“The eyes of the world are now on Asia”

Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO & MD, Mudra Group (Chairman – Organising Committee for AdAsia) and Ashish Bagga, CEO, The India Today Group (Co-Chairman for AdAsia) were recently in Pakistan as part of the AdAsia 2011 Road Show. Marylou Andrew caught up with them to talk about why the Congress is useful in the current marketing environment.

MARYLOU ANDREW: Why is the AdAsia Road Show important?

MADHUKAR KAMATH: AdAsia 2011 will be held in New Delhi from October 31 to November 3. There are four areas that you build a Congress on. The organising aspect; putting together content that will attract a great draw; ensuring that delegates from across Asia attend, and ensuring that there is good interaction throughout the social events. There will be 20 sessions spread over two and a half days and 40-45 speakers of global repute, experience and knowledge. Given the product and content, we wanted to spread the message in as many countries as possible. We have done road shows in Thailand, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam and we are going to Tokyo, Jakarta, Malaysia and Singapore. We are hoping to attract about 400-500 international delegates; some from Europe and the US, although it will be of greater interest to people from Asia. However, AdAsia is not just about ads and Asia. The eyes of the world are now on Asia. Every global corporation has new strategies for handling Asia. At AdAsia people will come together to see what is relevant and what they can take out and apply to their context. It will be a very enriching experience.

MLA: What useful purpose do congresses like AdAsia serve?

ASHISH BAGGA: The world is changing so drastically and it is important for us to keep abreast of best practices as seen by the experts. We have looked at the different domains of marketing, advertising, etc., and identified the thought leaders and best practitioners and invited them to come and talk to us. If AdAsia did not exist, you would have had sporadic interventions by inviting one or two speakers on a local level and that would be it; AdAsia gets the best minds from across the globe. Our theme, ‘Uncertainty: The new certainty’ demonstrates that there is so much disruption happening in business models and ideas. We do this once in two years but perhaps the time has come to do it annually, because the world is changing so dynamically. Nobody anticipated that we would go through such a drawn out recession and now that we have emerged from it, we are looking at opportunities and if these guys can help us with even two or three good ideas which we can take back to our businesses and work domains and make a change, it’s worth it. 

MLA: Your theme is interesting, but are ad agencies tailoring their business models and solutions to reflect this reality?

MK: Building a brand is a joint project between the marketer and the advertiser, and everyone knows that the people involved in brand building have to keep their minds open to new learning. The environment is forcing and dictating the change that is required in marketing organisations, media companies and ad agencies. Given the current scenario and the flux, every single company that is connecting to consumers through any brand, whether it is a service brand or a media brand, is changing its thinking.

MLA: How will media owners benefit from AdAsia?

AB: Media has seen much turmoil and change over the last couple of years. As you know, media is largely dependent on advertising. In the Asian region, mainly South Asia, media is very cheap and the business model is constructed around advertising, and when advertising takes a beating, whether it is because of the economic slowdown, technology or new media forms, conventional media models come under threat. Publishers have broad based the touch points of their respective brands to different media forms. The conventional model of a print and TV media brand has changed dramatically. What has not changed, and probably will not change quickly, is the trust and faith readers and users have in established media brands. By building multiple touch points, you are building your brand and that brand can manifest itself across many platforms. What those platforms are, what opportunities are available, what is the learning from the developed world? This is what publishers and media owners would like to learn,

and people who are at the leading edge of change will enrich the audience.

MLA: How will agencies and the media in the region change within the next two or three years?

MK: Agencies across the region are changing in terms of structure, their approach to the business and the new talent that needs to be attracted. The requirement for brand builders will exist as long as brands have to be built, but you have to be cognisant of the fact that brands have to be built differently because of the complex media environment, the interplay between different existing media and the changing demands of the consumer.

AB: It’s a unique challenge for agencies and media and the issues are common. It is basically the consumer whose environment has become that much more complex. It is very important for media to understand this, but unfortunately conventional media with conventional editors find it increasingly difficult to keep pace, therefore we need to re-skill our content creators and experts. We need to understand that the days of one-way communication are gone. You might publish a newspaper in the morning but you need to engage with your readers through the day, hour and minute. Media brands have to be built and nurtured adequately across platforms and they have to address their consumers in a way which is engaging and across the continuum.

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.

“I do not want us to get to a point where we feel like a big agency”

Neil Stewart, CEO, Maxus Asia-Pacific was in Pakistan recently. Here he talks to Marylou Andrew about his plans for Maxus and the key media trends for the next three to five years.

MARYLOU ANDREW: You have been heading Maxus for over three years; what were your objectives when you came in?

NEIL STEWART: I joined during a period when globally Group M (as part of WPP) was revamping the Maxus brand. Maxus had been in existence for a number of years in different markets, and it was a conscious investment by WPP to position Maxus in some of these markets as a strong extra brand in their portfolio. India is a good example, as is Pakistan, where for a number of years, of the four Group M brands, Maxus has been a clear contender in terms of leadership and talent. However, this was not necessarily the case across the region. In fact, in a number of South East Asian markets, we did not have the talent or the skills required to be a strong brand. Another objective was to find some spaces in a rather competitive and cluttered media landscape where we could plant a flag for the future and put some investment behind this. This has really been my focus. Part of the reason for my visit to Pakistan is to identify areas we should be focusing on in the future, rather than just be comfortable planning and buying cost efficiently and saying that’s good enough.

MLA: How different is Maxus from the other Group M entities?

NS: The majority of our clients have come from local appointments, whereas the other big media brands were born off the back of big global appointments. Our uniqueness comes from the fact that we are a home-grown agency in every market. Our leadership tends to be local and we have an entrepreneurial streak because our business has not been handed to us through a global alignment; we have had to win on merit at the local level. Another difference is our emphasis on relationship media, which is our approach, our process and our philosophy. When it comes to the JWT’s, etc. of this world, a lot of their growth has sprung from packaged goods clients, and the skills, tools and processes deployed in these categories were necessitated by the fact that they do not know who their end consumers are. As a result, it becomes about generating the maximum amount of awareness and eyeballs for the least amount of money. However there are other categories, such as telecoms, insurance, banking and finance where we do know who our end consumers are due to the fact that these organisations have a massive amount of data regarding their most profitable and least profitable customers. So the question is how do we take that knowledge and feed that into the planning process? We have been successful in delivering a different sort of product to categories that know who the end consumer is, and this is what we call relationship media. These are probably the major differences between the Mindshares of this world and Maxus. We also tend to be a bit smaller.

MLA: Is being a bit smaller intentional?

NS: Would I like to be bigger? Of course. Would I like to keep the attitude of a challenger? Absolutely. In India, we are the second largest media agency and probably the most rewarded creatively. We may be number two in size but we want to be number two in attitude to retain that sense of hunger, the desire to be a challenger, not to be complacent or arrogant which could potentially creep in if you have been a dominant leader for a long period of time. While we can always be bigger and take on more business – and we have certainly grown over the last couple of years in this market – I do not want us to get to a point where we feel like a big agency.

MLA: Could you give some practical examples of brands in which relationship media has been successfully used?

NS: A lot of clients plan around TV without giving a lot of thought to the next step in the process. For us it is about plotting the consumer’s journey all the way through to the sale and repeat sale. For example, we handle Shangrila Hotels worldwide. Their previous agency put a lot of emphasis on TV and print, whereas we have done a lot of work on digital with a view to targeting business travellers more effectively when they are away from home. To do this, we may use IP media targeting based on location. For example, you may be travelling in the US and viewing Pakistani content in newspapers and magazines, so we will buy you in Pakistan and only pay for the impressions that are being served from outside the country. As I know that you are away from home, I can provide you with a very relevant message. So it’s about understanding the role different media play at different consumption stages and how to draw them together in a single relationship plan, rather than have a separate TV plan, radio plan, search plan, etc.

MLA: It’s also about targeting specific consumers rather than having a generalised plan.

NS: The days of being able to say that your target audience is female grocery buyers over 18 are over. There will always be a requirement by FMCGs to provide mass awareness, but how do you deliver relevance?I know that when people go online to search for information I can deliver a much more relevant message rather than a generic one-size-fits-all message of ‘buy me because I’m good’; even in less sophisticated media markets this is not how selling or consumers work.

MLA: If relationship media relies on data, what happens to clients in categories where data and research are scarce?

NS: Data is always available – whether it is sales or traditional data; it is the industry that has to step up. At the moment the Pakistani media industry is poorly served by the lack of radio data. Group M and Maxus in particular have spent a lot of time and energy mapping out and researching the outdoor industry. We need to push the industry and if the industry doesn’t react, we owe it to ourselves to invest to serve our clients. If a brand has 60,000-70,000 Facebook fans, it has an awful lot of rich data, be it socio-economic, demographic, etc. The data is there if you look for it, and if it is not there, then you need to invest to get it. Activation is a massive opportunity to collect data; in my opinion informal data is just as good as formal research data. Every interaction with the consumer should be captured in some form and ultimately analysed and acted upon.

MLA: What are your impressions of the Pakistani media industry?

NS: You have the same fragmentation that happened in a lot of markets. You have people craving for more and different content and that content is arriving in a multitude of ways. Multiple channels are popping up, some perhaps illegal in terms of distribution deals and structures. You also have the same reality a lot of other markets face, which is that there are too many commercial breaks. I know it is terrible for a media person to say this, but as an industry, we owe it to ourselves not to kill the golden goose. If people are overloaded with advertising, they will not watch a show and will find alternative ways of getting the same content. Globally there are models like Hulu or illegal downloads, where people are saying, ‘I want to watch this show and I want to watch it commercial-free’. Now I don’t think people really want to watch it commercial-free, they want to watch it in a commercial environment that does not abuse them and cut off half their screen with running scrolls.

MLA: Pakistani media buying houses are criticised for favouring TV above all other media. What is your view on that?

NS: It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when the TV industry is the most researched and provides clients and agencies with – not perfect information by any stretch of the imagination – a step change in accountability, in terms of ratings and research data, and this is naturally going to drive a lot of decision making. I have seen it happen in many markets that as soon as the outdoor industry (it happened in Australia recently) provided the equivalent robust audited data on audiences and traffic profiles, there was an interest in outdoor. The sooner the radio market here organises itself a little better and invests as an industry behind panel or research data that monitors and measures, you will see a shift. Digital media will continue to grow because it is inherently measurable. Group M and Maxus are very clear about the fact that we are a very transparent, compliant organisation. Unfortunately in Pakistan, a number of agencies have conflicts of interests; they will have relationships with, and own properties in the media space. It is not my place to discuss the business model but it is understandable if agencies recommend the same media they inherently own. There are two issues: one is compliance, transparency and integrity in terms of decision making, the other is lack of research and data. Both need to be improved in this market.

MLA: What are the challenges and opportunities for media in the Asia-Pacific region?

NS: Talent, without a doubt. The industry – creative agencies, digital agencies, media agencies – is fighting in every country for a limited supply of talent and the number one issue that keeps me awake at night is how do we get better at attracting and retaining top talent? The universal opportunity is that compared to Western Europe, the US or Eastern Europe, we are the growth engine of the world. If you put China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam together, you have huge population bases and significant economic growth potential; our challenge is to continue to grow our businesses there, offer our clients more services and move from stereotypical, number crunching, Excel spreadsheet, planning and buying CPRP deals on TV to a conversation about activation, content, search and digital, and how they fit together.

MLA: What is your approach to attracting the right kind of talent?

NS: We have been a little ad hoc about it. We have done things like go out and talk to university students. In markets like Singapore where there is full employment, Maxus and Group M in conjunction with the government have developed a media master’s programme. The easier solution we as an industry in South East Asia and China have opted for is to raid the talent pool in India and Pakistan and drag those people out of here and throw them in there, and this is a reasonable, short term solution given that there are an awful lot of talented Indians and Pakistanis in the media space. However, it is not sustainable to keep developing talent in this part of the world and then ship them off to other parts of the world. We have tried a few things as an industry and as Group M, but there is room to do a lot more; we need to triple our efforts.

MLA: Isn’t part of the solution to make media a more attractive profession?

NS: Twenty years ago there was a TV show called LA Law and by the time it became the highest rated show, there was a global growth in people wanting to take up law as a career. Today there has been a tremendous surge in people wanting to make forensic medicine and science a career thanks to shows like CSI and Bones. As an industry we need to fund a TV show which is set in a media agency and with very attractive people having a brilliant time and heaps of fun; I think this will sort out our problem.

MLA: Which countries in the Asia-Pacific region are most strongly positioned for growth in the next three to five years?

NS: I would say based on their population, China and India. As an industry we are doing a good job among the major MNCs and the major local players, but there is a long tail of smaller, regional businesses that we are not working with. We have marked Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam as a cluster of countries which will provide us with significant growth – but let me put a caveat here; it is the population base, the penetration base and the growth of the middle class that are the key drivers of growth. We cannot plan for unforeseeable factors like natural disasters, which unfortunately tend to befall a lot of these markets. Then there are external factors, such as currency fluctuation and rising prices which have a negative impact. If you look at the medium to longer term horizon, the three, five and seven year horizon, there is no doubt, Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam will provide us with a lot of significant opportunities.

MLA: What are your predictions for the media market for the next three to five years?

NS: Firstly, there is the digitisation of everything, including POS and IPTV which gives you the ability to target and deliver a very precise ad through a cable network or distribution system. Secondly, there is true activation and engagement; there are only a few brands in this market (and globally) which say that my brand is the event and the programme is my brand. Red Bull does a very good job of saying that extreme sports – the participation, the programme, the events, the activation – is my brand. This is a trend that will continue to grow and develop. Thirdly, participation needs to be encouraged. People are very keen about this, especially in developing markets where opportunities for entertainment are limited. Those will be the key trends; if we can get them right, we have a bright future.

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.

Box -

Maxus at a Glance

Network

GroupM/WPP

Staff worldwide

1,300 people

Presence

60 countries

Objective

Helping marketers build profitable relationships between consumers and their brands, combining the disciplines of communications planning and customer relationship marketing to deliver ‘Relationship Media’, a model powered by creative media thinking and sophisticated, real-time customer data.

Services provided

Communications strategy

Media planning and buying

Digital marketing

Direct response media

Data analytics

Marketing ROI evaluation

Source: Maxus Fact Sheet  www.maxusglobal.com

The China double SIM challenge

Khurram Mahboob examines the challenges and opportunities in Pakistan’s budget handset market and its impact on the telecom companies.

Low blow: Pakistan's low end mobile consumers buy Rs 0.9 million worth of phones per month.

The global cellular industry has experienced exponential growth with the total number of mobile phones rising to four billion units. By the beginning of 2009, people in developing countries owned three quarters of the world’s total number of mobile phones. According to the GSM Association (GSMA), by 2013 the world’s total mobile population will reach six billion, with half of the new users coming from India and China alone.

Pakistan has also witnessed healthy growth in this area. Although it was the telecom operators backed by strong holding groups that triggered this exponential penetration, this growth would not have been possible without the availability of affordable (under $30) handsets.

Until 2008-09, the major contributor to volume growth was Nokia with its 1100, 1200 and 2300 series, followed by Samsung. Nokia had a very strong brand image and was extremely popular, as evidenced by the repeat purchases (primarily due to durability, battery life and resale value).

However, since the last two years, Chinese mobile phones have been making inroads in the Pakistani market. These phones have strong product features and are available at very low prices. In addition, the manufacturers have a robust distribution network as well as very deep pockets, enabling them to benefit from an extensive presence in the media. As a result, handset sales have surged and the category grew by 70% in FY 2010-11.

There are two major reasons why Chinese handsets have been adopted in such a big way:

1. There is a growing acceptance of Chinese handsets worldwide. As a result, the R&D and manufacturing factories in and around Shenzen (home to nearly 2,000 handset manufacturers) have been able to drive economies of scale on handset components.

2. For Pakistani importers, the biggest game changer has been the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between China and Pakistan, which allows trade at zero percent duty. This benefit, when passed on to the value chain (distributors, retailers, customers) enables highly attractive prices. This is perhaps the biggest success factor in the low end market.

As a result, last year’s import bill increased to Rs 44.7 billion, with 85% of handsets imported from China.

From a telecom operator’s perspective, capitalising on the demand coming from the low end market is a sure way of gaining benefits. Today, Pakistan’s low end mobile consumers buy about Rs 0.9 million worth of phones per month; this consists of Rs 0.5 million Chinese brands and grey channel inducted handsets and Rs 0.4 million low end devices of brands such as Samsung and Nokia.

The next emerging opportunity in the low end market is the dual SIM feature; a growing segment in both India and Pakistan. Pakistan has over 110 million connections, of which 25-30% are estimated to be using multiple SIMs. The size of this segment is so significant that the Chinese brands did not take long to capitalise on the opportunity and have already flooded the market with dual SIM, feature enriched handsets, priced as low as $15. Branded players have only lately realised the portfolio gap and have launched a few dual SIM handsets to regain share. Although consumers are the greatest beneficiaries of the dual SIM proposition, telecom operators are likely to experience a significant dent in their monthly revenue in terms of lower ARPUs, as users will have more freedom to opt for connections of their choice.

Dual SIM handset demand will account for seven percent (169 million) of the global handset market by 2015 and will constitute 15% of the total handset demand in developing countries. Pakistan, with its five telecom operator market, is expected to have a much larger share of dual SIM users. If the current sales estimates are any indication, 20% of mobile users in Pakistan will have dual SIM handsets by the end of the fiscal year.

Along with the opportunities, there are many challenges for telecom operators as well. Telecom operators can offer bundle propositions to create stickiness, but this will mean further reductions in ARPU. So the bigger question is whether to embrace the dual SIM phenomenon and thereby accelerate its growth, or wait and hope this will stabilise to a manageably small share of the total market. With close to a million handsets sold every month and the total market size exceeding 100 million, recycling is a big emerging opportunity. The number of discarded handsets will increase once the earlier Chinese devices stop functioning after three years of use. Recycling these sets along with disposing the non-reusable parts in an environmentally friendly way is an avenue of public-private partnership that needs to be explored.

Handsets are now cheaper than ever before and they are likely to become even cheaper. The impact of these trends on the manufacturer-operator-consumer trio is likely to be:

1. Established brands will struggle to maintain volume share in the budget handset segment. They reacted too late to the unbranded and grey market players and they now need to undertake persistent campaign hammering to establish the importance of reliability and the resale aspect. Furthermore, the average selling price of the low end portfolio will need to be brought down to maintain market share; market forces will narrow the price gap.

2. Chinese handsets are likely to increase their advertising expenditure, while benchmarking a couple of big success stories in the segment, like QMobile, etc.

3. As a result of the phenomenal growth expected from the dual SIM handset segment, telecom operators will experience a significant drop in ARPU levels, especially in the Rs 50-250 band. With less than 400,000 ‘new’ subscribers joining the telecom market every month, it is the ‘current’ customer who should be targeted by operators. Therefore there will be lots of retention-based offers with the objective of remaining the ‘primary SIM’.

4. Customers will benefit most from the current situation. Stiff competition, favourable trade policies and a multitude of offerings will ensure that highly affordable feature enriched budget handsets are available. n

Khurram Mahboob is Head of Devices, Affinity & Loyalty, Geo Marketing, Ufone Etisalat Pakistan. Khurram.mahboob@gmail.com

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.

The G+ opportunity

Salma Jafri shares seven tips on how to capitalise.

What other brand could possibly amass 20 million users within three weeks of its launch, if not Google? And what better service to do so than Google’s latest foray into social networking, Google Plus – also called Google+, Plus or G+.

Two weeks after its launch, Pakistan became one of the top 10 countries using Google Plus, and although we have since been dethroned from this position, local interest in G+ is holding steady. All this while the network is still in beta invite only mode! Imagine the explosion when G+ finally goes public. I won’t bore you with the basics of G+; just head on over to Mashable to view super detailed posts about how to use its various features.

Instead, I will focus on what you can start doing today to eventually make G+ work to your business advantage. In marketing everyone knows that you go where your customers are and it looks like your future competitors and customers are already (or will soon be) on G+. So best to put all that knowledge gleaned from years of using Facebook to good use.

Here are the top seven steps you need to take to get a solid start on G+.

1. Put the +1 button on your website

Launched earlier this year, the +1 (Plus One) button seemed to pale in comparison to Facebook’s Like button. However +1 has one serious whopper advantage that Like doesn’t; the ability to affect search result listings. If someone +1’s your website’s content, this results in a better ranking for your site in Google search results. Also, the +1 button adds to the social influence of a website; if a user +1’s a website and has friends on G+, those friends will see the +1 recommendation and be more likely to click on that result compared to other results on the page that do not have their friends’ stamp of approval.

2. Put a ‘Find Us on Google Plus’ widget on your website

Much like the Facebook mini widget or the follow us on Twitter badge, placing a ‘follow us on G+’ widget on your website will let future users know that you are building a presence on Google Plus. The market perception is that the most progressive companies are building a G+ presence; if you want to be known as an early adopter make your presence felt on G+.

3. Work out a content posting strategy for G+

Experiment on G+ to gain an understanding of how users consume content and what type of content has the most reshares, comments and +1s. Determine the end result you are after. Do you want your content to generate comments for greater interaction and discussion? Do you want your content to be reshared virally and spread? Do you want your content to be +1’d for better search rankings and social reach? Different types of content will elicit different results; begin by understanding what users expect and need from G+.

G+ facilitates a multi-pronged conversation rather than a broadcast snippet like Twitter or a marketing push like Facebook. Use G+ to air opinions, especially when they do not fit into 140 characters (Twitter) or 420 characters (Facebook). Share industry news, links, images and videos within your G+ stream. See how the big boys Robert Scoble (Rackspace) or Pete Cashmore (Mashable) are doing it (adding a bit of opinion and ideas to a link post or a photo link and making it their own). Do not post animated GIFs if you harbour any hopes of being taken seriously by your community!

4. Measure G+ traffic and analytics

Once you have worked out your posting strategy and are contributing original and curated content, it’s time to measure the results. A month into its launch G+ has already become the top referrer for websites such as TechCrunch. In evaluating the impact G+ is having on your traffic, remember that G+ is sending traffic via one source as it has no APIs or third party referrers yet. Twitter and Facebook have many third party applications sending traffic to your site, so account for this difference. Nevertheless, G+ traffic is forming a large part of referring website traffic and one can only assume this will increase given that people are joining G+ at the rate of a few million a day.

5. Use Circles for market segmentation

For people debating using Google Plus versus Facebook and/or Twitter, Google Plus’s ingenious Circles are often the deciding factor. They are pretty to look at, functional to use, they help categorise contacts based on relationships (family, friends, etc.) and interests (movie fans, hiking enthusiasts, etc.). Circles can also be used for market segmentation and targeting purposes. Once the business pages roll out, it is anticipated that companies will be able to target users based on demographics (e.g. women 30-60 years), while users may also be able to choose which brand Circles they want to be slotted into. In this way brands can customise messages based on Circle demographics and user interests; a very useful form of permission marketing and one that will help to eliminate white noise for both user and marketer as messages are customised and opted-into.

6. Streamline integration with Google products

Google Plus is not only a social network. It’s the gateway to integration with all Google products and services (Calendar to Docs to Picasa and more). Google has users cloud computing just about every aspect of their online life. Bear in mind that if your future customers are going to be using Google’s suite of products so intensely (a very real assumption), they will be more likely to interact with your brand from within the Google network than through an outside source. Once logged into Google, users will have an immersive experience. No reason why your brand should not be part of that experience.

7. Boost up your author credentials and your credibility

Along with the +1 button and other search algorithm tweaks, Google has introduced the Author Profile. This essentially places a big photograph of the author in the search result listings next to the content they have written. This helps content marketers in three big ways. Firstly, having an author photo aligned with a search result listing adds credibility, especially if you develop content around a particular niche. Secondly, author profiles add authority to the content (Google has even named the criteria as Author Authority). Thirdly, Author Authority is a verifiable factor in search rankings; author pictures are connected to Google Plus accounts. You can see where Google is going with all this – mass integration.

These starter tips will help you get comfortable using Google Plus from a business perspective. However, as Google will be rolling out business pages on Plus soon (expected end-2011), these strategies are only basic building blocks for now. Things will become more interesting when the business pages are rolled out and we will start to see some head-butting competition with Facebook pages. In the meantime, enjoy the myriad of enthusiastic conversations and connections on Google Plus and keep an eye out for future engagement opportunities for your brand!

Salma Jafri is founder and CEO, WordPL, a content marketing firm. salma@wordpl.net gplus.to/salmajafri

The 'yes we can' agency

Marylou Andrew profiles Interflow Communications.

‘Don’t take us lightly’: (L-R) Sahar Taher Khan, MD, Interflow Canada (seated); Aman Malik, Director Media; Anita Sattar, Client Supervisor; Aiman Rizwan, Director Strategic Planning; Ali A. Rizvi, COO (seated); Amna Sarim, Manager Strategic Planning; Adnan Yousuf, Executive Creative Director; Imad Azhar, Account Director; Omer Jawaid, Account Manager; Hamza Usman, Strategic Planner; Anser Shaukat, Associate Creative Manager; Khizra Munir, Creative Manager (seated on floor).

“We are the ‘yes we can do it’ agency,” declares Ali A. Rizvi, the recently appointed COO of Interflow Communications and the man who is spearheading what he calls a ‘year of reinvention’ at the agency.

The agency itself needs no introduction. It is an institution, known for its pioneering work on brands such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Ufone, and of course also by virtue of its acclaimed helmsman, the Ogilvy-esqe, Taher A. Khan.

It has been 28 years since Interflow first opened its doors based on Khan’s belief that the Pakistani advertising environment needed an agency that would offer a level of expertise in every sphere of marketing communications.

In less than three decades of operations, this vision has been transformed into a reality; giving birth not only to a slew of companies specialising in activation, media planning and post production, but also a media empire which encompasses broadcast and electronic entities. And yet the ad agency (the company that started it all) has remained front and centre in the Interflow Group universe.

Of course advertising has morphed into a completely different animal since Interflow gained its much celebrated affiliation with Ogilvy & Mather in the mid-80s, or even since it almost single-handedly pioneered Pepsi’s music marketing strategy in the early 90s, taking the brand from challenger to market leader in less than a decade. The fragmentation of agency services into specialised units, the growing focus on consumer engagement and a wholly turned-on-its-head media consumption profile has led to a radical shift in mindsets and agency business models. Interflow has followed suit – no matter who you chat with in that office, whether it is the creative manager, the head of client services or the COO himself, the same message resonates throughout: the knowledge that the agency is an extension of the brand team.

Perhaps this sense of brand ownership at all levels comes from a strong culture of empowerment that seems to be very much a part of the Interflow experience.

Khan says that although the COOs of his various companies are always welcome to walk into his office for a chat, he is happiest when he doesn’t see too much of them “because it means the business is doing well.”

Similarly, Executive Creative Director, Adnan Yusuf believes in empowering every employee in his department.

“When I hire a fresh grad, I tell them we are looking at you as a creative director in the making.”

This sentiment finds very practical application in the lives of the new appointees. Khizra Munir joined Interflow fresh out of art school five and a half years ago and has worked her way up to Creative Manager. She says that when she first started working there, she was immediately exposed to clients and made responsible for projects from presentation through to execution. Munir believes that this empowerment strategy has been picked up by other agencies, thereby revolutionising the agency culture in Pakistan.

Aiman Rizwan, Director Strategic Planning, agrees saying that people want to work at Interflow because it has set a benchmark of excellence in the industry.

However, he realises that this comes with the added pressure of setting new standards of excellence, whether it is in terms of personnel management or the service provided to clients.

As the COO, Rizvi is very clear that in order to maintain the agency’s cutting edge, the team needs to have a mix of experience and enthusiasm, i.e. old hands as well as new blood. As a bit of a newbie at the agency, he also seems to have an innate understanding of the fact that while Interflow is a brand in its own right, it cannot afford to depend entirely on its reputation for future growth and progress. He identifies several areas where opportunities and challenges exist.

First, he explains that while Interflow has done a great deal of interesting work for clients in the last few years, it has not done a very good job of publicising its efforts. This is particularly true for brands such as Mountain Dew where Interflow played an instrumental role in shaping the strategy and advertising template; and while the work is excellent, people often mistakenly assume that the conceptualisation and execution were done abroad. In an increasingly competitive agency environment, Rizvi believes it is essential not only to do good work but also to promote it through the right channels.

Secondly, although Interflow’s focus will remain on creative, Rizvi hopes to revitalise the agency’s media offering.

“Over time we have put media buying on the back burner; while we are strong on media, we have not fully explored its potential. Moving forward we will be investing in this area of the business and showing that we are among the top five media agencies… so don’t take us lightly.”

Another source of concern for both Khan and Rizvi is the growing trend of outsourcing creative work.

“A lot of multinational companies have created their centres of excellence elsewhere,” says Khan, “in the beginning they asked us to replicate those ideas, now they are just bringing in films from abroad and airing them as is.”

According to Rizvi, Interflow is going to challenge this trend.

“If good work can be done by an agency in Pakistan, why is it being taken out of the country? As a team, we are taking on the challenge of reversing this trend.”

In addition to these goals, the key players on the team have their own agenda as well, which fits in rather well with the overall theme of ‘reinvention’. Reema Mustafa, Head of Client Service (an agency veteran in her own right) wants to work on new brands that the agency hopes to eventually turn into market leaders. Rizwan is keen to further expand Interflow’s advocacy portfolio, working on brands involved in development work and social service. Yusuf, for his part, hopes to continue playing an active role in building big brands.

The last word, however, goes to Mustafa who manages to condense all these ideas into one potent thought:

“Most agencies have not matured beyond advertising. With Interflow the picture is getting bigger every day.”

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.

The little shop with big ideas

Shagufta Naaz on how Daaman, a relatively small Karachi-based prêt brand, managed to bag a Lux Style Awards nomination for Best Retail Brand.

When it comes to Pakistani fashion, custom-made is by and large still the order of the day. However, the concept of ready-to-wear is gaining ground, thanks to the efforts of a number of prêt-a-porter brands that have been quietly revolutionising the Pakistani woman’s wardrobe for over a decade. While names like Generation, and later FnkAsia, Gulabo and Khaadi Khaas have been dominating the ready-to-wear market for several years, newcomers such as Ego and Sheep have infused new energy into this category.

Daaman, one of the newer brands on the scene has proved that longevity is no criteria to success as it bagged a nomination in the Best Retail Brand category in the Lux Style Awards 2011, along with some of the most established names in the sector. 

Maleeha Nasir, owner and creative director of Daaman, holds a degree in social sciences and cheerfully admits that she had no formal qualification or experience in this field. Her passion however more than made up for it.

“I had a definite aesthetic vision when we launched Daaman. It was to incorporate western sensibilities into eastern garments. And we stayed true to this vision.”

Launched as a tiny shop in Zamzama in 2009, Daaman now has an outlet in Lahore (opened in March) and another in Islamabad (opened in July). In addition, the brand has also attracted a small but growing international clientele through its website.

“The timing was right,” says Nasir, commenting on the reasons for the brand’s success.

Daaman was launched at a time when a new breed of retailers were opening their doors and people were demonstrating a willingness to move away from custom-made.

“These brands have shifted the focus from embellishment and embroidery to cuts; fashion is becoming fun and flirty.”

Nasir says she draws customers from a very broad base, refusing to box them in any demographic category.

“People are becoming more fashion conscious, perhaps it’s due to international exposure through the media, perhaps it’s the trickle-down effect of high fashion thanks to the fashion weeks, etc.; whatever the reason, people across the board are appreciating modern styles and cuts.”

Speaking about trends between different cities, Nasir says “Our initial research suggested that Lahore would be a more conservative market compared to Karachi; yet, some of our bolder designs do better in Lahore. Lahori women buy in bulk; a client in Karachi may pick up three to four outfits, one in Lahore is likely to pick up eight to 10. Perhaps it’s because Karachi women still see prêt as an evening option or for a dress-up day; women in Lahore view it as everyday wear.”

As for her business model, Nasir says, “It is all about ‘fast fashion’; we bring out at least four new styles a week, with no more than 40-50 pieces for each style (including all size options), which are then distributed at all three outlets and online. This way we maintain exclusivity and encourage the concept of fast fashion: clients keep checking in at our store because they know that once they miss a style, they will not get it later.”

Asked about her marketing and promotional strategy, Nasir has only one word to say.

“Facebook! Without Facebook, we would not have made it. Since then we have not needed any further marketing because as it is we have a tough time keeping up with the demand.”

In Nasir’s opinion Daaman has no competition.

“Daaman is different from other brands. We have a definite vision: a western, simplistic, creative vision. I love what some of the other brands are doing but fundamentally it is very different from what we do.”

On the nomination for the Lux Style Awards, Nasir says, “It feels wonderful to be noticed for what we have done, without any effort on our part; without any schmoozing so to speak. It is a great boost to know we are going in the right direction.”

Regarding why Daaman made it to a list which includes retail giants such as Khaadi, FnkAsia and Generation, Nasir responds with: “We offer something different and perhaps that was the reason we were noticed.”

Nasir believes that as more people become more fashion conscious, ready-to-wear will become increasingly popular.

“I see more and more brands coming up. Ready-made is an easier option for people like me, who want to get into the creative side of this business but do not want to deal with clients on a one-on-one basis.”

So where does Daaman hope to be five years down the road?

“Definitely with another big store in Karachi which will be our flagship, and maybe another one in Lahore. I see a lot more international marketing. Maybe we will bring out different lines; for example Daaman Evening or a kiddie line, or a line for young women, or Daaman Maternity…”

Nasir is brimming with ideas.

Shagufta Naaz works for The Dawn Media Group.

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora

How NOT to sell education

Educational institutes have got their advertising all wrong, writes Fasi Zaka.

Several years ago as part of a talk I was delivering, I carried out an informal survey of 30 higher education institutions and their brand communication and compared them to their rankings in Pakistan (wherever this information was not available, I used layman perception instead). The results (not very methodologically rigorous) were unsurprising. The more generic, inconsistent and unprofessional the communication, the lower the institution’s ranking or anecdotally (at least) its reputation. 

Today, the situation is no different. Advertising by universities remains indistinguishable and is defined by generic write-ups devoid of meaning. This is a reflection of the mushroom growth in higher education institutes over the past 20 years; they are still struggling to position themselves, yet are hampered by their inexperience.

The main marketing tool is the admission notices published in the Sunday papers; these are so unprofessional that they make the section of the papers carrying government tender notices look like high art.

Advertising and higher education have always made for uneasy bedfellows. Academics find it distasteful that a calling such as education needs to be sold at all. This was true of Columbia University, an American Ivy League institution, until a few years ago. However, as the concept of the automatic right to higher education has evolved into a privilege (due to rising fees), going to market is a harsh change that even institutions with tradition on their side have had to accept.

To understand why marketing higher education in Pakistan has proved to be so difficult to pull off, we need to go back to the gold standard of what ideal marketing is – no marketing at all. If Oxford and Harvard were to start advertising heavily it would cheapen their brand. It therefore follows that if the leading academic institutions of the world do not have an advertising ‘tradition’ to speak of, newer institutions will have no lessons to draw upon.

In Pakistan, institutions with an academic track record, such as the universities of Punjab and Peshawar are assured of students clamouring for admission irrespective of the quality of their advertising. As a result, their use of Word and Excel to create print advertising has created an unsatisfactory standard to follow. Yet, because of their example, the Sunday papers are filled with advertisements by new institutions which leave the impression that a monkey has been given a free hand with Word and Smart Art.

In the 80s, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) could be credited with one noteworthy success – differentiation. Rather than academic tradition or success, emphasis was put on discipline and the need to complete classes and degrees on time. Then times changed and completing degrees on time was no longer an issue, and institutions like the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) put the emphasis on research and PhDs. But these are the exceptions and the same effort to position themselves in the market has not been followed by other institutes in Pakistan. Why?

More than marketing or advertising, the issue is one of strategy. IBA and LUMS had something to communicate. Most institutions work on a year to year basis, just about managing to keep their heads above water. They blindly cut and paste what the market leaders have done without trying to understand

what it is they stand for or can deliver; as a result they never segment the pool of students they want to attract.

When I was teaching at the Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences) in Peshawar, we decided to differentiate ourselves professionally and visually.

In attempting to do so we hit upon the competitive advantage we could offer as a business school in an area of limited business opportunity – management for non-profit. In the first year, our positioning yielded a 100% increase in student applications and this carried on year-on-year for several years.

Perhaps the most important lesson is that universities at gold standard level need to actively promote themselves, but not through paid means. They need to communicate through their research, professors and students. Ivy League institutions are in the news every day. When it comes to marketing higher education in Pakistan, the future lies not in the advertising department but in setting up corporate communications departments within the universities with the mandate to consistently communicate what the university does.

Fasi Zaka is a communications consultant.

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.

Visual positioning

By Faraz Maqsood Hamidi

I know it seems obvious. But when you think about it, many of the ways we seek to influence customers’ perceptions are visual: many of the people who communicate your brand are visually oriented; the most potent media across the world are substantially visual.

Yet, far too many products and services are marketed according to functional benefits alone. As the legendary American landscape photographer, Ansel Adams said:

“There’s nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

Marketers develop brands as complex analytical propositions, yet consumers tend to digest them viscerally. That is, in a more direct, sensory way. And yet we typically define brands almost entirely verbally. As marketers, we tend to be left brain and see our brands as complex constructs: we analyse, define, segment, brief, measure. We add definition all the time, layer after layer, discussion after discussion, resulting in gilded brand keys that fail to unlock the hearts of prospects.

That’s because our customers tend to be more right brain in their brand consumption: they are less complicated, more visceral and visual about brands. What’s more, the right brain is where we experience our strongest emotions; love, hate, passion, etc. It’s where the winding alleyways leading to our imagination turn into open highways.

For customers, the brands that rise to the surface among the thousands that seek their attention every day are the ones that are most clear, most striking, most powerful: not the ones that are the most complex. This suggests two things. Firstly, the capacity to integrate your brand is better served by simplifying your brand’s special difference, than by adding to it. Integration doesn’t mean achieving a consistent use of a logo or an end line; nor does it mean strong-arming half a dozen agencies to work together. It starts when customers have a coherent experience of your brand promise whenever and wherever they come across your brand. Which suggests that ideas that can be captured in a few words can be more easily expressed and more easily understood. Secondly, we need to be more right brain orientated in the way we define our brands. One way of doing this is to define brands visually as well as verbally – by attempting to partially bridge this right brain/left brain divide. It’s called ‘visual positioning’. It’s a great technique to not only foster brand integration, but to consistently deliver your brand promise.

Visual positioning is a process of defining a brand visually across a number of different subject matters. As a colour, for instance, or a style of type, as an animal, or as a piece of furniture. You remember that old marketing ploy, don’t you? “If this brand were an animal, then what animal would it be...?” Well, this is no more complicated than that. What makes this exercise valuable is doing it not only for your brand, but also for your competitors’ – and not only for your brand today, but how you see it developing into the future.

What makes it more special, especially in terms of achieving brand integration is when you conduct this exercise as a team, when you get all your agencies together and do it as one. The idea is to develop an intellectual definition which has then been supported and further defined through its visual positioning – which provides something of a right brain picture of the personality of your brand right into the future.

When you do it together, visual positioning is not only a mental-mapping exercise. It is also a medium for common understanding. The challenge, as always, lies in creating a concept that is both fresh and relevant. This is a manageable task – as long as you don’t try to be all things to all people. Niche brands understand the power of this approach. ‘Niche’ is a word that many find unpalatable because it is often negatively associated with limits. But those same limits allow such brands one luxury that many larger brands do not enjoy: focus.

By zeroing in on a distinct demographic or geographic region, brands with focus – simply articulated and visually positioned – develop personalities that speak coherently and directly across the line. The result is a core group of loyal advocates who can help build awareness and credibility beyond the original target and grow your brand into and beyond the mainstream market and related categories.

And that’s the beauty.

Faraz Maqsood Hamidi is CE and Creative Director, The D’Hamidi Partnership. 

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.

Bulls Eye Communications signs JV agreement with DDB Worldwide

Bulls Eye Communications, headed by Shoaib Qureshy, recently signed a joint venture agreement with DDB Worldwide in Pakistan.

The agreement, which comes into effect on Nov 1, will see the amalgamation of Bulls Eye Communication's advertising clients (including Masafi, Faysal Bank and Sucral) with DDB clients Johnson & Johnson and Lipton under a new agency called DDB Pakistan, to be headed by Qureshy.

Blitz, which was DDB's former partner in Pakistan and used to be responsible for J&J and Lipton, has been renamed Brandstir and is now part of Brainchild Communications.

Find more information on DDB Pakistan in our interview with Shoaib Qureshy in the November-December (annual) issue of Aurora.

Seeking the right price

Saad K. Bashir on why brands need to weigh in at the right price.

How many of us really know the price we pay for our phone calls? Some of us may feel we know the exact charges, others may have an idea; the truth however is that the majority do not know the exact price they are paying.

Price is an overrated attribute.

A recent MIT study interviewed people queuing at a particular store. They found that although 80% of the customers thought they knew the price of the items in their basket, only 50% actually knew the correct price. Because of their relative lack of price knowledge, customers often seek ‘price cues’ to inform them whether something is a good deal or not.

Many telecom-specific research studies have highlighted price as the most important attribute from an intending buyer’s point of view when it comes to choosing a network operator. However, after that the overall awareness of the price point and the package details drops drastically (although as we move further down in the SECs, the trend reverses).

Customers will always say they want lower prices. However, in many markets and product categories, price serves as a guide to quality, and pricing too low can send out a negative signal. For instance, how many people buy cooking oil or washing powder based on price alone? If that were the case, then the lowest priced brand in the category would be the category leader, but the reality is different. 

From an organisation’s point of view, price is a very weak differentiating element. By simply positioning itself as the cheapest in a category it might bring volumes in the short run but as a strategy it cannot last because the competition can always match the price and offer a superior product. Simply put, although consumers might say that price alone is the driver that shapes their choice, subconsciously they are looking for brand functionality benefits as well.

Companies put a lot of emphasis on price determination by using the three C formula: cost, consumers and competition. However, companies often fail to grasp the importance of pricing products and services across their lifecycle, particularly in innovation intensive sectors such as consumer electronics, consumer durables, IT, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, and the consequences of this are often felt across the entire industry. This is especially true today as companies introduce products more regularly, with lifecycles that are often measured in months, not years. There are external pressures for low prices coming from customers who are expecting more for less, as well as internal pressures stemming from the belief that pricing is a make or break factor in product launches. In addition, a company may have a number of related products in the marketplace at the same time, and this further complicates the lifecycle of pricing.

Two points are essential to price effectively throughout the lifecycle of a product or service. First, companies should actively manage the trade-off between price and volume (or profit and market share) to maximise returns. Most businesses fail to test customer value perceptions and price sensitivity after the product launch and have no idea how the critical trade-off between price and volume shifts over time. Second, companies must make pricing decisions in the context of their broader product portfolios because when they have multiple generations of a product in the market, a price move for one can have important implications for the others. We can draw some insights from how luxury brands use the price element. The reason why luxury brands do not use price as a differentiator is because they are about aspirations and lifestyles and their customers are willing to pay for this.

Pricing is a complex and critical area because of its nature. Companies can try to get it right, although there are factors such as raw material costs, tax regime and the overall economic situation, which are beyond one’s control. n

Saad K. Bashir works for a telecom company in Pakistan. saadkbashir@gmail.com

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora. 

Gillette partners with Strings

Gillette, P&G’s men's grooming brand, announced its partnership with musicians Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia of Strings yesterday. This event also marked the unveiling of the new ‘Gillette Mach 3 Sensitive’ razor.


Salman Yousuf, Brand Manager, Gillette says the brand chose Strings to be their ambassadors because “we were looking for the best, and we felt Maqsood and Kapadia were the perfect match as not only are they the best at what they do, their personalities and image are also in sync with the brand.”  


Gillette is aimed at making men feel and be their best, be it in sports, music, or any other profession or field, says Yousuf and this is what it aims to highlight through Strings. 

I detest advertising

By Sami Shah

I have no idea what this is. Honestly, not a clue. Aurora asked me to write for a section of their magazine called ‘branded bubbles’.

At first I thought it was that day-in-the-life nonsense in which advertising people are supposed to chronicle a single day of their profession, pretending as if the entire 24 hours are not spent grovelling for business, prostrating themselves before ignorant clients, stabbing each other in the back with a viciousness that would make a Mughal blush and then trying to figure out how they can earn some extra money by lying to the director about the cost of the commercial and pocketing the difference.

Thankfully it turned out to not be that. Instead it is a section about… well… I’m not quite sure. They even furnished me with examples of previous ‘branded bubbles’ and to be honest I am no clearer. From what I can gather, it’s a stream of consciousness rant about the challenges of being whoever you are. Or at least that’s what I gathered. If I am mistaken, well, it’s too late for them to ask someone else. Classic case of a confusing brief made worse by a stubborn creative.

If it is a direct-from-my-forebrain-type thing that they want, then here goes. First, a bit of backstory, for those of you who came in late. My name is Sami Shah and I am, amongst other things, a creative director, a comedian, a columnist, an illustrator, a former news-producer and (sometimes) a husband and father. You might know me from any one of those descriptors, however if you know me from all of them then we need to get in touch because the ‘husband and father’ thing is supposed to be quite exclusive.

So let’s run down that list and see how I do each of those things and why I do them, if for no other reason than because you are already done skimming through this issue of Aurora looking for any article mentioning your agency or brand and now have absolutely no other way of spending the time left on the toilet. I promise to make it amusing by throwing in some jokes here and there.

Creative Director: The fact that someone like me can be a CD in advertising just shows how much is wrong with the advertising industry. Not because I am incompetent, which I am not. I have got the years and the skills and all the résumé requirements for the post. It’s because I detest advertising. To be specific, I detest all Pakistani advertising.

I consider my peers to be buffoons, dimwits and ne’er do wells, I find the entirety of work done in the country to be ranging from offensively bad to mediocre and I think every ad agency in the country is a factory that regurgitates crushed hopes and smashed ideas. Almost every agency I have ever seen considers paying employees on time a burden that is best ignored. Worse, despite not giving a poor visualiser who earns but Rs 12,000 a month his salary on anything approaching a monthly schedule, they will cut his pay if he steps into the office a minute late. My only criteria for choosing a place of employment has been getting paid on a reliable schedule and that has limited me to two or three agencies in the entire country. This would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so normal and so accepted. It’s tolerated because people working in advertising have no self-esteem left. What little bit of dignity the client forgets to assault, their own employers will savage.


Speaking of the clients, can we stop pretending like they know what they are doing? Every issue of this esteemed magazine interviews a parade of egotistical ignoramuses with the kind of seriousness devoted to Nobel Laureates. Most, if not all of them are graduates from IBA or CBM, two institutes that could be shut down tomorrow, and everyone who ever went there hunted down and sterilised… and the intellectual quality of the gene pool might improve. Yes, the public is smarter than you think. No, you are not as smart as you think. Yes, your brand is just another mediocre product that is cluttering our lives. No, you cannot sleep with the model on the shoot. Once these truths are accepted, things might improve, but it is unlikely.

So why do I do it? If I clearly hold the industry and all associated with it in contempt, then why don’t I do anything else? I like to boast that it’s because working in advertising allows me to put my brain in screen saver mode and earn a paycheque while travelling a decent amount. But the truth is it’s because I still have a few micro-ounces of hope left. Every brief, every concept presentation, every pitch, I still walk into these thinking maybe this time we can do something genuinely worthwhile that we can be proud of. So maybe I am the biggest idiot of all, since I clearly never learn.

Comedian: The making-people-laugh thing began with Black Fish. I joined the improv troupe because the girl I wanted to make my wife one day was a member and because they seemed to be doing something original and fun. After the troupe disbanded, a victim of the Pakistani brain-drain with almost everyone moving abroad, I stayed in the comedy game. Switching from working with a team of comedians to standing on stage alone with a mic, I stuck with it. Partly because it lets me blow off all the aggression and frustration my day job accumulates in my soul and partly (mostly actually) because I am an attention-needy brat who doesn’t feel fulfilled unless several hundred people are applauding and laughing at something I said. If comedy hadn’t worked out, I could very well have been Pakistan’s first male-stripper, swapping emotional nakedness for the physical kind.

Comedy is a strange beast. When it works, the feedback is instant. When it fails, the suffering is eternal. No torture can be as intense as standing on stage after a joke fails. Silence can kill. That, coupled with the fact that no brand is willing to sponsor stand-up comedy (or at least my comedy) means I usually do it out of pocket or rely on the kindness of café owners and auditorium managers. Were I to launch a lawn collection tomorrow and invite all the brands to stick their logos on a wall in front of which the same dozen celebrities can pose over and over again, I would be rich. But again, I am an idiot. So instead I go for the path of most resistance.

Columnist: This was an accidental achievement. An editor who had read my blog asked me to contribute to a new newspaper. I did so. Then I got addicted to it. Maybe it’s the opportunity to frame sarcasm in 650 words on a weekly basis, or the creativity of the death threats that result from it, but I cannot imagine ever stopping. My guilty secret though, the same as every columnist’s, is that I dread a week in which nothing happens. Tragedy and disaster are the muses of the opinion columnist and a week in which neither happen is as bad as… as… as being stuck on stage after a joke failed. I feel terrible about this and you will no doubt judge me harshly for it. I don’t blame you.

Illustrator/News Producer: I did both these things once. I was paid to draw and paid to work in a news channel. What can I say? I was young and needed the money.

Husband/Father: These are why I work in advertising. Why I write these columns and why I go on stage. So that I can earn more and provide better and be calmer and happier. Sometimes you need to remind yourself of that.

There, that wasn’t so bad? I still don’t know if it’s what the editors wanted, but at least it got you through that terrible post-dinner evacuation. But seriously, pay your employees on time if you run an ad agency. It’s not asking for much. n

Sami Shah is a creative director and comedian who demands to be paid on time. samishah@gmail.com

First published in the September-October 2011 issue of Aurora.