Exclusive | Sultan of South: Thanthi's Narendra Kumar Alambara

Narendra Kumar Alambara, the COO of Sovereign Media Marketing  — the marketing division of Malar Publications, which publishes the Daily Thanthi — says he has always been a bit of a dreamer. And initially, he had a dreamy perception of the adworld.  “Ever fascinated by advertising, I thought the job involved getting paid to watch TV programmes, reading newspapers and magazines. But the reality check happened quickly!” he says. “That said, even though I was a zoology grad, I was always comfortable with numbers — because I was always looking at the significance of numbers in the planning process rather than as mere statistics.”
 
Once Alambara took the plunge into the media universe, he reveled in the sense of being home. “I have always have been and will always be involved in the media,” he says. “Things I do now include teaching media in colleges, institutes and industry forums.” 
 
Alambara’s journey to the highest echelons of media leaders started in 1994 with Profad WCA Coimbatore in the account planning function. “A year later, I switched over to media planning and moved to Chennai,” he says. “I joined Lintas in 1996 and stayed on till 2004 with Lintas/Initiative  Media.” Then came a year’s stint with MPG/Euro RSCG, handling their South businesses (Chennai and Bangalore branches). Later, he moved on to start Starcom’s Chennai operations in 2005. “The seven-year journey with Starcom was exhilarating. It helped me understand and experiment with traditional and new media forms across clients,” Alambara says. “The rich experience I gained at Starcom Mediavest Group has helped me explore the consumer-brand-media ecosystem from different perspectives.”
 
Alambara acknowledges that having some of the best thinkers as colleagues and bosses over time has been the most rewarding experience for him. “Most of my mentors have taught me to be the best I could possibly be!” he says. “Ultimately, this industry is people-centric and we need to value our co-workers and employees as the greatest asset in the growth process.”
 
As for his role in the Thanthi Group, the vastness of his remit can be gauged by the company’s offerings which include print (newspaper and magazines), radio, digital and television. “These collectively represent significant consumer bases for brands to harness and engage with the Tamil Nadu market,” he says. “My role would be to enable advertisers to use these platforms seamlessly and build their brands by taking advantage of the group’s unparalleled reach and interactive options.”
 
From his vantage, Alambara sees growth as short-, medium- and long-term priorities — in other words, he has covered all the bases. “But the dimensions of growth will vary from time to time,” he says. “In the short term, it will be about growth through processes and streamlining the systems. Later, it could be led by IMC framework across key clients. Over time, we are also looking to make our team grow and develop into the best it can be. So growth touches every aspect of the business spectrum.” From the point of view of regional groups like Thanti, Alambara believes that print will continue to grow in the near future. “With literacy levels still growing, language papers will be the first choice of new readers,” he says. “While the growth of most English newspapers is coming from exploring new markets, most language newspapers continue to grow by acquiring new audiences in the same market.” He adds that while it remains to be seen if the younger audiences take to language papers as much as the current audiences, there is adequate reason to believe there is scope to grow. “But to grow continuously, most language papers need to be relevant to the younger audiences and adapt to the changing requirements — from the form to presentation style to distribution,” he says. He observes that if young people’s gravitation to, and acceptance and consumption of language content and programming is still strong on TV, cinema and radio, print too can endure. “But it will have to work harder than others!” he notes. Focusing on Daily Thanthi, Alambara says the newspaper is a strong brand, but other group entities — while significant in strength — do not necessarily enjoy the same level of dominance. “The mandate is to build on the group as an integrated entity with strong brands that can feed off each other and offer advertisers a seamless platform,” he says, hinting at his mission. “The synergies of the combined offerings will afford significantly greater value in terms of reach, interaction and experience for the brands.” Following the statesmanlike assertions, time was apt to ask him about his role model.  “I have been truly blessed to work with some of the best minds who were my mentors and have been fortunate to learn a bit from each of them,” he says. “So it is difficult to point out to one individual, it just wouldn't be fair! But I can say with a lot of pride that there is bit of learning from all that I have been able to use at work (and life) every day!”
 
And he modestly concludes: “I honestly do not believe I am successful, I am still very much a work-in-progress.”
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