What an Idea Sirji!

Tarun Chauhan dons many hats; he is a farmer, cricketer and advertising professional, however, he is best known in his last avatar as Managing Partner of JWT, a post which he assumed in 2010. Tarun has very recently completed a year with his own start-up TCS Consulting. A TEDx speaker, he handles the biggies, right from the Reliance Group to the Indian Government.

Tarun was also a cricketer during his younger days, and showed remarkable self assurance on the cricketing field and great inter-personal skills off it as he effortlessly interacted with the who’s who of the cricketing world. Everyone was in awe of him, but cricket for him was just that – a sport.

His story has been one of the inspirations for his best cricketing friends to pen a book ‘Golconda High School’, which went on to being made into a film. A Management Graduate, he pursued his passion and landed his first job at the advertising agency, Maa Bozell in Hyderabad. There was no looking back thereafter as Chauhan rose to the pinnacle of success in the advertising industry.

The upswing in his career graph speaks of association with some of the best advertising agencies of the world – Maa Bozell in Bangalore, Mudra in Ahmedabad, back again to Hyderabad with Saatchi and Saatchi and finally landing in the country’s financial capital Mumbai with HTA and then Lowe. Challenges intrigued him and comfort discomforted him.

He has led some of the most famous brand campaigns the industry has seen in the last decade. “What an idea sirji” for Idea Cellular, “Jaago Re” campaign for Tata Tea, Hamara Bajaj and other campaigns for Bajaj, the re-launching of VIP bags, the creation of India’s first white good retail brand Croma and recently the Aamir Khan’s campaign for Godrej.

Tarun has worn many hats and is never pressed for time; he still religiously and regularly makes way for following his hobby and doing what the heart wants. Apart from growing his own food; a farmer spending time at his country home harvesting paddy, he runs a dairy, breeds goats, and rides on his pet horses. He keeps to himself and guards his privacy.

Excerpts from the interview:

What's been the biggest change in advertising patterns over the last decade?
In the last two decades, the advertising industry has changed a lot. During our growing up years we saw the industry stand on three huge pillars of structure - Account Management, Planning and Creative. Therefore, the services provided were very holistic and market driven. In the last decade, this structure has eroded with the advent of creative people leading large agencies.

Most client expectations have now been reduced to the agency’s creative product. The other two key functions of the industry have nearly disappeared. Therefore, the industry has lost it gravitas of being a partner of the client and moved down the food chain to being an ad provider. This has lead to the erosion of premium-ness and revenues. This in turn has affected the industry ability to hire talent.

Do you feel it gets too hard to convince clients to do something out of the box, something unconventional?
There is nothing called out of the box. All work is aligned to a marketing brief. When people don’t understand the brief they discuss “out of the box”… “Tata Tea Jago Re”, “What an idea sirji” have been some of the largest campaigns the country has seen. They have been very clearly created based on a tight marketing brief.

Do you think digital and the social media have made it easy for people to recall an ad campaign? Or the clutter has increased?
Yes to an extent. But, finally, TV is the largest and key mass medium. Social media can drive engagement, not brand building.

What's the importance of colloquial writing in advertising?
Again it doesn’t matter. If the idea is big, it does not need any smart writing…it needs crafting.

With new start ups and a lot of companies setting up, do you think the game has got tougher for advertising professionals?
Advertising has been and will always be a very hard working and serious business. And talent stands out the moment they crack a big thought. There are people there in the industry who have spent their lives in it and still don’t stand out…advertising industry is like the film industry, you are known by your last hit…

By: Navin Pivhal