‘Encouraging my team to innovate is what excites me the most’  ( August '13,2001, ET)

Those who have diligently watched some of the live telecasts and award functions of mega events on television will remember how certain special occasions and moments in the programme were frozen as “Kodak Moment.” But very few are aware that this concept was the brainchild of Ms.Kalpana Rao, 43, the managing consultant and head of media, Ogilvy & Mather India.

Surprisingly, Ms Rao was fascinated by media planning and all it’s aspects as early as the eighties, much before the television boom. In those days, this aspect of work in advertising was considered to be a poor cousin to the higher profile jobs like creative and client servicing. “We used to be referred to as the backroom girls,” says Ms Rao. With just a handful of magazines at a national level, some mainline newspapers and only Doordarshan in the television segment, indeed, the media plan of one agency differed very little from that of the other.

However, since then, things have changed radically. In the nineties, with the invasion of satellite channels, today, media planning and the gamut of activities around it has become a complex and specialised function gaining much significance. Most of the advertising agencies are now hiving off their media buying arms as a separate division.
“This transition has been a great learning experience,” says Ms Rao.

In her family, with a brother already a doctor, Ms Rao however pursued a degree in Economics much against her parents wishes who wanted their daughter also to be a doctor or an engineer. When she graduated from St Xaviers’ College, Mumbai, in 1978, she took up a post-graduate degree in communication at Sophia College, Mumbai. While being trained in all aspects of communication, what was it that made her choose media planning as a career? Ms Rao realised that it was her analytical bent of mind that pulled her to this job, even when only one lecture was devoted to media studies during the course of the week.

Initially, Ms Rao worked for Doordarshan as an assistant producer of a children’s programme for six months but was disillusioned with it quite soon due to lack of adequate infrastructure to back talent. Ignoring people who believed that she was good enough to be in client servicing, she declined an offer to join client servicing, and in 1981, she joined O&M as a media trainee. Since, media was not such a specialised department as it is today, Ms Rao got exposure to other areas of advertising like strategy, and creative work.

Inspired by her friends and colleagues in the creative department, Ms Rao decided to freelance and work as a consultant in 1989 after a span of nine years with O&M. Working independently, helped Ms Rao to understand managing the business better as she handled client budgets. “It also gave me a lot of free time,” says Ms Rao.

When the media business started changing rapidly in the nineties, she felt the need to be more actively involved with it and in 1992 she joined as the head of media in Ulka. In 1998 she moved back to O&M. “I enjoyed my stint with Ulka and it was only O&M which could have pulled me out of Ulka, as my teenage fascination with O&M continued,” says Ms Rao.

With special emphasis in advertising now being given to media planning, it evolved as a more challenging task. “Managing and encouraging my team to think differently and to innovate is what excites me the most,” she says.

Masterminding a capsule in the popular talk-show Movers and Shakers, where host Shekhar Suman cracked jokes on personalities based on the adhesive Fevicol is one such example of what Ms Rao means by innovation. Research is another area that interests Ms Rao. “ We have taken research beyond metros to provide value to clients. In selecting a programme, we lay emphasis on audience involvement more than television ratings profile (TRPs).”

“Normally, we tend to create problems for ourselves by trying to be extremely good at the workplace and as good a homemaker as our neighbour’s wife,” says Ms Rao. “When you put so much expectation around you, you are bound to be under stress,” she adds. Mumbai, she feels is a working woman’s paradise with a support system in place.

In the advertising industry, gender bias is almost non-existent, believes Ms Rao. She has never had any problems with her male colleagues. “On the contrary we are priviledged. Clients pay for the bills even when we take them out because they feel awkward to let a lady pay,” she jokes. In her free time, Ms Rao plays tennis, swims and exercises. The love for sports is what she has inherited from her family. And it is probably this sporting spirit that helps her lead her team and keep a cool head under pressure.