"Intellectual professionalism" is what drives him! He has reputation for calling a spade a spade; and his 'attitude' has been amply reflected in his ability to professionally take on the big guns and hold his own against them. Meet FCB Ulka Advertising executive director and Lodestar Media chief executive Shashi Sinha. Sinha started his career in account planning at Ulka way back in 1986.

An engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM (Bangalore), Sinha first practised his skills as a product manager with Parle Beverages - then India's largest soft drinks company; and then as a product and sales manager at Herbertsons - a liquor and beverages company. Well, after dabbling with soft and hard drinks, he finally discovered the world of advertising.

Besides heading Lodestar (which was awarded "The Media Agency of the Year" at the EMVIES - 2002 and runner-up at the EMVIES - 2003, India's premier media awards), Sinha has handled some of FCB-Ulka's most prestigious accounts including Amul, ITC Foods, Kinetic Engineering, Zodiac, Ceat, Duncans, Zandu. He spearheaded the team that won awards for some memorable campaigns such as the launch of Captain Cook Atta and NDDB's milk promotion campaign, "Doodh, Doodh".

Sinha spoke to indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Kotian about Lodestar's high points, media audit firms, media independents and cut-throat competition in the media business. Excerpts:

Talking of empowerment, do you feel that Indian advertising is ready for a media audit firm?
Media accountability in the present context is the key. A media audit firm has been globally acknowledged as a great concept. In India, it is an idea whose time has come - but implementation is the key.

The media audit's success will depend several factors. For instance, this issue of benchmarking rates has always been a cause of concern. In fact, channels, rather than agencies, should be concerned about media audit firms. After all, in India, there are direct deals between the clients and channels. In India, differential rates are confidential and a closely guarded secret.

It is important to point out that the Indian market hasn't really matured. Secondly, even today, a lot of pitches in India are fought on rates. Impact and effectiveness - the oft-used hyped up terms used by marketing and advertising professionals take backstage. Needless to say, this obsession with rates is very short-sighted.

Also the media audit will have to take other issues into consideration. In India, personal relationships are the key; and people end up taking one another for granted even in their professional lives. Therefore, lot of compromises are made.

As far as Meenakshi Madhvani (ex Carat Media Services CEO turned entrepreneur of India's first-of-its-kind media audit outfit Spatial Access Solutions) is concerned, the success of her venture will depend on people and the clients that she bags in the initial days. Yes, the emphasis will be on tools and techniques - which will be an expensive investment - but talent is equally important.

Is the emergence of media audit firms a sign of changed client mentality? Is there a difference in client attitudes today when compared to the earlier decades?
These days, clients ask for much more in terms of accountability or deliveries in a fragmented market or breakthroughs in a cluttered marketplace. Competition is definitely sharper and it keeps everyone on their toes. But, yes, there is a perceptible change.

Earlier, the advertising manager or corporate communications head used to brief the media team whereas marketing/sales directors or MDs would brief the client servicing or creative teams. Nowadays, I see more and more involvement of the senior level management in media decisions. However, this involvement must increase gradually.

In fact, Tata Motors is a great example of client-agency teamwork where everyone contributed. As an agency, we spoke tough while presenting the macro-strategy right upfront - after all the client budget was less than what Hyundai had spent till July. Managing expectations was the key. We communicated that we would strive hard to deliver within the constraints. At the end of it, we did deliver and this resulted in a better, tighter bond between the agency and the client.

What about the existing market situation? Can we expect a boom in advertising in this year?
The general sentiment about the Indian market is positive - with good monsoons and resurgent stock markets. But I don't know whether this will translate into reality. The next three to four months are very crucial.

Remember that the advertising and media industry thrives on FMCGs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and the toplines of these companies haven't grown phenomenally. The advertising industry will not show a dramatic growth in this year unless the market grows stupendously in the next quarter. But yes, there are other sectors that are looking up - automobiles, insurance and telecom amongst others.

Since the monsoons have been good, the rural demand will pick up. The definition of "rural" is also very subjective in India. And the wholesale market in rural areas is a different ballgame. The real challenge here is to ensure that the distribution systems are in place.

How many companies have the wherewithal to invest in setting up distribution network across the length and breadth of the country and advertise constantly to stimulate demand? I would say - just five or six companies.

It's easy to crack "rural media" but distribution is the true challenge. I would say that several clients haven't been able to reap the benefits of TV advertising due to weak distribution channels in rural areas.

Infrastructure, too, has to improve in rural India too and the onus of that rests on the government.

Have the newly formed media independent agencies changed the face of the Indian ad industry?
As far as media independents are concerned, I belong to a group that pursues a different school of thought. Media independents in India aren't a five-year old phenomenon. We had explored this concept of media independents or stand-alone media entities long before anyone in India thought about it. In the early 1990s, I had spoken about media-account planners. But the structure was very different from the contemporary connotations of the term "media independent" - the way it is understood today.

Here, it is important to mention that right from the very beginning, I structured Lodestar very differently. We were independent but had a holistic approach that gave precedence to the overall brand strategy. For us, media effectiveness was a tool to attain the macro-objective - mutually defined by the client and ad agency teams.

The fact of the matter remains that media is one aspect of the larger picture. I often refer to this example of Zodiac Clothing's brand Zod! Club Wear - that won us an Emvie 2003 award (Silver for best media strategy). The mandate was to sell 75,000 shirts and the allocated budget was measly. It wasn't not about tools and techniques but was a far more intellectually appealing challenge. The key was provide results that the core brand team wanted rather than the usual media deliveries. We delivered and won awards; I wonder how many media independents would have accepted this challenge.

Another relevant example is that of Tata Motors (formerly TELCO) Indica launch. At that time, Hyundai was all over the place - TV and cinema ads featuring Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan. Our brand strategy was to give an overall "Big Brand" feel to Indica - 'more car per car', 'hope and hype'. Everything that we did - be it media or creative or promotions or POPs - spouted forth this idea. After all, media is just an extension of the overall brand strategy. Therefore, we opted for full page newspaper ads in top mainstream publications. We didn't use TV or regional press at all during the launch phase. It clicked big time.