Quote Unquote: What the advertising & media honchos said in 2010

We at exchange4media get to interact with some of the biggest names in the media and advertising industry. We bring here some pearls of wisdom shared by these stalwarts with exchange4media in the year 2010.

Tim Love, Vice Chairman, Omnicom Group CEO, Omnicom APIMA:
“I don’t know any holding company that honours India like Omnicom does. They call APAC, Asia, SE Asia, we call it India. Even my card mentions APIMA, which basically means Asia Pacific India Middle East Africa. Although that in itself might not mean a big deal, but I do believe that it’s the path that counts. Japan and China are investing in India in a big way, but you don’t see that unless you are looking at the region way differently. Our vision is not of the vision of the present, but of where we see things going in the future. It is estimated that by 2025, India will be the second largest economy and that to my understanding merits being paid attention to.”

Nick Waters, CEO - Asia PacificAegis Media:
“The industry is being oversupplied with too many agencies doing the same thing. So, we have to find a point of difference. There is no point of discount rates and failing to deliver. My ambition is to build a very prosperous company for long term growth. And we are not going to get that by just offering the same services with the existing competition at cheaper rates. Certainly, many of these new market entrants would do that as their short term strategies to buy some market share.”

Irwin Gotlieb, Global CEO, GroupM:
“Clients need to do what they need to do. What happens often is that the next pretty girl is whispering sweet nothings in the clients’ ears and the client is intrigued by the possibility, and would trigger a pitch to explore it. It is absolutely true that the clients know what the capability of the incumbent is. Some clients today believe that even if they are perfectly satisfied with their agency, they have a statutory obligation to review the media… It used to be that unless something went terribly wrong, the client didn’t initiate a review. Today, clients initiate reviews whether something is wrong or not. Very often they significantly underestimate the trauma to the entire system on both sides.”

Maria-Luisa Francoli, Global CEO, MPG:
“Digital is the fastest and most efficient way to activate conversation. If you want to be present in every minute in the lives of the consumers, then digital is the way to do that. Digital is so overwhelmingly present right now that it is difficult for somebody to reject that. Having said this, television, too, it is going to have a great year in 2010 and 2011. I do see the trend continuing and I see that the embracement is far more widespread now than it was a year ago.”

Raghav Bahl, Managing Director, Network 18 Group:
“I come from the world of doing things, I come from the world of trying to build companies out. And I think at this stage of the game it is too early for people to believe that India has lost. The flipside of the coin is that India has to work much harder to bridge this gap which has opened up. A huge gap has opened up, we can't deny that. China is four times India's size Having said that the institutional strength of India is extremely strong as well, the entrepreneurial strength of India is extremely strong as well. Where India lacks and virtually languishes frankly, is in the ability of Indian state to become entrepreneurial and take risks.”

Nicholas Brett, Deputy MD and Editorial Director, BBC Magazines:
“If the definition of magazine is to do with ink and paper then that is where the discussion of death and mortality comes in. For me a magazine is about a brand, it's about aggregating audience around a passion. I am a specialist magazine maker, working around community and people that are mad about astronomy, cooking, cars etc. I service these people using the appropriate medium for them. And a magazine on ink and paper is important to me, but a magazine on Ipad is still a magazine to me. A magazine website still has magazine elements.”

Lucy Jameson, Executive Strategy Director DDB UK, and Chair of DDB's, Global Planning Futures Group:
“DDB has always believed that 'creativity is the most powerful force in busines'. Today, people are more empowered and connected than ever before - they are the most important media - so creativity itself needs to change. Today, we use our creativity to produce ideas that people play with, participate in and pass on. Ideas that connect people with people, not just people with brands. We call this Social Creativity.”

Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India:
“You can’t be a leader and be modest. But I do feel that generally, we all should be modest. If you’ve got good upbringing, some modesty should be there in you, but leadership is about confidence, and about communicating that confidence. It depends on who your audience is and who is listening to that communication. It may very easily be the case where a confident assertion is misunderstood for arrogance, and sometimes while communicating that confidence a knock on your head teaches you a lesson. So it’s always good to trip once in a while. I don’t think we as a Star Plus team are more modest or anything. It’s about being more agile. Leadership cannot be taken for granted. And that is where the agility comes from.”

Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman & Regional Executive Creative Director, McCann Worldgroup:
“The year 2009 was tough for us, especially for the Mumbai branch, as we handle many financial and retail clients out of here, which were the two sectors that were mostly affected... But at the same time, we fortunately had some good business wins, and as a result the McCann Worldgroup India did really well... our unconventional advertising streams generated a lot... As far the growth target is concerned, we are cautiously optimistic. So, we are trying to grow as much as possible. But we know that it cannot be the way it was two and a half years back, where things were looking beautiful and good. We have to be careful, solid and serve our clients well.”

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