WELCOME SPEECH

The award ceremony started with the host Nazim Farhan Chowdhury addressing the guests. He
mentioned about the history of Brand Forum, how this platform has came into being as well as
the sponsors behind the organizing of such an event. The audience was then addressed by a
welcome speech from Dr. Syed Ferhat Anwar, Professor, IBA, Dhaka University. He mentioned
about the importance of performance and communication of Brand stories in the field of
Marketing as well as some factors affecting the effectiveness of the agencies in Bangladesh.

SESSION 1
Speaker: Partha Sinha, Director & Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis South Asia.
Mr. Partha Sinha started his presentation with the concept of Reward Moment in ads like those
part at the end of an ad where a woman after passing through several stages of transformation
becomes a crowned beauty queen or a man passing through several stages of hardship attains
success.
He talked about the same aesthetics and same scenarios prevailing in the industry. For example
in India, when marketers and ad agencies had started to target both Bollywood and Family values
together and make a mix, they decided to portray Kajol as the model who would be a loving and
caring mother. The result: Kajol was doing all sorts of family products advertisement starting
from durables, toothepaste, food items (soups) to Alpenliebe.
Then he moved on to talk about 3 major errors present day marketers are making:
1. Following the same process
2. Tendency to Oversimplify
3. Forgetting to Ask the Key Question: Is it Different
He remarked, Every communication starts with consumer insights and ends with consumer
validation. Every process starts with insights then developing a creative strategy and then
through consumer group testing and consumer group survey consumer validation about the ad or
campaign is obtained.
But the problem is you cant ask the same type of people the same question in exactly the same
way; because every time you will get the same answer. The definition of insanity is doing the
same thing again and again and expecting different results.

Oversimplification Complex is another problem. There is a distinction between simplicity and

simplification. Some false notions among the marketers are:

Consumer is moron. So, lets make things more simplified for them.
People believe in exaggeration.
Great product window is the final pudding (i.e. it is what will make your product sold).

But, in reality, consumers love a balance; a balance between simplification and complexity.
Marketers need to find that right balance.
Now, Is it different? Does the communication have some innovative ideas and wow factor in it?
The key communications characteristics are 3:
1. Truth
2. Relevant
3. Different
Then he moved on to discuss about the shift of businesses from setting USPs (Unique Selling
Proposition) to ESPs (Emotional Selling Propositions). USPs have been always about products
and their unique distinguishing factors but ESPs deal with natural focus in customer
understanding and the pursuit of relevance, truth & difference at the same time.
He talked about the Tyranny of Consumer Insight. Too much importance has been given to
focused groups which often leads to unfocussed findings. This is because, companies and
agencies are always going to the middle category of customers in order to take account of the
outliers. But by doing that they are losing the focus from the main customer group who probably
lie within those outlier zones. Category follower and Category leaders both type of
customers can give better inputs. In this aspect, he gave examples of luxurious handbags used by
ladies.
It is like holding up a mirror to the consumers an urge to them to go and buy different
companies products. But if everybody looked the same, we would get tired of each other.
There has never been so hard and fast rule. But, whats happening is that, processes are
becoming supreme; Means are overriding the end. We are looking for a formula for
differentiation, but probably none of such exists.
There are efforts and structural interventions to codify the things. These are being guided by the
pre, during and post research findings and also the attempt to not move away from the norm.

We should be aware of the codes; especially when they turn into clich and clichs are blind
spots and blind spots are counterproductive; because your brands lose meaning then. Ravi
Shastris initial coding for different types of shots generated huge attention but since they have
become a clich now, they have lost their original appeal and have become a blind spot.
Emphasis on reaching target audience should be given priority. Hashtags may not always be the
solution, they are just another codification of communication. We should drive our efforts to
make brand the centre of consumer conversation.
Why do the most cars look same now? Cars look the same, because, they pass through the
same wind tunnel. In marketing, most of the ads are now passing through the same wind tunnel.
So, differentiation is needed to make an impact but those differentiation should matter business
wise i.e. cost effectiveness of real brand differentiation should be ensured.
The job of the marketers is not to sell but to make people want to buy. People hates the
salesmen but they surely love an influencer giving them options to make a good buy.
If everything in the market scenario is same for the marketing agencies then essentially it
becomes a Game of Resources. One who has better access to resources will come out with
better results. So, an individual agency should have this differentiated positioning in order to
overcome these resource barriers.
Brands always use a reference point of positioning. One common characteristic of all the
successful brands in the recent times is Brand leadership rather than customer followership,
e.g.- Steve Jobs with his Apple led the consumers with his innovation and marketing.
Research only talks about the rear view mirror, talk about unmet desires. But while driving,
most of the time one has to look through the windshield. So, branding should focus on what is
being done and what will be done to meet those desires.
Commit to Insight from Multiple Sources. Insights now a days, have taken different forms.
There are brand insight, category insight, consumer insight, communication insight, product
insight etc. Using insights from multiple sources products like luxury sports watches have
manufactured and branded.
Insights can come from any place. First we need rededication of ourselves and indulge in
redecoration of brands.
Brand Insights have forgotten to create assets for the Brand. Why in the Market a 30 year old
Brand and a 2 year old brand would look the same?
What is the single most important part of Marketing mix that is essential to ensure a better
chance of success in the market place? It is the ownership of a point of view. Siddharth
Banarjee

There are convention brands and then there are conviction brands. John Gerzeman and Ed
Lebar their book called The Brand Bubble talked about 3 essential ingredients for a brand:

Vision
Innovation
Dynamism

Jean Marie Dru in his book Disruption, mentioned about bringing in differences. Otherwise,
the things sound like the same mundane ones in the minds of customers.
Not all Consumers are created equal. It is a pyramid; there are leaders, there are followers and
then there are the rest. Followers are cheaper but less valuable. Brands need to target the
leaders.
Test in the market but not in the test tube. Because, the tests for persuasion, relevance and
credibility in a controlled environment would not necessarily produce expected results. Rather
going to market and run a beta test might. All the game developers and the programmers have
their beta version of games and programs; why cant we, the marketers have our own Beta
versions?
Marketers and agencies should look to the future and not the past. You will make accidents
more if you look at the rear view mirror more compared to whats ahead of you.
Hurry up. Because, nobody has time; But in the process dont make it meaningless.
Follow the 40/70 rule: Dont take action if you have enough information to give you less than a
40 % chance of being right; but dont wait until you have enough facts to be 100% sure, because
by then it is almost always too late. Today, excessive delays in the name of information gathering
breeds information paralysis. Procrastination in the name of reducing the risk actually
increases the risk. Collin Powell, former US Secretary of State.
He then explained about the Inexperience Vs Experience as well as Brief Vs Research
conundrum.
He pointed out the difference between Brand Management and Brand building. He asked,
whether, FMCGs should actually need to go through such lengths of emotional labor to find out
the ESPs. They can easily lead the brand. He talked about Brand Custodianship. If you have a
big dream you have to lead , create new offerings. Its always been a either you lead or you
follow scenario.
He ended the presentation with a question to the aspiring marketers and agencies. What do you
want to become? Where do you want to see yourselves, in the Vanguard or in the Guards
Van? Most of us often end up being in the Guards Van.

SESSION 2
Speaker: Santosh Ramesh Desai, Managing Director & CEO Futurebrands India Ltd.
Mr. Santosh started his presentation with the process of locating insights in human minds rather
than in business arena. Insights should have a resonance with human application in mind.
Insights are flashes of clarified understanding. It connects the dots and give us a pattern.
Why insights? Because often marketers face these 3 problems:

Sterility of strategy
Process trap
Same pond same fish

So, insights are to convert understanding into a lever to prise opportunities.

The strongest brands in recent times have been created by identifiable societal individuals like
Steve Jobs & Richard Branson. Insight is not a committee process. It originates in individual
minds Harness it.
Marketing when narrowly defined, it is a way of selling things. Language of Marketing reeks of
pseudo-science. There are many hypotheses propositions, 4 Ps and many other things. But what
is most important is to make the meaning valuable to consumers.
Add soda water and a meaning surplus; there you go, the Coca-cola.
We are always compulsive to make a meaning out of something. We see meaning everywhere.
Nothing in the world can simply be.
Social change is a big picture; small, tiny changes are continuously going on. Its often difficult
to capture everyday reality in focused groups which becomes relatively easy when contemplated
in individual minds.
Lets look at an ad of IKEA titled Unboring. The old table lamp was dumped and a new lamp
was brought in. Now, the new lamp always remain connected with the family being a part of
their joy & happiness but the old lamp is standing alone in the dark and is getting wet in the rain.
The ad is telling us how we see & put emotions together. We have put our emotions toward a
poor inanimate object being inspired by the story of old & faithful.
So, meaning already exists in our mind. Meanings in other cases are constructed by different
light & sound. But, how is this meaning made or constructed? Most of the time it is done
invisibly and the insights make the invisible layers meaningful.
Then he moved on to discuss about the 10 principles:

Its about People not the Consumers. Consumer world is a hateful world. It is filled up with a
tendency to always consume in other words voraciousness. Sometimes the real truth cant be
obtained from them. But people, they are always a great source of insights.
Market for hope; understand the segment, their practitioners and most importantly dont get
Marketing Divorce. For example, Lipsticks alone wont make the sales but marketing hopes
will.
Interrogate the obvious. Ask the most overlooked, most stupid questions. Like, Why is a
Teddy Bear cute? Is it because of his eyes or fluffy body? Neither. Why is there cuteness in
babies? Is it due to their soft skins and soft cheeks? Neither. Its all because of their
vulnerability which catches into our eyes in the form of cuteness. When you cuddle a teddy bear
or a baby, its the sense of giving and having support you try to feel. When you are looking at a
teddy bear or a baby, its not the teddy bear or the baby that is cute. Its their big defenseless eyes
that make them look cute in our eyes.
Why is Black & White Realistic? Reality is colorful. So why do we still look for B & W?
Because B & W is coded for reality
Why do Schools have Uniforms? Why does a uniform exist in the first place? Mens attire is
conventionally thought to be formal, one that would symbolize power. Then why soldiers have
decorated uniforms, decorated shoes? ; Because, on a soldier decoration is acceptable. Their
roles are defined.
However, information matters. A security guard wearing the same dress would not get the same
respect as that of a soldier.
Why does a court have a fixed place with fixed appearance and dress codes for judges and the
lawyers? Because courts are based on a myth that here human beings play the act of god to
ensure justice. So, it is converted into a theatre; judge wears a robe and the defense and the
plaintiffs take on opposite sides. People get to believe in an authority, a higher power.
Get beyond the proximate. Renowned Biologist Steven Pinker talked about 2 things: Proximate
& Ultimate. Why skunks stink? Most of the common people dont go beyond the proximate
reason. The ultimate reason is skunks use this as a defense mechanism. One pitfall for marketers
is to stop at the approximate insight. But if we do that, we never arrive at the ultimate answers.
Why do we photograph things? If you notice you will see, these things are called, to acquire,
capture, shoot or take. Today people while visiting places capture photos continuously and
thereby getting very little time to enjoy the beauty itself. It is to have a symbolical acquisition.
People desire to have some form of ownership. These photos are a measure of immortality, a
record of your living to the next generation. This is the ultimate reason behind taking the photos.

What is a watch? Why do we wear it on wrists? Watch symbolizes the power of time to which
all of us are slaves; so we voluntarily wear watches. Besides, industrialized society imposes this
institutionalized power of time through the use of watches. Huge meanings are associated with
watch. Sometimes there is a culture and tradition of passing them down through generations,
sometimes they mark as a symbol of coming of age, at other times they are just symbol of pride
& masculinity. Marketing mechanism should target these ultimate reasons, not the mere
proximate reason of keeping time.
In marketing you have to begin with distrust in all category labels and rules. Why doesnt the
moon fall down? Because we have been made to believe that it is a celestial body, it belongs to
the sky and so it will never fall down to the ground. How it stays up is not a question anymore.
Thus with the process of asking questions and then through the process of determining exclusion
possibility, you can create category labels and build a brand into something that is premium.
Modern retail must look a certain way. Theres always emptiness in consumers hearts and they
will always have the urge to fill that up. Emptiness of scary thoughts demands to be filled up
with happiness. Similarly nobody told that fashion needs to be seasonal. There are many people
who wear almost similar types of clothes all throughout the year. But there has always been an
inherent emptiness, an urge to look different, to stand out from the crowd in the hearts of
consumers. Thats why the concepts of fall collection and summer collection in fashion have
come in. For example: The Indigo Brand in India is doing the same thing.
Some customers will always have the emptiness in their hearts for getting bargains and getting a
cheaper price. They dont want to care about the amount provided if the price is cheaper. Low
cost airlines offer such experiences. Being cheaper is about giving less.
Challenge the universality of any idea. Stereos were invented to hear music but they came at
the expense of suffering of other people around. Headphones challenged the convention and
became popular as it does not cause any disturbance for the people around. Only the listeners get
to listen. So, look for the opposite motivations.
Make the codes easy to understand. Picture of a rural house and a toilet (shown in inset)
outside the house in nearby area might not convey the right message of health & hygiene. An
inset is a form of code. Unless your target audience are familiar with the codes, your message
will be difficult to transmit.
Cultures have an impact on the message. Meaning of food is different in Western & Eastern
world. In the West, food is an adorned object; there the presentation is important. You will find
such examples in Masterchef competitions. But, in the East its the intrinsic appeal of the food
which holds preference; people love foods that are fresh and served hot.
Sequential Vs Simultaneous: In the west, people have dinner or lunch course-wise. But in the
east, people take everything together. Marketers need to understand and address these sequential

and simultaneous views while marketing. Similar examples can be given in the field of
Separation of senses Vs Combination of senses. For example, sauces are given after the meal is
cooked but the masalas are given while the meal is being cooked.
Marketers also need to understand the things like Human estimation Vs objective precision,
Cultural health Vs Scientific health, Health as a balance Vs Health as a measurable protection.
There is a difference between nurturing and providing nutrients.
Use Culture as a Category. Maggi used the sub-continental use of spices and masalas and
positioned itself as a masala noodles. Asian paints associated itself with the continent of Asia. In
India home specially the patriarchal household is revered at a high position. People here believe
that, they come from their homes and they belong to their ancestral households. These are the
acts of renewal in notions of fertility prosperity and individual possession. Har Ghar Kuch
Kahta Hay. Every house has a story. Marketers need to target those stories and thereby
make their brands a part of the culture.
Go to the basics. Coke has tried many things but in the end it has gone back to its old branding
philosophy. Royal Enfield bikes have brought us back to the basics of motorcycles the rough
and toughness of machines.
Look for a new shift in society that you can connect to. But, dont assume or extrapolate
lazily. Few examples are: Fast Track, Paper Boat, Tata Tea etc. Fast tracks are promoting the idea
of moving on and not to get reduced or slowed down in the career path. Paper Boat is a nice
packaging company; their packaging are now bringing back the nostalgia of childhood in the
minds of many middle class and higher middle class Indians.
Amplify the barely audible whispers. Hitler did the same thing with the Germans. He just
brought forward the whispers of German supremacy from the back of the mind of German
people and said it out loud. Because if it is not loud, no whisper would cause a stirring among
peoples minds, a buzz, which is required for a brand to develop.
Everyday life is the mother vessel of all insights. Why there always have to be a straight line in
hair parting and pant lining? Seeking insights from these sorts of common everyday life
scenarios are very helpful. Observing the shifts in mass behavior is much better than to talk with
ten people in a focus group.
Use Fantasy and Imagination. In India we cannot expect cinema to be a taste of real life, but it
is a wonderful taste of fantasy which is what clients look for. You need to understand the
customers emotions, learn about their fantasies and imaginations, apply them and then come
back and check the results.
Use of Subjectivity should be there in combination of fluidity, openness, and free ranging
associations.

There will be failures but you should not fail to understand the insights from failures. There will
always be waste; waste of time and resources. You can never find out what is the least amount
of time & resources that you need to spend on an idea. Besides, if you try to follow the
conventions and try to do only what works for sure, you may never reach the heights you dream
of. Insights offer a offer a friendly win-win solution for both the customers and the companies.
So, companies as the clients while working with marketing agencies should give them ample
time to elicit useful insights because nothing can come close to deep insights.
He ended the presentation with a concluding remark It is not is seeking new landscapes; it is
about seeing the world with new eyes.

SESSION 3
Panel Discussion 1
Topic: Its All About Production!
Moderator:
Nazim Farhan Chowdhury, Managing Director, Adcomm Ltd.
Panel members:
Maksud Hossein, Director, 465 pictures
Ashfaq Uzzaman Bipul, Film Director, Half Stop Down Production.
Sharfuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Head of PR & Communications, Banglalink.
Syed Gausul Alam Shaown, Chief creative Officer & Managing Director, Grey Advertising
Bangladesh Limited.
Piplu R Khan, Director and Managing Director, Applebox Films Ltd.
A video was shown portraying the daily lives and works of people behind the production in
marketing agencies. Some common problems across different agencies have been pointed out:

Life security of the crews

Travelling problems
Shortage of Time
Lack of a Film Institute

Production in our country has come a long way. However there is still no platform. The industry
is a vibrant and young one. Differences in resources available are setting the agencies apart.
Quantity/Volume of work has gone up but the same high standard and quality are expected. So,
we need to find a balance.

Plans and Projects everything, have become much better than that in the past. But Clients want
the agencies to conform to the system & regimentation they provide. But, if sufficient
flexibility is injected into the process, much better outputs can be generated. On one hand, the
clients are demanding agility of services but on the other hand they often are not providing
enough resources to avail the required technologies.
Supply of Talent is another major issue. Everybody wants to become a Director. But, there are
other growing regions in the industry. One can opt for becoming a costume director, art director
etc.
Investment in youngsters has begun. There are often 1 year paid internships for them. They come
and take care of the brands; they have interesting stuffs and ideas but still in many ways probably
their capacities are still unused.
Fear & Rush; these 2 things according to panelists, are mainly affecting the industry compared
to availability of money and resources. Its the fear of losing clients and the rush to have things
done within a tight schedule is affecting the quality of work.
Syed Gausul Alam Shaown pointed out a common misunderstanding that, agency people waste
time idly and prolongs a work. But, in reality they are not sitting idle and passing time; they are
engaged in exercising their minds and generating ideas. Creative thinking takes time; Clients
have to understand this.
Story and Script should align. And for that, there should be collaboration & involvement from
both the sides of clients and agencies. Advertising Directors to Critiques are like Architects to
Civil Engineers. There is always a minimum time required for the preparedness of mind in order
to make it ready for the creative design. Clients should understand this. And the system should be
less rigid.
Marketing departments in bigger client organizations are also losing control in the decision
making process. Emphasis on ensuring the quality and clarity in decision making process has
been given in the panel discussion.
Panelists mentioned about the lack of common industry parameters and the lack of common
platform. Each agency is doing work as per their individual parameters. Their learning
procedures are also different.
Industry has become saturated. Agencies are getting works amounting from BDT 1.5 Lacs to
BDT 1.5 Crore. However, most of the agency selection decisions are mostly impulsive.
Transparency has to be brought about in this field.
Cost Awareness is another problem. Often we see investors and clients not knowing that, there
are posts like art assistants, lighting assistants etc. They also may not be aware that, it costs the

same BDT 15 K for a make-up artist to put makeup on a single person and to put the same on 40
persons.
Specialization & Team Building are two things that should be focused on. Everybody is
versatile in the industry. Specialization can provide an agency here a great deal of differentiation
aspects. Team building is another issue. Even for small geeks, sometimes big teams are needed.
Projects are not available all the time during a month. But when they are available in the next
month, these team members need to be financially compensated. Clients should understand these
real life constraints.
There are no training institutes and film artists guilds as well There is no practice of having
insurance for safety of instruments and people involved throughout the industry. Sometimes
even six men are needed to move around a large camera and safeguard it. They cant even have
their lunches properly as they have to look after the camera. In this way costs are increasing but
efficiency is decreasing.
Few points have been pointed out through the panelists discussions which are necessary for the
industry growth:

Co-operative attitude between the client and the agency. The Brand is not an orphan.
The responsibility lies on both the client and the agency.
Work of the creative people should be looked at from both mental and physical
perspective. Disturbing the creative people unnecessarily will just hamper the idea
generation process.
Democracy & Transparency in decision making should be incorporated. Both Clients &
Agencies should be clear about the boundary up to which they can conduct their
activities. And this boundary should come through mutual understanding.
There should be an institution for continuous talent supply
Insurance policy for the industry should be established.
Serious investments should come from clients (investors) if they expect quality works of
global standards.
Efficient expenditure should be there. Supporting equipments should be modern and
up to the global mark.
Clarity of the Budget should be established. Things have to be developed from bottom
up. Clients should be informed and the agencies should have justification for the
activities they are conducting.

SESSION 4
Speaker: Henry S. Tenedero, Council Director, International Learning Styles Network &
President Centre for Learning & Teaching Styles Phillipines.

After the lunch, Henry S. Tenedero made the audience feel lively by instructing them to stand up,
then patting on the next personss back telling them they are brilliant; which was followed by a
shoulder massage. As a result, the audience regained the focus on the session quickly.
He started the presentation saying The real convention is not here, it is where you start
touching people's hearts.
Actually, the heart of communication is the communication with heart in mind. Marketing
is all about life and it is life that makes up the marketing. Wife wants more money for shopping
from Husband that is one form of marketing; children want money from father that is also a
form of marketing. Even smile is a form of communication which you can use for marketing.
People love to talk. They find hopes and inspiration among themselves. They are often guided by
a spirit of inclusiveness and bonding to each other.
In communication, the most important thing that we often forget while focusing on the process
is the customers brain and how they work. There is the left part of the brain which is
analytical and then there is the right part of the brain which is creative.
Do the children with the same father study in the same way? No, they dont. Although they
come from the same genes, there are differences in structure of their analytic left and the creative
right brain. So, they think differently and study in different ways.
Same is with the communication for customers. You cant feed the same pill to all. To some those
might prove as toxins.
We all know about the boring subjects we read in our lives. Many would say that, they are
mostly the science subjects e.g. Physics, Chemistry & Biology. But the reality is the subjects
are always neutral they are neither funny nor boring. Its the presentation styles of the course
instructors that have made these subjects boring.
It's not what you pitch; it's how you pitch what you own. Its not what you eat or what you
wear but its how you eat what you eat or how you wear what you wear.
People generally learn 80% from what they see and the rest 20% from what they hear. So, you
have to create an appeal to customers eyes.
All companies have the mission, objective about their products but people have their own value
and purpose. Marketers should learn to find them out and they should respect them. Here comes
the concept of Circle Marketing. Focus on the purposes and values of a circle and create
appeal to them. This will build the brand in their minds.
He asked the marketers to move from success to significance in their personal lives. They
should ask them continuously, Am I happy inside? This is job becoming a love and a passion;

otherwise it will just turn into stress. In this short life, you will never know the breadth of life
unless you have the spirit in you.
He then moved on to discuss different activities of Phillipines Marketing Association as well as
the successful arrangement of Asian marketing congress earlier in January 2014. He talked about
3 Basic things in societal Marketing:

People
Profit
Planet

Understanding communication & leadership: Ask these questions: Who you are? What do you
do? Seek the values, opinions and beliefs. These are your symbols.
Is it clearly communicated what to expect and what is to expect? Its not what you teach;
its how you teach what you know. Your grades will not define you, its your character that
will define you.
No amount of success will make you special that humbleness will. Its your attitude that
will determine your altitude.
Problems are Purposeful Roadblocks Offering Beneficial Lessons (to) Enhance Mental
Strength.
We look at the things as we are. We listen to the things that we understand. We appreciate things
differently at different stages of our lives.
Passion is an inside job. Its easy to get skills but for gaining powerful mindsets and insights,
passion is necessary. Without passion, its most likely that you will become unsuccessful.
What are your passions? It can be your

Job
Family
Exercise
Reading/Pastime
Appearance
Home
Friends

The best way to touch a childs life is to touch the child itself. You need to remember this
emotional notion while touching the lives of customers.

Hold on to the friends whom you can communicate further. Mental health issues often prevent us
from seeing powerful attributes of our minds. We should redefine the meaning of intelligence.
Intelligence comes in different forms. We need to acknowledge that.
Dont look for the similarity and conformity. You have always the right to be different.
He then told a story about the mountain climbing competition among a group of young dogs.
Many other dogs specially the old ones also gathered around the mountain feet to cheer the
participating dogs. As the young dogs were climbing the mountain, the older dogs in the
mountain base started to talk negatively and pointed out the immense difficulty in reaching the
mountain peak. Oh! Way too difficult. They will never make it to the top. Not a chance they
will succeed. The mountain is too high.
But one should have had the belief that you can make it. Power of failure will not stop them.
They should have a beating desire to achieve their targets.
As time went by, more and more dogs got tired and stopped climbing. But theres this one dog
who wouldnt give up. Eventually he reached the top of the mountain. Then all others naturally
wanted to know about how he kept on moving amidst huge difficulties, disturbances &
distractions. It turned out that the winner was biologically deaf.
He ended the presentation with few suggestions for the marketers:

See the beauty in every human soul

Never listen to the negatives and pessimistic views because they take away your most
valuable dreams and wishes from the ones that you have in your heart.
Always think of the power that the words have. Because everything you fear and dread
will have an effect on you.
Be deaf when people tell you that you cant fulfill your dreams. Always know that you
can do it.
Be positive in your heart and mind.
There are two sides of a brain: analytic and creative side. How do you understand the
public and target market will set the course of your marketing activities.
In life destiny is defined by character.
Listen to the inspiring leaders
Problems will always be there but the possibilities are even bigger.

SESSION 5
Speaker: Allein G Moore, Founder Ad Asia, Award Winning Creative Director, ExPresident, Singapore Creative Awards, Designers Association of Singapore.
He started his presentation emphasizing the importance of 3 things in a marketers life:

Creative Bubble
Imagination
Confidence

Life is not a black and white one. There has to be color splash in it. Marketers should target that
and for that you need to bring in your creativity and innovation.
We need encouragement to recognize people and their talents. Everybody is a graduate in
Singapore but the formal educational institutions often crush the creativity. And without
creativity you cant get innovation.
But where did the creativity go? Kids are naturally creative; they play with sands and bricks
and builds things. However as they grow up in schools and colleges they are made to sit on
benches, rules, regulations and norms are imposed on them and the creativity begin to decline.
And after that, as they enter into the cubicle office culture, their creativity declines further to a
critical state. They become slaves to a routine world. Creativity goes away as soon as the
freedom of thoughts is lost.
All children are great artists. They just grow out of it. Pablo Picasso
2 heads are better than one but you need to talk; you need to have a meaningful
conversation. This is why brainstorming is a bad idea. Often in a company such type of session
involves Chairman, Vice-Presidents attending the meeting. The young marketing executives as
a result naturally become frightened by such heavy prescience and decide to play it safe. So, it is
often seen, traditional and common ideas are mostly coming out of such sessions the ones like
lets spend more money on research or like lets spend more money on branding. But
identification of the specific problem areas and suggestion of unique innovative solution which
are supposed to be the ulterior motives of an organization, do not usually take place in a
brainstorming session.
You need to have someone out there whos not going to judge you. Only then your ideas will
flow freely.
10 Minutes to Creativity
Draw on Life Experiences. Bring in the colors of life in your works. Find out what people feel.
Develop and emotional attachment of the brands with the people.

Go read a book, read a novel. Novels attach you to the characters lives. This will help you to
have an insight.
Fall in love, explore the emotions.
Dont waste time. It runs out eventually.
Keep Exploring. Look at the market researches. Tap into the experiences of friends and families.
And read articles on branding product category.
View Competitors ads. Review the past ads. Often good ideas are buried in the old copies.
Dont be satisfied with the first idea. While writing headlines, write at least 100 lines. This
might actually be more than what number of lines you might require to arrive at a great idea; but
the question is, how do you know that, headline no. 25 is a great idea?. So, keep moving.
You cant stop too soon. You need to have patience putting it altogether.
Less Jigsaw and More Quilt. Try to solve the puzzle and see where it takes you. The more you
join up the pieces, the more you will be able to see the big picture.
Blend Ideas. University of Illinois developed touch screen technology in 1972 and Motorola
invented the mobile phone in 1973. IBM blended both ideas and brought touch screen mobile
phones in 1993.
May be there is not anything left to create or maybe there are only few things left to create. So,
for the ideas, you need to add them up, stitch them together. This way you will get the new
ideas. Repackage the ideas into something you really want to have.
How this idea is best expressed? Be media neutral. Understand the opportunities and
restrictions. What works for twitter might not work in the same way for Facebook and Youtube.
Relax. Marketers need to fill the world with ideas. So, lie down and relax. One of the main
things about an idea is to go sit somewhere and write it down Relaxation is the state where ideas
start to mature. So, its very important to have that time to rest for the marketing people. It can be
called as Creative Retreat.
10 Steps to Greater Creativity

Embrace all ideas no matter how silly they are and from what sources they have come.
Tap into life experiences.
Know your product
Know and appreciate your audience. It keeps you in track.
Relax. Allow a quiet time for ideas to fermentate and mature.
Share ideas with the positive minded people.

Accept Criticism. But drop out the negative ideas.

Spend time preparing for your presentation. Ideas have to be sold. So, take time, learn
and then sell.
Fight to retain the ideas from the acceptance to execution. Its easier to get ideas lost, but
harder to make them sustain.
Use research to measure & tweak the data.

Lastly whatever you do ask this testing question, Is it pleasing? Use colors, make the
packaging nice. Make it attractive.
Work on yourself. You yourself is a product/brand. Every day you are going to work on your
brand. Try and improve that personal brand.
Bosses and Clients will not often approve of your great ideas and briefs are often logical
presentation of what is needed. Its very hard to object against these factors. So, better develop a
good working relationship with them.
He ended the speech by providing some great insights on seeking feedback. Your last idea
might not be the best idea. So, thrive continuously and have a partner who will criticize you
and judge you objectively. Be open to these constructive criticisms. Dont be egotistical.

SESSION 6
Panel Discussion 2
Topic: Developing Communications That Deliver.
Moderator:
Syed Gausul Alam Shaown, Chief creative Officer & Managing Director, Grey Advertising
Bangladesh Limited.
Panel members:
Partha Sinha, Director & Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis South Asia.
Santosh Ramesh Desai, Managing Director & CEO Futurebrands India Ltd.
Allein G Moore, Founder Ad Asia, Award Winning Creative Director, Ex-President, Singapore
Creative Awards, Designers Association of Singapore.
Kanishka Chakraborti, EVP, Bitopi Advertising Ltd.
Moderator initiated the discussion by asking the question What is delivery?

Desai mentioned that, it is the communication of value followed by a success. Within MNC it
means to deliver work within time. Its all about creative indulgence not formulating boring
strategies. There should also be Clarity in presenting the solution to a problem.
Allein remarked that, success of delivery depends on creating a good brief and acting on it.
Theres not one answer. You have to know, Whats the objective? You also have to know the
right questions to ask.
Moderator then brought up the client-agency dilemma in understanding of the brief and
setting objectives. He pointed out the differences between the creative peoples agenda and the
companys agenda He asked the panelists about how they would draw the line and come to a
solution in this aspect?
Sinha then mentioned about the importance of finding the specific reason behind the creation of
an ad. He also emphasized the importance of correlating the cause and effect. Only then
communication becomes responsive. And the purpose once decided, you can develop the brief
and act on it.
Moderator then asked about how we would arrive at the final check point? How we would
decide that the delivery is effective?
Kanishka Chakraborti in this aspect pointed out a common misconception among the clients that,
ads have become the Cure it all. But actually it is not. There are other forms of delivery as
well. You need to differentiate because at the end of the day all normality and commonalities
would go away.
Moderator then asked about how brief is vital in the communication process?
Allein remarked that, advertising is not a clear cut business. You have to get results. There are
and will always be lots of arguments between clients and agencies but most of the confusion
would probably go away if there is a brief. It is like a map. If you dont know where to go then
you will always wonder over how will you go there? And even if you ultimately reach there
without any map, then it is by absolute luck. So, from both the creative side and the client side,
brief is vital. He also gave a basic outline of the brief. It should include this necessary
background information:

Purpose
Basis
Reason

According to Allein, the purpose of the ad will be to make it right and make it acceptable.

Moderate then asked about the Target Audience.

Kanishka Chakraborti then mentioned about the importance of finding out, Whats the single
most important thing you want to say. Whats that one dominating message you want to
convey? What are the supporting reasons? Following this line of questioning will help the
creative reasoning.
Allein then mentioned about the importance of input-output relationship in the process. He
said that, you will get results in correspondence with what you have put in.
Moderator then referring to Allens statement regarding input-output relationship asked the
panelists whether creative agencies get that enough input, that enough exact information they
have asked for.
Desai in this aspect emphasized the importance of documented contractual relationship
where the boundaries and the extent of control over different activities and processes will be
clearly mentioned. And about resolving the question of intent he said to believe in good faith
from both sides.
He mentioned about the prolonged dishonesty in the industry. According to him, in the past,
alignment with the objectives often was not so good. And a good ad does not necessarily mean
the brief was good. There has been often intellectual dishonesty on the part of the companies
who are often unwilling to write good briefs. He emphasized on having commonality of intent
between the clients and agencies. He also urged to the both sides to invest in the common view
of the brand, not on the transactional relationship.
Moderator then mentioned about the criticism the creative people face for their lazy hours of
thinking. Clients often think of that as wastage of time & resources. But they forget to realize
that, these actually are incubator of ideas
At this point, he invited some questions from the audience. One of the questions was how to
address the vagueness in the briefs communicated by the local companies or brands? The
audience also suggested one possible solution that is to remove the vagueness through
alignment of purpose and action and in that way agencies can work better. But this led to the
second question from the audience how much time should be invested?
The panelists in this aspect focused on the difference between Brand building and Brand
management. They also talked about corporate restructuring. Because, under the current
system, it is the brand guy who has to manage sales, logistics and everything. When does he get
time to think about his brand and its promotion? When does he get time to make his brand move
ahead? A position like Brand Manager/Scholar have become important, who will just look after
the brand share in consumers mind. and the market share. They dont necessarily have to go to
the retailers and wholesalers and manage the micro-activities.

They also remarked that, Agency is a creative business. So, naturally, conflicts will always arise
when the view points of the agencies will not match with that of the companies.
Moderator then asked about the importance of having partnership essence in the industry.
Sinha again emphasized the input-output process. And certainly mediocre input will make the
objective mediocre, will make the communication mediocre and the results will also be
mediocre.
He mentioned about the fact that, now a days in football, the defenders are even getting as good
as the forwards. This has made football boring. He urged that we need to act as the custodians of
the brand. And we need to save the football; we need to bring back the game.
Moderator then mentioned that, marketing is a function to build a situation that will promote the
brand. The question is how do you build that situation?
In this aspect, Desai talked about two layers in practice. One is the accounting layer which takes
into account of information like how much sales have been generated in each and what is the
expense to generate the corresponding revenue; what is driving up the value of asset? Because, at
the end of the day everybody asks about how much value did the branding or marketing add to
the company? This layer is guided by the view that, Brand is to be rescued from the
Marketers.
The other layer is measuring the value of the brand, which is quite difficult. For example:
Unilever is the most interesting brand. But what is interesting in them? How many interesting
things they have added and what brand equity they have generated?
Kanishka Chakraborti asked us to find out the answer to 3 questions, finding answers to them
would help build the situation

Why the need to communicate?

What happens as alternative?
How it links to the product?

Moderator then moved on to the final topic how to meet the entrepreneur/investor/client?
Allein remarked that, all great campaigns have come based on trusting relationship between
clients and agencies. Good Clients are one who listen but as agencies first you need to get to
that stage to earn loyalty; and only then you can tax on (reap the benefits) good relationships.
Kanishka Chakraborti asked us to translate things into clients terms for a better understanding.
The clients point of view should also be given due consideration.
Allein also advised the agencies to avoid showing arrogance and create differentiation.

Moderator then ended the panelist discussion by stating that, local clients should start to take
brands as identities. Otherwise, the industry will not move on.
At this point, relevant question came up from Dr. Syed Ferhat Anwar, Professor, IBA, Dhaka
University. He asked about How much do you own your brand? How much do you own the
creative task? How you decide whose task will be what? The panelists replied that, there
should be clarity of understanding between the clients and the agency regarding this issue;
because, brand management and brand building are not the same issue. Brand management is
the responsibility of the company whereas Brand development should lie with the agency.
Then obviously the question of how to add value to the brand would come up. And this value
addition should not only be from bottom-line sales but also from the point of Brand equity.
The panelists emphasized on how do we create brand stories and how do we manage
them? They also mentioned about Umbrella positioning and Umbrella Branding regarding
which Dr. Syed Ferhat Anwar made the concluding remark that, at the end of the day, the
answer will depend on the country in which you are working?
The 6th session was then followed by Cannes Showcasing and Award Night.