Hyderabad, TELANGANA / Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA  :

He was 66 and on the verge of retiring from his post as senior VP and strategy consultant at JWT Mindset

Veteran adman Anvar Alikhan passed away yesterday after a lung infection. He was 66 and on the verge of retiring from his post as senior VP and strategy consultant at JWT Mindset.

In a tragic coincidence, many of his former colleagues and associates had been preparing video messages to bid farewell to Alikhan as he ventured out of advertising, only to hear of his untimely demise.

Alikhan’s career saw him play pivotal roles at agencies like O&M, Contract and JWT, besides ambitiously foraying into what was then considered “new media” as creative director at the fledgling rediff.com. He was an erudite author on a wide range of subjects from advertising to history to the relative merits of Roger Moore and meeting author RK Narayan.

You will find links to some of his writing at the end of this piece.

Brand Equity reached out to a few of his colleagues and former associates for their memories of Alikhan:

Ram Gedela, managing director, JWT Mindset and Santha John, chairman emeritus, JWT Mindset

In 1998, we saw a real vacuum in Hyderabad: big international agencies with shell-like structure and locals with no world experience.

Anvar came up with the name Mindset in 2000, a few years after we started. He’d moved back to Hyderabad when his father had a stroke and needed him. We were fortunate to have Anvar on board and the impact was immediate. We had the contacts, and Anvar the brand value. Clients had a lot more respect for us when he came for meetings and we were invited to many more pitches. By 2004, we were Agency of the Year.

We won Coke’s regional business, a go-karting facility that was branded as Runway 9 by Anvar; Godavari Fertilisers which was looking for divestment, got us to rebrand its identity and create a mass media campaign that eventually helped them sell out to the Murugappa Group. Sagar Cement, a regional brand’s advertising with claymation characters created a lot of buzz regionally. This brand too found a foreign investor Vicat immediately after the campaign.

For a sunglass chain called Shades, which was endorsed by popular celebrities like Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty, the line Anvar wrote was a simple ‘You know who, you know where’.

Towards the latter half of the 17 years with Mindset, his focus shifted to strategy. He did painstaking research with no support whatsoever, but never missed a presentation deadline.

We owe this agency’s success to Anvar. In many ways, he was a mentor to us. He would help us with tips on presentation skills, dress code for different occasions, planning pitch process etc. He conducted workshops internally and a lot of us benefited from them.

We had several suitors for acquisition. When we didn’t like a particular agency, even the refusal was well rehearsed. The eventual acquisition by JWT had many inputs from Anvar including wooing the CEO on his maiden visit to Hyderabad.

He had a great sense of humour, and also a bit of a mean streak. When he didn’t like a particular clients’ inputs on his strategy or creative he would start packing up with loud noises, making it very obvious.

He brought wisdom, wit and worldly stature to the workplace.

One year, he also bought a whole lot of cheap and fake Mont Blanc pens and these were given out liberally. In the process, his own genuine pen got mixed up with the fakes and was lost forever! He would talk about it with his usual twinkle in his eye

In all the years we worked closely together, not once did he show irritation nor a cross word ever pass his mouth

More recently, he kept in touch with calls, mails, forwards, articles but not his physical presence. None of us even dreamt the end was so near. As recently as last week, we picked his brain regarding a thorny issue and the depth he put into it, marvels us now.

His oft-quoted statement “No other agency has this many brains under one roof” was SO true, because under our roof, was this magnificent brain

From 2000, we had a New Year wishes mailer which was created in such a way, that people often retained it on their noticeboards, giving us great mileage through the year. ‘Life is what happens to you, while you are busy making other plans’ was the first well remembered card

Colvyn Harris, founder, Harris-Mint and former CEO, JWT India

I was going to record a tribute to Anvar and send it for his farewell, but now, he’s given us an entirely different reason to say farewell.

When we merged Mindset into JWT, we acquired the agency not for revenue but to complete the geography of JWT and most importantly for the three people who ran the place, who were gems. He was a phenomenal ad guy, a fabulous professional and the finest of gentlemen. They don’t make them like him any longer.

He had a very versatile writing style, with depth and knowledge. Even recently when he had written a piece on Sir Martin Sorrell he reached out to get the nuances right.

When we went to the office around the time of the merger, he’d framed strips from Dilbert — a personal favourite of mine — all over the place. There are very few quintessential ad guys without brashness and aggression. His death is a big loss to advertising and I was fortunate to have worked with him.

Pratap Bose, founder, Social Street

When I first saw Anvar, the first thing that came to mind was that he was a really distinguished gentleman; the sort you don’t see too often, especially in our business. Ogilvy was my first agency and I had no idea what agency life was like. Over the years, I used to ask him for advice and he shepherded me through. We did not interact too many times, but he was there for me whenever I needed him. I remember meeting him a few years ago; it was his first time at Goafest and we spent an hour talking about books and movies. He was very well spoken and knowledgeable; not just about advertising but life in general. He was one of the last true gentlemen in the business.

A selection of his writing from scroll.in.

source: http://www.brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com / ET Brand Equity / Home> Marketing & Advertising News> Latest Marketing & Advertising News> Advertising / by Ravi Balakrishnan / December 27th, 2017