During the six-hour ordeal that followed he had to prepare his wife and 10-year-old twins for the worst. But Welde was lucky: an escape through a fire exit, battling through flames and smoke, meant he survived to see his family again.
Unilever’s vice-president of media services for Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey (also called Asia AMET) openly admits the experience has changed him as a person. A long email that he wrote to his family and friends after the attacks talks about the lessons learnt from this crisis both at a philosophical and practical level. Besides giving predictable advice such as “value your family and friends” and “stay smiling, laughing and caring” Welde has some hands-on ideas, such as how to choose the right hotel room, why it is important to spot a fire exit in a hotel and also why it is imperative to ensure that your family is well covered by insurance.
Unilever’s vice-president of media services for Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey (also called Asia AMET) openly admits the experience has changed him as a person. A long email that he wrote to his family and friends after the attacks talks about the lessons learnt from this crisis both at a philosophical and practical level. Besides giving predictable advice such as “value your family and friends” and “stay smiling, laughing and caring” Welde has some hands-on ideas, such as how to choose the right hotel room, why it is important to spot a fire exit in a hotel and also why it is imperative to ensure that your family is well covered by insurance.
To some, such advice might seem trite, but Welde’s thoughts struck a chord with many. Not only was this personal email picked up by two national newspapers in India, but it also went viral through hundreds of blogs and forums.
This streak of practicality has served Welde well in his career as a marketer. He now oversees media spend for the entire range of Unilever brands, with a budget running to billions of dollars. Asia AMET is one of the three principal regions of Unilever operations, the other two being Europe and North and South America.
Welde has devoted 17 years to Unilever, which he joined straight out of MBA school in 1991. Prior to taking on the regional role, Welde headed media for Hindustan Unilever as a general manager in India, the FMCG giant’s most profitable market in Asia. In that role he set about improving innovation, looking for practical ways to encourage new thinking. One was titled the ‘12 o’clock auction’. “It was a witch hour during which anything can happen. We asked agencies and media owners what they can do. Everybody gets excited. Nobody is confronting you. We got some brilliant ideas,” recalls Welde.
Despite a chatty demeanour, Welde has acquired a reputation of being a hard taskmaster “who knows what he wants”, as one agency source puts it. Welde concedes he does not suffer fools gladly and likes his agencies to be armed with adequate facts and figures before approaching him.
The pressure on agencies to get it right will doubtless grow amid the current downturn. Welde says that Unilever “saw signs of economic downturn some months ago and has been aggressively pursuing alternative media strategies”.
He points to “pricing pressure and ongoing erosion of audiences and fragmentation” as the key factors affecting his marketing. In response, Unilever is looking at two core areas: content integration and digital. “Content is a great opportunity. It is an area that is under-explored - both the science as well as the art.”
Welde is particularly proud of the branded content and sponsorship deal with TV show Ugly Betty when it was launched in China last year. The objective of this partnership was to popularise the multinational’s Dove, Clear and Lipton Milk Tea brands. The deal saw the brands appear in the storylines of the show, which was set in an advertising agency.
However, Welde is quick to point out the challenges facing the two platforms. Content integration needs close collaboration between many different partners, while digital is still “minuscule” in Asia.
The Ugly Betty deal was conducted through Mindshare, which handles Unilever brands across Asia. The good news for the agency is that he seems genuinely impressed by the work it has produced. The bad news is that Welde is not one to allow an agency to rest on its laurels. Going forward he predicts that clients and agency relationship will be “determined by results more than heritage”.
“It’s not like you can say that you know that last year was great work so this year you don’t need it. You have to try hard and keep working hard every year, every month.”
Welde accepts Unilever can be a demanding client. Its agencies, he admits, are “particularly pushed” when it comes to improving their work every year. One thing they can be sure of, however, is that the man in charge will have a few practical tips to help them achieve it.
Rahul Welde’s CV
2008 Vice-president, media, Unilever Asia AMET
2005 General manager, media services, Unilever South Asia
2002 Manager, corporate projects, Unilever
1999 Business manager, popular foods, Unilever
1995 Sales and operations manager, ice creams, Unilever
1991 Exports commercial manager, Unilever
