Tobaccowalla, �82, Named Leader in Innovation by BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek published its “Best Leaders” issue on December 19 and selected Rishad Tobaccowala, ‘82, chief innovation officer of Starcom MediaVest Group, as one of its “innovation champs.” According to the article, when Tobaccowala, a new media guru, speaks, people listen. The strength of his opinions can be measured by his agency’s (a division of Publicis Groupe Media) account wins in the last two years. Media budgets they handled have grown from $9 billion to nearly $14 billion.

A profile Tobaccowala appeared in the October 17 issue. In that piece, BusinessWeek called him “one of the new oracles on Madison Avenue.” Tobaccowala is a leading voice in helping advertisers navigate the changes wrought by new media. The increased number of entertainment outlets—the Internet, dvr’s, video cell phones, iPods, blogs and podcasts—make relying on traditional consumer demographics passé.

Tobaccowala should know how to handle change. As outlined in the article, he’s a pioneer of online advertising, having persuaded Leo Burnett to spin off an interactive ad unit in 1993, which he headed. Tobaccowala also urged SMG to start a video game unit that gave the agency an early lead in efforts to place clients’ brands in games. Another of his innovations was offering advertisers broadband ad space in much the same way they buy buckets of television time in advance of the new season.

The article notes Tobaccowala’s advice to advertisers is they “must get used to discomfort.” Technology will continue to lead to surprising developments in advertising. What is required is for advertisers to adapt to people’s changing behavior regarding the consumption of content.

To learn more about Rishad Tobaccowala and what media holds for the future of advertising, read “Hey Advertisers, TiVo Is Your Friend”, in the October 17, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek.