07 - another weekend

Went out last night to see the Bacardi sponsored "Night of the Adeaters" at the National Centre of Performing Arts with Deepak. The event featured close to 200 of the best commercials from across the globe. I had just come into Mumbai from Hydrabad and as usual Deepak was late and so we got to see only about 60 of these commercials. I know this sounds kind of stupid to say but what amazed me was the amount of creativity in this world. The brains of the guys behind these commercials knows no limits to imagination. Their ability to visualize is mind boggling.

Over drinks, we got into an extremely interesting conversation around the positioning of MTV vis-a-vis VH1 and GRP and TRP ratings, the degree to which creativity is dictated by revenue streams, the role of advertisers and advertising revenues to the business and the kind of market and customers these channels cater to in India and how the these channels have actually had to introspect about the very definintion of their customer base in India. Its again interesting to note that when these multinational channels enter markets such as India, it takes them quite a few years to figure out the nuances and the peculiarities of the Indian market and more importantly the Indian consumer/ customer. There are so many examples of companies such as Kellogg, MTV, Coke, Pepsi Foods, Star TV, CNBC, Sony Music, etc that have come into India full of their american ideas and learnings, tried to apply it in this market and fallen flat on their face, learnt the hard way, gone through a complete relook at their business model and operational structure, sent the pompous expats back home, hired Indians in leadership roles and then emerged as stronger players.

Just like individuals, very few organizations learn from other's experiences. We all fall into the same trap. Such is life.