BY THE time I made my way up to his apartment from the carpark, Mr Subbaraju Alluri was already waiting outside his door. A broad smile lit up his face as he introduced himself as 'Raju'.
Soon we were joined by his wife Anjana in the living room. The boisterous sounds of playful laughter coming from one of the bedrooms signalled the presence of their children - son Arman and daughter Arshia.
Mr Alluri, who is the CEO of Grey group, moved to Singapore from Jakarta in November 2005 and loves it here. Not surprising, given that he achieved something he had not done in all his 20 years in advertising: He managed to turn around the company in the very first year.
Today the Grey Group Singapore consists of Grey Advertising, G2, Batey and Grey Healthcare. 'We have grown four-fold in the last 31/2 years,' he says.
Procter & Gamble, Glaxo Smith Kline, Qatar Airways, Metro retail, Mitsubishi, AXA, Wyeth, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (the company which runs the zoo, Bird- Park and Night Safari) are some of the well-known clients of Grey in Singapore.
It was with a sense of pride that he spoke of the popular Qatar Airways advertisement that one sees on TV. The global campaign for the airline is created at the Grey office here.
It was his job that led to his marriage too.
During his time with J Walter Thompson, he handled the Sheraton account in Chennai. Anjana was working for the hotel, handling its marketing. Unhappy with the service from the ad agency, she asked to meet someone higher up in the agency.
Mr Alluri, who was then an account director, stepped in and sorted things out. In the process, he won her heart too. A year later, in 1998, they got married.
Mr Alluri and his wife are not Tamils but they are more comfortable in Tamil than their own respective mother tongues.
He is a Telugu while his wife is a Malayali but both spent considerable time in Chennai and hence their familiarity with the language.
His parents, landowners in the Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh, sent him to St Patrick's, a well-known school in Chennai. Her father was an army officer who was posted for long periods in Chennai.
After he fini s h e d h i g h school, Mr Alluri moved to Bangalore to do his degree in business administration.
And his easygoing lifestyle led to his link with advertising.
His parents felt his lifestyle needed correction and cut off his 'expense account'.
'They said they would only pay for my fees. They felt that I was spoilt,' recalls Mr Alluri.
So, to fund his leisure activities, the dashing young Alluri, who was nearing the end of his degree course, decided to try his hand at modelling. Wearhouse and Weekender brands were popular brands in Bangalore those days and he started freelancing for them.
After one of the shows he got an offer from an advertising agency to do an ad for a bank and, typical of agencies, it did not pay him for a long time after the photoshoot.
'I was broke and so went to the agency and told them I would not leave till I was paid. I spent about two hours at the office and during that time I saw that a lot of action was going on,' he says.
His interest aroused, he asked the receptionist about the work being done by the agency. She painted a glamorous picture.
Wanting to be a part of the action, he asked if they would hire interns and the receptionist put him on to the HR person.
However, what the HR person told him was not so glamorous. She told him bluntly that if he worked hard for six months and proved himself, he would get a permanent position and payment. His pleadings for a small pay till then proved unsuccessful.
'I went back and thought about it. I liked this idea of people running around, shouting about brands. So I told myself why not give it a shot,' he says.
And so began his journey in the ad world which has seen him go places. His wife gave up her job when the couple moved to Jakarta a few months after they got married. She did some work with an ad agency there and also tried her hand at writing for some marketing magazines.
These days she is involved in marketing a chain of luxury resorts. The six years in Indonesia also saw her pick up Bahasa Indonesia which she speaks fluently now.
The children - both were born in Jakarta - go to the Overseas Family School here.
Arshia, according to doting dad, is the family's budding artist while Arman loves squash and plays with his dad when he is not stuck to his Playstation.
Not surprising, since Mr Alluri had a keen interest in sports during his school days. He represented both his school and college in football and cricket and his discus throw record was still intact till about five years ago! These days, he sticks to playing squash and tennis.
More exciting things happen in the office.
'I still keep telling people that the reason why I am still in advertising is that no two days are alike. Every day I am doing something new. Even if it is a small sticker. That excites me,' he says about his work.
Simple reasoning from a man who has managed to keep things simple, just like the way he introduced himself as 'Raju'.
