Dialogue
<p align=justify>“I feel that retaining clients is far more important than getting new clients because relationship building and brand building is all about same set of people working on the brand, day in and day out, year after year.”</p>
<p align=justify>The commitment to development and activity that we are doing in Asia Pacific is unmatched compared to other International brands. One of the key sayings we have is that it is better to have more ideas than money. The focus on development – working on collaboration partners locally and regionally is absolutely cornerstone to our strategy. Keep the ideas coming, so that they bubble up and we spend time green-housing these ideas so that they grow a little bit. That itself is part of the strategy.</p>
<b>D Rajappa:</b> We believe ours is a business of collaboration. The co-creation process that Paddy was talking about does not begin and end within the agency, but actually moves on to the client end. So, whatever great piece of work that you see today across brands, I think the client has an equal stake… We are not operating in silos. So, our entire DNA is about furthering the collaboration and making it seamless.
“We believe ours is a business of collaboration. So, whatever great piece of work that you see today across brands, I think the client has an equal stake… We are not operating in silos. Our entire DNA is about furthering the collaboration,” says D Rajappa, President, Rediffusion Y&R (India & Sri Lanka).
There are multiple drivers for growth in the Indian market. Our business here is really about providing market research services in India. The driver for that growth is fundamentally the incredible increase in interest in the Indian market. That is driven by the growth and financial wealth being generated here and also relatively much lower growth in other markets. In absolute terms, perhaps there’s much more money in Europe but in terms of opportunity there’s much more opportunity for growth and new business in India than in markets that are relatively stagnant.
Just because you can communicate, does not mean you should communicate. The whole debate about the notion of private and personal data, and about infringing into people’s personal space is a dangerous area to be in. I wish the industry will self-regulate quickly because if we don’t, then the legislation will come heavy handed and create situations, where we cannot do business profitably. The ‘Do not Call’, for instance, destroyed telemarketing business and it would be a shame if the same happened to mobile.
For us, the growth of the category is paramount. Internet penetration is 6 per cent and 70 per cent of that user base comes to Yahoo!, so the only thing we can do to grow is grow the category. One key area that can grow the category is the presence of more of local languages on the web. Web is still predominantly in English right now. Many steps have been taken towards creating local content, but there is a lot more that needs to be done. This year, we are looking at how we can make our service available in six different languages. We believe this will bring many more audiences to the medium.
<p align=justify>I am still not wholly convinced that the state of branded content in India does not give results. We have seen tremendous opportunities in cinema. Television would remain important... there is major room for growth in how we handle television and messaging innovation in television. Now, it is not so much about putting a brand in a show – it is simple product placement. It is more about integrating it with the show or even better, working with the content creator to create content for the brand, to create content that the brand would own and would traffic in commercial times. It is powerful for the show, for the brand to have that affinity to raise favourability – those metrics still work.</p>
<p align=justify>I am still not wholly convinced that the state of branded content in India does not give results. We have seen tremendous opportunities in cinema. Television would remain important... there is major room for growth in how we handle television and messaging innovation in television. Now, it is not so much about putting a brand in a show – it is simple product placement. It is more about integrating it with the show or even better, working with the content creator to create content for the brand, to create content that the brand would own and would traffic in commercial times. It is powerful for the show, for the brand to have that affinity to raise favourability – those metrics still work.</p>
“For great work to happen, there are three things to remember. If it is worth doing, it is worth paying for. Innovation must be funded – period. And finally, there is no such thing as value-add,” remarks Brian J Terkelsen, President, LiquidThread, SMG.
Whether there is Phase 3 or not, radio will grow to 6 per cent from the current 3.5 to 4 per cent of the ad pie. The first push in that direction will come from ratings itself. We are already seeing very early green-shoots of loyalty towards slots or RJs, which did not happen in the past. Slowly we are seeing the time spent listening to stations going up. The second growth driver is from revenues. Increasingly there are more people who are trying radio at the lower end. From 5,000 advertisers on radio last year, this year there were 9,000 advertisers. At the higher end, the amount of money that people are spending on radio is increasing. So, we can say that overall only 4 per cent of ad budgets reach radio, but large advertisers are spending 8-10 per cent of their budgets on radio now.
2011 is going to be a year where Equus is going to demonstrate to the world all its inadequacies and how it plans to sort out those. The problem with most advertising agencies is that they don’t know what they are bad at, but I am acutely aware of what we are bad at and I am not bothered about what we are good at. These ‘bad’ aspects are going to be fixed in 2011
New business wins will happen as and when they should happen. I don’t see any point in running around and trying to get accounts from day one just because one is new to the agency or has contacts in the market. The system needs to be able to deliver that automatically... I have no hesitation in saying that Starcom is definitely going to do well in the future as long as we are able to leverage our skill-set, our knowledge base, and the strength we have both globally and locally.
A level of authenticity is required today. Information is readily available, and if you don’t share something, it’ll come out anyway. So you need to be able to explain your motivations, so that people can form a connection with the brand. This is all part of the brand purpose, which you must reinforce through innovations in product and clear two way communication with the consumers.
I don’t think viewers see ratings when they watch a news channel. Ratings are primarily for advertisers, and going forward, dependence on advertising will reduce. Ratings are increasingly becoming less critical for success of news channels, which is already working out for our organisation. And trust me, I have confidence in our nation’s intellect. I am sure there is a need for sincere news content. Even ratings of Zee News channel are corroborating this.
One sector that needs business discipline is media agencies. In their rush for aggregating volume and growing in size, media agencies have knowingly or unknowingly brought down value for broadcasters and for themselves. In the end, they are not delivering value to advertisers as well, as they are just trying to buy cheap. There are agencies that are doing business at .5 per cent or 1 per cent, and some I am told, at negative rate of return. Then these agencies come to broadcasters and make meaningless offers. Will this not impact industry growth?
<b>Aggie:</b> The question is whether Indian advertising can be called an industry? An industry is a group of companies, which while operating independently, are actually creating some common thing. <br> <b>Paddy:</b> Everybody is biased about their own needs and wants, especially when it comes to awards. Whichever official is in charge of a body makes sure that his agency benefits the most. This is not how an industry operates.
“The question is whether Indian advertising can be called an industry,” wonders Taproot India’s Agnello Dias, as Santosh Padhi notes, “Everybody is biased about their own needs and wants, especially when it comes to awards.”
From Piyush, I learned the power of enthusiasm; from Prasoon, the power of poetry; from Santosh, the power of thinking; and from Bobby, the power of personal standards… I believe that Indian creativity consists of a bunch of brilliant people who have their own methodology to fall back upon and know what world class work is.
The crucial challenge is all about markets. It is all about being able to justify the fee or the revenue which the agency merits. I think that is the biggest challenge. There is tremendous pressure and if you are able to demonstrate the value which you add to the client’s business and therefore, justify what you truly deserve as remuneration. The challenge linked to that is to have people who have the capacity to deliver on that platform.
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