MAM
MRUC’s Roda Mehta issues rejoinder defending IRS 2002
MUMBAI: MRUC Technical Committee chairperson Roda Mehta has given a rejoinder to WPP marketing communications South Asia CEO Andre Nair’s recent remarks about IRS 2002 that were made during the course of an interview he gave to indiantelevision.com.
Mehta’s rejoinder is reproduced below in full:
During my recent visit to Mumbai, I had an opportunity to read the two interviews (on indiantelevision.com) featuring the comments of Andre Nair and a response from Amit Ray. I was deeply saddened to read the intemperate and ill-informed comments on the IRS, necessitating a rejoinder. It is obvious that Andre is commenting on hearsay.
When Andre and I sat next to one another at the recent Abby Award ceremony of the Advertising Club of Bombay, he mentioned that he had been asked to chair the Technical Committee of the NRS. I wished him well …and continue to do so.
In a spirit of healthy respect for each other’s efforts on industry work and as an independent user of media databases, the MRUC had invited him to the launch of Round 10 of IRS on 29 April 03.
The letter of invitation, which I suspect he has not read, stated that the presentation was for the full year of 2002. So his comment that “the IRS full report is not out yet” is not correct. The file viewer was released in a few days’ time after launch presentation. Given that not a single person from the WPP group of media companies was present that day, I guess there was no way he would have known that.
For someone to say “the IRS Report is a bungled thing and I am not the only person to say this” suggests he has personally studied the IRS carefully and has the affirmation of his colleagues and the market to make this statement. Sadly, neither Andre nor the senior members of his team have given MRUC the time of day to even view the IRS, while representatives are sent for attending meetings for audience measurement for much smaller single city media projects.
All surveys, by their very nature, are sample surveys and are not censuses. To claim the superiority of one over the other requires detailed knowledge. I am afraid that neither Andre nor the heads of MindShare or Fulcrum have even exposed themselves to the IRS product, despite several attempts made by the MRUC.
When Andre mentions that their “own validations have found superiority of the NRS on a key parameter – data consistency”, I wonder if Andre has checked this out personally, given the past history of these two studies?
Just to clarify with just one instance, the NRS 2000 had placed the readership of Dainik Bhaskar at No.5 with 74.5 Lakhs (7.45 million). For the same period IRS 2000 ranked Dainik Bhaskar at No.1 with a readership of 109 lakh (10.9 million) readers. Later in 2001, NRS declared Dainik Bhaskar’s readership at 119 lakhs (11.9 million), a jump of 45 lakh (4.5 million) readers in one year!! Nothing on circulation or market dynamics suggested that one publication could generate so many readers during this period! Perhaps, Andre would like to check this out?
Andre’s explanation of the IRS being bungled was its “inability to answer or evade certain questions at their result presentation”. If Andre had been there, or anyone else from his companies, he would have learnt that during the presentation, it had been clearly mentioned that there had been an error in the press release in which Hindustan had been unfortunately mentioned as Hindustan Times.
Being in a competitive market, Andre would know the licence that would be taken by an affected party to blow a minor issue up. So when “they ….. said they would issue a corrigendum, which the dictionary defines as an error to be corrected”, I have no doubt that Andre will have the generosity to condone a typographical error.
Skirmishes between competitors is normal in the market place. But for impartial heads of organisations, endowed with the responsibility to give their clients the best advice, independent of any partisanship, it saddens me greatly to read the interview published on your site.
To even suggest that one of the finest clients any agency can have, namely Hindustan Lever, is only ironically associated with the IRS as a bulk buyer, is indiscreet. If there is one thing HLL does know, it is value for money! India’s first AOR was created for HLL, which Andre has inherited.
When I was told that Andre was to head the media companies of WPP in India, I had welcomed the news and said to many that this was good for the group as to Andre the quality of inputs were as important as the integrity of his media recommendations.
I was delighted that a participant of an Asia Pacific Ogilvy & Mather Training Programme, where I had been invited as faculty, was to hand over the Distinctive Recognition Award to me at the recent Abby Awards by virtue of his responsibility as the industry’s largest trustee of client media budgets.
I know he will not break my faith in him.
Roda Mehta, chairperson, MRUC Technical Committee
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AD Agencies
The smell that told Mumbaikars which station was next
Tata AIA turns Mumbai’s Parle-G memory into a sharp, city-wise outdoor play
MUMBAI: When a biscuit factory became Mumbai’s unofficial station announcement. Long before smartphone maps and automated announcements, commuters on Mumbai’s Western line relied on their noses. As trains rolled into Vile Parle, compartments filled with the warm, sweet smell of baking biscuits from the Parle-G factory. It was a cue to gather bags, wake dozing children and shuffle towards the door.
Now that memory has been pressed into service by Tata AIA Life Insurance as part of its 25-year anniversary outdoor campaign — a city-by-city salute to the lived moments that shape urban life.
One hoarding, mounted close to the old factory site, reads: “We have been protecting Mumbaikars since Vile Parle smelled of freshly made biscuits.” Spare. Local. Loaded.
The broader campaign, rolled out across major metros, leans hard into contextual storytelling. In Kolkata, it nods to trams. In Pune, to Magarpatta’s transformation. In Bengaluru, to a time before IT parks. In Chennai, to OMR before it led to tech corridors. Each line anchors the brand’s longevity to a shared civic memory.
The Mumbai execution is the most evocative. For decades, the Parle-G factory was more than a production unit. It was a sensory landmark. Residents nearby set their clocks by the factory horn. Office-goers marked their commute by the waft of glucose and flour. When the plant shut, the city lost more than jobs. It lost a rhythm.
By placing the hoarding beside the former factory, the insurer collapses distance between copy and context. The site does half the storytelling. The rest comes from commuters who remember opening steel tiffins packed with Parle-G, or jolting awake as the train slowed.
It is a neat piece of brand positioning. Rather than trumpet balance sheets or policy counts, Tata AIA borrows emotional equity from the city itself. Twenty-five years becomes less a milestone and more a presence — steady, local, embedded.
Outdoor advertising is often a blunt instrument. This one is anything but. It whispers. It remembers. And in doing so, it sells trust without sounding like it is selling at all.
The scent may have faded. The memory has not.
