The Indian advertising industry has seen major ad-spends prompted by the `new economy' mania.

Dotcom advertisers have in fact been one of the major spenders. How is this situation likely to change with the market rationalisation?
The industry as a whole has gained momentum especially prompted by the rush for cashing in on bright ideas. This is common to any emerging segment and the dotcom segment too has seen this pattern. But I do not feel that the rationalisation of any one particular segment (for example the dotcoms) can singularly affect the condition of the advertising industry. While one may see less of pure play dotcom models, the brick and click system is likely to emerge more strongly. But at this point, it is interesting to note that this period is going to see the growth of retail advertising. As townships are spreading out, the retail revolution has set in and industry segments will get into the retail advertising act quickly.

How has the Indian consumer's attitude changed? What can you say about the current Indian market?
The Indian market particularly has savvy consumers who are aware of the market and the kind of products that are available. As the number of players have been steadily growing, the media boom-particularly access to television-has made the consumer experimental and willing to try out new products. There are therefore two key propositions the market players need to look into with regard to pricing-value for money and the money for value proposition. Players need to, therefore, realise that it is a pyramid market with the bulk of sales coming in from the `value for money' part while the niche products are a small portion of the entire system. There is a need, therefore, to identify the right segment your product fits into before estimating the market.

This was one thing the liquor players overlooked and thereby overestimated the market for directly imported foreign liquor. This was later revised to come under the IMFL (Indian made foreign liquor) tag.

What has been the effect of regionalisation of advertising campaigns?
Take Coke for example, they have extensively localised the advertising campaigns to fit the Indian context.Regional brands have gained importance and so much so that the bulk of media spends/volume of advertisements is in the non-English segment. This, therefore, must be considered quite important for the overall branding exercises. Indianisation is important for MNC products, especially when competing with Indian brands that have grown to be assertive and have their own self image with the Indian consumers. Thinking in a local sense is crucial especially since India is a federation market. Coca Cola for example worldwide followed a `guideline-pattern' type of advertising with a common theme running through all the campaigns. But the breakthrough the company got in the market was through the sense of belonging the advertisements projected. The `My Coke, my brand' image is very strong, which again goes back to effective Indianisation.

What is your focus for the MAA Bozell group?
My focus will be more to act as a change catalyst. The company already has a strong foundation in the industry. The idea is to create a synergy between the various groups within the company and its six branches across the country. As part of the overall strategy, the company has already formed strategic business groups for each specific segment-like MAA Wellness for pharma advertising, ITcomm@MAA for IT advertising, RAAMS for retail advertising (expected to be a key growth business), etc; focus is on finetuning functioning and planning.