant’s blog: Enough, already!

Reading the reports and the comments of some of those involved in the recently concluded elections to the various posts on the AAAI executive committee could make you believe we were talking about elections in Jharkhand. Accusations of rigging, manipulation, intimidation, cross-voting. Everything you would hear with reference to the Jharkhand elections, except bribery and murder.And we’re talking about the AAAI?The Association is small; less than 100 members in the ‘electoral college’.

Jul 27, 2010

Anant’s blog: Why the Digital Media Awards

From the time we first saw the internet in India, I’ve been obsessive about it. I watched the Rediff.com launch closely, I got excited about Sharekhan.com, about Indya.com, about the launches of Hungama.com and others of the ilk.I got myself a Yahoo.com id, [email protected], an id I use till today. I started a blog when blogging was the rage, on, naturally, Blogspot. I’ve since stopped blogging there as I blog here.When Campaign India launched, I wanted to know more and more about digital – and disseminate more and more.

Jul 20, 2010

Anant's blog: Of PR and PR disasters

I have a number of close friends in the PR industry and I keep hearing of how difficult the business is becoming. Margins are at rock bottom, especially since the last few years have witnessed a mushrooming in the number of PR “agencies”. Amazingly, large brands, too, look only at price rather than on the quality of the delivery, making life difficult for the ‘good’ agencies.I have a number of peeves against the PR industry in India – and let me list my pet ones:1. They have no clue about the client they handle

Jul 16, 2010

Why Hayward lost when he wanted his life back

 Traditional media still matters. Just ask retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of US forces in Afghanistan. Disparaging comments he made about his civilian bosses and their management of the Afghan war in Rolling Stone forced his resignation, with President Obama “What was he thinking?”