In my last post I mentioned about my early morning cab ride to Mumbai; that was to pick up a guest for the Integrated Marketing Seminar in SCMHRD.

The man turned out to be the mastermind behind the Hutch to Vodafone change, Mr Kartik Sharma. He works for Maxus Global, a communications company.

Apparently the change from Hutch to Vodafone was carried out in nothing more than 24 hours! Beat that! Changing all the banners, posters, billboards, interactive voice responses, everything.... all over India.. in 24 hours!!! WOW!

The change was so strategic, so critical, that only two people knew about the change in the months it took to plan it. Only in the last week before the switch did the rest of his team know about it. Talk about well kept secrets!

And they used innovative marketing techniques. They blocked out ALL the other advertisements across the 13 channels of the Star Network. ALL the other advertisements. Imagine, no ad playing on any of the 13 channels, except for Vodafone (and the ads of Star for their own serials and programs)! The other companies were flabbergast! (and are still recovering from it)

And here's another marketing technique they used. The first ever commercial of the Hutch->Vodafone change (were the dog comes back to a red doghouse) was played as part of the serial! An actor goes to a restaurant and while he sips his drink, he watches this ad on a television in the restaurant. Imagine the curiosity generated in the minds of the viewers!!! About 10 minutes later, the actual ad was played in the commercial break. And it was played at the same time all across the channels!!! Man, what a move!

And these guys are so thorough in their work. They almost got everything in their checklist right except one. They planned to put the Vodafone ad in premium positions in 51 leading dailies,...they only got 50... it was too late to add it into the 51st daily's printing schedule.

In the 3 and half hour ride from Mumbai to Pune he was silent only for about the last 30 minutes. Through the rest of the journey it was an amazing ride from Nehruvian economics, to why India is such a great place to be in, to Maxus Global, to how media companies differ from creatives companies (like O&M), to how his company and his boss worked... phew....!

Glad I said yes to escorting him!

Kartik Sharma with Ashish Rathi and me.