Outlook international

His media organization represents, and is probably representative of, what is India today — a country of choices. RMA Media (Ronny Mistry Associates Private Limited), headed by managing director and chief executive officer Faredoon Kuka, provides a host of choices for advertising in foreign papers and publications to Indian industry keen to enter international media mindspace in its quest for growth on the global stage.

Among RMA Media’s portfolio of 180 titles for which they are advertising representatives are the prestigious International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Daily Telegraph, SPH Group (of Singapore), Nikkei Business, Japan, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times… "Though the opening up of the Indian economy started in 1991, it was from 2003 onwards that international advertising has picked up. The department of tourism, Government of India, which never used to advertise before has started running campaigns in the international print media, online and on television. Even state tourism departments have started spending money to attract inbound tourism,” Kuka asserts.

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum meet in Davos, Switzerland in January 2006, RMA Media had booked advertising space for heavyweight Indian corporates like Reliance and Tata, Air India, Oberoi, the tourism department, etc in the special report on India carried by the International Herald Tribune, January 27, 2006, which was distributed to the delegates at Davos.

"The International Herald Tribune has been represented by Faredoon Kuka and RMA Media for more than 20 years now and we could not have been more satisfied with the impressive level of support that we have received… While the relationship has been based on advertising business in the main, it has very regularly extended to a broader corporate relationship embracing aspects of circulation, marketing and business development,” writes Achilles Tsaltas, the paper’s worldwide circulation director in a letter dated February 24, 2006 from France. "Without his (Kuka’s) support, foresight and insight the Tribune would not have been in the great position that it is in today in the Indian market… (with) a 250 percent increase in circulation sales… RMA Media have a knack of identifying opportunities… the willingness and ability to offer strategic advice, analyze the business and cultural environment and consult on alternate business approaches,” notes Tsaltas, adding that he would recommend RMA Media not just as an advertising representation firm but a media consultancy at large.

RMA was tiny at the time it was started by Kuka’s father-in-law Ronny Mistry in 1982, when international advertising was virtually unknown to Indian companies. Kuka joined the firm in 1991, becoming CEO in 1997. Mistry passed away in November 2003.

Expanding steadily over two decades, RMA Media now has its headquarters in Bombay and offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Cochin and Poona. In 2004, Kuka carried RMA’s presence overseas to Dubai, representing media advertising interests in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) countries like the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, etc and venturing into exhibitions and publishing. "We have joined hands with a company in Dubai to look after their exhibition business in India by getting Indian companies to be exhibitors in various events/exhibitions outside India,” Kuka explains. "The property market is big (in the GCC belt) and we get advertising from property developers, airlines like Emirates and Gulf Air, etc. We also get very many appointments ads for publications in Singa­pore, Malaysia, Europe, etc.”

In December 2005, Kuka received a citation and trophy as an "Indira Super Achiever,” presented by Poona’s Indira Group of Institutes, rated among the top 50 B-Schools in India. A profile of Kuka and his firm is featured in their book entitled Indira Super Achievers, published in February 2006, which identifies 70 individuals this year as "professionals who have achieved tremendously in the fields they represent.”

Faredoon Kuka (top) and some of the publications the firm represents

"The Super Achievers are role models, cheer leaders, nurturer of talents and professionals with a track record,” Dr R. L. Bhatia, project director who conceived and compiled the book wrote to Kuka. "You are one such corporate Super Achiever who we feel proud to recognize, know and award the Super Achiever title to.”

Seeking to make the write choices for their clients, Kuka says: "We represent exclusively the number one and two titles from each market of the world. When an Indian client approaches us we give them all the information and guide them as to which combination of titles they should invest in for their specified market, to get maximum reach within their budget.” Having schooled at St Xavier’s Boys’ Academy in Bombay, Kuka did hotel management from The Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology at Dadar. For 11 years he worked in the hotel industry (Centaur Hotel and with the Taj Group’s airline catering unit), taking up the challenge, he says, of changing his profession when he joined his father-in-law in the advertising representation business. Wife Nancy is also a director in RMA. "She takes interest in the day-to-day developments and I am sure she will be a further asset once she takes it up full time,” Kuka asserts.

The Kuka family (from left) Faredoon, daughter Sharmin, son Rushad and Nancy (sitting in front)

After working as advertisement manager for several decades with The Bharat Group of Newspapers, The Blitz and then The Times of India Group, Mistry had chucked a cushy job to snap up, within a period of one hour, an offer of representation he received in the early 1980s from the US-based Newsweek. "My father-in-law’s foresight has helped us to be the largest international media representatives in India as of today,” avers Kuka. "We continue to follow the principles left behind by him, combining the values of the old and the spirit of the new.

"The next few years will be better and better, taking into consideration the world is now one for all and Indian companies know the only way they can expand is by looking at shores outside India,” Kuka declares. RMA will now reap the fruits of being persistent over the last 23 years, he adds, and continue in its mission of carrying the ad message into a world where distances are dissolving.