Andrew Swinand , President, Global Operations, Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)
I have been meeting a lot of CMO's and CEO's, in the past year, I have been to 27 countries and visited about 35 plus offices- the thing which I find is the universal truth- it is complexities. Clients have more choices for media, more and more of data and information, digital is more, everything is more. And what we see as an over emerging need in the market place is basically someone to make sense of it all. Someone who can basically tell me what matters and what I should do about it, what is important, how should I respond
I have been meeting a lot of CMO's and CEO's, in the past year, I have been to 27 countries and visited about 35 plus offices- the thing which I find is the universal truth- it is complexities. Clients have more choices for media, more and more of data and information, digital is more, everything is more. And what we see as an over emerging need in the market place is basically someone to make sense of it all. Someone who can basically tell me what matters and what I should do about it, what is important, how should I respond
Though the nature of media and communications changes drastically every day, Andrew Swinand has proven his ability to stay five steps ahead of the competition on behalf of marketers inventing new solutions for the industry by reinventing his role within the advertising media business. These days, as president of global operations for worldwide media agency network Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), he applies his passion for innovation across continents, product categories and cultures creating unprecedented service and results by reexamining the question of what an agency can and should do for its clients and for people. Swinand's SMG role adopted in August 2008 entails a focus on building stronger connection infrastructures that continue to advance the company's presence within critical growth markets across the globe. Specifically, Swinand works with the network's regional CEOs across Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe/Middle East/Africa to fortify SMG offerings and strengthen its client proposition, leveraging assets and building on the strong momentum of these regions.
Along with regional management responsibilities, his role includes the creation of new client-facing service models across the network and the expansion of its successful technology practice. Further, he is charged with working alongside SMG Global CEO Laura Desmond to align and position the network to take advantage of the digital resources that the Publicis Groupe media brands now have access to as part of the recently launched VivaKi operating model including its Talent Operation and digital Nerve Center resources.
Most recently, Swinand was at Denuo, the media futures consultancy within Publicis Groupe. Prior to his role at Denuo, he was a president at Starcom Worldwide, where he helped secure the Samsung business as well as build a global technology practice. He was also responsible for developing proprietary accountability metrics to measure Return-on-Objective (ROO) across all client investments, supported by Starcom's extensive media research team, and he pioneered the service models Starcom delivers to Sun Microsystems and Oracle. Swinand will continue to oversee the Nintendo business across Starcom Worldwide and Leo Burnett.
Q. Can you give us examples of what may have come across as work for other titles?
Sure, the best example I think is the work we had done for Samsung. Samsung is obviously a huge global firm. We always are looking for ways to differentiate our products, the TV space is a clutter. But we actually found the new daypart and we call it the day after the night before. What they were saying is that the idea of digital photography in taking pictures with your mobile phones is quite huge; there is a whole daypart where we actually found that people are spending 3 to 5 hours on Saturdays and Sundays going out andThursdays and Fridays posting photographs, sharing them, tagging them, talking about them and what we found was that day after the night before was actually a huge daypart where one actually utilizing mobile phones and mobile phone images. And what we found was we could actually create them into media vendors- the yahoos of the world and facebooks. What mattered was how we could basically incorporate product Samsung into this environment and on that daypart. And again I think what we are able to do with clients such as Diageo is interesting because one of the things everyone talks about is social media but there are very few applications for it. The reason I think this is so because it is a big amorphous bubble. Here I think the specific client insights, the specific usage that was valid to the target and basically allowed to incorporate the product was a way to create point of difference.
Q. Does it help to have so many different units to look after everything in that much of a specialized manner? Does that help?
For diversified services I think you need to have specialists for certain areas. If you look at expands in rural marketing in emerging markets I believe it is a special area. If you take markets like India or China, where you don't have the footprint, you need a unique approach. My feeling is that to have an Expanse or a Navia which allows us to get into these markets through theatre, through out of home, through distribution if necessary, because the traditional media approach is not as effective. So I do believe it needs a special skill set.
Q. Another area in digital is social media now it starts and ends with Facebook and some bit of Twitter. Isnt it?
Q. Do you do a comparison with other media agencies and where they stand in terms of their market share?
Q. Not just Vivaki or Publicis Group but every other group is doing a lot of stuff in market such as India. OMD has grown quite well, PHD is expected to launch soon, GroupM has consolidated its operations very well and so has IPG group whether it is Lintas or Lodestar UM. In fact Lodestar Um just got the Coke business with them. Competition is also very active and very awake in India and of course I am more aware about India I don�t know in how many other markets you are getting the same problems but while it is good for competition to be there, more the merrier and all of that. Obviously it brings a challenge on to whatever your growth targets have been? What is the kind of challenge it has posed?
Q. You spoke about how clients are consolidating their businesses. But clients are also calling for a lot of pitches, it may be because of the slowdown. 2009 I think it showed the way to everyone or it was an excuse of sorts. But we saw a lot of pitches, India alone had some 3000 crore worth pitches- if you include the Unilever pitch. Is that good?
You know what I think 2009 was financial crisis, 2010 was the innovation crisis. A lot of people kept their heads down, looking at the numbers in 2009, once they put their heads up and looked at the product and basically said- it can get better ...
Q. You have called it the human experience network. Why 'network'?
The thing that we have done is made investments to basically simplify human understanding. The one thing that is to be talked about is the money and we have actually created an online panel. It is there in India as well as Russia, China, US, Mexico and UK and the idea behind it is we talked about it as a attention response network where we actually have people as the part of the paid community who we chose based on their online usage and they basically work with us to test concepts and we can talk about products, advertising concepts, ideas with them. The idea is basically to have a community where they allow us to sense what is going on in the marketplace and we respond to it directly. So I think when we talk about human experience network it's twofold. First is how do we have the ability for the people to be closer to the human experience to understand what is going on; Second is the component of social listening. We basically allow our planners to have access to social listening to see what the key trends are within the product or within the market of a particular category. Also we created an 'Itunes' of insights; we created a human experience portal and within that portal we actually have a network of human experience strategists who actually are publishing key trends, key insights- some within the company some of them externally amongst key demographics, key targets, key categories, key products; and again the whole idea is how do we simplify human understanding for human experience closer to our planning and product so that we have advertising for our clients which is more relevant more effective and more impactful.
Q. Mike is active in India, China, Russia, the US and Mexico. Even in the US Otherwise it would have been only in the markets that you had once identified as your growth markets? Has that helped in the last year and a half?
Most definitely. From the business standpoint of SMG, we are having a great year, we are growing globally. Our global business is strong. I can't get into exact numbers but we have had a double digit growth and we have had a great year. Our digital product is approaching a quarter of our total revenues we have done great job in terms of investing in digital, growing digital, we have won awards for digital products and we have really invested in research and a lot of differentiation , we talked about our access on emerging markets. We have had great success in terms of growing the emerging markets, we continue dominate in Russia, Middle East and China this year picked up new businesses.
Q. You said you have had a double digit growth globally. Where did India stand what was India�s contribution like?
For India we have had a good year. I think we have work to do in terms of accelerating our growth here. I feel for India we are on the cusp of greatness. Actually I am going to be in India 3-4 times by the end of the year. We want to really focus on India in terms of driving the Human Experience and accelerating our growth.
Q. Apart from HEN what are the other areas you want to focus on in the India operations?
I think from the simplicity standpoint there are a lot of best practices in terms of process. I think our market here in India is a market which is basically maturing. I remember the first time I came to Delhi 8 - 9 years ago; it was a small road from the airport, I took the highway when I got here, no traffic till my hotel. I think that analogy applies to our business here and I think we want to bring a lot of atomization of technology here; we want to simplify work processes and basically continue to push and advance the operations to help our clients get better work faster.
Q. Last year Mediavest as a brand became active in India. How has that contributed?
Mediavest has actually done great for us. Last we spoke of Mediavest now in 33 markets; Mediavest is the seventh largest global brand in terms of media. If you look at Mediavest globally it has gone great guns for us. We have done well with it in India so mediavest as a brand continues to thrive. For Starcom Mediavest Group globally, it has been a strong second brand.
Q. It has been what 6 -7 months since this has been in place?
About a year, we have been working on it for a year and its really last 6 - 7 months that we actually started rolling our products for it.
Q. These are all the various things you are doing to put together your HEN?
It is simplified human understanding is where it starts and the second thing is to deliver meaningful brand experiences. The other key point of emphasis is how we measure and optimize our campaigns and our work based on relevance as meaning. So I think that if you look at media as a whole, the industry was basically built on efficiency, the bigger and the cheaper. My belief is while that was great to see and basically drove consolidation, we are now approaching points of diminishing returns. If you look at SMG we are number 2 globally and you know it is coming down to the top 4 players, dividing market shares, I think something like 89 per cent of all media. Point being- we have consolidated, what I think the next phase of our industry is going to be is all about relevance and meaning and how we will use all of that behavioral data how we use and understand human experience to increase the relevance and the effectiveness of advertising as opposed to just what can get the cheaper option. I think cheaper is a good thing but it has a point of diminishing return. I think what we are seeing more and more is how do we simplify human understanding, use that behavioral data to create and understand who are the best prospects, who are the best targets and also then how to send information; to understand what is relevant to them and what is important to them and how to use it to prove our messaging. We have been investing in actual dashboards to track and measure and help us understand how relevant advertising is to consumers so we can optimise based on that context. The last piece is 'real time'. The world is getting cluttered, we have Samsung in 76 markets, we have invested in Yammer and other work portals to help link our global network so that we can share ideas faster. It certainly applies to make the world smaller and have better real time information better real time understanding to allow us to basically improve. We talk about Mike and the human experience portal, how does real time information and inspiration for our planners help. Basically if we have an award winning work in India or another market, how do we share that across the network? In the past a lot of the networks were basically individual countries, much more of a lose confederacy as opposed to unified republic. We are working to become a more unified republic so that we can share a benefactor.
Q. About Mike again, did you have to educate your clients on what you are doing with this whole HEN way forward?
You know when we talk about Human Experience we kind of have this simplified purpose; we talk about simplified human understanding to deliver meaningful brand experiences in real time. When we are talking about clients we really see there are three components. The first of that being simplicity. I have been meeting a lot of CMO's and CEO's, in the past year, I have been to 27 countries and visited about 35 plus offices- the thing which I find is the universal truth- it is complexities. Clients have more choices for media, more and more of data and information, digital is more, everything is more. And what we see as an over emerging need in the market place is basically someone to make sense of it all. Someone who can basically tell me what matters and what I should do about it, what is important, how should I respond. So the first component is simplified human understanding and I think the Mike and human experience portal all a play into that.
Q. Does it help in things like new business wins?
The fact that we are growing it should be an indicative of a yes. The thing I found is what we tell our clients, how would you like the work be simplified? How would you like your advertising to be more meaningful and relevant? How would you like your information you are putting feature in real time? There is a very few people who would say no.
Q. Slowdown must have impacted whatever targets you may have tried to reach out in 2009. Did you redo them when 2010 happened, are things looking good after that?
Definitely, as I said, we have had a great year in terms of growth. 2010 would be the best year SMG has ever had.
Q. From an India viewpoint?
Best year we have ever had across the board.
Q. How many of Starcom clients have upped their spent in digital?
Q. In digital there are things like DTH which is digital television or in radio there is satellite radio, internet radio, in print we are talking about epaper. There is digital version of traditional media so when the advertiser engages with the digital version of traditional media where is his budget getting allocated is it in digital or is it in traditional ?
Q. On Starcom you have already explained to me that focus on India would be so much that we will see you come here 3 or 4 times this year in the rest of four months left. Also you have said from the HEN point of view there is a lot you are clear that you are going to focus in India and the three points that you had mentioned. Apart from that what are some of the other things that we can expect from you in India? What are some of the new initiatives?
Q. Two years and one month since you have been in this role. How are you finding it especially because it was a special role and not something which system already had?
Q. Last year Vivaki got a lot of importance, IMX got renamed; Vivaki as an umbrella became a little more prominent and also Mr. Shastri was appointed as the country chair for that. Now does a development like that have any bearing on something like media assets?
Huge. Vivaki is the future for Publicis Group and Starcom Mediavest Group. In some respects when I talked earlier about our ability to focus on human experience, what allows us do that is the creation of Vivaki. Through Vivaki by combining ZenithOptimedia, Starcom MediaVest Group and Digitas buying it makes us number 1 or number 2 in almost every market that we are in. So, it creates scale unprecedented. It allows us to basically sit down with the clients and say you are going to get the best rates bar none. So you know for me Vivaki as a strategic initiative, all of our back office, finance, technology and buying, all of those big scale operations become more efficient. Allowing us to pass on more savings to clients, allowing us to do it better faster and cheaper way, which allows Starcom Mediavest to focus on human experience, on insights, on strategy, on relevance and meaning. Vivaki, I think is what really allows us to be competitive in all the markets by continuing to be efficient which allows one to invest money for clients to be more effective.
Q. There have been a lot of conversations about procurement not that procurement is new to media service brands but it is just that since 2009 to now there is a lot of harping on procurement, unlike once upon a time when the marketing functions could decide all of the agency at its pitch. Now probably 80 per cent control of it is procurement. Do media agencies also have a procurement division of their own?
Q. So procurement pressures are manageable?
Q. How it would it impact agency relationships with media supplier and vendor relations. Because I remember in a recent interview that was in Valencia a few clients were talking about how they are concerned that agencies are not completely transparent with clients when it comes to their vendor relationship. Recently, three four months back a very renowned respectable client had called for a pitch with some really bizarre terms one of which was we will not pay you commission and you take it from the channel guys and you give it to us. So that was one of the clauses of that overall pitch. So media vendor and media agency relationship over the years it appears to have deteriorated rather than becoming partners, if that is the concern clients are talking about which they are?
Q. Everybody talks about the digital growth everybody talks about mobile the mass medium. Mobile as a mass medium hasn�t even taken off internationally. People are still figuring when will the day of the mobile come we still talk about it though. Are you really expecting mobile to take off and why hasn�t it taken off yet?
Q. Do you think the newer forms of technology, they have created a lot of interest but do you think people are already thinking on how an iPad can be used for communication exercises?
Q. People in the US are now spending money on applications, they are talking about augmented reality, India has got no clue about augmented reality?
Q. Any other brands that you are thinking of bringing in India soon. I think you have enough of media assets but in terms of diversified services?
India has long been a leader in diversified services. We have been exporting more than importing in terms of diversified services.
Q. You are saying it from the client's side not the best practice to put everything on procurement...?
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Rob Norman, Global Chief Digital Officer, GroupM
<b>We need to create advertising assets that are not just compelling but "thumb-stopping" creative: Rob Norman, GroupM</b><br><br>
Addressing delegates at the International Advertising Association (IAA) Cabana, during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2016 in a special session held by Hindustan Times, GroupM’s Global Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman stressed upon significant issues in managing supply chain in digital media.
“Everything boils down to an interesting notion - what presents an authentic opportunity? Every advertiser, when he spends money on an impression or on any other unit of advertising has the legitimate expectation that the publisher will be one in which the advertisement is seen by a human being for at least a feasible amount of time, and not by a robot or a fraudster,” he said.
What is a legitimate opportunity is not entirely a consistent notion, the speaker said, “because if you are looking at something and it is static on the screen for a given time, it is easy but if you are scrolling with your thumb at 500 pixels per second, which is often the case in feed-based environments, the mere fact that something passes through a viewable window may or may not be determined as legitimate opportunity. So working on the forward regulation and the commercial agreements around viewablility on a platform-specific basis is a huge priority for us.”
In his view, everyone in the supply chain has their own set of responsibilities. While the publisher has the responsibility of providing authentic opportunities, the advertiser has the responsibility to grow the propositions around the products and services that are of relevant value to the consumer. The creative partner, in all of this, has the responsibility of taking that proposition and making it compelling and sufficiently arresting to consume and the media agency has the responsibility of placing it in an environment that is fit for the target that it offers value. These are the fundamentals for digital advertising.
Does that require a different set of behaviour in the ecosystem between the stakeholders? While in some cases it does, he feels there are cases where it is in fairly perfect harmony. "Only by briefing (stakeholders) together can there be a harmonious implementation of the plan, and an equally harmonious attribution plan that allows you in setting an objective, defining a fit-for-purpose media placement," he said.
Touching upon the subject of ad-blocking, Norman explains that there has always been a covert contract between the publishers and users of the content - if the user does not want to pay directly for the content then he has to tolerate the amount of advertising for which he may or may not pay attention to. However, with the rise of the ad blocking software, the covert contract gets broken and the user of the ad blocking software chooses not to participate in that contract by blocking the monetization mechanism of the publisher.
In order to resolve this problem, the publisher either has to create content of sufficient value, which people will accept, with the ad blocker turned off or build a greater value by turning into a monetization model from advertisement-driven to subscriber-driven. Norman further stressed upon the need to create advertising assets that are not just compelling but “thumb-stopping” creative.
Responding to a point regarding video consumption patterns on mobiles, Norman pointed out that the lag in adoption of 4G technology has affected video consumption in various parts of the world, particularly India. Giving the context of the Indian market, Norman explained that the only app that works on the 2G platform is Facebook since it has been built fit-for-purpose by downgrading many of its features that could mar speed. Issues such as buffering of video content existed on 3G platforms as well and that 4G has been introduced only in some parts of the country.
Q.
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ShareArun Iyer, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas
“Go to a pitch with your point of view, not necessarily what the client wants, because at the end of the day they come to you because they want your thinking,” believes Arun Iyer, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas.
“We don’t carry options for pitches we go with a point of view, we strongly feel about, which is also why about 80 per cent of the pitch work is actually the first piece of work that we do for a client,” he shares.
Iyer, who took on the mantle of CCO last year, was earlier joint NCD with Amer Jaleel. As CCO, he believes one of his jobs is to make sure that while today is good, the next six months are lined up well.
The agency has consistently been in the news be it for kick-starting the year with its winning performance at the Effies or its recent work on Google’s photo feature that is being widely shared.
“I would like Lowe Lintas to be seen as an agency that a client would want to go to because they want a good idea on their brand which is medium agnostic,” adds Iyer. The world is headed towards ‘hyper-bundling’ (with clients are getting tired of handling multiple agencies) he believes, even as lays emphasis on getting mainstream teams to think digitally.
A candid Iyer shares his views on correcting the perception about Lowe just being a TV agency, why the move from NCD to CCO was not a dramatic one, what prompts ‘Ghar wapasi’ at Lowe, why he thinks there is a lot of ‘gas’ around ‘digital’ and more …………
Edited Excerpts-
Q. What are your expectations from Cannes for Lowe Lintas? We don’t enter from India so some of our work maybe entered from our global offices. My guess is that Lifebuoy Chamki entered by our Columbia office will do well at the awards.
Q. When you say ‘well’, it translates to Gold, Silver, Grand Prix? To be honest, I don’t understand that game too well, but I have feeling that it will be Gold.
Q. What are the changes that have been on your agenda as CCO? I am personally working very consciously towards correcting the perception about Lowe just being a TV agency. Chamki is a step in that direction, what we did for Paper Boat with ‘Hum Honge Kamyaab’ is a piece of content. Again what we have just done for Google Photos is actually content, there are many more things in the pipeline.
TV is still important and we do a lot of TV but somewhere, the world needs to start recognising that we are an agency that comes up with big ideas and that they sometimes happen to be led by TV. Even if you take for instance Tata Tea’s Power of 49, it’s actually a far bigger idea than the television commercial we created. But somehow the world still considers us only a television agency. That’s been the big shift that I have been working consciously on over the last one year.
I am not trying to change Lowe Lintas; I am trying to reach out to the world and actually tell them what we do, which is that we come up with ideas that are beyond television.
If you take Kissanpur, it is an idea that was born in our agency and the fact of the matter is that Kissanpur manifested itself in one TV commercial, and a whole bunch of forms like a huge activation idea, we have, in fact, created a great platform for the brand, and on the back of which we won global effectiveness awards.
Q. What are the challenges you face currently? The biggest challenge is to drive consistently good work. I think it’s a huge challenge because the only way to do that is to empower your people, align with the kind of stuff we need to be doing, and communicate clearly that this is the level at which we need to operate. Set a base level and let nothing drop below that - which is a continuous challenge. The only thing I worry about, fuss about and I keep telling my teams is; what’s coming up? What can we do better?
The challenge is also to continue the great creative culture that we have. To be honest, I have been really lucky, I have got really great people a really great team - the creative heads including the creative team.
Q. Do you think there is an over-emphasis on digital these days? Yes, 100 per cent, whilst digital is important because the mobile phone is transforming our country, and we cannot run away from that, but the noise around it in our industry is a lot of gas around this word ‘digital’.
Somebody needs to cut through it and get to the point of what is it that needs to be done. And that is what we are attempting to do with Linteractive’s new framework Deep Digitisation, which we have been working on since the last eight months.
We are trying to not let the clutter get to us and see how we can genuinely transform into an agency that thinks well digitally.
Q. How has this one year been for you? It has been exciting because we took the opportunity and we were confident enough to think that we can actually start another agency; it was a big call at that point of time.
The good part is that Mullen (Lintas) is doing very well and I think they are doing some nice work. This one year has been very hectic but we have managed to consistently put out work that has generated enough conversations for the agency, we have managed to put out great work, and create a culture that people want to belong to.
In fact, we have a term that people joke around in the agency called ‘Arre iski bhi Ghar waapsi hogayi’; there are so many people who have left us and who have pretty much come back soon. One of the things I am quite arrogant about is that when people go out of our system, they realise the value of our system.
Q. How has it been on an individual level? I have spent lesser time than I would have liked with my family but they have been supportive enough. I know the Mumbai Airport better than anybody in the city right now. It’s been a lot of travel but what I have absolutely enjoyed the most is, working with a lot of creative people and that number has increased a lot more now. For me, the trip in life is to actually sit and jam with creative people and come up with solutions and I have got more opportunity to do that so, it’s absolutely fantastic.
Q. You have been with Lowe since 2003, how did things change for you from NCD to CCO? I joined as a copy writer in 2003 and I have grown through the ranks.
When I became NCD in 2010, it was a dramatic shift for me. There are three levels between GCD and NCD. Balki picked me and said sit here, so I skipped three levels to run one group in the office on the 13th floor and suddenly, I was running half of Bombay, all of Bangalore and Chennai. So, that year was dramatic in my life. Since I have worked for six years as NCD, this was a smoother transition.
Q. You never wanted the option of running Mullen? That’s actually a conversation between Balki(Group Chairman of MullenLowe Lintas Group) Joe (Regional President, South & Southeast Asia, Group CEO India, Mullen Lowe Lintas ) me and Amer (Chairman & Chief Creative Officer Mullen Lintas) and it was a good three-four rounds of discussions until we came to a consensus on the structure we want. So, it wasn’t a diktat or a personal decision, we sat together and we said, okay, this is what is best to do.
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Rana Barua and Ashish Chakravarty, CEO and CCO, Contract
In a freewheeling chat, Rana Barua and Ashish Chakravarty, Contract’s CEO and CCO respectively get talking on the agency’s recent wins, which include ITC Personal Care, Century LED bulbs, Abbott Healthcare, Lupin OTC, Orient Fans, Reckitt & Colman, Garnier among others. Contract has also won the mandate for mygov.in, one of the largest mandates from the Government of India. <br><br> The duo field questions on receiving offers from other agencies, what is a compelling offer to them, taking Contract to the next level why clients are willing to wait for the agency today and more
The duo field questions on receiving offers from other agencies, what is a compelling offer to them, taking Contract to the next level why clients are willing to wait for the agency today and more
“Singularly or as a team barring two or three very obvious network agencies, everyone has made an offer at some point or the other,” says Chakravarty in a matter-of-fact manner.
Given their team work and working equation, ‘if’ they ever considered moving out, would it be as a team? Together would be an ideal scenario agrees the duo, but the offer has to be compelling enough.
And what makes a compelling offer for the duo? A compelling offer would be a large network, a solidly creative, global kind of entity coming into India, something that is a bigger challenge than what we have achieved, say both unanimously.
Barua joined Contract in 2013, Chakravarty came on board a couple of months later.
Chakravarty makes an interesting observation on one of the differences about the agency today.
Q. There were rumours that you were moving on from Contract; what is your take on that? RB: Conversations keep happening. There was never intent of either looking out or moving out, and there still isn’t. There were also a lot of non- committal meetings with people who I respect and are friends. Was there a genuine desire to move out? Not yet.
Q. When Cadbury moved gums and candy to Saatchi and Saatchi, there was a perception that the Cadbury account moved out of Contract….. RB: Cadbury’s Celebrations is the local jewel, which stays with Contract because we have built Celebrations. Celebrations was started by Contract, the relationship is that old, the brands that have moved was due to pure global re-alignment.
AC: Our relationship with Cadbury is very deeply embedded, I believe Celebrations is the only brand in the world where gifting has been successful. Our Eid film was successful not just for Celebrations but for the entire range of Cadbury products, giving it a very good spike.
Q. In an industry where agencies are judged on their creative product, how has the agency’s creative offering evolved to suit the changing brand dynamics? AC: We have instilled an entrepreneurial spirit into the system. While there are different departments, we are all in it together - it’s a business to do shining work for the client.
It is not about individual glory but how to leverage creative as a tool for acquiring business. That reflects in the way we work. We have changed the entire rules of working on a client brief; we have people from all departments on the deck solving the issue of a client using the different tools available - that’s the spirit of a start-up, that’s an e-commerce scenario where individuals are not separated by departments. To a degree, we ascribe our success both in business and in creative to this spirit that we have in Contract. It’s about solving a business problem using creative, and therefore, beneficial both for the client and business.
Q. Given the equation between you two, no power camps at Contract? RB: We work in alignment and alignment is that common goal that both of us have set for each other.
Power camp kind-of conversations are likely to happen when both take independent calls but because of our alignment, you see the same percolating down the line at least 80 per cent in the agency, which is fabulous.
AC: Since we are aligned, what is happening across the agency and departments is that people are looking out for each other; it is not one against the other. If the other person has failed and I am gaining joy out of it then something is wrong. Wherever that happens, the agency is going to get crippled. That has started to flow and it is not across departments, it’s across geographies. You know that you are winning as a team or you lose as individuals. I think that sense has gone down. It’s not magic, it’s just that you put a set of people with a common purpose and then they align over a period of time.
Q. When you took charge at Contract, your initial focus was to stabilise the ship, then you went aggressively after new business, where is the agency at now? RB: What we managed to do with Contract is to make it a far more stable ship. If you look at the number of people who came on board in 2013, including me, Ashish and many of them, including many senior people and individual talents. They have got multiple offers but have stayed together. Secondly, if you look at the number of clients that have come on board and stayed with us, it’s a massive list of people who have invested in Contract. Without naming any agency, there are so many of them that are struggling to find a footing. Our conversation with clients is about creative effectiveness, product, planning - it’s a very different conversation. So, if you ask me if the mission is over, I would say, no. There are many categories that are open to Contract, there are many clients who are talking to us, and there are many more things we can do if we want but it also matters on our bandwidth.
Q. So are you saying no to pitches/ new clients if the bandwidth doesn’t permit it? RB: In many instances clients are ready to wait for us…
AC: Our first priority is to our existing clients..
RB: If we go for a pitch we go for a win. A lot of heartache goes into pitches and a loss is demotivating for the entire team, so there is no point just going for the heck of it. Also pitches we go into today are of a certain size and scale, let me put it this way, we have been going for pitches with the top few agencies in the country.
AC: If there is an urgent requirement, we excuse ourselves if there are bandwidth issues. Also a lot of what happened and worked for us last year was when a client approached us, we showed them our work and the team who would be working on the account and asked them to work with us without a pitch, in a whole lot of cases we were able to work on numerous projects in the manner.
Q. Any reason for the silence since the last one year? RB: There are two or three reasons you talk; when you need to, when you need a lot of attention and when you need to make a conversation. Right now conversations, attention and a lot of engagement is happening on its own. Whether it’s with clients, whether it’s with people, a lot of things are happening. There is no particular reason to come out and say something which requires any kind of eyeballs for us. Our work is speaking for itself.
Q. What would be some of the focus areas for you going forward? AC: I think it would be to up the ante in some of areas like design. The other would be newer forms of engagement.
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Charles Courtier, Global CEO, MEC
MEC’s Global CEO Charles Courtier gets candid about not playing the under-cutting game, why more regular pitching is the new normal after the ‘Mediapalooza’ of 2015, take-aways from as well as focus areas for MEC India
The agency globally saw a double digital growth last year (above 10%), which in 2015 was a very good performance, feels Courtier, even as he says that it is a bit early to comment on the agency’s performance this year.
Courtier declares that the overall view around India is very optimistic and global leaders continue to have faith in India as a fast growing market, more so, because growth in China has started to slow down, making the gaze on India more pronounced. On digital, Courtier believes it is just a matter of ‘speed’ at which digital takes over the Indian market, when comparing it with global markets like the US, Europe and even China to some extent, rather than ‘when’ it will take over.
Edited excerpts from a conversation Charles Courtier had with Priyanka Mehra:
Q. Are we done and dusted with the craziness of last year's ‘Mediapalooza’ wherein an extraordinary number of big clients put their accounts up for global review at the same time? I don’t think it is done. But you are right... it was crazy, and if I were a big client, the last thing I would do now is pitch my business, because how on earth would I get the best out of any agency when they are drowning in these enormous pitches? Having said that, I think much more regular pitching is the new normal. And I don’t think it started in 2015 - I think we are quite used to pitch and re-pitch of businesses on a very regular basis and that’s going to continue. It might not be 2015 every year, but I think we will continue to see a lot of media pitches every year.
Q. What are the possible reasons for this, in your view? I think there are two key reasons. One is procurement, because companies and businesses are all under tremendous pressure, and the media number on the balance sheet is a very big one in most clients’ businesses. So, procurement is a fact of life, it is very important for these companies to get the best efficiencies and value that they can for the money they are spending. Procurement is competitive from a pricing point of view. The other side of it, to some degree, is fear in the sense that the communication business is changing so massively, that I think clients want to test if the agency has the right skillset to navigate them strategically through the chaotic, difficult and fast-changing media world driven by changing consumer preferences. Marketing is changing so fast; if you are a CMO in a big company, you know it’s hard to keep up with everything that is going around. The way the consumers are buying your goods or entertainment is changing so fast that the CMOs in that situation need to know, and they want to check that the skills they need are there.
Q. How do you deal with under-cutting, especially given the added pressure of significant global pitches and a cut-throat competitive scenario? The only way to deal with it is responsibly. We have to be competitive on price. Yes, there are situations where somebody does something crazy and you get under-cut; yes, everybody has a story of when that happened. But honestly, if you get into that game, it’s a very short-lived game; don’t think you are doing your client any favour because you can’t sustain under-cut prices. In the end, you have to be responsible in terms of pricing that you are putting forward; you have to deliver it over a long-term basis. So to answer your question, we won’t play that game.
Q. What are your focus areas for India from a global perspective? Digital is key, because I believe it is the tipping point and India is on the cusp of that. It is all about ensuring we are ahead of competition in terms of our digital and our data capability. So, absolutely that is the priority, because we can see the wave of opportunity about to come so we have to be ready for it. The business has grown fantastically over the years and has great opportunity. You have to have talent to manage that growth and also to sustain that growth. The development and diversity of talent is another key focus area; growth of talent is equal to growth of the business for us.
Q. What would you like to take from MEC India to MEC globally? India is a very entrepreneurial country. When we look at MEC here, in comparison to MEC globally, there is a real tough entrepreneurial spirit in India. And if I could take that, box it, move it and export it around the world, I would.
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Sajan RaJ Kurup, Founder & Creative Chairman, Creativeland Asia
Last year was an eventful year for Sajan Raj Kurup Founder & Creative Chairman Creativeland Asia, a visibly exhausted but spirited Kurup gets candid about why industry do’s are ‘unexciting’ for him, why staying away from Goafest has added to the agency’s culture and focus, expanding operations beyond India, Why charging a pitch fee still works for CLA, his thought process behind work for Micromax, and life after Parle Agro.
Q. What is the insight behind the new logo and tagline—‘Nuts: Guts: Glory’ for Micromax? Nothing symbolizes a cultural revolution in an organization as much as a change in identity. This exercise wasn’t about redesigning a logo and writing a tagline. It was about capturing the Micromax culture. For this we studied the Micromax story of four guys taking a brave decision to risk it all and enter the devices market. We traced their journey that started evolving from the back-alleys of the mobile phone revolution in India and all the way up to the global scene. We sat and understood the personalities of the founders, their ambitions and plans. What stuck out for us was a sincere amount of audacity. So, for Micromax, we created a line that establishes the innate desire for audacious and unconventional victories. And decided to scribe it as ‘Nuts: Guts: Glory’ in an unconventional slogan of sorts.
Q. The new campaign is completely different in tonality and positioning, and definitely more aggressive, was this the brief given to the agency? The most defining characteristic of this generation is the admiration for (and a desire to emulate) the crazy and the brave. To not just win, but to win big. To make irrational decisions, and to win madly. This cultural fuel becomes meaningful for us when it connects with the Brand Ethos.
In many ways, Micromax embodies this spirit we see coursing through the veins of the nation.
Anyone who has followed Micromax closely would know that the brand has an audacious story of how it was born in the back alleys of the mobile revolution in this country and has propelled itself on to the global stage in less than a decade.
Micromax is clearly an unconventional winner brand. It is a brand that’s taken chances, fought off much larger, more reputable competitors and still managed to come out in the driver’s seat. It has a sheer bloody-minded will to succeed.
It’s brash, bold and defiant .Which is why it goes for it. It’s why it doesn’t do things in half-measures.
Q. What does the campaign aim to achieve? A large part of the campaign objective is also to break a de facto price ceiling when it comes to how the brand is perceived and to align the cultural fuel and brand ethos with the new brand philosophy of ‘Nuts: Guts: Glory’ for its next phase of growth.
Micromax’s ability to premiumize itself lies in creating more meaning around what the brand stands for, its philosophy, how it sees its story, how it sees its users and how it delivers across the entire user brand experience.
Q. Do you have any plans of expanding operations beyond India? Yes, we have already incorporated an entity in Singapore. We have been studying various strategic overseas markets for the last three years now. We have already started engaging with brands in some of these markets. Slowly but surely you will hear more about our expansions beyond India.
Q. You are now a rarity at industry do’s as well, is this a result of the over hyped loss around the Parle account or is this a conscious effort on your part to stay away from the advertising industry? The Parle Agro- CLA split affected the industry gossip mongers more than it affected Parle Agro or Creativeland. We have moved on to business as usual. People who know me have learned to ignore the over-hype or gossip. It has nothing to do with being a rarity at industry dos.
Look, I am terrible at befriending, small talk etc. And, I don’t even drink alcohol any more. So, I don’t know what to do there once I get there. Also, instinctively, I can be quite politically incorrect and blunt. So, it would be kind of dangerous and not so exciting for me to be at all these ‘industry dos’.
I am better at focusing on what I am good at and what I enjoy.
Q. What are your thoughts on the new Frooti brand campaign? I’d prefer to pass this question.
Q. CLA charges a premium, at the same time you refrain from pitching how does this work in the real world? Creativeland doesn’t undercut itself or others. More times than often, we have won mandates despite of not being the L1 on cost at the procurement desk. We believe in creating great value for our clients and ourselves. We handpick our client partners as carefully as we pick our talent. It has been almost 9 years of Creativeland and every single year we have successfully delivered on setting benchmarks in every category we have brands to work with. Over the years, we have more and more clients inviting us to pitch and paying us a pitch fee for it. Every time a potential client says, “We are very excited to have you pitch and we are very keen to see the Creativeland perspective” I know the value the decision of sticking with a pitch fee has created for Creativeland.
Q. You haven’t participated in Goafest for 4 years now, 2012 was the last time CLA participated. Will we see CLA back at Goafest? The years we participated in Goafest, we have won big in front of a full house of participants. We have won big in competition with strong organizations like Ogilvy. Especially in the film and integrated campaign categories including the integrated grand prix in 2012. But, some of us also saw some amount of ganging up against winners, lobbying and alarming levels of scam ads by agencies desperate to win. Since we have a clearly different point of view on how awards must be conducted and instituted, I decided to step away. We haven’t missed being at the fest even once. In fact, staying away has added to our culture and focus.
Q. Coming back to Micromax, is this the first campaign that CLA has worked on, for a global audience? We have had several instances in the past when our campaigns have been used in overseas market/global audience. Audi, for instance. A lot of our work was considered and used in the Asian and European markets. The work we do for a lot of brands at Godrej gets used across the SAARC countries. Even as we speak, there are a few more global initiatives Creativeland is in the midst of in Africa, EU and US, apart from Micromax of course.
Q. Is this a very different task from some of the others that Creativeland has done for brands in the past? We’ve had invaluable experience of dealing with premiumization challenges across different categories.
We successfully repositioned Cinthol from being a popular segment soap to being at the premium end of the bathing soap category, making it a youthful and gender-neutral brand in the process. We did this by telling young India “Alive is Awesome.”
We re-positioned MTS from being a lower SEC, voice-driven brand for price-sensitive customers to becoming a data-focused brand for the digital youth of today, who consume gigabytes for breakfast.
We made MTS the definitive telecom brand for “The Internet Generation”, significantly growing its ARPU in the process. While these categories may work differently from each other, there’s no denying that building a consistent, meaningful brand identity and philosophy is key to capturing the hearts and wallets of contemporary, young India today.
And as this category slides further into parity product problems, brands will need to start differentiating themselves based on personality, based on how they make consumers feel about themselves, and how consumers identify with their beliefs.
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Carter Murray, Worldwide CEO, FCB
Carter Murray, Worldwide CEO, FCB, talks about his expectations from Rohit Ohri who will don the role of Group Chairman and CEO (India) in January this year, speculations around talent moving from Dentsu to FCB. He also reacts to speculations around Satbir Singh, and talks about reasons for not wanting to make any revolutionary changes in to the agency in India. Excerpts:
In an interview with Priyanka Mehra, Carter Murray, Worldwide CEO, FCB, talks about his expectations from Rohit Ohri who will don the role of Group Chairman and CEO(India) in January this year, speculations around talent moving from Dentsu to FCB. He also reacts to speculations around Satbir Singh, and talks about reasons for not wanting to make any revolutionary changes in to the agency in India...
Q. Are there key areas that the industry needs to work on from a creative perspective? There is opportunity in art and design, to elevate the level of advertising. With creativity you have to take lateral leaps and I think there’s a cultural environment in which we can do that even more here.
Q. What is your reaction on the speculation regarding Satbir’s ( Satbir Singh, Chief Creative Officer, FCB) exit? This is unhealthy gossip which is being spoken about which is untrue, of course there is gossip when a large company appoints a CEO, but it is unhealthy and unfair to the people who come to work everyday, We are in a talent business and we need to treat people with respect. Satbir is a really creative guy and really respected and it is unfair that people are saying that. Rohit who is the new CEO coming on board is a grown up, a good leader and he will give everyone a chance.
As the Global CEO, I will, like for any new CEO, after 90 days, come here and ask for a plan and assessment of the team. We’ve put in place a rigorous HR so we know exactly where people are. So if he feels they’re in a different place then he will have to explain to us why. When you are in a talent business, there are checks and balances in place to make sure great people are taken care of.
Q. How are you working to ‘up’ the agency’s creative quotient in India? I have very big ambitions for FCB Ulka. With Rohit coming on-board along with some of the creative talent we have already, my challenge to them is how we can help our clients and work together with them to raise the profile of India on a global stage in the industry we are in.
Most countries have a belief, probably partially correctly that they have a rich vein of creativity and a right to be in the forefront of creativity. India is one of the few countries that has a natural birth-right for creativity and has a right to play a much bigger role on the global stage but I don’t think India does it nearly as much as it can currently.
Q. What is the mandate given to Rohit Ohri as Group Chairman and CEO? There are certain goals that I, as Global CEO look to deliver and I expect the same from all other CEOs including Rohit. One is to be able to retain and attract the very best talent in the industry. Through his leadership he needs to create a culture and ambition to attract and keep key talent.
He should have energy and passion for the creative business. Sometimes our industry follows trends, which is understandable but the core of what we do is creative work.
I am excited about Rohit coming on board because he is the right influx of talent and will give the right perspective to the team we have here and take Ulka on the next step of its journey. It is very different from a reinvention where you bring a team on board to completely change things. That’s not we have here. Here we have a successful agency and a strong culture.
Rohit is going to bring fresh energy and perspective to what is already an experienced energised team.
Q. Will we be seeing a lot of movement of talent from Dentsu to FCB? I have heard of a lot of speculation around this, but it’s untrue. Rohit needs to come onboard and see what the team is here. I assume he might want to bring one or two individuals onboard with him. Speculating on what Rohit will do is unfair to him.
Q. Which other Indian agencies do you see doing good work in your view? I think Lowe and Mcann have had a good reputation for a long time. We mainly look to our sister companies for competition. There are also one or two boutique companies that have started, from which I think more and more of the competition will come, in the future.
Q. What do you want to change on the business front in India? For this market we are not making crazy margins but we are making fair margins. I want to grow but I don’t have any revolutionary ambitions or desires. I don’t have any pressures to double the size of the margin because if I push the margin too far I’ll start to destroy the company. I want Ulka to keep its size and scale. Yes, I do want to keep growing but I want to do that by focusing on the creative talent and product. A lot of the holding companies and networks today have been pushed into putting the numbers first.
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Vikram Sakhuja, Equity Partner and Group CEO, Madison Media Group (including OOH)
“All media agencies today are gearing for change in an environment of digital, data, and technology. This is potentially changing the way we target, work seamlessly across media, deal with a connected consumer and deliver outcomes. This re-engineering, if you want to call it that, is as applicable to Madison as it is too any other agency. I hope to play my role in being a catalyst of change”
The news of GroupM’s Vikram Sakhuja joining Sam Balsara’s Madison Media Group including OOH as Equity Partner and Group CEO took the industry by storm in April this year.
In his new role, Sakhuja will be responsible for the Media and OOH business of Madison World. He will work closely with Sam Balsara.
Interview
In a brief chat with exchange4media on his first day at Madison, Sakhuja a highly respected name in the media industry, talks about his expectations from Team Madison, his excitement on working with Sam Balsara, who he has known for over two decades now.
Sakhuja also answers the question on speculations over the possible movement of talent as well as clients from GroupM to Madison post his move, in his own inimitable way.
Excerpts:
Q. You have known Sam Balsara for over two decades now in your various roles as a client and a formidable competitor. What are the advantages of your partnership, despite the perceived difference in leadership styles? Sam is a great dealmaker with an exceptional commercial acumen, and I have a decent strategic mind with a good record of growing business and organizations. Both of us believe in client-value and we both have more than a decent network in the media marketing ecosystem. I’m excited about teaming up with someone I’ve respected and admired for over two decades. I hope for starters to rub off some of his amazing energy and spirit on to me.
Q. You have been a digital evangelist at GroupM and Maxus. What is your approach and strategy towards bolstering Madison’s digital offerings? I have just joined today, so it would be presumptuous and premature to talk of a digital strategy now. Suffice to say for now, I believe in digital being a specialism that needs to integrate into the overall plan rather than work as a silo.
Q. In a recent interview with exchange4media, Dominic Proctor (President, GroupM Global) said “Madison has a fine heritage and clearly needs to re-engineer for the future. I guess that's why they have taken him on” on your exit from GroupM and joining Madison as Equity Partner. What would you like to say about his observation on the need for Madison to re-engineer for the future? All media agencies today are gearing for change in an environment of digital, data, and technology. This is potentially changing the way we target, work seamlessly across media, deal with a connected consumer and deliver outcomes. This re-engineering, if you want to call it that, is as applicable to Madison as it is too any other agency. I hope to play my role in being a catalyst of change.
Q. What would you like to say about speculation on the possible movement of talent as well as clients from GroupM to Madison post you taking charge at Madison? If you’re trying to flatter me into thinking that my old friends might want to follow me, you are succeeding. The truth is that talent are looking for growth in four areas: exciting work, personal and career growth, an organization and leaders they can look up to, and economic wellbeing. Good organizations that focus on these normally don’t worry about flight of talent.
Q. Is building on ecommerce business also going to be an area of focus for you adding on the Snapdeal business? Agencies learn from all their clients. ecommerce is clearly a sunshine industry with great momentum. One, we can learn much from – especially the always on, real time nature of business and the link between cause and effect. That said, traditional businesses bring a huge foundation of consumer marketing skills. So short answer is that all sectors require focus, including of course, ecommerce.
Q. You recently said you might bring in to Madison the culture of setting ambitious targets and trying to achieve them, do you think the agency needs this more now with the recent loss of Mondelez (on account of a global pitch) and Airtel at earlier this year; both of which are significantly large accounts. What is your strategy towards Madison regaining lost ground and going on to new heights? The context of that comment was the difference between MNCs and local companies. MNCs of which I have been part of are more target-driven than local companies. My philosophy on targets is really one about objective setting. My conviction is that if managers are clear about deliverables, they are also smart enough to achieve them. On Madison strategy, I am hardly likely to reveal it, especially on my first day of joining.
Q. While we have covered extensively what is it that you would like to change and strengthen within Madison. What are your expectations from Team Madison? To have a passion for making a difference to our clients’ brands, and to enjoy what they do.
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