When Filip met Inez....

Years ago we won the Danone media business for Russia. This is how it happened.

Firstly the Marketing Director for Poland was in Moscow. He stayed in my apartment as we were friends from my time in Warsaw. He introduced me to the Russian Marketing Director.

I then had dinner with the MD in a grotty bar that was famous for it's strong drinks & loose women. However it was -30 centigrade that night and my poor driver in his trusty Volga was freezing outside. So he decided to warm up for a while by coming inside. I was trying to impress the MD with my yoghurt knowledge when a frozen Volodya joined us for a cup of coffee. I hoped that this would demonstrate my intimate understanding of the average Russian consumer. The MD thought it was very strange & we didn't get a pitch.

But a year later there was a new Marketing Director who was an old friend from Unilever. He told me to get in touch with the General Manager Filip Kegels. I started my usual practice of sending Mr.Kegels an Economist article every Friday. I tried calling, I tried writing... but could never get hold of him.

Then one weekend I was at the Moscow country club with my daughter. We were in the Sports bar with another young family who were speaking French. My troublesome two year old stumbled over to steal the Francais Fries from their table. I had to go over to stop this brazen theft.

I noticed that the handsome young man had a Danone Sports bag so I asked him if he worked for the company.

"Oui" he replied.
"Are you in Sales or Marketing?" I enquired.
"I am ze General Manager!" he said with a smile
"You must be Filip Kegels"
"And you must be ze man who sends me these stupid articles every week"

We got our pitch. Which we won easily as the team from Y&R was 4 hours late for their presentation.