Contract recently dreamt up ideas that contribute directly to clients' bottomline

The world's financial health is at an all-time low, future growth looks bleak and brand-building budgets are taking a hit. What should an ad agency do for its clients?

That's a question Ravi Deshpande, chairman and chief creative officer, Contract Advertising, wanted an answer to. "At such a time, clients would certainly not appreciate just a clever ad. They need ideas that would contribute directly to their bottomline, and not cost much, in their execution," he said.

Thus began a month-long exercise, when Deshpande asked everyone across Contract to send in recession-friendly ideas that could benefit clients.

"In some cases, it could be a creative business idea, like a whole new course in computer education at NIIT. Or a whole new chocolate for Cadbury. In other cases, a new distribution channel, a new product format, an activation idea or even just cost-effective promo ideas," he wrote in his brief to employees.

They replied with 212 ideas. These were narrowed down to 54, and the marketing heads of the agency's biggest clients evaluated them.

Deshpande says they were delighted: "They're totally overwhelmed, and some clients approved of the ideas right away. More so because they're not just brilliant ideas, but don't cost a lot of money, since these are essentially cost-effective ideas — purely bottom line driven."

Essentially, the best ideas ended up tapping distribution channels a lot more than the clients used to. So now, a pizza chain's staring at an opportunity that gives it scale, a telecom player is tapping mom-n-pop stores and an automobile major is getting the best out of a city cramped for space.

The winners of the ideas were rewarded too and apart from senior creative mavericks like Manish Bhatt, Raghu Bhat and Raj Nair, new gems were also discovered in the form of Madhavi Kalra, Joshua Upputuru and Desmond Macedo.

The next step, said Deshpande, will be to undertake 'Let's Make a Difference version 2.0', to seek digital ideas. 

Arcopol Chaudhuri/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication