He is the quintessential calculator. A backroom type, he shies away from publicity and prefers to let his media skills do the talking. Meet Mudra's Optimum Media Solutions executive vice president Amit Ray's, whose zest for cricket is matched by his passion for media statistics.

Ray spent eight years in social work before joining advertising in 1988. He has worked with under-privileged children and has raised funds for them mostly from the US.

In advertising, Ray says that he was extremely lucky to be picked up by Paul Nayyar (partner of Tara Sinha in TSA what is now known as McCann Erickson) who suggested that Ray take up media - that was 1988 in Calcutta (Kolkata). Helen (Anchan) gave him a break in Lintas Bombay in 1990. Post that, he has worked in Clarion in Bombay and HTA in Bangalore before joining Mudra in 1995.

Ray values the fact that he had the benefit of working with legends like Paul Nayyar, Suren Chawla, Sushen Saha and Helen Anchan. He has been the vice-chairman of Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and has been very closely associated with the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

At heart, Ray feels that he is still a hardcore Bengali inspite of living outside Calcutta (Kolkata) for 12 long years. He still reads his Ananda Bazar Patrika and doesn't read the English papers of Mumbai (though he admits that he needs to look at them to see the ads!). Ray says that he is proud his "bong" accent. He loves to talk and give "gyan" to anyone everyone who cares to listen. Akin to a typical middle-class Indian, he claims to have no hobby.

Ray's flair for number-crunching and his understanding of the psychographics and 'emotional' aspects of target audiences and media vehicles has augured well for Optimum Media Solutions which itself is gaining in strength. There are indications that Optimum Media Solutions - Mudra has touched the Rs 5.5 billion mark in billings in the display category.

Ray spoke to indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Kotian about the highlights of the year 2002 and his take on the future of media in advertising. He says that these are his personal views and "direct dil se". Excerpts:

As far as media planning/buying was concerned, what were the significant trends witnessed in 2002?
For the industry, the big thing in 2002 was the transition of media departments to an independent entity. However, in reality, the numbers are rather small.

As far as the phenomenon of media consolidation and strategic media alliances is concerned, it has more to do with economies of scale rather than any thing else. This trend will probably continue to grow.

For us, it was handling the AOR assignment of Reliance Infocomm. The experience of working on this account has been stimulating and exciting.

What do you feel about the tools and techniques which media specialists use?
There are attempts to create some tools. But, to me, tools are more for "window dressing" purposes rather than for actual usage. Most of these are originally conceived for developed markets and have now been made available to India. Customisation, in its real sense, is a very difficult and painstaking process.

Having said that, I believe that the real challenge lies in reducing the cost of sales. Unfortunately, most people still see the media function as a science or process and not as a crucial component of "cost of sales!"

There is a plethora of "so called" tools ... in theory they are fantastic ... but do they work? Rural Bengal is a huge market for a lot of FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) - what tools have you heard of that will reduce a marketer's cost of sales in that market?

Ask TAM as to how many media agencies really uses the TV optimiser? I mean really use it! If peoplemeter was a big break through in TV planning then optimiser is a bigger break through. Sadly, very few people are really using it today in the real sense of the term.

Clients in today's time have only two problems - margin (survival for today) and growth (survival tomorrow). The optimiser helps the marketer deliver the communication at a significantly reduced cost. But since the optimiser results more often than not contradict our popular beliefs, it rarely gets used. And since it is not used, it remains a tick in the box (check list).

Tell us something about the different media innovations conducted in 2002?
I think Indian media specialists are simply great in this area. Perhaps, the fragmented nature of the market and media could be responsible for the same.

I have studied several innovations done all over the world and I must say India is the BEST. There are so many that I can mention; but then I may omit someone and that is not fair. However, this is a trend which will always be on the rise and provides a "high" to discerning media people!

Will the cricket World Cup be a KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) for Sony and MAX?
No, it won't be; but that was the intent. Please understand that KBC was a novelty which forced people to watch Star TV and in the process opened people's eyes to the fact that Star TV does have as good programmes which Sony and Zee has or ever had.

Cricket will certainly bring billions of eyeballs for Sony but they won't stick. Remember, Star started showing superhit films with the same intent but it never resulted in the channel gaining higher share for their other programmes.

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"Advertisers must remember that every match is not a India-Pakistan match," says Optimum Media Solutions executive VP Amit Ray