Guest Column

A time for looking inwards
Madhukar Kamath, President, AAAI


The economic slowdown touched everything in its wake, and the Indian advertising industry felt the impact too. Nonetheless, the year 2008 would go down in the Indian advertising industry's history for many firsts, and many milestones. Mudra Group's Madhukar Kamath, the present President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) takes us through the various initiatives of the AAAI, and what more can be expected in 2009.

2008: A year of many achievements

Let me jog my memory and list out some of the things that we achieved in 2008. One very obvious one was the Abby awards becoming an integral part of the GoaFest. The Abby awards won tremendous significance with this move, and India had its own advertising festival... it really was a win-win situation for the entire advertising fraternity.

Like you go to Cannes to win the Lions, you go to Goafest to win the Abby. In 2009, we will take this a notch up, and even the media awards would be called the Media Abby. So there is a Creative Abby and a Media Abby, and this is just the beginning. At the same time, you have the Industry Conclave that would assume larger significance on the calendars of the people this year.

Everyone knows about the IBF-AAAI agreement we signed this year, which ended the impasse between the two bodies, and worked out a platform for people to work together. At the same time the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and AAAI relation was further strengthened and a sub-committee was formed. In 2008, the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and AAAI also formed a sub-committee that provided a forum for discussion of common issues.

Following this, there also were discussions of the notion of a tripartite agreement between the IBF, INS and the AAAI. You would in fact see the bodies coming together and taking decisions on some of the common issues facing us.

Also, in 2008, Sundar Swamy became the Vice Chairman of the newly formed body in the region called the Confederation of Advertising Agencies Association of Asia. The AAAI played a role in that. The AAAI also worked with the Times Group in organising the competition of the Young Lions Creative and Media in addition to creating some excitement around the AdFest Young Lotus Awards. We also worked very closely to bid for the 2011 Ad Asia, which is now slated to be in Delhi.

In 2008, the service tax issue also came up; suddenly the tax was also applicable on the principle amount. The AAAI lobbied this intensively; we interacted with the govt and the authorities over the issue and the necessary was achieved. Also, in the year, the AAAI initiated and coordinated a petition regarding the stamp duty in the state of Maharashtra with the signatories of all the four bodies for the first time ever. No exaggeration, this was historic!

2009: to build on what has been created

There is a lot that would happen in 2009. But typically, one does not earmark activities in that sense. You create a platform, an opportunity, a property, and then you build on it every year. This is the way GoaFest is being built - with the Media Abby, we have taken the event one a level up this year.

We are working in times when mutuality would be very important, and working together would matter. One initiative that I hope would bear fruition soon is a bilateral arrangement with the IAMAI. We are in the process of finalising the terms for that. As I had said, we had established a relation with the INS, and you can expect a few initiatives there that would smoothen the functioning of the two associations and their relations. The Ad Club and the AAAI is working closely at present. Very soon in fact you would see the AAAI, IBF and INS work together on a seminar for the industry. These are small steps but I see them as progressing steps that would bring great value for the industry.

Also, in 2009, the AAAI is also looking at its own constitution and membership guidelines to make the AAAI more representative of the industry. There are many creative agencies, media agencies, and full-service agencies that there are --- we would go step-by-step in seeing how we can include many more members in the Association.