‘Any client who calls for a pitch just for the price, will regret it’


Mike Cooper is no stranger to India. His relation with India started 16-17 years ago, and since then, Cooper has been one of the big believers in the India market.

He started working in advertising at Saatchi & Saatchi in London in 1984 but he was soon headed to Asia, when he joined the media department of the agency, and was transferred to the Hong Kong office as Media Director in 1989. The following year he became Regional Media Director and in 1991 he became the CEO for Saatchi in Hong Kong and in 1993 was put in charge of North Asia. In 1995, he joined CNBC Asia in charge of sales, distribution and marketing. Two years later, he joined Omnicom as CEO for OMD Asia Pacific. This role saw Cooper involve significantly in India as well, and he played a key role in the first conversations of OMD’s decision to be in India. OMD grew to 26 offices across the region and is today the number two media specialist in the region. It is the most awarded media agency in the APAC region. He was also put in charge of setting up OMD’s global Account Management program in 2002.

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Music Kuthe Aahe?

By Dipali Banka

About two weeks back in Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray was very vocal as he warned all private FM channels to start broadcasting Marathi songs within seven days or else ‘face the music’. Within a week’s time, we were alerted with press releases of major stations in Mumbai talking about their Marathi shows and its music, and we now actually notice the Marathi element across FM stations in Mumbai. It is definitely a good move to promote local language content and bring in more variety in radio programming, but the manner in which the decree was paid heed to -- having to alter an independent private FM broadcast channel’s programming owing to coercion by a political leader -- is a question that needs to be addressed. Some of the FM stations in the city have been airing Marathi shows since some time now, but this spurt of whim has only brought forth the issue in limelight.

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Ready for a global transition

Moti Mahal began its operations in 1920 as a small eatery in Peshawar in undivided India and later reopened in Delhi in 1947 following the partition. It is known for its frontier flavours and is a brand synonymous with authentic North Indian cuisine. Today, there is a Moti Mahal in every major city across India and the brand is starting to make its mark in the international front as well.

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