Graceful losers win again

AGKSPEAK/ Losing an account offers a window to rethink and revitalise

What I've liked
I make it a point not to review international TV commercials in this column for various reasons, the main one being that their primary target audience is not India.

But the Nokia 'clown' TV commercial is too brilliant to be contained by this 'rule' of mine. Clearly the company has spent quite a bit on it, but not too much by international standards.

I love everything about it. The thought, the story telling, the casting. And the superb product focus. The charming child-like sincerity of the 'plot' "" just think about it, it's how an imaginative dad would make up a story on the spur of the moment to explain technology to a persistent five-year-old! How lovely to have a planeload of clowns parachuting down from the sky to cheer you up, in response to orders from "Clown HQ" who do nothing all day but monitor sad faces.

Even the choice of the hero is commendable. Just your ordinary Joe standing sadly by the wayside. No one special. The story keeps to the cardinal rule of all fairy tales "" magic happens only to sad/ordinary people.

More importantly, from an advertiser's point of view, he is not distracting enough to take away from the focus of the commercial "" the clowns. And by using them as an icon, they have summed up entertainment so succinctly.

What I've learned
The art of losing gracefully
Let's face it. You are never going to win all the time. In fact life is fair only if it gives chances for everyone to win. So where does that leave us invariably? On the losing side, of course.

So just as important as it is to win with grace, we notch up bonus points when we lose with grace too "" be it in politics, at work or in our personal lives.

Let me illustrate. Symphony Air Coolers was a client whom we at Mudra, Ahmedabad, regarded as our baby. They came to us with a concept and a budget of just Rs 1 lakh! We took great pride in partnering a whole new product idea and watching it bloom and grow. It did remarkably well, and then just as the brand matured, we lost the account.

It was a loss which left us stunned, not so much for the loss of revenue but for the emotional ties we had with the brand. Admittedly, it was a painful task coming to terms with reality, but I'm glad we did it without bitterness and public venting of steam.

Instead we embarked on setting our house straight. We tracked the market and did our research to find out where we went wrong. After a respectable cooling-off period, we asked them if they would let us pitch again. So there we were, swallowing our pride, pitching for the brand we helped create!

We won the account back and learned a very important lesson. It takes only a second to destroy bridges but forever to build one. Hurt and denial often distort our perception and we end up making allegations which could be taken very seriously when it reaches the client's ears.

So it makes better business sense to focus on repairing the bridge than to take potshots in the dark. I know I am at the risk of sermonising here, but I cannot stress the point enough.

You are watched with the same scrutiny when you lose, as you are when you win. And it's easy to continue to impress people even in defeat. If you do it gracefully. Look at it as your time off to think and revitalise. Rather than using it to sulk, curse and make boastful nostalgic claims.

It was not at all easy to walk back to Symphony and re-present our case. But I am sure, however proprietorial we felt about the brand, we would not have even been allowed in the door, if we had a bad loser's attitude.

Instead we were welcomed warmly, given a fair hearing, and the account, and I would like to think that it was because we became a better agency after the experience. So you see, it pays to lose "" gracefully!

Email: agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com