Showing posts with label digital media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital media. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A new synonym of ‘Faith’ = ‘Ignitee’

“Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.”
Its only when someone challenges your faith is when you stumble. In an ideal scenario one either defends strongly or gives up post struggling a little. Coming to the point and cutting the gyaan. Advertising agencies be it traditional or so called ‘BTL’, let me term is better, the so called ‘non conventional’ agencies are present due to ‘Faith’. Why? How? Is that what you are thinking? The answer is very simple. It’s because the client believes in the work. It is ‘this’ work that will do marvels to my brand. Obviously, not always does a miracle take place.

Just the other day I saw Bournville TVC again. To me it really didn’t make much sense. Well it’s my opinion. However back then the outdoor was just right! They did make the chocolate look very tempting and definitely they won at least one new customer (me). That too loyal. If a marketing head see’s that the communication message is actually showing what his customer wants to see, he is bought in. However, not always his prediction turns true because not all campaigns are successful. Point being, he had faith in what his agency did. Whether it is / was rocking or not.

It’s on this faith that we as agency survive. If they stop believing in what we are saying then digital agencies wouldn’t ever have got embraced by the brand managers. Going back into recent past, this new media- the world of digital was accepted by client because they liked what traditional advertising never got them. ‘Numbers’! This is exactly what marketing & sales manager’s love i.e. they exactly get to see what the ROI is. Hence the invention of CPLs. Is it just about getting leads? (coutesy: Dharma) Well, that’s what we made the clients believe and hence today we see lot of clients asking for CPL deals. That’s the faith they have in the medium. Rather that’s how they started believing in the medium.

However, as time changes and medium gets advanced, we always see revolution. Digital is one medium where magic happens probably every second. Today in this time of downfall where markets are collapsing, and companies don’t have money for advertising in traditional media, we see shift in digital media as well. Yes, this is the time when Digital media is being talked about the most. Yes, this is the time when we are seeing companies doing more of brand awareness campaigns and not just wanting a CPL deal. It’s right here in Ignitee where we beat challenges and battle the war and not let the client get misled. Its right here, that we speak their language, a language that they have been hearing for years ‘reach’ & ‘frequency’.(coutesy: Gautamm) We make them believe us and they do. Its faith after all. It’s their faith in us because of which we have made these magical campaigns which are one of its kinds.

They believe us not just because of what we commit but the experts behind it. The knowledge they have and with this expertise we win the clients faith. It’s about building the relationship with client. It’s in this wonderful place that I work where I have always heard Ramani challenging to client ‘We can beat your expectation and my team is ready to do that.’ Its not just client but internally we believe in each other and work together. We have faith in us. Yes! Ignitee Rocks!!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Another Business Pitch?

It’s really encouraging and heart warming to read all the passionate posts that have been put up so far. There are posts by the new Ignitees talking about how they like the place, how it’s not just an office, but a learning ground; and how they look forward to each day at office. There are posts by the older lot talking about how they have seen the undying spirit of Ignitees in good times and bad. And then there are posts by Ignitees talking about how they have embraced the digital media and how the digital media has touched every small spec of their life. And of course there are those entertaining posts and musings from Nihal after almost every post .

So what’s new about this post? Well, this post is about a business pitch at Chennai. (At this point, I’m sure you are thinking, what the hell? but just humour me)

It was in the sweltering May heat that three of us (Sandy, Ashok and I) had landed up at the Chennai airport for a business pitch. We were very pleased and confident of the work that we were carrying and therefore the usual nervousness and last minute fixes were missing. We gorged into the Masala Dosas and the Idli Sambhar at Suvarna Bhavan, courtesy our hosts (Priya and Arun). In our excitement, we landed up early at the client’s office. The client was also quite accommodating. We had a good meeting. Came out and celebrated at Kalakuddi with some awesome prawns, mutton, chicken and fish. Shopped in the bylanes of Chennai, saw the Marina beach, waited for four hours for our flight at the airport and reached home at 1:00 AM.

Sounds like any other business trip right? So, why am I telling you all this? Because, when we entered the client office, the client politely told us that he had shortlisted another agency and that the deal was done. But we insisted on presenting our work. Thirty minutes in that conference room and the client promised us more ‘eyeballs’ in a follow-up meeting to see the great work that we had put together! We made a client rethink his decision about signing up an established local agency, purely on the merit of our work!!!

And that’s what this post is all about—the pride I felt to be part of a brilliant team, a team that is
• So passionate and so hungry for winning that it opens up even closed doors
• So full of ideas that it there are ideas flowing in even at three in the morning
• And so full of life that it doesn’t miss out on its food parties and IHE even in the midst of handling the biggest three campaigns in the last six months of digital space!

I’m sure I echo the sentiment of all of us when I say, “Proud to be an Ignitee!”