A Few Pearls of Wisdom

October is the month of the Bolshevik Revolution, the month known for giving the power to the people when the local soviets created the world’s first self-proclaimed socialist state.  Social media reminds me of this revolution where everyone tries to be equal, but they are not. God never intended us to be equals, some are wise, some are strong, some are beautiful and some are Marketers. At KAMN everyone is a marketing expert or at least tries to be one, what they fail to understand is what they write proves they are not equal. This week seemed like the intelligence was on a sabbatical, nevertheless I managed to pick a few pearls of wisdom.

Umair Saeed wanted to play the devil’s advocate after seeing others appreciating it: So buying an insurance policy is equivalent of ‘kamal karna‘? (serious question, no pun intended)

Nomaan un Nabi wanted to get on the good side of the client & wrote: I think the credit goes to the client (EFU Life) for taking such a bold step in this category because usually the insurance ads are more on the fear appeal side and less on humour specially in Pakistan.

Kudos to JWT for the concept and execution. EFU Life and JWT – boldly going where no one has gone before in insurance advertising in Pakistan!

Marylou’s response was spot on: Good teachers are the most important. But not only is the hiring criteria laughable, a lot of professionals in high level positions end up going to class unprepared and spew nonsense at their students. I have heard this from students (no, I am not a teacher but my job puts me in touch with students) over and over again – they mention big names who either just brag about themselves and the wonderful work they have done or don’t feel the need to prepare for a lecture like they would for any other important presentation. The business schools must be really desperate if they are allowing these individuals free rein to do as they please

Umair Mohsin’s fell in the intelligent category: A good Account Manager or Account Director can add a lot of value to the client and to the agency. Unfortunately, most are glorified dispatchers in ours. Real ADs are Brand Managers, Category Managers, Marketing Managers, Business Analysts, COOs and CFOs all rolled into one.

Amir Haleem Syed’s comment was a combo deal of intelligence & venting: The truth lies somewhere in between… Its more about what should be vs. what it is in the majority of the case.

Naimul Abd sounded intelligent too: Slotting people as Creative “versus” CS is a thing of past. The world of future is not slotted that way. You cannot be a creative without being good at understanding and reaching out to the client with your magic potion and you cannot be a CS who is a goof when it comes to creative. The mere term “Client Service” is demeaning as it defines your soul / sole purpose is doing some service for the client. If we were to change the title to AA (account advisors) it will change things completely. More than dispatching, I think the glorified CS of today is an EM (ego massager). We are talking semantics

Ayaz Ashraf made sense: I think its a good advertising and marketing, we all know Sana Bucha  & her being in the ad has created hype…people noticed, commented and that was required for the brand.

The most intelliegent post of the week goes to Rafi Hasan Abidi: “Adverts are not there to inform but to sell one thing: unhappiness. They work because they make us dissatisfied with what we’ve got or what we look like. They make us want the next new thing, until of course the next new thing comes along.” – Neal Lawson, The Guardian.

To which we had Javeria A Khan’s wise perspective: Strange that you understood the way you want it to be understood. You need to read the two examples again and the next part of both of them. Warren buffet is not affected by the ads of more expensive brands. Rolex is a regular type watch for him. He is content to have it. I had accentuated the house staff of begum sahiba not the begum sahiba herself. And if anyone calls marketing an ethical business. A hah for that.

The week ended with a proud moment for the Pakistan Marketing fraternity when Khalid Alvi was asked to speak at Philip Kotler’s World Marketing Summit in Malaysia. He spoke on how marketing can help achieve universal primary education & from the audience feedback that we got, his session was the most inspiring & interesting.