Seduction is one of the most ancient and powerful arts known to mankind. History is witness to the many devastating results that this Art has achieved to accomplish the unattainable. It is an integral part of all facets of our life, be it professional or personal. We don't realize it but all of us are either the recipients or the ones using this on people around us.

Seduction is much more than just the three-letter word that all mushy movies and rag magazines have made it synonymous with. It is about the influence that you can bring upon the person whom you are interacting with, it is about using the positive attributes that a human being possesses-smile, humor, touch, the right words, the right body language and very importantly the right thoughts. The most fascinating part of this Art is that you can even seduce without being face to face with somebody!! Imagine the power that Media professionals have at their beck and call, for it is said that whoever controls the Media, controls the mind. This control when put to proper use can work wonders in marketplace. Harnessing this awesome power requires imagination and controlling this power requires innovation.

So, how does a media professional go about seducing his two primary constituents; the client and the client's customers? The most important ingredient of seduction is about being different in everything that one does. And being different is not necessarily shouting from the rooftops. It's about being unconventional, about having an idea that makes the brand stand out in the cluttered mindspace and marketplace. The reality of our business today is that clients buy an idea only if you have seduced them (if any client is reading this article, please re-read the definition of seduction written above !!).

Good ideas come with passion and involvement for the client's business not a moronic delivery of Reach and GRPs. Unfortunately all you see today is a hysterical scramble for the so called Share of Voice (SOV) which is still measured as per the medieval norms invented by some primitive species. I wonder when the media industry will revert to calculating Share of Mind rather than SOV. Ask any media planner as to what is his/her role in enhancing their client's business and you will find this bashful look followed by a blush which is then accompanied by a very soulful statement of how they only 'plan' media!!!

Where is the seduction? It is absolutely ridiculous that your client entrusts you with crores of rupees and you only 'plan' media??!! Any client today can make a media plan, there are websites today that give you all information on media that one desires…So as a media professional, what is your role? Aren't you making yourself obsolete? repeating the same mistakes that the earlier generations did…….no innovations, no accountability, no proactiveness, no involvement in client's business, no passion???? Where is the seduction?

I can hear some very strident protests now from some of the people reading this …..all I can say is that yes, you may be working very hard but how does that hard work translate to building your client's business?

Where is the magic? Have you ever thought about the plight of the poor consumer? Bombarded by your ROS spots and high frequency packages (which work only in your mind), the consumer today is crawling in sheer fright leading to disgust. The consumer is now afraid of when his/her favourite programme is going to get interrupted, how he/she is being forced to extend the viewing hours because of the number of spots that threaten to tear apart the entire reason for watching Television. After fighting a hopeless battle to reason with Media owners, clients, after writing numerous articles on this senseless invasion of their space, the consumer today has perfected the art of ignoring…reserve all household jobs for the ad-breaks! Disgusting, absolutely disgusting, that the same consumer whom we are trying to seduce is not even willing to look at us, forget getting seduced.

Why do you look then so surprised when client after client asks you ' how come there is no improvement in my market shares despite spending large moneys on media?' Get into creative ideas…so that you don't bombard the customer with ROS packages, save your clients moneys as you don't require those 1000 GRPs to get noticed !! To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk! The best innovators aren't lone geniuses. They look everywhere for that spark, that gleam, that small jagged edge which can then be transformed into something magical. Good companies have learned to systemize this process. Taking an idea that's commonplace in one area and moving it to a context where it isn't common at all is not a new way to spark creativity, of course. For example the steam engine was used in mines for 75 years before Robert Futon thought deeply about the original innovation, wondered about how it could be used to propel boats, and developed the first commercial steamboat.

At Maximize, apart from employing new forms of measuring media deliveries, we have gone ahead and put a formal system to constantly generate ideas…..ideas resulting in building client's businesses. During the peak Jan to March period for financial services, we featured one of our clients' CEO in a series of Q&A rounds on a channel, a far better option than the age-old , highly abused sponsorships…….the initiative went on air, huge responses followed and the best part is that the viewers never realised that this was a paid for activity! And then, only recently we enabled a profitable partnership between two of our clients. At Maximize we believe in involving ourselves in all aspects of our client's business.

Why else should a client employ a media specialist if you can't work on tangible ROIs? We are now involved with a project where-in we are marketing a client's chain as a medium to our other clients; right from developing the presentation to prospects to actually sourcing business! Now, as a media company, are we supposed to do this? Well, we truly believe that we are in the business of customer acquisition for our clients and we have sworn to go looking for them wherever they exist! We go beyond media plans and the archaic terms that are supposed to justify them. Once you too start doing these you will be delighting your clients, your clients' customers……they will want you. Clients want you to get business for them, Go get it.