Profile: Ashish Bahl: "I do have a creative side"

Starting with advertising in Ogilvy, moving on to work on Coke at Leo Burnett, and later, Pepsi at JWT; then moving into marketing along the way, Bahl has had an interesting journey, to say the least

Loves multi-tasking, moves fast and hits hard. When job-hunting, the brand comes first, the agency next and money last. Always ready with a great plan A and an even better plan B. That's Ashish Bahl in a nutshell, in his own words.

The man who recently joined Neo Sports as head, marketing, from Contract Advertising attributes all these traits of his persona to his three-and-a-half-year stint with Coke at Leo Burnett, during the legendary cola war. He puts it as the "conditioning and brain damage done by Coke" that lasted forever.

Back in 1996, after B-school (at Delhi's International Management Institute), Bahl did his summer training with ITC Agro, but wasn't convinced if marketing was what he wanted to do. His best friend, who worked at O&M, introduced him to advertising. "I do have a creative side. I like photography and, at times, write too. No wonder, advertising appealed to me a lot. Moreover, I was impressed with the laidback and informal agency culture. Yet, there's the joy of creation. I took the job at Ogilvy Delhi."

Although Bahl was doing fine at Ogilvy, it was the call of a brand that drove him to Leo Burnett in two years' time. "I always had some favourite brands, which I strove to work on. It is Google now, but it was Coca-Cola then. Leo Burnett's Coke operation had moved to Delhi from Mumbai and I managed to get into it."

Working on Coke has been life's biggest experience for Bahl. "I joined in February and got the first Sunday off in November. Six days in office were followed by Sunday meetings at Sanjeev Gupta's home (director marketing)." It was the height of the cola war between 1998 and 2001. It was a pressure game every day - 18 people came and went from the team handling Coke -- but "it was a lot of fun. We didn't have days and weeks, but hours and minutes to respond."

In 2001, Bahl was put in charge of the entire business as account director. However, the account was realigned globally and it moved to Mumbai again. Leo Burnett, without Coke, couldn't hold Bahl back.

This was when his ex-client, Vinod Giri, brand manager at Coke, stirred his interest in marketing and he joined SabMiller on the Castle Lager account. When Bahl joined SabMiller, it had a market share of 2.5 per cent with 16 brands. After six months, he put in a request to expand the department. He was also a part of the team that helped it take over Shaw Wallace Breweries; and its market share rose from 4 per cent to 37 per cent in 2003. But when SabMiller's office shifted to Bengaluru, Bahl moved out.

A significant development came when Bahl chose to work on the Pepsi account in JWT. "Pepsi was fun; and the work we did during my tenure includes Toss Ka Boss and Pepsi Huddle, where we integrated very well with media. We did a lot of promotions on Pepsi Khufia. Another big thing was the re-launch of Diet Pepsi in 2005-2006."

Pepsi's promos, Bahl feels, always did better than the brand commercials. "Mera Number Aayega is still remembered," he points out. After a year-long break from advertising (he tried out a KPO in the meantime), he got an offer from Contract and joined as vice-president and business head. Bahl calls Contract a collaborative agency, with a relaxed and comfortable style of functioning.

His move to Neo Sports came when Jitender Dabas, vice-president and strategic planning director at JWT Delhi, and a close friend, suggested it to him. Having worked on ESPN at JWT and Ten Sports at Contract, Neo came as a natural progression.

Ask him about his favourite sport and he says, "I was shortlisted in the under-14 Indian volleyball team. I'm a competent swimmer. I cycle a lot and love to play football. Hockey and badminton are my passion."

What will be interesting to watch is whether Bahl can get sports, other than cricket, even more coverage in India.