Diwan Arun Nanda was willing to take a stand: Ambi Parameswaran remembers a fearless adman
Veteran adman Ambi Parameswaran, in his tribute to the late Diwan Arun Nanda, recalled an incident where R.D. Aga, then MD of Thermax, was hesitant to approve a three-ad campaign created by Rediffusion. In response, Nanda boldly offered to run the campaign at his own cost.
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Diwan Arun Nanda is no more. He changed Indian advertising business is so many different ways. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity of starting my career in 1979 at Rediffusion and being based in the Mumbai office, I also had many opportunities to work with him on campaigns.
Rediffusion Advertising was founded by Diwan Arun Nanda, Ajit Balakrishnan and Mohammed Khan in July 1973. They met at MCM, the legendary ad agency that was on its last legs. Decided to branch out on their own, but Rediffusion did not have a great start since the ad business was facing a downturn.
Mohammed moved on and Arun Nanda with his trusted partner Ajit Balakrishnan decided to brave it. As the agency started finding its feet, Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan started putting the building blocks for a strong future facing ad agency. Remember, the mid 1970s was an era of big MNC clients (HLL, Nestle, Colgate, Cadbury, ITC et al) and established agencies with strong global tie ups (HTA, Lintas, Clarion McCann). How to fight these giants? Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan had their plan chalked out.
From the early days, it was clear that they needed to build a national agency with some unique characteristics. They hired four branch managers. All with pedigreed backgrounds: Vish Viswanathan (IIMA, J&J, Lintas), R Narayanan (IIMC, Nestle, Coke), Subhas Chakravarty (IIMC, ASP) and Sheila Sircar (MCM).
Coming out of MCM they knew that it is finally the creative product that will take the agency places. They hired Arun Kale as the Art / Creative Director. After Mohammad left, they brought in Kamlesh Pandey in 1976. Slowly accounts started coming: Bush Radio, CIBA and more.
Learning from MCM, Arun Nanda decided that Rediffusion will have centralized creative. All the ads, all the TV scripts, all the hoarding designs were done out of the Mumbai office. Arun Nanda used to play the role of arbitrator in case of disputes (one such dispute involving Thermax corporate campaign is captured in my book SPONGE – Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients).
Alyque Padamsee has gone on record to say that Lintas started hiring MBAs from IIMs to have the brain power to take on the bright IIM educated brand managers at HLL. Rediffusion, in spite of being much smaller than Lintas, decided to visit the IIMs in 1978 looking for talent. I joined Rediffusion in 1979 along with Rajiv Agarwal (IIMA) and Ratna Rajiah (IIMC). Our colleagues were Ashok Kurien, HV Prasad Subramanian and Raghunath. Those who know about the ad agency business will recognize these names as founders of agencies like Nexus Equity, Ambience, Capital Advertising. Rediffusion continued to hire from IIMs for many more years.
Arun Nanda used to spend time with all the management trainees and I was fortunate to have been based in Mumbai and may be got a higher share of time with him.
Here is the potent combination. High power MBA thinkers in an agency that truly believed in the power of creative. The agency started getting recognized for its work for brands like Bush Baron, Red Eveready, Jenson & Nicholson (Whenever You See Colour Think Of Us) and more.
Those were the days of full-service agencies, earning full commission. Rediffusion unlocked the full power of MBAs. Client servicing folks not only met clients, wrote the creative briefs, but they also did strategic planning and media planning. The job was full of possibilities. Arun Nanda and his senior team members were ready to let the youngsters take the lead and run with the ball, so to speak.
Campaigns started rolling out and started getting noticed. The agency was winning new business and also awards by the shipload. I remember attending an Ad Club Award show where every single campaign that Rediffusion had created the previous year won awards. Mind you, these were real campaigns that ran in leading newspapers and television.
While ad agency executives today fight shy of taking any stand in front of clients, Arun Nanda was ready to fight. I remember when RD Aga, the MD of Thermax was hesitant approving a three-ad campaign created by Rediffusion, Arun Nanda offered to run the campaign at his cost. So the man put his money where his mouth was.
Arun Nanda was also a man of style. Sometimes dressed in a blue blazer and sometimes in a cream safari suit (yes, you read that right). With a Dunhill cigarette pack in his hand and a gold lighter (yes gold), driving an imported car. He also owned horses and some great art.
It was 1981, we were going for an important new client meeting. Arun was driving his Toyota. I remarked “Arun, we seem to be getting called by the best of best clients. Isn’t that great”. I still remember his reply “Ambi, where will they go. Where will they go my friend”. That was the confidence of the man.
No wonder, Arun Nanda and Rediffusion were trusted by Rajiv Gandhi to create his election campaign. And by Ratan Tata on many occasions.
I am sure the best of best clients are queuing up to take Diwan Arun Nanda’s advice in his new abode.
Rest In Peace Arun.
Ambi Parameswaran started his career in Rediffusion Advertising in 1979, straight out of IIM Calcutta. He left Rediffusion to join Boots Company in 1982.
