Comment

One thing I would like to clarify is that this award does not mean I am thinking of retiring anytime soon. I am a slow, steady, patient kind of guy, willing to put in the extra dose of work without expecting anything in return in terms of laurels or money, and perhaps this in some measure has contributed to my limited success.

It took me 16 years of rich and varied experience to start Madison, an experience of eight years in marketing with Sarabhais and eight years in advertising with Contract as its founder member and in Mudra, then an entrepreneurial, Ahmedabad-based agency, to convince myself that I had what it takes to start and lead an agency that will be sustainable and worthy of my working in it.

At Madison, now in its 22nd year, if I look back I think I can see three clear phases which we adopted, of course intuitively or commonsensically. The first phase was cautious. We started Madison with just two clients — Godrej with the Cinthol brand and Nelco’s Blue Diamond TV. And for the first four years, virtually we did not go after new businesses. My reasoning was I did not want to bite off more than I could chew.

The second phase was the growth phase, started around 1992-93, when India liberalised and the realisation dawned on me that my philosophy of “small is beautiful” is not going to hold me in good stead in the new emerging India. In this phase, Godrej came together with Procter & Gamble (P&G) and we began an interface with P&G for Cinthol and assuredly they thought we had what it takes to handle their brands — Vicks and Whisper.

This also encouraged us to talk to DMB&B, whom we got in our bed after two years of on-and-off and very tiring discussions, helped substantially by Godrej and P&G and, in no small measure, by my friend Mohammed Khan, whose agency Enterprise had a tie-up with DMB&B.

P&Gexposed us to what I may call non-creative advertising that works; and to the technology to be followed in creation of effective advertising. Those were the days of side-by-side demos and cut-aways and product windows andfell hook, line and sinker for the belief that advertising must sell and advertising that entertains is wasteful.

P&G dealt with 4 or 5 agencies then, and those where the heady days of sponsored programmes and Doordarshan, where you earned 10% of the total spend irrespective of whether you handled the brand or not.

And one fine day P&G called me to ask if the concept of a media AOR would work in India? To their surprise or even disappointment, I said no, because it’s better to have four agencies fighting for you to get a disproportionate share of sponsorships than one. Later, the C&S scene heated up further and the time was right for an AOR.

Our appointment caused a storm at this august body, which is conferring on me the award and we spent hours and hours discussing how AORs would spell doom and how they should be stopped. And the AAAI even passed a rule that only a Club agency can be appointed as an AOR and that an agency, to be appointed a media AOR, should handle at least 10% of the client’s business.

Tata Tea, our second media AOR, handed over a brand to us for creative because of this. The success of our media service convinced me about the benefits of specialisation that could accrue to an advertiser, thereby making the agency offering invaluable.

In my view, specialisation develops a body of knowledge, systems and processes, which regulate and drive efficiency and build a cadre of people that are proud about their work.

The third phase, marked by the arrival of Lara, has been consolidation and diversification into new streams within the communication arena. And a bit more focus on internal systems, processes, standard SNOPs and organisation-building to ensure sustainability and continue to plug gaps that exist in our specialist unit Orbit that we now call Madison World. I was fortunate to be involved in Reliance Cup.

The Ambanis bought the entire rights for under Rs 5 crore. I learnt from Ambanis about big, heavy audacious goals before the term was coined in the western world, but more importantly that nothing was impossible and that every job has to be done and done on time.

I learnt from Godrej the importance of a value system. And from P&G, the importance of a codified process for almost everything, including the creation and release of advertising.

I have been fortunate to have tough and demanding, but enlightened clients who have taught me much more than what I contributed to them and helped raise the bar at Madison every successive year.

Excerpts from the speech delivered by Sam Balsara, CMD of Madison World, after receiving the AAAI LifetimeAchievement Award