It’s All About Advertising

12 brands can be a challenge itself, yet a fulfilling task.

By Seelen Sakran

Managing 12 brands can be a challenge itself, yet a fulfilling task. At least this is what Adi Satria has come to find out. As managing director of Utusan Media Sales Sdn Bhd, Adi has come to terms that continuity of a product does not necessarily mean continuity in revenue. `Thus I had to make the tough decision of axing or repositioning a product which no longer meets with the reader’s interest’, says Adi.

Mastika, the oldest magazine in the group – which was 60 years – suffered such a faith. From a slump of just 8,000 in circulation it jumped to 200,000 this year. There are more than 40 `me-too’ titles in the market currently.
What was Adi and his team’s secret? `We changed it to myth and mysteries’, Adi quips. `Cosmo’ is Utusan’s latest kid in the block. `We have 60,000 thousand in circulation currently.’

In addition to entertainment and newsy type of magazines, Utusan also publishes Al-Islam, `the only religious but contemporary, but controversial magazine’.

In trying to be innovative, Adi explains he and his team came out with Umph! – a magazine for the male crowd.
`This is not an easy title, as typically male magazines do not go well with the readers. We had to do a lot of research in the type of content we could incorporate.’

So how did this all for Adi, who is also the president of the Malaysian Publishers’ Association?

`It was a mere co-incidence’, says Adi candidly. `Soon after graduating from University Malaya in 1975, I went to teach at the Methodist High School in Penang’, says the Penang native.

`I was there for 21/2 years when in 1979 I moved to KL to teach Malay literature.’

Then in 1981, out of curiosity Adi applied for a position with RA Advertising as an accounts executive. `I was in charge of classified advertisement sales.’ Adi’s acquaintance with RA Advertising began when he was a part-time copy writer with the company.

Adi’s work experience with RA was indeed fulfilling, he made `recruitment advertisements more professional in nature. Those days, advertisements were not nice to look at, it just met with its purpose – to get people to apply for jobs.’

Soon after in 1983, and armed with `wealth of experience’, Adi moved over to PTM Thomson (now JW Thomson), as account manager.

`This is where I moved into mainstream advertising. I was exposed to terms like branding and marketing management. I learnt about consumer insights. I knew I had to read voraciously to get a feel of this new world.’ At that time, annual advertising expenditure was worth about RM500 million.

It was only one year at PTM, when in 1984 Adi moved to Erickson Advertising (now McCann Erickson), where he spent 121/2 years.

His career path also rose with the years. From account manager he moved on to become group account director, when he left sometime in 1995.

`I learnt a lot from these guys. It was not easy for me at first but I persevered and I believe I made a name for myself – thanks to people like Harminder Singh (of Adoi now).’

Then in 1996, Adi had to make a difficult decision. He had to decide to make a move to Grey Advertising. But move he did, as this was the time that integrated communication was making its waves in the advertising scene in Malaysia, and `Grey can be considered one of the pioneers in this arena’. Adi was the group account director.
Grey thought this guy quite a bit. He was sent to the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines and to New York for training and self development.

Adi reciprocated by turning around Grey’s client – Levi’s Malaysia. `Sales of Levi’s was at a low in Malaysia. We re-branded it by bringing in Zainal Abidin, the singer to promote the Levi’s 501, with the button fly rather than zippers.’

At Grey is where Adi was also in charge of Telekom. `We had to come out with a total communication solution for them.’ Grey Advertising grew from revenues of RM10 million to RM30 million from 1996 till 1998. Then the Asian financial crisis struck.

`We lost our key account, Telekom Malaysia. Moreover there was also a management change at Telekom. Our contract was for two years initially and sadly, it was not renewed.’

`As Grey downsized, I was then made group account director of Pesaka Grey, which was in charge of securing local company advertisements and government advertisements.’

`Somehow Adi turned Pesaka Grey into a profitable entity. From around RM300,000 in revenue it grew top RM6 million by 1999.’

1999 was also about the time that Utusan Media was also scouting for someone to lead its stable of products. Guess who was head-hunted!

So Adi began a new journey in November 2000, when he moved to Utusan Media. `I sincerely believe Utusan is at an enviable position in terms of advertising billings.

We are in fact at number three position, after the Star and Sin Chew newspapers.’ And to think that Utusan runs a stable of magazines as well, which is harder to get advertisement sales.

But Adi believes magazines can build strong brands as well. And he makes no bones about it!

Well, this is what sums up Adi, who has indeed had built a name for himself.