Dialogue
We don’t belong to the Top 20 global multinational agencies, nor are we a small shop set-up with a single agency. We are somewhere in-between and I think we are very strategically poised in terms of our size, infrastructure and network… Clients who are developing or businesses that are developing and have been working with smaller agencies can move up to us. In times of recession, big clients looking for greater value from the advertising agencies can certainly consider us. Even in times of recession, this can be looked as an opportunity for mid-sized agencies.
My primary objective in coming to India is to review existing titles in India on an annual basis. So, I sit with the team, go through every budget, look at editorial products, and plan for the coming years. I come to India four times a year and my current visit is to access the business that we have in India, draw out an expansion plan, and make contacts with the industry people, among others.
We have great creativity in India and people are full of ideas, however, I would come back to the same issue that we are still not up there in terms of crafting our work. So yes, this is a problem. However, of late, we have been seeing good work, for instance, the work done by Ram Madhvani, Prakash Verma or Prasoon Pandey.<br>
The biggest weapons that agencies have in their armory are strategic clarity and creativity. The idea is to make the doubting consumer feel safe with his purchases or investments. It is not just the business honchos who are affected with slowdown issues, it is something that seeps into the consumer psyche as well. Brand messages can highlight assurance and value aspects in an engaging and interesting manner. Innovative usage of media opportunities will be important.
We would publish ‘Femina’ in Hindi and in English. ‘Filmfare’ is the most powerful media brand associated with Bollywood. Both have live events that they are associated with. Both are strong brands that are really powerful, and we would like to take them international… If ‘Femina’ in Hindi takes off, which I am sure it would, then we would look at bringing out the title in Tamil as well. We are thinking of events even for our titles like ‘Grazia’ and ‘Hello’. Filmfare.com has been launched; there are plans to take the awards international. And you would see much of this action in the next six months.
I believe differentiation exists and the listener is able to understand and recognise which station he is listening to. Very soon, you will find radio players differentiating and going into profitable niches and it would be an ongoing process. The top three players will make 77 per cent of the money, while the other players would be forced to find other niches where they can be profitable. But these are still early days.
The business models that have defined our industry for the last 30-40 years are constantly changing now. The changes can be attributed to technology advancements. It has definitely changed people’s lives and even more so, the lives of people related to the media industry. The way people relate to each other and how they seek information has also undergone a sea change. This has made a profound change on the business models of the manufacturers and advertisers.
Don’t forget television also hikes its rates. In our industry, every time there is an increase in production cost, the entire burden shifts to the advertiser. We don’t pass on any burden to the reader. It is unfair to push the entire burden on the advertiser, who is waking up to the fact and asking ‘why should we be the whole subsidiser to your cost?’ and that’s a bit of a problem.
Forget about it (measurement tool)! Don’t waste your time arguing over it. Either come up with an independent research tool or stop talking about it. Or go by whatever you have. I am not a big fan of research to begin with; I have never done research when I launched my magazines. When magazines don’t work in the market, people tend to blame the research and point fingers at its accuracy.
In India, the relationship between the client and the agency is somewhat casual because at times the agencies here neither get the required time nor the right budget that is needed to create and execute the idea. For example, some clients in India would buy a Rs 1 crore idea, but would want that idea to be executed in just Rs 30 lakh. But in America, the agency would ask the client to reconsider and come back with a new idea that fit the budget.
In the last 15 years, I think the senior people have failed this industry, barring two or three people. When stalwarts of Indian advertising like Alyque Padamsee or Subhash Ghoshal moved out, the new leaders began working on new pressures. Agency heads began working on protecting their businesses rather than growing them. The charismatic leaders went missing, who otherwise attract people from outside the profession.
<br>"I find it hard to believe that a weekly magazine can have an RPC of 14 and in some cases even 50 or 60."
<br>"As per our estimates, the total media spending by technology companies is Rs. 300 crores and technology media in various forms gets 50% of this amount i.e. 150 crores"
<p align=justify>Post-IPO, the biggest change that happened was that we decided to embark on our international strategy and globalisation. Among the five things that we have done as we were going global, was launching Global Services and Bio Spectrum Asia. Both are global products... The main thrust was looking at the global market, which we have achieved. Going ahead, it is the same theme, which we will be carrying forward.
I think advertising globally is changing. It's been going through this huge transition, and India is not far behind. Marketers are much smarter than what people give them credit for. Most of the clients that we meet, I think they are far more aware than most agency executives and the creative people. I think unless and until we as advertising agencies evolve fast, advertising might soon become extinct given the way we are going. So, for sure now is the time to change and agencies are realising this.
It's a fish market out there in terms of trying to afford the right kind of people for the right kind of jobs. We are not in that game as we do not believe in 'buying' people to do our jobs. We at Saatchi & Saatchi India have witnessed the shortest turnovers in the industry, essentially because we have a very healthy environment that we create in the agency. I think our efforts are going to be driven more in that direction than trying to buy people over.
It is the lack of understanding between the agencies and the client that leads to one agency paying off against another. Even though we all are competitors, we all are trying to do the same thing. We need to have an agreement in place… I can't understand why advertisers don't charge royalties. For instance, if I was an author and my book gains great popularity, I get royalty for that. One can make millions out of a creative idea, I can't understand why nobody is doing anything about this.
We believe that India is a fast growing market in terms of advertising in digital and digital technology. With 39 million Internet users at the moment, which by itself is bigger than the UK, it is a formidable size. And the forecast says that it will double in the next 2-3 years. I think that traditional media, particularly TV, is losing its effectiveness with the pretty high inflation rate. Advertisers really see the need to expand the whole communication to something next and digital has to be a part of this. And Solutions | Digitas has to take advantage of this opportunity.
We found the marketplace to be relatively conservative, businessmen are cautious with new ideas, the time it takes in transactional movement is longer than what we have experienced in other markets. But we have found that the clients' understanding of what we offer, and their ability to explain the business internally is second to none. The Indian businessman is extremely astute and comes to terms with a good financial offering faster than what we see in other parts of the world.
We use the word digital so often, but I think its potential has not been explored fully yet. Everyone is talking about YouTube, Facebook and online friends, but brands are not able to understand what to do with these to influence customers. Making an interesting creative site is not digital. We also need to see what is dying out. Telemarketing is one of them. Direct mailing is another, which is getting affected because of the costs shooting up.
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