Yousuf Rangoonwala's Page

Nearest City

Jakarta

State/Province

West Java

Personal Site/Blog

http://yrinindonesia.nomadlife.org

Interests

Chelsea, Italy, Jeffrey Archer, O’Henry, Quentin Tarantino, The Godfather, Mystic River, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Pink Floyd, Louis Armstrong, Paul Oakenfold, Paolo Maldini, Batman, Zen anecdotes, traveling, horses, violin, dance, theatre, intelligence agencies, archaeology, wildlife

About Me

If I'd be anything but human, I'd be a ball - bouncing away across who-the-hell-put-them barriers, effervescent, doing gleefully whatever I can with life's offers.

My philosophy for life is "the harder you bounce, the higher you go".

Apart from that, I guess my interests above should say a lot about me. If you still can't figure me out, that says a lot about you :)

Areas of Expertise

I'm not talented enough to find a real job so I'm goofing around in an ad agency trying to figure what makes people click, trends, etc and getting slapped now and then for poking my nose into people's lives.

Apart from that, I'm very, very good at talking. So if you're interested in knowing someone with verbal diarrhoea, please feel free to get crapped by calling or emailing me. Trust me, shit happens.

Current Company

McCann Erickson Indonesia

Position

Strategic Planner (this is not in the Kama Sutra). Which is why I prefer Missionary. Tried and tested.

Position Responsibilities

Oh God, not again:

1) Commissioning and coordinating research (makes me sound like a city mayor, doesn't it? Cool!)
2) Playing badcop with client versus client ass-licking good cop played by suits
3) Making sense of research (something most researchers fail to do)
4) Translating that research into stuff called brand/campaign strategy
5) If it sounds fancy, translating that "strategy" into a "creative brief" - one of those wretched documents that mark mankind's traumatic evolution into an unwanted species
6) Ensuring the creative team comes up with ideas that deliver the strategy, not ones that demonstrate how good they are at drawing (Bad cop 2)
7) Ensuring the client buys the campaign (that may involve surreptitious lunch meetings)
8) And if it wasn't bad already, feeling like a watchdog by playing "brand guardian". Jeez, I'm not even married yet and I've gotta start feeling like a "guardian". What's next, attending brand-teacher meetings at school?
9) Campaign evaluation (things to make the client feel she didn't make a mistake. Most often, this doesn't help coz the client still gets the feeling she was duped)

Anyone has a better job? I'm sure

Industry

Advertising, marketing communications, interactive, activation

Company Description

Oh God, here goes part 2:

I'm sure you're not deaf, dumb or ignorant to not know what McCann Erickson is all about. Just in case you are (I get the feeling you might be), embrace the path to your enlightenment at www.mccann.com.

Oosp, I forgot, that's what I'm supposed to write below. So here's my two cents:

As an agency, we ardently believe (we think we do) in our founder's philosophy of "Truth Well Told". It's even inscribed on our coffee mugs. Rightly so, for our coffee sucks and there's only one way to "say it well" - it sucks! That, btw, is on days when we get coffee.

Our approach to brand building is defined through the Demand Chain (now this is some really smart stuff) which we use to identify problems, solutions and help clients save their asses.

In Indonesia, we work on Nescafe, Nestle Breakfast Cereals, Coke, Pizza Hut, Wall's, MasterCard, Bentoel and a host of other local brands across categories and have won several awards. Yes, I was paid to say this.

Company Website

http://www.mccann.com

Work History

I was a "suit who could plan" at Bates Asia-141 Worldwide, Kolkata for 2 years before I decided enough is enough.

No, not coz the place was bad or I was. But I was getting bored. Everything was too good there - I went from trainee to Senior Brand Executive within one and a half years, I was working on blue-chip brands, I had happy clients and I was all set to become Brand Manager.

Most importantly, I hadn't got "them". Them... cmon, you know "them". Every face saving advertising professional does - it's the goose bumps mate. Yups, those very goose bumps that I got when I used to see great ads on TV, in the papers, on billboards and used to wonder, "God, am I gonna get the one chance to redeem myself and make something of this inconspicuous existence by ever, ever being that creative? Please show me the way, shower me with your light Almighty."

The light shone, I joined advertising. But I still haven't got those goose bumps. Guess I'll have to keep looking.

Apart from that, I used to bum my time around in college by working for a communications consultancy called Trisys Communications, Kolkata.

Now, these people were cool. They used to turn meek-looking corporate diaries into pages of intrepid wisdom and brand values communication by collecting inspirational anecdotes matching the values of a particular brand, place them on the left-handed pages of each diary and bingo! That was your path to salvation!

I did some anecdote collection for them, some annual report research, writing, proof-reading but the most worthwhile thing I ever did there was researching, interviewing and writing real-life stories for an Indian version of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

30 days of working on this project and 90 face-to-face, telephonic and email interview, I can affirm, changed my life. I came across humble CEOs and honest shoeshine boys, gutsy fighters who had survived cancer twice and wise souls who'd learnt something from the loss of loved ones, heroes who'd risked everything to save lives and people with no eyesight but grand visions.

Every individual I chanced upon made an impact on me. An indelible one.

Hmm, howcome you've never come across this book? Coz it didn't see light of day. But I still have all the stories, so if anyone's interested, please let me know :)

I also did something life-changing (that's already twice. God knows how many more times is my life gonna change. I like it though) by joining AIESEC when I was in college. Went on to become President of AIESEC in Kolkata. If you don't know what AIESEC is, gosh, please enhance your knowledge by visiting www.aiesec.org or www.aiesec.net. It's the world's largest youth organisation!

I was also a journalist for a school-edition of the highest selling English newspaper in Kolkata - The Telegraph and I also made some small money by writing cute quizzes and "Tell Me Why"s for a children's website. Howcome you've never heard of it? No, this did see light of day. But it was bad. It never got round to seeing light of night.

College Degree

Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, Videography and Media Studies

Graduation Year

2004

Academic Institution

St Xavier's College, Kolkata