JBIMS-Mumbai Hosts Gautam Rakshit, MD, Advertising Avenues

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.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
The Corporate Relations Committee,
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai.

MBA Alumni \| MBA Students \| MBA Aspirants \| MBA Forums