Lucky 13: Anant Joshi, Meetrics | M&M Global

Lucky 13: Anant Joshi, Meetrics

Anant Joshi, director of international business at Meetrics, talks Thai food, Bardados beaches, and weeding out the ad fraud bad guys.

Anant Joshi, director of international business, Meetrics
Anant Joshi, director of international business, Meetrics

1 – Summarise yourself in three words.

Ethical. Passionate. Creative.

2 – What made you want to pursue a career in media and marketing?

As someone bought up on those memorable TV ad campaigns of the 80s – Volkswagen (lady in the golf with the squeaky earring), Yellow Pages (JR Hartley), Scotch (video tape – skeleton ‘re-record not fade away’) – I’ve always loved the creativity of advertising and the idea of executing on a vision.

Moving into digital marketing helps me achieve that in what is a much more complicated media era. I was enticed by the challenge of working with clients to affect large-scale change in how brands are perceived and attitudes towards them.

3 – Describe your ideal client.

One where there’s a lot of mutual respect and trust. This exponentially impacts the success of the relationship. The ideal client would also understand the need to collaborate as we go on the journey together so we can both learn and challenge each other.

4 – Name your favourite ever campaign.

Old Spice – ‘The man your man can smell like’.  It was brilliant creative and a funny idea, which was very well executed. I also particularly liked that they were able to extend the life of the campaign using digital, such as tailoring the video content towards individual YouTube commenters. I believe they created about 150 versions!

5 – Which award win are you most proud of, and why?

I haven’t really won an industry reward, maybe one personally for go-karting. At Eyeblaster we did create our own awards so it was nice to give them out to all the great creative agencies we used to work with.

6 – Who is the best industry speaker you have seen?

At MediaMind, I used to work closely with Dean Donaldson who is a great storyteller and delivered his pieces with great humour and a touch of zaniness.

7 – Which is your favourite social media platform, and why?

I’d say LinkedIn because of its business building capabilities but I love Flipboard. It’s my night-time reading, it’s kind of addictive and great that you can tailor the content to your interests – mine are movies, technology, business, entrepreneurship, alternative energy, health and wellbeing.

8 – Where is your ideal meeting venue?

My office in Euston – it’s a relaxed place to talk.  Alternatively in Barbados on the beach given the choice.

9 – What is your favourite restaurant?

I’m simple to please so it doesn’t need to be a swanky media hangout (but I do like to visit them once in a while to check out the vibe). I’m also vegetarian so anywhere that has good veggie options. If really pushed I’d say Patara – they have a few branches around London and has great Thai food with good service.

10 – What is hot in international media and marketing, and what is not?

Viewability and fraud are the very hot topics in online advertising, and there’s still so much work to be done to improve the situation in both. In contrast, we don’t seem to hear much about QR codes anymore. I think people found it a bit of a novelty. But the Chinese messaging app WeChat uses QR codes a lot for mobile payments.

11 – Which industry buzzword would you ban?

Ad fraud – would be great if it didn’t exist and the greedy bad players were all weeded out.

12 – Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?

Having my meetings on that beach in Barbados running a company or multiple companies.

13 – Finally, who would play you in a movie of your life?

I’d go with Robert Downey Jnr as my daughter loves Iron Man and so does my wife for that matter.

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