Alumni Guest House : Donated by Mr. Mody (Class of '55)

Abhijit Avasthi is Group Creative Director of a well-known ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai. This interview appeared in Agencyfaqs!, a magazine catering to advertisement and media relations industry.

Mr. Abhijit has scaled many heights including working as part of jury for media competition and international media festivals.

For full interview:

Link

Excerpts from the interview:

Piyush and Prasoon Pandey are better than any training programme. Abhijit Avasthi group creative director, O&M

Q1. You have worked in various fields before settling upon advertising. How did you decide this was the profession for you?

A. Advertising happened to me purely by accident. I couldn’t have planned such a devious route! (Laughs) After completing my engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (ITBHU) in 1993, I joined a steel plant. For some reason, I didn’t like the job and I quit it. Then, till 1996, I tried my hand at many other things such as dealing in textile dyes, exporting playing cards and match-boxes from India, and trading in saris. By this time, I had left engineering far behind and I never did have an inclination for doing an MBA. So, I was kind of groping with what to do and what not to. I knew I enjoyed lateral thinking and I was well read.

Having grown up with them around, I used to hang out with Piyush (Pandey) and Prasoon (Pandey) and we used to talk on every topic under the sun. One fine day, Piyush suggested, “I’ve seen that you have a fertile imagination and you really enjoy discussing ideas. Why don’t you give advertising a shot?”

So, I went to Enterprise Nexus and applied. They liked what I did and hired me. I was really lucky to have an established bunch of seniors guiding me. Besides Mohammad Khan and Rajeev Agarwal, who gave me a lot of freedom, my immediate boss, Zarwan Patel, was really encouraging and helpful. And I was also fortunate to have found my art partner in Raj Kamble at a very early stage in my career.

“One fine day, Piyush suggested, 'I’ve seen that you have a fertile imagination and you really enjoy discussing ideas. Why don’t you give advertising a shot?'”

Q2. Have your experiences in various fields given you the advantage of understanding the consumer more deeply?

A. Yes, it has definitely helped me. Most people get into advertising when they are 20-21. I started late at the age of 25-26. But all the years I spent working on other things before entering the profession of advertising, have paid dividends. I have been very lucky also to travel, which has helped me a lot in advertising. My dad was in the Indian Air Force and, because of the nature of his job, I got to see a lot of places. Even during my engineering days at Banaras, I got to travel immensely because of college festivals. In fact, the other day I was calculating and I felt so good about the fact that of the 28 states in the country, I have visited 22 already.