It was the year 1993. R S Sodhi was the new group product manager at Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the brand Amul. He was given the marketing mandate of Amul. In the annual presentation that year, Sodhi met Shashi Sinha and his team from Ulka, which handled the media duties of the dairy major, for the first time. Sodhi tells Storyboard18 that Sinha changed his perception of advertising folks. “I was a salesperson before taking on the marketing role at Amul. I had always heard that advertising professionals are different personalities. They are quirky and creative. They talk in a certain way that can be intimidating sometimes. But when I met Shashi, it felt like he was one among us. He is extremely grounded and passionate,” he says.
Over the last 30 years, both Sodhi and Sinha have grown immensely as professionals. Sodhi was the managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation until earlier this year, and Sinha’s oldest client. Sinha, who is the current CEO of IPG Mediabrands, is a great team player, observes Sodhi. “He will always make sure every team member is given the chance to present their ideas and opinions. That’s the sign of a mature leader, which he has been over the years,” says Sodhi.
Collaboration during pandemic
In a great client-agency relationship, there are all sorts of challenges. Sodhi recalls how Sinha met him just before the world was shutting down in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We had heard the news of lockdown and were worried about a lot of things about the business. Sinha came to meet us. In our boardroom meeting, he said we should increase our advertising. He made it happen without increasing any marketing budgets, and the results were commendable,” Sodhi says.
On popular demand, Amul brought back a few of its old, popular ads from the 90s during the Ramayana and Mahabharat serials telecast on Doordarshan. The move invoked a wave of nostalgia among Indian viewers who were seeing their first national lockdown. Sinha and his team were instrumental in helping Amul gain marketing results when times were tough in 2020. According to media reports, the brand got 10X viewership compared to what it got in 2019’s edition of IPL at 1/10th the price. Sodhi believes Amul’s media strategies have always been on point because Sinha works on it as if he is a part of the brand team, and so do his teams.
With successes like these and being the go-man for all industry matters, Sinha is well-respected and loved. He will be conferred with the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award 2023 later this evening.