One of the biggest pluses of Contract was that it carved a distinct identity for itself. How did you create Contracts unique positioning and identity?
A. What I did was that I mapped all the agencies that were around at that time strong on strategy, weak on creative and vice versa. What I found was there were only two types of agencies – the creative ones and the planning-driven ones. And there was a huge gap in the middle, a clear position available for an agency that balanced creative and strategy. So I focused on creating a huge strategic department, while simultaneously getting the best creative minds into Contract. I was certain that I did not want to have a creative boutique. There were two or three people who had come on board and wanted Contract to be a creative boutique. I told them they were free to leave because that was not my vision for the agency. I wanted to fill that big gap. Another thing was creating a sense of pride within the agency. So we started direct marketing, got lots of new businesses, did sparkling work The idea was to create a family that everyone would be proud to belong to. My simple mission statement w
