"We end up assuming all the work by McCann is done by Prasoon Joshi": Rahul Kansal, investor, Kulzy.com

The third in a series of stories around the industry bigwigs who have invested in Kulzy.com. Today, we bring you a quick chat with Rahul Kansal, executive president, Brand Function, BCCL, publisher of TOI.

Rahul Kansal, executive president, Brand Function, Bennett, Coleman and Co., publisher of The Times of India, on Kulzy.com, a platform he has invested in. Kulzy.com is a data-driven networking platform for the ad-media-marketing community.

Edited Excerpts.

The media and advertising industry is very large. There is no real social media-centric, or community-centric engagement platform for this industry... a platform that people can come onto and show their work to one another, discuss their work, and discuss what's happening in terms of the creative standards of the industry on.

And in general, I feel the time has come for us to move from omnibus social networking sites like Facebook to more community-centric portals, where people can talk to one another and share what is valuable to them, and to the industry. So, there's a natural demand for an industry-specific group where everyone is aligned with one another by way of common interest in creativity, photography, etc.

Once a community like this is formed, it can be monetised through vacancy/job searches, and in terms of people showcasing their work and seeking clients, etc. Basically, once a community is formed, ways to monetise it will come along.

Kulzy.com will help people stand up for what they have done. In other words, it gives them 'rights' to be associated with their own work and their own output. There are times when we hear of outstanding creative work and we credit the agency that's done it... and inevitably we end up assuming that all the work done by McCann has been done by Prasoon Joshi, or that all the work in O&M is being done by Piyush Pandey. While they may surely add a lot of value to many of these great campaigns, there are other bright, young people who've worked on them, or clients who've supported them, or copywriters and planning people who've been associated with them...

So the role Kulzy performs is - to help people in the industry showcase their work. The work then gets recognised, rated and commented on, by the industry. This will bring non-users to the website.

On the other hand, people with services to offer - photographers, graphic designers, etc. - will, over time, be able to showcase what they're capable of and, consequently, attract customers.

On the one hand, Kulzy is a huge 'chat room' where people come, network and discuss stuff. On the other hand, it is a 'commerce platform' where talented providers of different services meet appropriate clients.

Rather than everyone just starting with the top agencies and going downwards to the ones they can afford, they can now zoom in directly on the kind of service providers that suit their needs.

As told to Ashwini Gangal