Jatinder Rai
Marketing Mastermind
- by Michelle Hopkins

Jatinder Rai is considered a pioneer and a role model among his peers in the multicultural marketing industry.
For good reason.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur has grown Response Advertising Inc. from three to 10 employees in less than eight years. He’s done that with such successful advertising campaigns as the catchy Telus commercial with singer/actor Harbhajan Mann’s voice singing one of his hit tunes while colourful fish swim by (on Channel M).

His Vancouver-based company is a one-stop, fully integrated marketing and communications agency that helps major corporations develop multicultural marketing campaigns targeting several South Asian communities.

Because what he does focuses on a unique niche market, Rai is often called upon to speak at conferences on the issues of developing brand awareness in the multicultural markets.

He speaks with passion about his work. “Every day is fascinating and interesting,” says Rai. “I enjoy coming up with brand recognition that makes sense. Essentially, nobody does what we do. We do everything from television to print advertising, radio, direct mail, in-store marketing to events.”
His enthusiasm for multicultural marketing was fuelled, in part, by his travels. In 1991, after graduating from university, he travelled across Asia for six months.
“It exposed me to other cultures and gave me a real insight into their way of life,” he says of his visits to Nepal, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

When he returned from his travels, LLT Advertising, a New York-based multicultural marketing agency, hired him.

“I started as a junior account executive in their Vancouver office, and in four years I moved up to senior director,” he says.

Rai’s drive and ambition were evident from a young age. He was born in Punjab, India, and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was seven years old. He was raised in Duncan on Vancouver Island, where he graduated with a marketing degree from University of Victoria in 1991.

Rai learned the importance of good work ethics early in life. As a youngster, he worked alongside his mother and sisters in the fields, picking strawberries, raspberries and blueberries to help augment the family income.

He credits his parents and his wife, Rosy, for much of his success and for keeping him grounded.

“My parents made lots of sacrifices for me and they always told me to maintain my language and culture . . . If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able to provide my clients with the insight and language that I’m able to bring to the work I do for them,” he says. “My wife is also extremely supportive, and I bounce ideas off her all the time. I started the company the same year I got married, so Rosy has had to put up with me working crazy hours.”
Over the years, Rai has served on several national and provincial boards, volunteering with non-profit organizations including: YM-YWCA (Victoria), Mosaic, The United Way South Asian Advisory Board, The Canadian Diabetes Association and Surrey Memorial Hospital.

At 28, he was one of the youngest members on the Open Learning Agency’s board of directors. He worked closely with the Indian and Chinese education systems to form partnerships between them.
From 2004 to 2006, he was on the board of directors of the federally regulated Granville Island Trust, which oversaw all of the businesses on Granville Island.

“Part of our responsibilities was to look at possible venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics medal ceremonies,” he says.

For the past three years, he has been volunteering with a youth drop-in program in Surrey, playing basketball with at-risk South Asian youth.

This past January, he became a member of ICBC’s board of directors. Rai’s role is to provide strategic direction on auto insurance and public policy. As if all those commitments weren’t enough to keep him busy, he is currently completing his post-baccalaureate work in marketing and cross-cultural communications.

What drives this accomplished man?
“A really close friend of mine in university said to me he was afraid to be average and not leave a mark in the world … I was 19 at the time and it really resonated with me,” says Rai. “To make a contribution somehow, some way is really important to me.

“Canada has allowed people like me to be successful, I never take it for granted.”