“We are talking about the 99% who stand below the stage and clap”

The dust kicked up by Goafest 2010 hasn’t settled down yet. Nonetheless, the much-admired Prathap Suthan, who is the national creative director of the India operations of Cheil Worldwide Inc. has embarked on a new initiative, which he refuses to call a ?club?. ?The Delhi Alternative?, as the name suggests, aims to tread a new path. One that encompasses the entire ecosystem of communication and not just advertising. The objective is to share wisdom, learn and more importantly, mentor young professionals. He calls it a ?great new democracy? and going beyond the 1%. FE’s Rahul Sharma spoke to him on what ?The Delhi Alternative? is all about, its goal, the people behind this and how different is the alternative. Edited excerpts.

What is ?The Delhi Alternative?? Does Delhi need another advertising club?

First of all, Delhi is large enough to have an advertising club of its own. There is one that currently functions. But I don’t think the potential of Delhi has been showcased by the club. Having said that, I don’t think we need an advertising club per se. Advertising is no longer only created by people from the ad fraternity. And as a community we don’t have a platform, place or a forum for everyone to meet. And when I say that, I mean people who contribute, people who are usually forgotten once the work is done, like the photographer, cinematographer, sound technician, lighting, set designer, illustrator and even printers.

Anybody who is in that industry needs to have a place where his/her power of personal expression comes to, and most forums that exist do not address individual talent or potential. It is also skewed towards a network or agency or a particular office. Is there a community that looks after you, in terms of helping you get better? As of now, no. Delhi is a place where it shall begin, as an alternative, a new way of looking at it.

What prompted you to start this?

When I started out, advertising was the thing I wanted to know. And I never felt out of place. Everyone was as much mad as I was, meaning as passionate. In communication you ought to know a lot of things. You may not be expert but your knowledge base is pretty wide. It may be superficial. You never know where you next inspiration comes from. That knowledge base doesn’t exist anymore.

Today, while there is a lot of focus on profits and bottom line, the focus on training people is missing. In the last three years we haven’t had one workshop where somebody of repute took us through three days of knowledge, on brand, people behaviour, etc. This forum is for people who want to make sure that they actually leave behind a competent junior force.

This is the over-arching objective and a broad one. Could you take us through the specifics? How do you plan to execute this?

We are not looking at awards. We are not going to be singling out people and saying these are the best guys we have got. We are talking about the 99% who are standing below the stage and clapping. Awards are about the pinnacle, 99% won?t climb up to that stage. How do you keep others motivated? Through participation, by involving people. That?s what we are doing.

The first step is to register which is currently happening. It?s not a Delhi thing only. If you go to our Facebook page, there is ?temp? written. It is there because we haven?t announced the actual name. That will be the first real time event, the unveiling of a logo. After the Facebook page, we are developing a book on how do you make Indian cities safe.

Also, we are going to have a huge online presence. There

will be an office primarily to physically connect ourselves. We will have workshops in Delhi, seminar festivals. We?ll celebrate the act of communication every year.

Who all are a part of ?The Delhi Alternative??

If you look at our Facebook page, there are 1240-odd people who are part of this. For a 20-day-old organisation, that?s not bad. From the media, we have Sandeep Vij, Anirban Sen, Shouvik Roy, Hari Krishnan, Nandu Narasimhan, Nima D T Namchu, Viral Pandya, Dinesh Khanna, Swapan Seth, Shruti Verma Singh, Hemant Misra, Naresh Gupta, Sandipan Bhattacharyya, Raj Nayak, Santosh Desai, Sugandha Dubey, Emmanuel Upputuru, Gullu Sen, Ambika Srivastava, Sushant Pande. There?s also Rini Simon, Ravina Raj Kohli, Ashutosh Khanna, Satyajit Sen, Alok Agrawal, Sandeep Goyal, AG Krishnamurthy and many others whom we can depend on. That?s quite a cracker of a team there!

Do you think some sections within the ad world might not be too happy with this?

We are not challenging anyone. We are tying to push ourselves which we think the industry ought to be doing but is not doing. We are the same guys who will enter the Goafest again, we are the same guys who will challenge them with creatives. That?s another issue. They celebrate advertising.

We celebrate the fact that we are in communication. It?s about engaging the personal power of expression. Mentoring is exactly the word. A group effort by seniors today to lend a hand to juniors. It?s a cross-pollination of sorts.

How is it different from other clubs? Who is putting in the money? And how will you ensure transparency?

We don?t have companies funding this. Everybody is putting money in this because they believe it?s a good cause. This is about individuals, not about corporate logos and brands.

We are not an advertising club. We are a communications body. Advertising is only a bit of communication. Technology has made sure touch points are far bigger than TV, radio and newspaper. Word of mouth, internet, out-of-home. Anything that can come back to haunt us is not there on the agenda.