The Elephants in The Room

Anant Rangaswami, 51, was, till May 2011, the editor of Campaign India magazine, of which he was also
the founding editor. Campaign India is now arguably Indias most respected publication in the advertising and media space in India. Anant has over 20 years of experience in media and advertising. He began in Madras as assistant manager for STAR TV, moving on as regional manager, South, for Sonys SET and next as chief manager at BCCLs Times Television and Times FM. He then moved to advertising, rising to the post of associate vice president at TBWA India. Anant then made the leap into journalism, taking over as editor of what is now Campaign Indias competitive publication, Impact. Anant teaches regularly and is a prolific blogger and author of Watching from the Sidelines, a collection of editorials written for Campaign India. Currently, he is senior editor at Firstpost.com, Indias first, largest and most influential digital newspaper and consults in the marketing space. He occasionally writes posts for The Economist Groups Lean Back 2.0. blog.
Cover design by Anya Rangaswami
This book is for Binky, Rohan and Anya, the three I owe so much to. To Appa, a very special man and the best teacher I have had. Im sure hell be delighted, wherever he is, to see this day. And to Amma, for, well, being my mother, always there for me. And to my larger family and my closest friends, who taught me all that I know (only the good) and all that I am (only the good). Like my mother, theyre always there for me. And to Dominic Mills, who was group editorial director at Haymarket Media Group when I joined as founder-editor of Campaign India in 2007. Thank you for so much.
The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016
Foreword I grew up in Calcutta in a world of books. There were, at home, literally thousands of books that one could choose from and read. Ive read most of those thousands, and, since leaving Calcutta in 1983, another few thousand. Some of those books I couldnt care for. For example, Ive never been able to go past page 30 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Ive never cared for Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Chetan Bhagat puts me off. Then there are others that I could read and re-read and re-read many times. Any book by PG Wodehouse or Rex Stout or Louis LAmour or Dick Francis I could go on. Books that entertained me, made me laugh, made me cry in a happy way. Books that transported me to a world far away. And finally, I come to a handful of books that made such an impression on me that they shaped me to a large extent. Incredibly, I have no copies of any of these books but that hardly matters. Theyre imprinted in my head, and, every now and then, life provokes me to remember certain sentences, certain paragraphs, certain thoughts from these books. I wont share details of the books except for their names; go on and google them. The first is a book called Pollyanna, which I read for the first time when I was about 8 or 9. For a boy of that age to be caught reading Pollyanna was akin to being seen, in those days, in a pink shirt. Pollyanna is a girls book. Its sweet and sugary and treacly and soppy. I still loved it and read it openly. What it taught me, and I try to live by this belief every day of my life, is that, whatever your situation, theres something you can find to be glad about. The second is a little known book by James Thurber called The Wonderful O. My father loved humour, satire and comedy, so my siblings and I were lucky to be exposed to someone like Thurber, who could make
8
you laugh out loud in an era when you really did, and not type the letters into a text message. The Wonderful O taught me about the importance of Hope. Most you of you would have heard of, some of you might have read, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. Few would have heard of It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It. The title comes from one of the essays in the book, where the protagonist is burned badly. How did it happen, he is asked. The bed was on fire, he says. How did the bed catch fire, he is asked. It was on fire when I lay down on it, he says. Every time I lie down on a burning bed, and get burned in the process, I remember this book. Ive lain many times on burning beds. One day, thanks to Fulghum, Ill learn. And finally, I come to Manwatching, by Desmond Morris. Manwatching taught me to do just that watch men. And women. And children. Of all shapes, sizes, age and colour. Theres so much to learn from just watching and I have learned so much. This book talks about advertising, seen through lenses that are tinted by these books. So when I write about where advertising in India is headed in the next few years, Pollyanna gets me to remember to remind readers that theres always something to be glad about. The Wonderful O tells me it is important to inject hope into the book. It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It urges me to warn readers about burning beds you ought to avoid. Manwatching forces me to get you to look hard at everything around you, first consciously, on and on, till it becomes an unconscious habit. Oh, theres a book Ive left out. Not quite a book, an entire series of books. Asterix. After reading all the Asterix titles, many times, if theres one sentence I remember all the time it is this one: They are mad, these Romans. So as I write this book, I bear in mind that all those in advertising are, like the Romans, mad.
9
Lets not fool ourselves; its going to be a tough few years ahead. We have a coalition government at the Centre, surviving on the support of the most unlikely of bedmates. We have Anna Hazare, the activist and Arvind Kejriwal, the politician, fighting relentlessly and committedly against a legacy problem called corruption. We have a media, which, for decades, ignored the transgressions of people in power, whether in politics or business and now forced, by hyper-competition, to cover the transgressions. In the past year and a bit, we have had central ministers going to jail on charges of corruption and we have had chief ministers resigning on charges of corruption. We have seen allegations made against the most powerful families in the country, the Gandhis and the Ambanis. Caught in this crossfire is commerce. Economy. Growth. And, sadly, brands and advertising. In the foreword, Id said that I would ensure that I remember Pollyanna, and play the glad game, but foolhardy optimism and denial is not what the glad game is about. The biggest scams involve large advertising categories. Take the 2G scam. Corporate executives accused in the alleged scam include Sanjay Chandra, former MD, Unitech Wireless, Gautam Doshi, Group MD, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Hari Nair, Senior Vice-President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Surendra Pipara, Senior vice- President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Vinod Goenka, Promoter and Managing Director, DB Realty & Swan
10
Telecom, Shahid Balwa, Promoter, DB Realty & Swan Telecom, Asif Balwa (younger brother of Shahid Balwa), Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables, Sharath Kumar, Managing Director, Kalaignar TV, Ravi Ruia, Vice Chairman, Essar Group, Anshuman Ruia, Director, Essar Group, Vikas Saraf, Director for strategy and planning, Essar Group, IP Khaitan, Promoter, Loop Telecom, Kiran Khaitan, Promoter, Loop Telecom, Karim Morani, Promoter and Director, Cineyug Films. Companies caught in allegations surrounding the scam include Unitech Wireless, Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom. This is just to give you an idea of the momentum of the anti-corruption movement, as also the new activism in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the independent and upright stance taken by the judiciary. The 2G scam is just one of many to have made the headlines and embroiled powerful individuals and powerful brands and that will affect advertising. All the industries which have been dependent on the discretionary powers that reside with ministers and governments, whether at the state level or at the central level, will see turmoil. As I write this, Hindustan Times says, Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday cut Indias economic growth forecast for the current financial year to 5.6%, from its earlier projection of 7.0%, arguing that plunging global demand and a delayed monsoon that will hit agricultural growth would worsen the slowdown in Asias third largest economy. India can start reversing this trend by improving its investment climate and expediting reforms, said ADB chief Economist Changyong Rhee. Forecasts in ADBs Asian Development Outlook 2012 Update predict Indias gross domestic product (GDP) as growing by 5.6% in 2012-13 and 6.7% in 2013-14, a significant drop from ADBs earlier projections of 7% and 7.5%, respectively, for the two years.
11
The rupee is weakening against the dollar, and that will impact all industries which import raw material. It certainly has a huge impact on Indias fuel import cost which forces the prices of transportation of goods to rise. I am no economist, but I do believe that the anti-corruption movement has legs. Strong legs. More and more scams will be exposed, announced and uncovered, bringing more uncertainty to the business environment. More companies and corporate executives will be accused, will be charge-sheeted. Some will be convicted. Things will get a lot worse before they get better. The next year, 2013, will be an acid test. As I write this, it is unclear whether the Congress-led UPA will be able to stay in power till the next Lok Sabha elections are due in 2014. If there is a mid-term poll, the smart money is, once more, pointing to a coalition government, which will not be able to take strong and brave decisions. Whichever the combination that comes to power, they will have to deal with the sweeping anti-corruption sentiment. In the absence of a strong government at the centre, which seems unlikely for the duration of the next Lok Sabha tenure, there will continue to be an air of uncertainty and tentativeness on investments. And that cannot be good for advertising. But, to get back to Pollyanna, Im glad Im in India, because while the short term seems bleak and uncertain, the medium and long terms paint a far prettier picture. Shortly after the Anna Hazare movement gained momentum in mid12
2011, Sir Martin Sorrell was on a visit to India and I asked him what he thought would be the impact on India. Sir Martin saw only good, calling it Advantage India. Theres a massive disconnect between the macro level and the micro level, he says, citing the example of the stock market going down 15 percent (does he think WPP is worth 15 percent less? NO!) yet the GDP growing at 7-8 percent. Amongst the countries which excite him the most is India because it is the growth markets that excite him the most. I come to India with a smile on my face because theyre arguing about whether the economy will grow at 7 percent or 8 percent, which is eight times the growth in the UK. Specific to Anna Hazare, he says, If I look at whats happening here, out of this comes advantage India, whatever is happening here politically. People he has spoken to in India tell Sorrell that, what is happening will be beneficial in the medium term. Its net, net good, its Advantage India. That was more than a year ago, but its pertinent, because Sir Martin, indeed most industrialists and businessmen, worry more about the medium and long terms than they do about the short term. This was a view a few months after my meeting with Sir Martin. But the long-term picture is perhaps the bigger question. India still has a large, young, entrepreneurial workforce and has begun to see the benefits of growth and reform, but activity will weaken as long as the 20year reform process remains stalled. We have adjusted the GDP forecast for 2015 through 2020, expecting annual growth of 7.5%, down from 8%. India still has a great story, but growth rates of 9% or better dont just happen. The correct policies need to be in place, and they arent as
13
yet, said Moodys Analytics, the research arm of ratings firm Moodys, as reported in Economic Times in January 2012. India still has a great story but the immediate future is tough.
14
Theres an elephant in the room. In fact, there are many elephants in the room, which is why I thought of writing this book. For the past decade, Ive attended most of the major industry events held in the country. Ive spoken to almost all CEOs of Indian agencies, to almost all creative directors. Ive spoken to Asia heads, to global heads, to clients of all hue. Ive spoken to them many times each, about many elephants. The conversations are rich, insightful and provocative when these conversations are in small, tight groups three or four at the maximum. The moment the group is larger, the quality of the conversations drops often degenerating into asinine stupidity on the issue being discussed. In sync with the current mood in the country, there is a polarisation of thought, and possible solutions proffered are at the extremes. Its black or white. My black and your white. Theres little attempt to explore the grey which is where most solutions will exist. There are positions dictated by the company one works for, by the designation on ones business card, by the revenue break-up, by the dependence on one aspect of the business, and so on. These are all positions that many find difficult to move from in public fora and thats why I thought of the need for the book. The grey needs to be explored. Sticking to the white or the black positions is increasingly becoming dangerous as it might, in the near future, force one into a situation where its too late to move. Weve heard, over the years, many discussions on the talent elephant. How does one address the issue of talent in the industry? How does the industry package itself better and attract the best graduates that the best colleges produce? How does one retain the talent? What are the skill-sets
15
that the industry needs? What does the industry need to do to stop the migration of talent from agencies to the clients? Many questions on talent alone and yet, over the years, there are no quality answers coming from anywhere. Weve heard, over the years, many discussions on the remuneration elephant. Were at a stage when agencies in the top 20 in the country are agreeing to retainers lower than Rs. 2 lakh per month. Clients are managing to reduce the retainer each time they change agencies. Previously charged services such as PR are bundled in for free. How does one stop this slide down the dangerous, slippery slope? Again, there are no quality answers coming. What is the future of the network agency? What is the future of the independent? What kind of an agency should a particular brand work for? What should a client look for in the agency they choose as their communications partner? Is the business, in the current form, viable? Many questions. Many, many debates required, many answers required. So many elephants in the room, yet people in the business seem not to notice theyre there. If we began, a decade ago, with just one elephant in the room, its reached a stage when theres a veritable herd in there. Thats why this book. To make you aware of the elephants and to provoke quality conversations on what needs to be done to get the elephants out of the room. A disclaimer: Almost everything in the book is a generalisation. There will be individuals and agencies who will say, once in a while, hey, thats not true. It may not be, for you. It is, for the larger world of professionals and agencies.
16
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music cry Caesar! Speak, Caesar is turnd to hear. Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March. Caesar: What man is that? Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. If Caesar paid the soothsayer any heed, well, Caesar might have lived beyond the Ides of March. The soothsayers warning was not the only one Caesar chose not to pay heed to. Caesars wife, Calpurnia, slept fitfully on the nightbefore the Ides of March, a thunderous and stormy night, dreaming of the murder of her husband. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night: Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, Help, ho! they murder Caesar!, said Caesar. Caesar was warned of an impending doom and chose to ignore it. This book seeks to take you through the state of the industry as it is today and interpret, for you, the various signs that one can see. It also seeks to warn you of what might happen if you seek to ignore the warnings. As you read the book, there are opinions which you might agree with, and opinions that you might disagree with. Many may say, after reading the first few chapters, this is rubbish, and take this file and dump it in the recycle bin. Hold on and resist the temptation to junk it. Let me take you back to Caesar, to the morning of the Ides of March. As Caesar neared the Senate, he saw the soothsayer again. The ides
17
of March are come, he said to the soothsayer. To which he received this reply: Ay, Caesar; but not gone.
18
I still havent shared with you why theres a date in the title after The future of advertising. Theres great power to be gained and advantages to be had by knowledge of the future. Imagine the riches you could accumulate if you knew, today, how the stock-market would behave tomorrow. Imagine what could happen if a soothsayer walked up to you and said, Tomorrow, the Sensex will be up. Actually, its not very useful if thats all he told you. What would make the prophecy magical if he added, Buy Infosys, buy HDFC, buy Unilever. Thats an actionable prophecy. So what I attempt in this book is to share actionable prophecies. I dont stop with a warning, but go on to suggest what can be done to avert a disaster. The future can be many things. The next minute is the future, as is the next hour, the next day, the next year, the next decade or, indeed, the next century. Some of these milestones have no meaning to man or beast. If one heard that the world would go through a severe water crisis in 3025 AD, well, thank you for that information, can I go back to my beer, please, is what most of us would say. Thats why putting a date at the end of the title is important to me. Its not too far away its three years or four, depending on whether you interpret 2016 in the title as January 1, 2016 or December 31, 2016. Whatever the interpretation, its a future that you are concerned about. There are many important milestones we will see in the next three to
19
four years. Consider the following: Piyush Pandey, KV Pops Sridhar, KS Chakravarty, Arvind Sharma, Ambi Parameswaran, Colvyn Harris, Sunder Swamy, Madhukar Kamath all get to or cross the mid-50s. I could go on and on, but I wont. I dont want this to be a book of useless trivia, Id rather spend time on the principles, on the issues on hand. So what is the principle about many senior people in advertising in India reaching the age of 60? The issue is, many of these people are more than just individuals, they are brands. The person as a brand is an elephant which no one wants to talk about. If Piyush were to leave Ogilvy and move to, say, Leo Burnett, a lot of business would move with him. Many of his team members would leave with him. Piyush is the brand, not Ogilvy & Mather. To underline what Im saying, lets take a recent, actual, case. When Agnello Dias left JWT, a brand walked out of JWT. And many brands walked across to Taproot, the agency Dias launched with Santosh Padhi. This is a peculiarly Indian habit: brands work with people who, in their opinion, solve the problems before them. Thats why the issue of many senior adlanders nearing or turning 60 is of the utmost importance. Few of them (Id say none of them) will leave the agencies they work for today for another agency but many, Id hazard a guess, would decide to hang up their boots. Some may not retire completely, opting for a sort of semi-retirement but they will no longer be totally involved in the businesses they now run. So what happens to the businesses that are reliant on their equity, their talent and their relationships? Indeed, what happens to the companies that they run?
20
As these worthies quit the business or ease their way out, many questions arise and many opportunities. Whether you like it or not, there are accounts we dismiss as impossible to ever win. For example, can you imagine a Vodafone or a Cadbury or a Fevicol moving out of Ogilvy? I can if Piyush is not actively involved in the accounts. Its not as if this is not apparent to Piyush; over the last few years, he has, assiduously, pushed his key team mates forward, so we see an Abhijit Awasthi or a Rajiv Rao taking on more responsibility and more load but its not the same, to many clients, as the magic of Piyush Pandey. There are wonderful stories that abound of how Piyush won the MP Tourism account singlehandedly, or about how he discussed campaigns with (then) Vodafones Harit Nagpal in the wee hours of the morning. These are the shoes that Abhijit and Rajiv will have to fill and theyre very large shoes. For Ogilvy, the issue of Piyush Pandey is the elephant in the room. How much longer will he feel motivated to stay in the business? As of today, notwithstanding the rubbish that flies around, advertising gives him enough of a high for him to be consumed by it, even if he has slowly allowed himself the luxury of being true to his designation, Executive Chairman & National Creative Director Ogilvy & Mather, and focus on the macro issues facing the agency. However, there is no doubt that Piyush wants to see the next rung, especially in creative, take over all day-to-day work and hes been pushing this agenda for the better part of the last decade. Congratulate him on a new TVC, and he rejects the congratulations, saying that he had nothing to do with it; it was Abhijit or it was Rajiv, and so on. For all those who compete with Ogilvy, Piyush is also an elephant in the room. Which of the Ogilvy accounts are Piyush accounts, and, therefore, can be attacked? And the issue is not isolated to Piyush and Ogilvy; over the next few years, itll play out in many agencies, and each such play out spells change. When a face of the agency leaves/retires, well.
21
The People-Brands or Person-Brands How did Piyush become a face? How did Colvyn Harris become a face, how did Madhukar Kamath, how did Prasoon Joshi, how did Balki, and so on? By dint of hard work. To begin with, they are good at what they do, whether as creatives, planners or just plain management. They were all (and are all) accessible to media, responding to phone calls, SMS-es and emails with promptness. They project themselves as knowledge leaders and understand media management. They accept invitations to speak, to lecture, to be chief guests and be on panels. They become the faces of the agencies they work in and thats the double-edged sword. When they leave their agencies, the agencies become faceless and clients go to other faces that theyre familiar with which means other agencies. Which is why, perhaps, its a waste of time branding new agencies other than by the names of the man or the woman or those who started them. Think about it: Why did Sir John Hegarty, Nigel Bogle and John Bartle not call the agency they started Pumpkin or Purple Banana or Quadriped or some such clever name and not the boring Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty? Why did William Tragos, Claude Bonnange, Uli Wiesendanger and Paolo Ajroldi name their newly created agency after their initials, TBWA? Not to forget that Ogilvy began as Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson and Mather, the names of the four that started the agency? Its because they founders were already brands and already faces so
22
why waste the equity, why not leverage it? A former colleague started her own agency a few years ago. Its called Guava. Another couple of former colleagues run an agency called Metal. A couple of friends have named their agency Rickshaw. Then we have Happy and Scarecrow and any number of names of creatures from the animal kingdom. So why is the agency called Guava? Er, you know, its because Its the same with Metal and Rickshaw and Happy and Scarecrow. Why on earth? In a country like India, people win businesses, not clever brand names. The lawyers and consultants got it right and named their businesses after key people (they got it right in the way they get remunerated, too). Naming an agency after key people immediately begins the process of the creation of the people-brand. Why is your agency called Manish Bhat and Raghu Bhatt? Well, its because the two of us started it, and the two of us will be looking after the account. No hesitation, no confusion. Every employee in the organisation can confidently answer the question with 100 percent consistency. Why is the agency called Happy? Every employee at Happy will have a different story to tell. Things change, of course, if those that the agency is named after are no longer there but by then, hopefully, the need to leverage the peoplebrands decreases and the names or initials devolve on the company. How many agencies have been born in the past 5 years? Literally, hundreds. Naming the agency after the founder(s) helps cut through the clutter and is an instant differentiator. If youre planning to start an agency in India in this hypercompetitive environment, name the agency after yourself. Its not ego; its the most sensible thing to do. We all know how difficult it is to get new business. Heres another
23
elephant for you to deal with: the only people who will be good at new business are people-brands. They have reputations, they have trackrecords and they are known. Either wait for someone to become a peoplebrand before you expect him or her to bring in the bucks, or unleash an existing people-brand on the market. Anyone else, whatever his or her qualifications, is a waste of money.
24
Too many person-brands are not a good thing either, as BBH discovered when they came into India. I met Simon Sherwood of BBH before he had finalised with the first set of partners of BBH India, Subhash Kamath, Partha Sinha and Priti Nair. I knew all three of the proposed partners, and I thought of how they would work together. My first instinct was to believe that BBH London had got a good team together. It was when I learned that the three would all be managing partners that my heart skipped a beat. This was BBHs three-legged stool model at work. The problem is the people-brand issue again who reports to whom, if all three are managing partners? Who takes the call if there are differences of opinion? Too many person-brands are a nightmare if theyre all at the same level, all with the same designation, all with the same salary. The first signs of the discomfort were visible to trade journalists and I was one, then, as editor of Campaign India. The threesome had to be interviewed together, photographed together, and so on. That was a bloody nightmare. You go to their office, and their cabins were more or less the same size. Shit, give me a break. We saw the same happening with Scarecrows Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat. They even review ads together. The simple fact is that three people (especially three intelligent people) will often not be on the same page, and so it was with BBH india. When BBH India was launched, Simon Sherwood said, We feel more comfortable with starting a BBH office from scratch, so the challenge has been to find a group of people who can present our values and DNA in building a company, who can work together to provide the brand of leadership we need, and who can build a business with an enviable
25
reputation for creativity and innovation. And in finding Priti, Subhash and Partha we feel exceptionally confident about our prospects. All three are very highly talented and are exceptionally likeable people. Its a very exciting time for us. I now believe we can better support our global clients and more effectively compete as a future facing creative business. Sherwood used the word group and spoke about all three. To him, it was the BBH model that mattered not the India one. I would argue that had BBH India been launched with any one of the original three managing partners as the sole managing director any one they would be doing better today. Priti Nair left in a huff (obviously out-voted by the other two, though this has never been stated), and BBH London sent along Paul Ward as a fire engine. Wards remit, quite simply, was crisis management, and then along came Raj Kamble. The Kamble experiment didnt work either. To tell a carpenter to build a stool with three legs of equal size and of the same wood is one thing, to find three equally matched professionals is another thing altogether. So now we have Russell Barrett who becomes the managing partner to replace managing partner Raj Kamble who replaced the managing partner Priti Nair. Thats a wobbly stool. BBH India is still young. It can still be fixed. Think Indian and make one of the partners God and the rest will follow. Junk the three-legged stool model; bite the bullet now. BBH is not the only international agency to get it wrong because of a poor understanding of India. TBWA did it first, when they bought out their Indian partners from TBWA\Anthem and made the agency 100% Omnicom-owned. They seemed to be doing it sensibly; they first bought a minority stake in the late 1990s, increased their stake as they pumped more money in, and, finally, decided to buy the Indian partners out completely.
26
What they did wrong was to ask the Indian partners to exit immediately on signing an agreement there was no earn out over a period. Great news for the Indian partners it was like selling a car on an as-is-whereis condition. One fine morning, you had the company run by one set of people, and the next morning, it was run by a new set. TBWA forgot about the people-centricity in the way the Indian advertising business runs. There was no continuity to the relationships that had been forged with existing clients and TBWA was not yet a brand in India. George John was a brand, Kurien Mathews was a brand, TBWA was not. John and Mathews won businesses and had built a team with people who understand them and the Anthem culture and they were the people clients turned to when they were happy or unhappy. The result is that TBWA India lost people and clients in a rash, and has been painfully building their way back. Another big issue is handling the merger of two entities especially in the area of alignment of cultures. Grey, for example, couldnt quite deal with the clash of cultures between themselves and Rams; JWT has done a terrific job with Encompass. The difference in success lies in the amount of time and effort taken in understanding the culture in the target company and in assessing how different from your own company it is and then taking a call on whether or not the marriage will work. There are lessons to learn here. For network agencies looking at opportunities in India, retain the Indian brands you may take over whether its the people brands or the agency brands till such time as the mother brand is established. Take the cue from Publicis Groupe, which allowed BBH to be BBH their involvement in the credentials slide was a mention in the ownership. Even in India, while theyve got many things not quite right, theyve got it right with the continuity of name, with, for example, Publicis Ambience and Publicis Capital. When you take over an Indian agency, ensure that you leverage the
27
equity of the Indian brand, lock in the existing owners for a minimum of three years, and ensure that the pay-out to them is linked to the revenues post the take-over and linked to retention of key clients. Otherwise, the Indian promoters will be laughing all the way to the bank and youll be left holding a pup. Learn from Wieden +Kennedy, who got the answer perfectly. Rather than look around for three legs and then build the stool, they looked around for the stool. They didnt pick up the first stool in the first store that they walked into; they looked for the stool that suited them the best. They looked around for a stool which was like the stools they already had, they looked around for a stool that they knew would be comfortable. Their hunt ended when they came across A. A was started by ex O&M hand V Sunil in 2003. The name A does sound unusual, but Sunil thinks it is deadly. A is the first letter of the English alphabet and A also stands for art, architecture all the creative things, afaqs had reported in 2003. Mohit Jayal, the managing director of Wieden+Kennedy Delhi, joined Sunil as a partner at A in 2003. By the time A was bought by Wieden, Mohit and Sunil were not two legs of the stool; they were the stool: solid, comfortable and stable. In contrast, BBH tried, repeatedly to build the stool. TBWA had a stool, and decided to change the legs, having to go back and build a new one. They should have both adopted the Wieden strategy find the stool that suited you most, keep it as it is. All that Wieden has needed to do is to use some Mansion Polish every now and then. I can assure you that it is millions of dollars cheaper. As I write this, India is happy hunting ground for all the major networks theyre almost walking around with their chequebooks in their hands. Publicis India and Saatchi and Saatchi are in conversations with Indian independents, with at least one conversation nearing due diligence levels. Omnicom is sniffing around for a creative agency. Omnicom, IPG, WPP and Dentsu are all evaluating digital shops.
28
A big, big, word of warning: retain the good of the Indian agency because that is what will deliver profits the very reason youre buying the agency in the first place. Forget the Indianness and you buy into nothing. Who can you buy and why would they sell? I explored these questions at Firstpost.com as rumours grew that Dentsu was close to clinching the deal with Taproot India. A month before the deal, I had asked Taproots Agnello Dias if Taproot was open to an investment by a network agency. Never say never. If it works mutually for all parties, Taproot and its clients, then it is not impossible. We have never made a single contact from our side looking for this kind of partnership. If anyone wants to have a chat, it is only civil to not say no. The important thing is that we do not need to sell. We dont need rescuing, not personally or the agency. But if there are options that make us deliver better, faster and more to our clients, which help our employees benefit and no one ends up feeling exploited, then it is fair to explore it. Dentsu has obviously been an option that ticked the right boxes. Going beyond Taproot and Dentsu, who are the buyers and sellers in this marketplace? All the majors who are in India WPP, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and Dentsu, who closed the first of the deals, are looking around for possible relationships. And if theyre the prospective husbands, its an unusual situation theres a shortage of brides. Add to the shortage is the fact that the brides are in the position to decide on who they want to marry and can command a dowry. Lets take a look at the demand supply situation. WPP (owner of O&M, JWT, Grey, Contract, Group M, Bates, a share in Rediffusion
29
Y&R, etc) and IPG (owner of Lowe, draftFCB, Lodestar, McCann, etc) are in no great hurry and would buy only an agency with an extraordinary track record and potential. Publicis (owner of Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis India, Publicis Ambience, Leo Burnett, Starcom, Zenith Optimedia, a share in BBH), thanks to disappointing performances from Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis India and Publicis Capital, is in the hunt. Omnicom, a late entrant into India, made up for the delay in their India entry with the 100% takeover of TBWA, their stake in DDB Mudra, their increased stake in RK Swamy BBDO and the launch of BBDO India. Theyre hungry; they want to increase market-share faster than organic growth will allow them. Dentsu, under Rohit Ohri, wants to grow in size and spread geographically. WPP and IPG, thanks to their solidity in India, are the least in need and, therefore, are not active suitors. The rest are. Whats there to buy or invest in? Who are the agencies the prospective buyers are talking to or should be talking to? Theres Metal Communications, launched by Narayan Kumar and Probir Dutt, (Kurien Mathews joined shortly after launch as CEO), theres Creativeland Asia, launched by Sajan Raj Kurup, theres Happy, launched by Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das, theres Law & Kenneth, launched by Praveen Kenneth, Scarecrow, launched by Vivek Suchanti, Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat, theres Salt, launched by Mahesh Chauhan and Beehive, launched by Sanjit Shastri. All these agencies have proven that theyve got what it takes. Each has at least one major client relationship that demonstrates reliance and trust. Between them, they handle Reliance Capital, Platinum, Berkshire Insurance, Appy, Audi, Renault, Vivel, Malaysia Tourism, Kaya, FlipKart, Myntra, part of Airtel, part of Hero Honda, to name a few.
30
Thats an amazing client roster all won by proof of ability, and a lot of it retained year after year after year. Why did they decide to turn independent and what will make them sell all or part of their company to a network? There are myriad reasons seemingly different but some of them are not quite unique; theres a degree of overlap. Kurien Mathews joined Metal as a journey in discovery. Having been a cofounder of Anthem at age 25, at 44 the entrepreneur in me pushed to continue to seek entrepreneurial opportunities and explore the world beyond narrow confines of a traditional advertising agency the only system I had been part of for the entire length of my career The Omnicom/ TBWA system had nothing lacking really. It is the best you can get in every sense respect, results, processes, recognition, brands, awards, etc. It was more about what was there to be discovered out there that drove me, especially in a dynamic fast changing environment we were in then and are now, he says. I always wanted to run my own business. So the intent was always there. The rigidity and the inertia of network-run agencies to evolve, to be relevant and to stay contemporary drove me to start on my own. My belief that advertising the way we knew it is dead certainly made me get out of my comfortable job. And, the fear that soon I may become obsolete still drives me to keep creativeland in a constant state of beta, says Sajan Raj Kurup of Creativeland Asia of his decision to launch his own firm. To Mahesh Chauhan, there was too much to lose by not going independent. We live in the age of enterprise in India. It bothered me to think about what my kids would ask me once they grew up. The question, Dad, were you happy being just a CEO when you were at your prime in the golden era of Indian economy?, kept nagging me. I am fundamentally a very independent person with strong POVs. In sum, a good cocktail to turn entrepreneur, he says.
31
What drove Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das to start their own agency, Happy? It was the lack of clarity in an immediate growth plan (in their jobs at network agencies), the need to create a platform to flex all of ones capabilities, the desire to create a model agency built on the magical values of certain globally acclaimed independent agencies that went on to change advertising forever and the confidence of knowing that everything we would gain or lose would lie in our own hands, they say. To Manish Bhatt, Raghu Bhatt and Vivek Suchanti, freedom was the driver. We have a workplace wish list. Freedom to creatively experiment. A non-political atmosphere. Performance based compensation. A desire to surround ourselves with people we like and trust. All this looked more feasible in our own agency, were their reasons. If these agencies began with dreams, theyve been realized. So what would make these entrepreneurs go back to a life they walked out of? The biggest upside of being part of a large network is the financial security a large organization provides which is a safety net when times are bad. That cushion is not available to an independent. Being independent gives you greater freedom, but in my experience so does a good network like TBWA\ also give you immense freedom, says Metals Mathews. One simple downside is that you will not having any readymade globallyaligned business falling into your lap. One of the upsides is that if there is call to be taken on working on a particular business versus creative integrity, that call can be far more honest, Agnello Dias says. The reasons to consider network alliance partners are many. For one, it provides a wider canvas. You get greater access to tools, clients, processes, ideas and people. It is an opportunity to preserve the legacy built since starting up. And most importantly it is a very good way of protecting the long term interest of the people who put their faith in you when you started out, when the future was still fuzzy and uncertain, says Mathews, in favour of the networks.
32
Kartik Iyer of Happy equivocally states they will not sell to a network agency. We dont see ourselves selling to a network agency. Creating an independent that can challenge the norms of a network agency and selling it back to a network agency kind of defeats the purpose. We would like Happy to stay nimble, fun and unexpected. Raj Kurup is open to relationships but not with advertising agencies. Creativeland is too large an idea to sell out as an advertising agency. And I am not here to make a quick buck. I am here because I believe in the business of creativity. So, obviously my ambition is not to sell in the first place. Even if I had to consider, I dont see it making any business sense since most networks are doing nothing but aggregating resources in the market to consolidate their overall offering. So, obviously their priority wont be to grow brand Creativeland. It would be to strategically place us as a second or third agency in the market. Besides, when you have clients investing and believing in you, you dont really need to complicate your life with a network. We have crossed-over from being an advertising agency to an integrated creative solutions/content creator. Obviously we will be bringing in strategic investments to grow us globally, but not through an advertising network. I dont think they can afford our ambition, he says. Sanjit Shastri and I have had any number of conversations over the past couple of years on his desire to bring in a network partner to catalyze Beehives geographic ambitions, but, he has underlined, the cultural fit and the protection of his team, will be paramount considerations in any sale. Mahesh Chauhan loves the freedom, but acknowledges the times we live in. We will always be open to partnerships, collaborations. That is the mantra in todays times. Also this (business) is for the long run. So, my approach is go slow and build brick-by-brick. The upside is the freedom, the joy of seeing an enterprise grow from ground up. Of building a culture, of winning against bigger players, of really testing your mettle
33
without the halo of a network. Of being invited for pitches, of forcing your way into some and winning them, he says, of the experience of being independent. Kartik Iyer speaks of the two important downsides Indys face. Dealing with the Indian (non) work ethic and fighting the perception of being small or available for cheap are battles, he says. Longer hours, the fight to attract top talent, losing out on some big clients, inability to invest significantly- all are real issues, says Scarecrows Bhatt. Except for Happy and Creativeland Asia, all the independents seem clearly open to selling all or part of their company to network agencies. What will worry the networks is that even those who are open to deals with network agencies have no real need for them which will make these indys expensive buys. Expensive, but still, it seems, worth it. I have been clear that this book would have no gossip, and it wont. But I will say that one of the agencies mentioned above is no longer available for sale. The deal is done, but not yet signed sealed and delivered. But before I get to the next chapter, theres need for a couple of asides.
34
If theres one person Im going to keep a close eye on over the next few years, its Vivek Suchanti. Vivek is the son of Nirmal Suchanti, who established Concept Communications, an advertising agency that specialized in financial services ads and PR for companies going in for IPO issues in the heady days of the 1990s. This was an era which saw many such agencies spout; we had Adfactors, Pressman, Clea, to name a few. None of them, including Concept, managed to do very much beyond advertising which focused on the public issues, rights issues, and so on. In fact, most lost their way in advertising and PR became the mainstay. So why am I so interested in Vivek Suchanti? Its because of what he has been doing in the past few years funding new agencies. The model that hes created is refreshingly simple. He finds talented professionals in advertising and funds and partners them. The professionals get a stake in the business, Suchanti makes all the required investments, including working capital. The professionals get to take home a decent salary which allows them to maintain lifestyles similar to the ones they led when employed in their previous agencies. Suchanti is the majority owner including the majority owner of the brand. In the past few years, as a consequence, Concept Communications has become the majority owner in Scarecrow, Eleven Brandworks and ITSA Brand Innovations. Take a look at the talent which comes with these investments by Concept: Manish Bhatt, Raghu Bhat, Joy Sengupta,
35
Emmanuel Upputuru, Daniel Upputuru, Anirban Mozumdar, Puneet Kapoor and Prateek Bhardwaj. No wasting time on acquiring agencies, on due diligence, on valuations, on ratios. Suchanti is investing directly in the people with talent. The offices of these agencies, largely, are housed in old, low rent properties or in preoperties owned by Suchanti. Adequate budgets are provided to make the offices look aesthetic and cool. There is no pressure from Suchanti on new business, etc, the major worry when you acquire an agency. After all, the big losers, if there is no business, are the professional promoters, not Suchanti the investorpromoter. All the agencies that have been promoted by Suchanti are happy to work on projects, deliver quickly, are cost-effective. Their business plan does not depend on retainers -- its more along the lines of, can we ensure this months revenue is more than this months cost? Looking at the mix of professionals hes decided to invest in, there seems to be an obvious method to his madness. Hes looking at numbers two and three in well-run agencies the guys who are unlikely to make it to number one, and, consequently, lose enthusiasm when contemplating the rest of the careers as employees. The other common thread hes getting entire teams at one go, each time. He gets people who have worked together, who know each other, who are aligned to each other. When they join hands with him, they hit the ground running. What Suchanti is doing is to create a small WPP on his own. Concept Communications is now a holding company, owning to PR businesses, Concept and Zzebra, and three communications companies, Scarecrow, ITSA and Eleven Brandworks.
36
Hes already built a small empire and its been a hell of a lot cheaper than the network agency route of buying entire agencies or hiring teams at exorbitant prices. I wouldnt be surprised if a) Concept Communications (including all these new agencies) is either invested in by, or sold to, a network agency in the next few years b) Suchantis model, as it becomes known, attracts at least 5 more prospective entrepreneur teams and c) Suchantis model is copied by someone else. What this means to big agencies is simple: keep a close watch on your numbers two and three in the creative departments.
37
The second aside is a deeper look at what Wieden+ Kennedy is doing in India. Wieden+ Kennedy India is doing something just short of a Suchanti. Just short when it comes to actual cash investment, but much greater when it comes to the toal package. Earlier this year, they announced a plan to curate/mentor/support/invest in what they call creative entrepreneurs, What these creative entrepreneurs will get is help with infrastructure, access to the contacts of W+K India, mentoring by experts in the domain. In addition, W+K will also take a stake in the business, up to 20 per cent. Unlike Suchanti, W+K is not interested in advertising their focus will be on design and art. When I think of Wieden+Kennedy, this is what comes quickly to mind: 1. Their commercials for IndiGo (admittedly, I like the first one much more than the second) 2. The livery of Indigo aircraft 3. The hair-styles and uniforms of the air hostesses 4. The airline code for IndiGo, 6E 5. The inflight magazine, also 6E 6. The packaging of their inflight food 7. The line On time is a wonderful thing 8. Repeated announcements by their pilots of an on time take-off and an on time-landing 9. The magazine W+K India produces, Motherland 10. The edition of Design Indaba that focused on India , where all content and design were executed by W+K India
38
11. Art exhibitions (with wine and cheese, of course) at their office 12. The wonderful art of their Royal Enfield print ads How much of this is advertising? Not much. A lot in this list is design. A lot is art. A lot is aesthetics. Thats what W+K is investing in design, art and aesthetics. What W+K is doing is to create their own little Silicon Valley , a concentrated area where people with largely common aspirations and skills rub shoulders with each other, getting the richer for the conversations one overhears and work one sees and talks about over coffees and teas and cigarettes. All the entrepreneurs, it is apparent, have skills that Wieden + Kennedy, the agency, has already needed often and will need often. The move also underlines W+K Indias attempt to get out of the lowpriced advertising business. (They resigned the General Motors account over differences in remuneration, thanks to GMs procurement policy). This is a concerted move to move up the value chain. It makes W+K more consultant-like, more expert-like and less agency-like. I like.
39
The business model for advertising agencies has changed forever. The toothpaste is out of the tube and you cannot put it back. Forget the 15 percent; thats as current as the dodo. For the first few years of the new regime a negotiated retainer the model was as dumb as it gets. Agencies tried to make an assessment of how much money they would have made in the 15 percent agency commission model per annum, divvied that by 12, and, hey presto, that was the targeted retainer fee. That worked till about 2005 as marketers, too, used as they were to the old model, tried to navigate their way through the retainer model. It was an era of simplicity; pure, laughable simplicity. There were no calculations to be done; one party in the proposed relationship threw a number; the number was negotiated up or down and you shook hands. You agreed on a number which had no basis for existence. It was just a number that made both sides feel good about. It took a little while for agencies to learn all the agencies, at the cost of all the other agencies that if they could figure out the magic number that a particular brand paid their agency, all they had to do was to find a way to connect to the client and offer him their services for less. A little less doesnt work? Ok, well lower it more. And more. Because in the simplicity of the new model, all the focus was on the magic number the number you could extract from the client. There was little time spent on understanding how much it would cost the agency to service the account. What were the human resources needed to deliver to the client? What would these human resources cost? What about the infrastructurehow much of the fixed, non-people costs would this new account cost the agency?
40
Over many conversations, Ive arrived at a number. It costs, in Mumbai, anything between Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 45,000 per person. Put differently, to run an office with 100 people in Mumbai, without salaries, would cost between Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 45 lakh. Delhi (and Gurgaon) is slightly cheaper, and Bangalore cheaper still but only as far as the rent is concerned. Its when you truly understand and internalise these numbers, you might discover that the account that makes you proud of having on your credentials slide is actually the one that is a drain on the agency; that it makes poor business sense to carry on handling the account. The understanding of these numbers also helps you understand the profitability of different groups in the agency. How many truly understand the math? How many have the patience with the math? Network agencies do. Most of the others do not. Which is why clients get away with lower and lower retainers. Lower and lower retainers that make it unviable for agencies to hire good talent. As long as the majority of agencies do not get this, the entire ecosystem is under threat. The result the quality of work, in general, takes a nosedive. There is no choice. Agency heads will have to understand math, will have to understand cost. If they fail in this area, they will fail to remain either competitive or profitable or both.
41
The problem caused by cost Imagine a factory built in the 1950s to manufacture cars. Imagine a factory built in 2012 to manufacture cars. The earlier factory was built on a foundation of manufacturing and other processes of the past, and the newer one on current realities. The 1950 factory will never be competitive in a fight with the 2012 one. So it is with advertising. Behemoths like JWT, Ogilvy and Lowe, for example, are built on old processes and premises, and newer agencies like Taproot and Creativeland Asia, for example, are built on the new ones. In a head-on competition, the newer agencies will be able to offer like-for-like services which are much lower than the network agencies and still make a profit a healthy one. Thats because their cost structure is completely different from the older agencies. Simply put, the older agencies will have to stare hard at costs to stay competitive and viable. Cost is a big elephant an elephant that threatens all the older agencies. All of them. Consider brands that are handled, today, by agencies that did not exist a decade ago. Its a long list, and Ill save some words and focus on categories. Cars, two-wheelers, telecom services, telecom hardware, airlines, FMCG majors, branded jewellery, insurance, leading banks, leading real estate companies; every one of these categories sees new kids on the block wresting the business away from the network agencies. Many of these decisions to work with new smaller companies are based on cost. There are hard questions that the older agencies need to ask (and for the new agencies as well, if they havent bothered to while riding the wave):
42
1. How many people do we need? 2. How many do we have? 3. What is the measurable productivity of each person? 4. How many do we need in each discipline? 5. How many do we have? 6. How many are future ready? 7. Can someone be replaced by someone else (with equal abilities) at lower cost? 8. Who is adding value to the agency brand? 9. Is all the travel made necessary? 10. Are the entertainment bills justified? 11. Is the expense on award entries justified? 12. Are we leveraging our people assets well? 13. How much time is spent on meetings and non-core activities? 14. Are we making the best use of technology? 15. Is there corruption in the agency? Where and how much? 16. Is there wastage in the agency? Where and how much? The reason these answer are required is so that you can find a way to be a) Financially competitive and viable b) Creatively competitive and viable The next time a large agency scoffs at say, a Law & Kenneth or a Beehive Communications winning an account that they pitched for at a much lower fee than you wanted, the more sensible thing to do is to stop and ask: How? Why?
43
Its because the newer agency heads and owners are cost-focused, not legacy-focused and ego-focused. For example, Praveen Kenneth of Law & Kenneth and Sanjit Shastri of Beehive almost obsess about cost. They spend time on all that would affect bottom-line and top-line. If someone says they need to travel, they want to know why. Can the same objective not be met by a conference call? A Skype call? Can the meeting be clubbed with another one that is due in the same city? Is an overnight stay necessary cant one take a red-eye out and a late night flight back? The newer agencies spend all the time in the world before hiring. For example, Ive known Kenneth to take a year to fill an identified, required position (till then, someone doubles up, working harder). For them (all the newer agencies), the address of the office is not important. Ive had to search for Happy Communications office in Bangalore, for Creativeland Asias office, for Scarecrows office, for Metal Communications office, for Origin Beanstalks office. Before you dismiss these names, let me shock you with this one: Beehives revenues are more than TBWA India and Saatchi and Saatchi India put together. Yup, Im not kidding. Theres another thing smaller agencies get right: division of labour. Theres no overlap in responsibilities at the top, so each one at the top is able to devote the maximum amount of time to his or her area of expertise. Theres less time wasted on unproductive, large, internal meetings. Quick conversations are the rule, then its back to your job. With the division of labour comes another great small agency trait: the lack of ego. Its astonishing how much of a difference ego can make to cost. In the new set-ups, its rare to see more than one senior person attend critical meetings because theyre not felt necessary. Its the confidence and trust that allows Karthik Iyer of Happy to be the face of the agency, even as partner Praveen Das is content keeping a low profile, focusing on work. When it comes to junkets like Cannes, its common to see one
44
partner going and the other or others not, bearing cost in mind. No one from Beehive or Metal has ever been to Cannes and they still handle large brands such as Malaysia Tourism or Platinum Guild. The new agencies are clear that there is a cost to ego and therefore, ego is a waste and cannot be tolerated. It all comes down to the need to control an account. In many network agencies, the duplications begin because of control-related insecurities and these cause a chain of problems which go all the way up, first to Asia Pac heads and then to global heads, who spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to manage these insecurities.
45
That brings us to the million dollar question and to a new elephant. Who should be in control? Obviously, someone has to. The answer, increasingly, is the creative person. To some, its a no-brainer. How can we not have a creative person at the top of a creative business? Sir John Hegarty asked recently at the IPA conference. So it has been in India to a large extent. Piyush Pandey is at the top of Ogilvy & Mather, notwithstanding the fact that Rane is there. R.Balki heads Lowe, Prasoon Joshi heads McCann, Ravi Deshpande heads Contract, Satbir Singh heads Havas. Then you have the comboleaderships, like Ajai Jhala and Josy Paul. Then we come to the suit-led agencies. Madhukar Kamath heads Mudra, Arvind Sharma heads Leo Burnett, the brothers Swamy head RK Swamy BBDO, MG Ambi Parameswarn heads DraftFCB, Shiv Sethuraman heads TBWA, the trio of Subhash Kamath, Partha Sinha and Russell Barrett head BBH India, Nakul Chopra heads Publicis India, Publicis Capital and Publicis Ambience, Rohit Ohri heads Dentsu. Take a look at all the newer agencies. Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat, two creatives, launched Scarecrow. Agnello Dias and Sanjith Padhi started taproot. Karthik Iyer and Praveen Das gave birth to Happy. Narayan Kumar started Metal Communications (Kurien Mathews bought into the agency later) Priti Nair has her Currynation. Sajan Raj Kurups running his country, Creativeland Asia. Where are the vibrant, sexy, cool agencies launched and run by suits? Theres Mahesh Chauhans Salt, but I have a theory on that makes him tick, and Ill come back to that later.
46
Theres a lesson in this that the business will be run by creatives, not suits. In the new Indian construct, the client gives his business to the solution-provider, not to the bigger designation on the business card. With the new paradigm (compared with a decade ago), creatives are mandatory attendees at all important meetings. I need to go back to 1997, when I was working in Times of India, reported to Arun Arora, then executive director of Bennett, Coleman & Company. He taught me an important, unforgettable lesson: that the business of the building was the creation of content (and, of course, monetising the content that is created). To him, accounts, finance, administration, etc, were all support functions; their job was to enable the content-creators to do their jobs efficiently. To transfer that lesson to advertising, the creatives and the planners are the business; everyone else plays a supporting role. Learn from the newer agencies. Look at what they do. Just as Arun Arora did, they focus on the heart of the business; thats where the maximum time is spent in recruiting, in retaining, in motivating. Dont just take my word for it. Go back to what Sir John Hegarty said: How can we not have a creative person at the top of a creative business? How on earth? Thats why we will see so much change in India in the next few years. We will see more of the existing agencies run by creatives and we will see more new agencies being launched by disgruntled or underpaid (or both) creatives. And its the creatives who will keep winning businesses, not the suits and brand names. That brings me to another elephant the creative as a manager.
47
The very reason that suits ran most of the agencies in India till the late 1990s was due to a simple fact: the creatives didnt care about, and didnt know much about, managing a business and managing money. As a result, however talented and however critical to the business a creative was, he or she reported to a suit. It suited both well, during that time, till clients latched on to who, in the agency system, was the magician and the answer was, the creative. [Creatives who aspire to head agencies must learn that, however painful it may be, they will have to gain more than a rudimentary understanding of accounts, of finance, of administration, of taxation. Currently, a number of agencies have suits as CEOs ONLY because the creatives fail at what are hygiene skill sets for managers]. Ranjan Kapur perhaps saw this trend coming before anyone else. While he was clearly the head of Ogilvy in India, he saw the opportunity in leveraging the growing reputation and charisma of Piyush Pandey. During Kapurs years, we saw the face and image of the agency change. While JWT (then HTA) had built a redoubtable reputation for their planning, by the late 1990s, Ogilvy was transformed into the most creative agency in the country as far as popular perception was concerned. Not just Ogilvy it was Piyush Pandey who had become the God of Advertising Things. While Kapur pushed himself, cleverly, more and more into the shadows and pushed Pandey more into the sunlight, his contemporaries at the two largest competitors of the time, Prem Mehta at Lintas and Mike Khanna (and later Colvyn Harris) at HTA (to become JWT later), failed to notice what Kapur was up to and why he was up to whatever they were up to. Mehta held on till he sold his stake in Lintas to Lowe; the status quo remains at JWT, and Ogilvy has, without a doubt, occupied the number one creative agency spot in India.
48
Kapur, I would argue, saw the future and bet on it. It could not have been easy, at that time, to buck the trend and allow and encourage a creative to become the face of the agency. In hindsight, some of the most memorable advertising work in the past two decades have been on brands handled by Ogilvy Cadbury, Fevicol, all the avatars of what is now Vodafone, and so on. All these resulted in glory for Pandey and a small amount of reflected glory for Kapur. But that was a small price to pay the success of the agency, as far as Kapurs boss Sir Martin Sorrell was concerned, was due to Kapur. Today, Lowe is run, whether you like it or not, by Balki. JWT is still run by a suit. Its important, for many reasons, for the agency to be run by a creative. The foremost is that when it is apparent that a creative runs the agency, and is not just the head of the creative department, it sends a signal that the environment will be more creative-friendly. It makes it easier to recruit and retain creative talent for the creative-led agency than for the suit-led one. Its not that the only solution is to insist that a creative heads the agency. It could be in the form of the Piyush-Rane partnership (which was defined by Kapurs formula), where the creative is the face of the agency. In Ranes case, he has defined his job as one that will ensure that the environment allows Piyush and his team to focus on the creative product, while he looks after the mundane essential tasks such as finance, accounting and general administration. But make no mistake about it the suit-led and the suit-as-the-face agency is a creature of the past. For a moment, let me get back to Salt, which is a new agency headed by a suit, Mahesh Chauhan. Why is Salt doing well, defeating my entire premise? Because, while Chauhan calls himself and sees himself as a suit, his clients and his creative colleagues
49
see him as a creative. Chew on that. Take a look around you at all the agencies headed by suits and at all the agencies headed by creatives. Look at who is winning. Look at who is struggling. Its not a surprise. As Sir Hegarty said, Ill repeat, How can we not have a creative person at the top of a creative business? Its time for the suits to actively push their creative heads forward and actively recede into the backgrounds. The creatives must be the faces of the agencies otherwise the creatives will begin leaving. So will the businesses, as many have sadly learned. Its not going to be easy, but it has to be dealt with, sooner rather than later. I told you, its an elephant in the room. A few days ago, my brother, JP Rangaswami, wrote in his blog: Business is personal. Its about relationships. It has always been so. Until we tried to forget it and concentrated on making money, not shoes. [As Peter Drucker said, people make shoes, not money]. Then, for a short while, business became not-personal. In India, the entire advertising industry is about relationships. Its personal. And, to paraphrase Drucker, in this business, you create communication, not money.
50
Heres the big, fat elephant in the room: Talent. This is an unusual elephant, in that everyone knows its there and everyones talking about it. The problem is, theyve been talking about it for the past decade and nothing is being done about it. And heres my little thought on the matter: there is no dearth of talent in the country its just that no one wants to pay for the talent. Youve got a great car, and you want to pay Rs.3000 for a driver. In a country like India, of course youll get a driver youll get a shitty driver, though. Pay more, you get a better driver. Pay even more, you get a still better driver. The entry level salaries, even in the big, fat, profitable, agencies are absolute rubbish. Thats where the problem begins. Advertising is a cool industry that many hundreds of thousands would like to be a part of till they learn of the remuneration. Insurance pays more, banking pays more, shit, even a sales executives job in a pharma company pays better. So advertising chooses from the dregs. Which brings one to the next issue on talent. Who spots the talent? Who is qualified to spot talent? How many agencies have an HR department which does anything more than work out salary packages, issue appointment letters and accept resignation letters? How many have professionals who are truly qualified (by education) to handle the HR function? Where there is an HR department, how many in the department have a sense of what the industry is about, about the kind of people who would fit in? For the amount of noise and chatter we hear about talent (the shortage of it, that is), the industry is absurdly short-sighted and negligent when it comes to looking for a solution.
51
a) Most have no HR function to speak of b) Most pay poorly at entry levels (in comparison to other industries) c) Most invest little or nothing in training d) Most have no measurable appraisal system e) Most dont have visible and transparent organisational structures f) Most dont conduct actionable exit interviews Things have been made worse by recent policies by many Indian agencies to cut costs in recruitment by not using consultants. The result? Poor quality of resumes to choose from (colleagues friend, friends friend, friends brother, sister, classmate, and so on). Then we come to the interview process. Sadly, except for CXO level hirings, the length of interviews is becoming shorter and shorter. A cursory glance at the qualifications as seen in the resume confirms the educational background and previous experience if any. Not much time is spent understanding the aspects of the candidate which do not find their way into the resume family background, the books they read, the media they consume, the music they listen to, and so on. All of these, never listed on a resume, would give recruiters a sense of the extent of alignment the candidate would have vis--vis the company. Move on from the quick glance at the resume, and a few quick mundane questions (why did you leave company ABC? Why do you want to join us? Why did you want to get into advertising?), you move to last-drawn (or in the case of freshers, expected) salary. If these numbers dont match, the interview is over. If the numbers are in the ball-park, a hurried negotiation follows. Joining dates are discussed (can you join next Monday?). A deal is done. Thats the essence: a deal is done. Recruitment has become transactional.
52
There is no discussion on the career path of the candidate. Even more frightening, there is no conversation on what the company stands for, on the value systems, on what makes the company different from others. Candidates join companies knowing little or nothing of the company. Its a job, which requires them to work 9 to 6 (or whatever) and results in their getting a salary at the end of the month. There is no emotional connect with the company which is why people find it so easy to leave jobs for others. When they are treated as commodities, as with other commodities, its the highest paymaster they choose in the end. So much for the recruitment process. Except for a handful of agencies, most do not even attempt to evaluate the existing people in the company. How many people are there in the agency? How many are required? Do you have too many or two few? These answers are possible to find only if you have done an analysis of the quantity and quality of talent that is required. In the heady days leading up to 2008, agencies hired anybody good. Just hire them. Did you need them? Do you need them? Most importantly, how ready is your team for the demands of the future? Do they get digital? Do they understand that print is on the way out? Do they understand convergence? Do they understand activation? Do they understand collaboration? Most agencies would not even have a process to find the answers to such questions and the answers are needed urgently. As a media watcher, I struggle to keep apace with the changes in technology which offer new ways for the consumer to consume communication. For those in the advertising business, the time available to understand the consumers movements is next to nothing.
53
Training, then, becomes an integral part of an agencys needs. The majority of agencies do not have training programs; no budgets for employees to attend paid-for workshops; do not actively encourage employees to attend even unpaid workshops. Its no surprise then, that a lot of young talent - - and a lot of business which should have come to the traditional agency migrate to digital.
54
Digital: another elephant. A big, fat one. Digital. In the long run, I wouldnt be too bothered about the digital agencies. Theyre going to find themselves in hot water sooner than they (or you) think. There are a number of reasons I say so. First, they (the majority; again I generalise) are inefficient in their costs; they have ridiculously high head-counts and, finally, they havent defined their purpose well enough, even as they make money (in some cases, small fortunes) from the same people who you make money from. Before I go on, a caveat: I speak of the digital agencies that provide creative solutions, not the ones that provide tech solutions. Whether its print or radio or outdoor or TV or digital, what will attract the attention of consumers are ideas. Thats the expertise of the traditional agency (thats you). What digital has been successfully able to do is to sell their understanding of the medium as ideas and as understanding of communication; what advertising agencies have failed, largely, to do, is to understand the medium. So now its a frantic race: will the digital agencies understand how to ideate and understand brands and consumers before the advertising agencies learn to understand the digital medium, or will it be vice versa? Right now, theyre winning. They know how websites work, they know how search works, theyre familiar will all operating systems, theyre familiar with the entire range of hand-held devices. When I say they, I mean the majority in any of these cool, idea-centric digital shops who work for your clients. Its simplistic to think of the digital agencies as just that, digital. Many of the players in India have their roots in advertising and they
55
understand brands, advertising and digital. And, in a world that is getting increasingly digital, theyre better placed to take your business than you are to take theirs. Let digital seep into the agency. Train your team, conduct workshops, encourage learning. Digital agencies also know creative which is your domain. They can produce a film, they can create an electronic direct mailer, they can adapt the creative for outdoor. In most cases, the traditional agencys concept of digital is to adapt a print ad or a few frames of a TVC into a banner. Much of the reason for the success of the digital agencies is their ability to project that they get digital. There are a number of reasons for this. 1. They are familiar with the medium, largely because they are younger and more natural consumers of the medium. 2. They are familiar with the hardware because they own such hardware as natural accessories, much as you own a belt or a pair of jeans 3. The people they interact with, their friends and their peers, live the same lives. As a result, when they meet your client, what the client sees is a far more confident executive than your colleague. The difference in confidence is visible in the way they use their iPhones and iPads and Androids. Every single operation demonstrates their greater ease; the way they flip the pages, increase the volume, increase and decrease the size of the image on the page, open a new window. They can advise their clients, when required (and it is required often) on the next phone they should buy and whether the iPad mini is a good bet. Your colleague fails miserably in a like-for-like comparison.
56
And yet, the main reason for choosing the digital agency as a partner is lost in this flurry of technology: the ability to communicate to the consumer. The frightening thought is all that digital agencies need to do is to get their creative team in place; a team that understands brands, communication and consumers. For the traditional agency, the need is for it is to understand digital as a medium. The task is much, much more difficult for the traditional agency. For one, the agency needs to get younger. How on earth does one do that in a hurry? You cannot, one fine morning, sack all those over 35 and hire a new crop to replace them. The solution is that you need to behave younger. The traditional agencies need a focused approach to understanding what digital is the medium, I mean. What are the limitations, what are the advantages, what are the disadvantages, and so on. Over the past year, Ive provoked three agency heads (one of them is R.Gowthaman of Mindshare) by suggesting that they give interestfree loans to all employees to buy iPads. Sadly, none has acted on the suggestion, but that doesnt mean I cannot make it again. Do so. Announce loans for all employees for them to be able to buy tablets and smart phones. Work out the instalments (12 should be easy) and deduct it from their salaries each month. To expect, for example, a junior copywriter to buy him or herself an iPad (even the Mini) or a Galaxy is patently unfair itll cost them, in the underpaid industry that it currently is, more than a months salary. Thats a lot of moolah. Itll cost you nothing, except management of cash flow (consequently, it might cost you some interest). What it gets you is an agency which is, overnight, full of people who are familiar with the medium the consumer is, increasingly, getting dependent on. To underline why I think this is
57
important, I ask: would you expect a creative who has never watched TV in his life to help create a TV commercial? The important fact to remember is that everyone in the agency needs to be digital, not just a specially-created profit-sucking digital team. Heres a list of things you could do: 1. Find a way for everyone to use digital products and devices. Fund it in the manner I suggested. 2. Create a training programme that includes all employees of the agency expect for the pure support functions. This needs to be structured and frequent. And it needs to start now. 3. Create a program through which employees are exposed to the very best of digital campaigns. Not by sending them links; by showing them case studies on why they work and why theyre effective or creative. 4. Create a way to evaluate the digital friendliness and digital savviness of each employee. Unless someone is a brilliantly talented creative, get rid of all who dont get digital. Do it quickly and ruthlessly. A focus on digital will achieve, without it being the primary objective, making the agency younger and the salary bill lower. Those are big bonuses. The digital agency also scores over the traditional agency in one critical area: speed. The culture in digital shops is such that they are used to absurdly tight deadlines and react positively to them. To your client, they look intelligent, nimble, flexible and efficient. When was the last time you could use these adjectives to describe a traditional agency? The threat that digital agencies pose to traditional agencies can be best illustrated by the recent Visa campaign (the Kashmiri cycling to a cyber caf and using his debit card) by Proximity. By whom? Proximity. Not BBDO. Not TBWA India. The idea was presented to Visa by their digital agency, Proximity, even as TBWA India was the mainline agency. Was
58
the client delighted? Yes, and why not, when the TVC clocked over 1,000,000 views on Youtube within a week. It is another issue that the final execution had significant contributions from BBDO. It only underlines my premise that all that digital agencies need to do is to get a team that understands brands and communication. While on BBDO, its time to talk about two other areas that advertising agencies need to get their act together on. One, funnily, is that need, once again, to understand media. The second is that they need to understand how to collaborate. The reason that I took a leap from BBDO to these two concerns is that BBDO India gets them. Again, I digress and go back to my thoughts on this in January 2011. Learn to collaborate. There was a time when all in advertising knew a lot about media. Then came the delinking of media from advertising agencies, and then came the media independents. Creative agencies need to spend time and energy understanding how media fiunctions. How can one get a newspaper or a TV channel to partner a communication exercise? What are the innovations possible? What is the possible upside to the brand in terms of earned, as opposed to paid media? Answers to thse questions will come from understanding media and how each medium operates, the costs, building relationships with the media buying/planning agency, and so on. Many of their largest and most visible communication exercises are truly integrated and are truly collaborative efforts. So campaigns for Gillette, Aviva Life, and even, to some extent, GE, are results of partnerships with BBDO, a media agency, some media products, an outdoor agency, activation companies, digital companies and PR. One client, one campaign, so many vendor-partners. The million-dollar question who is the custodian of such campaigns? The custodian will be the one, who, in the eyes of the client, has originated the campaign. So in the Gillette case, it would have been
59
BBDO. In the Visa case, it would have been Proximity. Stop there for a moment. What if Proximity or any other digital agency went to your client and sold the idea to them? Where would you be? Playing second fiddle to a digital agency with your own client Media agencies have seen the threat from digital much before creative agencies and geared up to meet them head on. If digital agencies claimed to understand creative and technology, media agencies came from a new angle: they understood media and they understood measurement. They pulled out the stops on understanding digital as a medium, racing to be as familiar with it as they were with any other medium. For them, it was a natural learning. Media agencies used their buying clout to forge exclusive relationships with small, talented digital shops along the lines of, work only with us and well ensure that youre full up with business. As a result, media agencies such as Mindshare, Maxus, Lodestar, OMD and Madison began pitching digital creative solutions as well. All this billing, except for the media planning and buying component, should have been the creative agencys revenue. Media agencies get digital much better than creative agencies do. They spend more time with suppliers, publishers, hardware manufacturers, measurement companies. Executives attend workshops and seminars (often paid for by publishers, it must be said) to better understand the medium. The most important aspect that media professionals get which creative agencies still do not is that digital is where the future is. A mid-level executive in most digital agencies will know more about digital (facts, figures, growth, penetration, etc) than the majority of CEOs of creative agencies. Thats how frightened they are of digital. Thats how frightened you should be. Media agencies also get collaboration perhaps because of the inherent collaborative role that they have played from the time the media
60
independent agencies were born. Media agencies were used to fighting deadlines from media houses, even as they chased the creative agencies for betas and artworks. And because the creative agencies had no role in media buying, the relationship and the attendant clout with the media houses passed to the media agencies. Media agencies had an additional edge over creative agencies a day to day interaction with media and a non-stop opportunity to discuss possible clutter-breaking (and I hate the word, but Ill say it) innovations. In many cases, as a result, the originator of an innovation that consumers see is the media agency and not the creative agency. So we have both digital and media agencies muscling their way into the traditional agencies domain creative and ideation. The danger is obvious: as ad dollars move, as they are, increasingly towards digital, digital will be at the heart of marketers expertise as well. What is disturbing, tellingly, is the lack of interest in knowledge gathering. Attend any digital workshop or seminar (any IAMAI event, to name one), and theres a noticeable absence of ad agency professionals, while digital (obviously) and media agency professionals take the trouble and the time out (and, in some cases, their wallets as well) to attend. Take a look at afaqs publication, The Curious Digital Marketer. The book is a compilation of thoughts of 20 professionals. Many are from digital creative agencies, some from digital media planning and buying agencies, many from traditional media agencies and one, just one, from a traditional creative agency the digital division of Ogilvy, Neo@Ogilvy. What happens, then, to the curious digital marketers who buy this book? They are exposed to, and subsequently recall, the names of the writers and the companies they work for. No traditional ad agency, save for Neo@Ogilvy, is remembered. Who does the marketer call when he has a digital problem? Digital agencies perhaps even the media agencies but not you.
61
The same recall issue comes up when the marketer attends a seminar or workshop on digital. He or she walks around meeting attendees, exchanging business cards. When he returns to his office, where are the business cards from creatives from the traditional agencies? A look at the winners list of the Campaign India Digital Media Awards is the last straw on this camels back. The majority of award winners, predictably, are from digital agencies. The next group is the traditional media agencies. Creative agencies walk away with consolation prizes, except, for, unsurprisingly, Creativeland Asia. Learn from three agencies which get digital. Theyre Creativeland Asia, Law & Kenneth Digital and Beehive Communications. Be curious, be very curious and look at the rosters of clients they have. Youve heard the story of the Arab and the camel. No? Here it is. On a cold night, an Arab is sleeping in a tent, with his camel standing outside. The camel asks his master, Master, can I just poke my nose into the tent to keep warm? The Arab agrees. After a while, tuhe camel says, Master, can I just keep my head in the tent and keep warm? In a while, the entire camel is in the tent, and the Arab is outside. Digital is the camel. The creative agency is the Arab. The tent is the client. By now, digital has learnt to get the nose in, get the head in. In some time, the camel will be in the tent. And you, the Arab will be freezing outside.
62
The client, the flirt. Thats adding to your woes of digital and media entering your tent. A decade ago, I had a discussion with my colleagues at TBWA\Anthem, as it was then called, about the Brand Equity Agency Reckoner, wondering a) why we did so poorly in the reckoner and, b) how the perception study was conducted. We discovered that every respondent was administered the entire questionnaire. For example, he or she was asked to rank a list of his or her perception of creative reputation. My immediate thought was, how could Finolex (who had been TBWA\Anthems client for more than six years then), have a clue as to how Ulka stacked up, or how Lowe stacked up? They would have no clue yet they had to rank them. Those were the days, the simple days, when clients appointed an agency and the relationship was like a traditional marriage till death did the relationship part. Most clients thought, then, that meeting a new agency was a waste of time when you already had a contract with an existing agency so most clients refused meetings with non-contracted agencies. Those days are gone. Dead. Today, clients are willing (happy and willing) to meet anyone they bump into at a party or comes with an introduction from someone else who separates them by a degree or two. Take the case of Hero MotoCorp. They already had two agencies who were contracted to work with them, JWT and draftFCB, yet, the most significant communication exercise of the year was entrusted to Law & Kenneth. Or take Adidas, who, a few years ago, virtually broke their contract with TBWA\India (which it had become by then) to get Ogilvy to do a film? Or the new Visa debit card film, which was done by Proximity even as (again) TBWA\India was their rostered agency?
63
One of the big reasons clients have begun to flirt it that there is now a culture of working with a number of partners for communication, unlike the case even a decade ago. The client works with a creative agency, a media agency, a PR agency, a digital agency, an event agency, a celebrity management company, a sports marketing company, events rights holders, and so on. The old sanctity of one partner (or a panel of contracted partners) being the only one a client dealt with has been violated and raped. In this construct, you are no longer his sole communications expert, you are one of many and the client sees no harm in adding another one or two. This new paradigm has a direct negative impact on a critical aspect in your business: the remuneration. Even as recently as a decade ago, the client set aside a certain budget for advertising (which, then, included media costs and the 15 percent agency commission that agencies got, a sum for the anticipated creative charges) and, in some cases, for PR. About 5-6 years ago, when media got delinked from the creative agency, the client set aside a media budget, a budget for the creative agency retainer, a budget for production, and, perhaps, a budget for the PR agency retainer. Then along came digital. Most clients worked this out simply. 1. In the case of media, there was no new allocation to be made; digital media budgets were but a subset of the entire media budget 2. Creative agency fees remained the same 3. The creative fees for the digital agency came from ad hoc allocations, as spends on digital were too small to count But things change when the demands on digital grew, as they have done in the past three years. Clients began interacting as much with digital
64
agencies as with traditional creative agencies perhaps more, if measured by time spent. As a result, retainers for digital agencies needed to increase. They have, and part of that increase comes from an increased overall retainer budget but part of it comes from the traditional agencys retainer, which has been cut. While traditional agencies see digital as a foreign object, clients are seeing it, as should be, as another medium through which to communicate to consumers and clients see digital agencies as one of their creative solution providers. Because thats what they are. Theyre going to the client, receiving a brief, coming back with options based on the brief and thats no different from what you do. Event management companies are doing the same. Sports marketing companies, in some cases, are doing the same. There are just too many entities who are seen by clients as creative solution providers. The more there are, the less the dependence on you, the creative agency. There are another couple of factors that go against you in the clientagency relationship. The first is that, increasingly, the client has crossed over to the marketing business from the agency business, and, as a consequence, knows exactly how agencies function warts and all. He knows how much time and effort actually go into creating ads. He knows how you over bill. He knows your high margins, especially in the area of production of television commercials. And the way remunerations are going in the agency business, more and more agency professionals will jump over to the client side, making things worse.
65
But the bigger worry is not what the client knows of the agency business, but what the client knows, period. The client, because he is responsible for all aspects of communication for his company and not just the traditional agencys product, is spending time and effort keeping himself abreast of the latest developments in digital, in social media, in open source creativity, in experiential marketing, and so on. For reasons I cannot understand, most agency professionals seem to think that there is no need for them to gain knowledge in the areas that threaten their existence, threaten their revenues.To be able to gain more respect from clients and to have a greater influence on the client, agencies need to redefine what their business is and reorient their talent to this redefinition. Its not something you can do some day in the future thats too late. You need to do it now. Where is this headed?
66
Since someone has done the hard work and put it beautifully, I wont reinvent the wheel. Bryan Thomas, President, gyro said this at a discussion, published in Advertising and Marketing review (fascinating details of what Gyro does can be found at www.gyro.com. Do read the blog; its time well spent). We talked about this fragmentation that exists out there. Clients look for expertise in certain areas depending on the context of the client. If they are a national, global type of client they want the best-in-class -- in this expertise with digital or search, or whatever. The pendulum is starting to move now and they are looking for those that can put it all together and be accountable from a brand standpoint, as well as from a messaging standpoint, ultimately moving the consumer to wherever they want them to go. You have to be very knowledgeable on a lot of different fronts and bring ideas that are not only accountable from a matrix standpoint, but ideas that are inspiring and different. You have to be very knowledgeable on a lot of different fronts, says Thomas. That statement used to hold true in the advertising agency business in the last century, even in India, but, as media got delinked, so did the knowledge of media. As digital was out of the ambit of most agencies, so was knowledge of digital out of the ambit of the agencies. In this new age of fragmentation and true multimedia and 360 degree campaigns, you have to take a fresh look at the knowledge a company needs to be DNA-encoded in it. The knowledge cannot be confined and restricted to a chosen few; the entire agency needs to imbibe the knowledge. Agency executives need to be able to effortlessly relate to the various components of a multimedia
67
campaign, they need to understand the limitations and advantages of various media as easily as they understand TV, print, radio and outdoor today. Looking at the average profile of the average executive in the average agency, thats a tough ask. If its a tough ask, what can be done? Its a killer but the only thing to do (and it is truly the only thing to do) is to begin a ruthless purge of those who cannot fit into the new scheme of things and hire those who can. There will be many who will not fit into the new scheme, for reasons that I highlighted in the chapter on talent and agencies lackadaisical attitude to talent. You hired cheap and hired poorly. You hired people with skillsets and knowledge and education that helped you keep the costs low and served a minimal purpose. You just cannot carry on in the same vein. As Gyros Thomas says, clients look for expertise, they want best-in-class, you have to be knowledgeable. Hold a mirror to your own agency and look at the reflection. Evaluate every employee and check whether he or she fits the bill. If you dont sort this aspect out, the client will go to where he can find expertise, where he sees best-in-class and who he finds to be knowledgeable. And hell find them, because, as I said, hes already a flirt, looking around for anyone who can make him happy.
68
Theres an unusual and rather large threat looming large on the horizon. Languages and cultural differences. India is merely a geographical expression. It is no more a single country than the equator - Winston Churchill Had I read this quote five months ago, I would have not understood what it meant. But after living, traveling and working in India for exactly that long, I can say that Winston Churchill was exactly right. In India, like in any other large country as the US or Mexico, I expected to find some regional differences in peoples tastes for food or music, their accent, dress code, etc. In my mind, these differences give countries their character and do not have major consequences for business other than the opportunity to bring in some variety to the portfolio of products or services. In India, however, regional differences go FAR beyond the ones I just described. For this reason many authors to talk not about one country but the many Indias, Nicole Orillac, Acumen Fund Fellow in India, wrote. Before I get to the issue, a short lesson in media is in order. In many ways, the advent of satellite television killed good advertising in Indian languages. In the early days, you had only Hindi (in the form of Zee TV) and English (STAR Plus, MTV, BBC World and Prime Sports) channels. So brands, aided by the advertising agencies, focused on these two languages. The upper strata of society, whether in Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Trichy or Dibrugarh, rejected the terrestrial fare in their local languages for satellite television. So it was natural that brands that needed upmarket consumers used the satellite TV route to talk to them. It was impossible for upmarket, local brands, to talk to their upmarket audiences, unless the commercials were made in English or Hindi. So a
69
Lalitha Jewellery in Chennai, with no branches outside Chennai, made TVCs that ran on Hindi and in English because there was no channel, then, in Tamil in the Cable and Satellite households. When the regional satellite channels began mushrooming, marketers took the easy way out translations and dubbing, a result of the need to save on cost. This addressed the issue, to a large extent, of handling the diversity of India as far as languages are concerned. (Even if many of the translations are appalling, many are shameful and some downright stupid). What traditional, large, Indian agencies have failed to address is the issue of cultural diversity. So when you translate an ad made in Mumbai or Delhi, targeting the Indian and translate that ad into Malayalam and Tamil and Oriya, the consumers reaction, often, is what?! Media has changed dramatically over the past two decades, and one can micro-target efficiently. You can target a demographic based on language, by affluence and by geography. Regional channels have mushroomed as have regional print publications and more importantly, local language websites. Yet the capability to create ads born out of local insights has disappeared in the large agencies, save for some who have good offices in Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. Bates and JWT offices in Kolkata produce outstanding communication in Bengali. The ads are insight-based, the models, locations, music, fonts, language, art are all elements consumers in Kolkata immediately relate to. Its no surprise, then, that Bates and JWT get a lot of business out of Kolkata based brands needing to communicate only to Kolkata based audiences. What about the rest of the languages? What about Malayalam, Punjabi, Telugu? What about insights about the consumers in Kashmir or Indore or Silchar?
70
Large agencies have little or no capability here and perhaps they didnt need them, because large brands didnt seem to need them. Perhaps one would have to wind the clock back to the 1970s, when there was no such things as national media, save for All India Radio. How did national brands manage, then? By using local agencies who understood the local consumer and the dynamics of the local market. The imminent explosion in mobile-digital should make you pause and worry. Before I go further, another small lesson in media is in order. The Hindi general entertainment channels, in the late 1990s, commanded almost 80 percent share of the viewership. By 2010, the share of the Hindi GECs had shrunk to less than 38 percent even as there were more and more of them. Where did these viewers go? They went to their mother tongues. To the GECs in their mother tongues, to the news channels in their mother tongues, to the movie channels in their mother tongues, and so on. With this extreme and fast paced fragmentation comes the need to create communication that targets the viewers. And the readers. As newspapers in English stay flat or shrink (check the last two rounds of IRS to get an idea) there is still growth in newspapers and magazines in Indian languages. Traditional agencies, therefore, have the capability to create communication in the very sections of media which are shrinking, with little capability in the sections that are growing except through translations. Itll get worse with the expected growth in digital mobile.
71
Content (news, entertainment, features, music, movies) is already being created in all these languages. Advertising will have an opportunity and that opportunity will be milked by those who understand the consumers who speak these languages and live in these states. The point Im attempting to make here is this. The greater the fragmentation of media (and mobile-digital will hasten the process), the longer the long tail becomes. The combination of Indian languages and the long tail is lethal every day makes communication in the few languages that traditional agencies are competent in less and less relevant. There are solutions and they lie in the pockets of those who run the large agencies. Today, theres a frenzy to buy digital and activation agencies. Some of the network agencies who woke up late are even buying mainline agencies, as Dentsu did with Taproot. Now is the time to buy agencies with competence in Indian languages. Buy agencies in Kolkata, in Kochi, in Kanpur. When you buy them, you will buy a precious treasure you have no way of building yourself you buy insights into the consumers who speak in languages you do not understand, who live in places you have never visited and who have wants and aspirations you couldnt dream of. And they will buy goods and services offered by your client. Embrace the many Indias; thats a great reason for your clients to embrace you. Before you howl in protest saying that its been tried before and its not viable, Ill tell you why. YOU made it unviable, by creating a coststructure and a way of working that was steeped in waste and inefficiency. You loaded a small city branch with corporate overhead; you insisted that a senior resource from the head office visited the small town branch every quarter, you insisted that the branch head visited you each month.
72
Buy the agency in the small town and let it be as it is. There is no need for a move to a better address; there is no need for them to waste their time on useless and time-consuming paper-work and reports. Share with them best practices that you have access to; help them in growing the business locally by sharing experience in categories that you have worked on. Or do as large PR agencies do. Or even as newspapers and news television channels do. Or even as traditional agencies do from time to time. Or adapt from Julian Bouldings The Network One. PR agencies cannot afford to have offices across the country, but, from time to time, find that their client needs services in geographies that they are not present in. Thats when they call in their affiliates, agencies or individuals that they have a non-permanent, need-based, relationship with. Newspapers and news TV have the stringers model. Urgent breaking news in Digha? No problem, bring out the rolodex and call the stringer. When I was at TBWA\Anthem handling the IndianOil Servo account, the Bangladesh launch was handled by Bitopi advertising, an agency that was contracted to handle just that task. Julian Bouldings model, too, deserves to be explored, especially by the smaller agency. What he has done is to create a network of independent agencies across the world with each retaining the original ownership. Agencies pay Boulding a fee, and theyre part of the network. Overnight, you can handle your clients requirements anywhere in the world, just by virtue of the fact that youre a part of this network. Create your own network, along the same lines as Bouldings, within India. In theory, its not tough to do and will be worth the trouble. Hey, you might even make a business of it. But ignore the opportunity that the languages will offer? Thats a mistake. A big, big, one.
73
When I launched Campaign India magazine in September 2007, I had requested Ogilvys Miles Young to write a guest editorial. In a nutshell, he wrote that he believed the big opportunity in India existed because India was under-measured and that India did not have the retail infrastructure required. With digital, India gets measured. With the internet and with e-commerce, marketers now do not need the physical retail infrastructure Young spoke of. You could be anywhere in India, in any corner, and order goods and services on the mobile internet. Provided, of course, that the consumer is informed that the product or service exists and is attracted to buy it. It will obviously be of huge help if the message is in a language that the consumer can understand. Theres a corollary to the language elephant. What would you rather be? The #7 soap brand in India or the #1 soap brand in Tamil Nadu? What media fragmentation has done is to allow manufacturers and other entrepreneurs to target a local market efficiently, which was, even 15 years ago, impossible. Unless you had national ambitions and national distribution and sales infrastructure, your media spends always had a large element of wastage. So an ambitious brand, as it moved from a regional brand to a national brand, had to up their media spends considerably, even as the communication reached areas that the product wasnt available in. So if a Chik or Velvette shampoo or a Ghadi washing powder wanted to grow, they had to ramp up from a one-city operation to a national one and that wasnt an easy task. Yet, there didnt exist media that allowed you to exploit places close to an existing large market, because the media didnt exist there. You could get the product there but not the message. The growth of C&S has changed that completely.
74
The entry barrier (from an advertising and media point of view) has reduced dramatically and the scenario will allow more brands to be born, in category after category, especially in areas where there is no great barrier in capex. As examples, it has become easy to introduce a radio taxi company which caters to the area immediately in and around Trichy or Durgapur because the media wastage has come down dramatically. It is easier to launch a packaged snack food brand or a biscuit brand, for example. Listen to the FM radio stations and you get an idea. FM is the ultimate local medium for those with the need for the tightest targeting. Satellite television in the regional languages allows the advertiser much greater, but still largely localised, reach. If you combine this ability to advertising agencies ability to create insight-led communication, there is an explosion thats imminent of brands with no national ambitions, but with the ambition to dominate a small geography. Why would a builder with projects only in Pune want to dominate any area outside of where he owns land? Theres a region why I mention Pune. Drive into Pune, and youre besieged by real estate advertising on outdoor. Turn on your FM radio, and real estate dominates. Open the newspaper, and real estate dominates this, too. How much of Pune real estate advertising money is going to the large agencies, the agencies who even know that this book exists. Close to zero. And you could switch Pune with Asansol and Ernakulam and Jalandhar Parle, which is Indias largest biscuit maker with a 45 percent market share, said biscuit companies in the country are coming up with more products in the rapidly growing premium segments to tap the market. Competition in the economy segment is extremely difficult as it would put pressure on the bottom line (profit), Rao said. Explaining the reasons
75
for the consumers growing preferences towards the premium biscuits than the mass products, he said smaller towns were now having modern trade centres with consumers possessing more disposable incomes, which resulted in spreading of mall culture. Currently, there are about 40 mini metros across the country. The scenario was different a few years ago. Smaller towns like Durgapur, Asansol, Surat and Rajkot now have modern trade centres like malls. Retail chains like Big Bazaar are coming up also in tier II and tier III cities, he observed said a report in Firstpost.com. Forty mini-metros. Theres a lot of revenue in these small towns. Only, you have to find a cost structure that allows you to run a profitable business. Because otherwise, what we will see is the creation of local experts. Make no mistake about it. Take real estate as an example in the top ten cities in India (and most of the ads are created by agencies you havent heard of) and you will find that the local agencies have moved up considerably in their understanding of creatives as have their clients. You can see the same with jewellery ads in Chennai, Bangalore and Trivandrum, as an additional example. You dont even have to travel that far. Look at the real estate business in and around Mumbai that youve missed out on. Have you heard of an agency called Origin-Beanstalk? No? Have you seen the Disney Sunteck ads? Yes? The Disney-Sunteck campaign was created by Origin Beanstalk. There are many more Disney-Suntecks around and more Origin Beanstalks than you can imagine.
76
Over the past few weeks, Ive been having discussions with two friends, both of whom, coincidentally, are launching e-commerce businesses. By the time this book is written, one or both of them should have launched. One is called thehomelabel.com, which will be a marketplace for home dcor items curated by Sussanne Roshan. The other, called crudearea. com, is a destination for consumers who want affordable art. Have a look at both the sites (you will have to register on thehomelabel. com). Theyre elegantly designed, tasteful, easy to navigate, easy to transact. One has no idea what the future holds for them. Theyre in the e-commerce world; they could go boom or they could go bust. The important thing is that all of you have had nothing to do with them. You havent designed their logos, their corporate identities, their PR strategies, their websites, their direct mail. The reason that they need mention is that e-commerce is a rapidly growing business and you need to get your act together if you want a piece of the pie. Why should you? Have you heard of Happy Communications? Have you heard of Flipkart.com and Myntra.com? Well, happy heard of both these businesses before you did, and they helped create the brands into the brands that they are today. And made some decent money in the process and built a reputation as an agency that gets e-commerce brands. Flipkart and Myntra were born in another era (as far as e-commerce goes) and had to build their own distribution infrastructure. There was the digital-meets-the-brick-and-mortar kind of journey they undertook to make their businesses work. Thehomelabel and crudearea have no such growing pains. Both the
77
businesses are based in Mumbai, but neither has felt the need to build a distribution infrastructure, except for a base warehouse. Their success or failure will rest on, primarily, their ability to build a brand and get the word out, with a presumption that there exists a need gap that they fulfil. Put differently, communication is at the core of their success and failure. Nothing else matters. Why arent you partnering them on their journey? Partnering them and the other hundreds who will make similar attempts. If theres anything that will frighten the daylights out of you and force you to think afresh of the imperative to build digital expertise, its what The Economist experience in India. The following is from an interview with Suprio Guha Thakurta, managing director, India, The Economist, published in campaignindia.in in August this year. How has the communication strategy of the brand evolved? What new can we expect on that front? Our marketing objectives have remained the same: increase awareness, and thus ever since we started marketing the brand in India, we have been consistently communicating on the platform of Interpret the world. And our creative partners, Ogilvy, have done a great job in creating engaging communication around it, which got us a Cannes metal in 2010. The same interview says in the introduction: As per the latest ABC report, the print circulation of The Economist in India has doubled to reach 35,024 average weekly copies in the period JanuaryJune 2012, from 17,194 in January-June 2007.
78
What the article does not say is that, after the communication which won The Economist communication a metal at Cannes in 2010, The Economist, in India, has used only digital to communicate to their targeted consumers, except for a brief re-run of the 2010 TVC in March 2012. Not a single TVC, no outdoor, no print (except for trade magazines). The circulation growth in the last year has come largely through their digital communication. This is a decision made by a client who is largely satisfied with his agency and their commitment and work on the brand. The problem is, digital is allowing The Economist to achieve their business objectives in India at a cost far lower than mass media would have. Why on earth would they use mass media? The Economist, in India, has tasted and seen the power and costefficiency of digital. The worry, for you, is simple. How many more clients are flirting with digital, and how many of them will fall in love with it?
79
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is making headlines over a controversial statement to The Wall Street Journal. He linked the states malnutrition to vegetarianism and figure-conscious girls. Gujarat is by and large a vegetarian state. And secondly, Gujarat is also a middle-class state. The middle-class is more beauty-conscious than health-conscious that is a challenge. If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, theyll have a fight. Shell tell her mother, I wont drink milk. Ill get fat, Modi said in an interview, as reported in ibnlive. Advertising, thanks to the awards, is becoming more award-conscious than effectiveness conscious. There is no end to the debate on awards, but there is need to mention it here. At Goafest this year, I walked into the Print ads showcase area the day before the fest opened, since I was already there and the organisers were kind enough to allow me entry. Print has fascinated me since I was a child. Today, I read 7 newspapers each morning, even if I warn, often, of the imminent death of print, even in India. I walk through the pavilion and struggle to recognise a single ad that I have seen despite the extensive reading I do and the time I spend on the medium. I look around once more, refusing to believe that all the work on display is scam. Thankfully, it isnt. I see two or three pieces of genuinely released work. But these two or three pieces are the exception that proves my belief that scam ads are absolutely a crime; a waste of time and a waste of money as well, considering the entry charges to awards. You win; and youve won on measures that have no meaning to your client. Your client wants a larger share of the market thanks to your
80
communication, not a smaller share and some metals at some awards shows. Keep winning metals and keep losing market-share and your client will get sacked as will you. Uh-oh. Just realised that I almost paraphrased something Sir John Hegarty had said a few years ago. John Davidson interviewed Sir John and I reproduce a part of Davidsons piece. On the eve of AdFest BBH co-founder John Hegarty has slammed the practice of scam advertising, and stated that effective creative work is important regardless of the recession. Industry legend Hegarty, who is a jury president and a speaker at this years festival, described scam as a waste of resource and energy. Scam advertising, or advertising specifically created to win advertising awards, became a central theme to last years AdFest when several agencies were found to have submitted so-called scam ads. Were not interested in it [scam], he said. Agencies should focus their creative department on turning out genuine ground breaking sales-related work. Not something that will be seen by a few awards juries and their friends. So forget what I believe. But how can you ignore what someone with the track record and stature of Sir John believes? Do you have a clue how much it costs to send an entry to Cannes? Take a look at last years prices. Film Lions Press Lions Direct Lions 640 375 399
81
Outdoor Lions 375
Media Lions Cyber Lions Radio Lions
399 399 299 399
Design Lions 399
Promo & Activation Lions PR Lions 399
Titanium and Integrated Lions 1,195 Creative Effectiveness Lions (By invitation only) Film Craft Lions Mobile Lions 375 Branded Content & Entertainment Lions 725 If you take the average cost per entry as 400 Euros (Rs. 28,000) and your agency sends 25 entries, thats set the agency back by about Rs. 7,00,000. And we havent even gone into the cost of the talent thats created these scam ads, the cost of the production and so on. And this is just one example: Cannes. Then we have the D&AD, Clios, Spikes, the One Show, the Abbys. Thats a lot of money, a lot of resources, going down the drain. Not for a moment am I suggesting that you stop sending entries to Awards shows and that you stop celebrating metals. Stop the scam; save yourself a lot of money and release the time lost on creating work that helps your clients brands to better in the marketplace.
82
1,225
375
Scam ads are, to me, like cheating to win a beauty contest you go to a plastic surgeon, you get yourself some implants You get the drift. Why is this so important now? Because youre already short of resources and scam ads will eat into the precious resources in short supply. The other aspect is that there is many pointers that tell you that, let alone scam, awards dont matter too much. Its been years since the Balki-headed Lowe India took part in the Abbys. How has that affected the agency? Have they lost a single account because of not having won awards? Lowes biggest clients are delighted that Lowe is helping them gain a bigger piece of the pie, more top-of-mind recall and a greater brand equity. Ask your client which he or she would prefer. A Gold at Cannes? Or a healthier, more profitable brand?
83
Why am I writing this book? Its because of the spectacular failure of the Advertising Agencies Association of India to do their job. Heres how they describe (some of) their objectives. For the entire statement of objectives, visit their website, www.aaaiindia.org. To question advertising that is wasteful and extravagant to make it possible for the small entrepreneur to grow through advertising and to compete with the biggest to encourage market and media research to serve society by meeting its social responsibilities. To encourage the interest of young individuals in the business of communication, to assist in education and training programmes and to provide information of benefit to members. Non-members are also provided this service for a fee. To establish a common platform in building and sustaining the prestige of the advertising profession and to serve as a spokesman against unwarranted attacks or restrictions on advertising. To co-operate with Government bodies in discussion of matters such as taxes, radio and TV advertising, legislation, political campaign advertising, controls on pharmaceuticals, tobacco or liquor advertising and other subjects of similar complexity and sensitivity. The AAAI today is truly representative, with a very large number of small, medium and large-sized agencies as its members, who together account for almost 80% of the advertising business placed in the country. It is thus recognised at all forums - advertisers, media owners and associations, and even Government - as the spokesperson for the advertising industry. To me, this looks like copy written for a scam ad. The first objection is when I hear them say that they say, The AAAI today is truly representative,
84
with a very large number of small, medium and large-sized agencies as its members. No, thats not a fact. I can rattle off the names of agency after agency who is not a member of the AAAI. Their eligibility rules are caught in a time warp. Consider: In the event that the agency is responsible for acting as full service agency, including media buying and releases, such fees should not amount to less than 15%. In the event that media releases are undertaken by another agency acting as an AOR, such fees shall not be less than 15%, including that paid to AOR. Agencies operating on a fee basis will raise supplementary debit/credit notes at the end of each financial year to ensure that their earning from media equals 15%. Agencies operating on a fee basis with any of their clients, will inform the AAAI of the same along with a declaration that they adhere to the principle of 15% The Executive Committee of the AAAI is authorized to take disciplinary action against any member for violation of these rules, including recommending expulsion to the General Body, if it deems fit. The AAAI is non-inclusive. The AAAI doesnt even make it easy for new members to join the association. The AAAI does nothing whatsoever in the area of education and training. The AAAI has done nothing but grandstanding in the areas of pitch fees. The AAAI has done nothing in the area of solving the remuneration issue. The AAAI has done nothing to discourage agencies from creating surrogate advertising for alcohol and tobacco products. The AAAI has turned a blind eye towards wasteful expenditure encouraged by the agency members. There has never been a greater reason for existence for an association like the AAAI. There are no standards rules or practices on the remuneration
85
model the AAAI has not even initiated an open discussion on the subject. There is still confusion on the eligibility of digital agencies and digital shops into the AAAI. There are instances when as many as 30 agencies participate in a pitch, and the AAAI has not been able to find a solution to this appalling manipulation by advertisers. Fundamentally, the AAAI is stuck in the past, when they should be staring at the future. If you think that this indictment is too harsh, let me ask you a few questions: Is your agency a member of the AAAI? Have you ever thought of becoming a member? When was the last time you received any benefit from being a member of the AAAI? When was the last time that you received any communication from the AAAI? Have you ever approached the AAAI with a payment related issue and found a solution? Have you ever heard of a training programme conducted by the AAAI in any city in India? Can you remember a time when the AAAI was in the news (even the trade magazines) except during the elections or during Goafest? The AAAI needs to redefine the role that it needs to play. It needs to live up to the stated objectives and truly represent the industry. Not the industry as defined by the AAAI, but an industry that comprises hundreds of advertising agencies no member of the AAAI committee has ever heard of. Without major changes, the AAAI has no role to play, now that creative agencies have no direct role with media. The AAAI should be the mentor in helping agencies navigate the complexities of the future. They should collaborate with bodies such as the advertising clubs across the country and conduct education and training programs that they speak of. They need to look at the way various industries brand themselves and brand advertising. They need to work with educational institutes and create curricula that are relevant and current. They need to discuss and arrive at methods to make advertising a preferred career choice for fresh graduates and post-graduates at least
86
from schools like MICA and Symbiosis to begin with. The problem with the AAAI is that it has no permanent office. It needs to appoint a professional CEO, a management team and a supporting infrastructure along the lines of NASSCOM or COAI. In the current structure, the job of the president is held by an elected appointee from one of the member agencies. Today, it is Arvind Sharma, Chairman & CEO of India Subcontinent, Leo Burnett India Pvt Ltd. How much time can he, and members of the executive committee, have to get into operations if the scope of what the AAAI truly embraces what is described as AAAIs objectives on their website? Where is the time for the executive committee to redefine the role of the AAAI? It is time for the AAAI executive committee to play a visionary and leadership role, and get a competent team in place to execute the vision.
87
The AAAI, in the current form, has become an elephant a white elephant. Unless they change, there is no reason for them to exist. Which brings me to another elephant. The AAAI has given birth to it and, by some accident and aided and abetted by some office bearers (almost all heads of large creative and media agencies who convince their friends in media houses to sponsor it) it is still alive. The elephant is called Goafest. Speak to any event manager and tell him you want to do a major event in Goa in April and hell tell you that youre nuts. It is, verifiably, the hottest month of the year in Goa, with the average temperature being around 33 degrees C (high) and 27 degrees C (low). Ive checked historic data to save you the time. Yet, from the time that Goafest was created, its been held in the first fortnight of April. Never earlier, never later. If you live in Mumbai, youre tempted, every month, to run away to Goa and get away from the pressures of living in the megapolis. Every month except April because not only is it hot, it doesnt rain. March is alright, because it is cooler. May is alright, because it begins raining. April is a bummer, because its hot and humid. Yet Goafest is held every goddamned year in April. Why? Why? Why? When I first thought of the question, I was reminded of a lecture I attended when The Times of India, my then employer, sent me to a course at IIM Ahmedabad. The lecture was on the Toyota system, where Seven whys would help Toyota employees on the assembly line arrive at the root cause of problems.
88
Hazel Rogers from Australia makes the 7 Whys easy to understand. The 7 whys is a technique that I believe was developed as part of the Toyota factory quality push, back in the mists of time. Its since been taken from the manufacturing paradigm and used in IT quality theories. Its a great method for getting to the root cause or at least one of the root causes of any problem. So its a great tool to use with EFT! What is it? Start with a problem. Keep asking why?, until youve gotten to where you cant go any further, or youve found some interesting hidden thinking! You dont HAVE to ask why 7 times precisely. For example: Im procrastinating Q Why do I procrastinate? Because Im stuck on using the tools I have here (on the computer) Q Why am I stuck, when there people available to help me? Because I havent asked for help Q Why havent I asked for help? Because they will think Im stupid, I should be able to figure it out. Im not going to the 7th question, as much as I didnt need to when trying to figure out the answer to why Goafest is held in April. Its held in April because the planning is appalling, so theres little time to raise the money to afford Goa hotels in months with better weather. To give you an idea of what can be done with better planning, you need to look no further than another event held annually in Goa, Kyoorius Designyatra. Their 2012 edition was held in September; theyve already announced that their 2013 edition will be held in August.
89
As I write this, Im certain that speakers are being spoken to, that hotel room prices are being negotiated and sponsors being contacted. Compare this with Goafest. Going by the history of Goafest that I can claim to be associated with (which is from the 2008 edition), itll be sometime in January 2013 before the AAAI management committee discusses the April 2013 event. Once they meet, and they decide on possible dates, they need to talk to The Advertising Club, the owners of the Abbys, the awards which are held at Goafest. Once The Advertising Club agrees, they will begin the process of contacting possible speakers for whom, unlike Designyatra, they have no budget for. (They do pay for airfares when requested and for the accommodation within India). Ideally, they look for speakers who are happy to come to India at their cost and that shrinks the pool of prospective speakers dramatically. It doesnt help that speakers get notice of less than two months from the day the request is made. So this, then, is the product that is Goafest: 1. On the Thursday, a meaningless Conclave ( I use the capital C to emphasise how AAAI views it), where the entry is by invitation only to CXOs and to the handful of marketers who are bullied into attending by their agency partners 2. On Friday, the event is open to the public, and the bar is open as well. Kids loll around drinking and flirting (as I would if I was their age), while speakers like Dan Wieden, Sir Martin Sorrell, Sir John Hegarty, to name a few, are besieged by trade media for interviews in the burning April Goa sun. 3. Speaker sessions start by around 4. Most of the kids are too drunk to attend; some have success with their flirting. Its difficult to fill the seminar hall. All kinds of devices have been attempted, including a chance to win an iPod if you attend. So Scott Goodson of StrawberryFrog has an audience of less than 300, of the 3000 who are attending the fest.
90
4. Friday evening sees the Media Abbys. Those from the creative agencies dont care and theyre off to Martins for a piss up. The youngsters from the creative agencies continue to flirt. The media agencies win and lose, and theres a piss up as soon as the bars open (inexplicably, they close during the awards presentation ceremony). 5. Saturday morning sees most of the media agency executives leave. The bar is open, those who remain do the same as described in points 2 and 3 above. 6. Saturday evening sees the Creative Abbys (during the presentation of which the bar is still closed). 7. Losers bitch about the judging (admittedly, it was the least in 2012) but head for the bars once theyre opened. 8. Some of the lucky delegates have sex with partners theyve met for the first time in Goa. 9. International visitors tell Indian trade media that theyre very happy with how their Indian offices are doing, even if their Indian offices are doing terribly. 10. Sunday morning, all fall down. This is absolute rubbish. What the AAAI demonstrates, first by scheduling the event in April, and then by the content they create, is an absolute contempt for the intelligence of the average advertising professional in India. They have the temerity and the arrogance to call it the Cannes of India, much in the same spirit that Maharashtras chief ministers compare Mumbai to Shanghai. Unless the AAAI reinvents Goafest, its a downhill ride from here. The AAAI needs to re-focus on the premise of Goafest. To begin with, theyre trapped, by the very name of the festival, to hold the event in Goa. Goa has become, over the years, a very expensive destination except if you live in Mumbai or Pune. To someone from Kolkata , Singapore
91
and Bangkok are cheaper. At short notice, even in April, it could cost you a small fortune to fly to or from Goa at short notice. Ask Lodestars Shashi Sinha, who had to make a last minute change a few years ago and ended up spending Rs.18000 on a one-way ticket from Goa to Delhi on the Sunday after Goafest. Forcing the event to stay at Goa makes the festival exclusive and not inclusive. It is slowly becoming an annual ritual for the industry from Mumbai to take a few days off. We see a few hundred each from Delhi and Bangalore; from the rest of India, the number will be in the low double digits. Perhaps 10-15 from Kolkata, and another 10-15 from Chennai. Its time to become truly inclusive, and start moving the festival around the country. Thats why Goafest traps you. For Gods sake, if the entire advertising industry cannot come up with a new name for an advertising festival, its a little sad. (In the short term, you can be sure that next years attendance will take a beating, thanks to the sluggish market and the pressure on margins). Learn from Designyatra that content is King, not the entertainment. Ive attended two editions of Designyatra in Goa and one in Mumbai and all three have had superlative content. Content that keeps you riveted to your seats and taking notes. Speakers you want to walk up to and hug once theyve finished. Conference halls that are packed to the rafters. And theres no free alcohol, no parasailing, no tattoos. Designyatra is serious business and the delegates seem to profit from it there are more attending every year. There are no major costs in event management, as all the sessions are held in hotel banquet halls. Sponsors are happy to support the event, because theyve seen, over the years, the quality of the delegates and the level of involvement. The old adage goes, if it aint broke, dont fix it. On the other hand, if it is broke, fix it. Goafest is broke. Fix it.
92
The Advertising Club (the erstwhile Advertising Club, Bombay) is a slightly different story. It started off as a city club, much as you have advertising clubs in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi, to name a few. Over the years, The Advertising Club became less of a club and more of an industry forum, especially with the institution of various awards, notably the Abbys, the awards for creative excellence. The Abbys were (and are) not the only advertising awards in India but they certainly are the most prestigious. As entries to the Abbys started pouring in from agencies across the country, the Advertising Club, Bombay, became increasingly, the Advertising Club, India (which is what prompted it to change the name, officially to The Advertising Club earlier this year). With this change in influence come the growing pains. What does the Club need to do to become truly national? As importantly, what is the difference in the role that the Club plays and what the AAAI is supposed to do? Not very much. That should frighten the AAAI if the Club gets its act together. The Club starts off with a distinct advantage it runs three of the most credible, prestigious and profitable advertising/marketing awards shows in India the Abbys, the Emvies and the Effies. Thats a great base to build on. As suggested in the case of the AAAI, the Club needs to get a permanent managing team, not a team made up of honorary members with long, highresponsibility day jobs. Again, the role of the management committee needs to become visionary, not executional and operational. The
93
direction that the Club takes should be inclusive as opposed to exclusive. Geographically inclusive, gender inclusive and budget inclusive. The signs that the Club wants to be all these things are there [Disclaimer: I am an honorary member of the management committee of the Club]. The signs that the infrastructure does not match the ambitions and plans are also there. The Club needs to have, to begin with, office bearers across India. Later, when the need is felt, small offices could be opened. It is easy, with the technology available today, to discuss issues and plans via video conferences or even on Skype. The first manifestations of the transformation of the Club from a city club to a national club will be in ensuring national participation in decision making. To the Club, Ill say this make things easy for yourself and forget this ridiculous five-star hotel culture that has been embraced in the last decade. Go back to the simplicities of the late 1990s, when events were held in reasonably priced, yet prestigious locations such as Nehru Centre. Forget about the dependence on sponsors; let members pay for the content. Today, most events are inaccessible to the youth in the industry. Either the events are by invitation only, and, consequently exclusive, or they are priced prohibitively, which is an immediate deterrent for the young. This has to be corrected. Make the events low cost as opposed to cheap; try and assess what members want to see, hear, listen to or do. That is the key to whatever the Club does the content and activities need to be such that members profit from the time and money spent. Correct the Clubs membership profile to what it was during the first few decades and get the marketers back into the fold. Whether its the Abbys or Goafest or the Emvies, the absence of marketers is the rudest reminder of the failure to recognise and involve a critical element in the advertising ecosystem. Marketers see no gain by attending any of the events, bar a few exceptions, almost all of whom are formerly advertising
94
professionals. This needs to change. Today, when we face changes in advertising at a frenetic pace, the various arms of the ecosystem have different learning curves, different levels of exposure to changes, thanks to the lack of osmosis. Create opportunities for all to meet under a roof; enable conversations that heighten the understanding that one arm has of another; thats when the Club would have achieved something that an industry gains by.
95
If AAAI has let down agencies by underperforming, the Advertising Standards Council of Indian has let down consumers the very people they are supposed to look after. As a consequence, heres what happened. The government is setting up a National Consumer Protection Agency (NCPA) to monitor and penalise companies that make misleading claims in their advertisements. The NCPA, under the consumer affairs ministry, would be empowered to take severe action, including recall of the product and slapping cases against the firms. At present, the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory voluntary organisation of the advertising industry, deals with such complaints, Indian Express had reported. This is a decision that will surprise few in the advertising and marketing industries and a decision that advertisers and marketers have brought upon themselves. The ASCI, despite all good and honest intentions, is unable to effectively curb misleading advertising. The process to complain is long and cumbersome, the lag between complaints and decisions are such that the offending ads have, in many cases, run the course and have done the damage before ASCI rules on them. As the country gets more consumerist, the greater the need for protecting the consumer, I had written in Firstpost in March 2012. What is the ASCI supposed to do? Heres a look at the ASCI fundamental principles (all details available on www.ascionline.org): This Code for Self-Regulation has been drawn up by people in professions and industries in or connected with advertising, in consultation with representatives of people affected by advertising and has been accepted by individuals, corporate bodies and associations engaged in or otherwise concerned with the practice of advertising with the following as basic guidelines with a view to achieve the acceptance of fair advertising
96
practices in the best interests of the ultimate consumer: To ensure the truthfulness and honesty of representations and claims made by advertisements and to safeguard against misleading advertisements. To ensure that advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted standards of public decency. Advertisements should contain nothing indecent, vulgar or repulsive which is likely, in the light of generally prevailing standards of decency and propriety, to cause grave or widespread offence To safeguard against the indiscriminate use of Advertising in situations or of the promotion of products which are regarded as hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals, particularly minors, to a degree or of a type which is unacceptable to society at large. To ensure that advertisements observe fairness in competition so that the consumers need to be informed on choices in the market-place and the canons of generally accepted competitive behaviour in business are both served. Both the general public and an advertisers competitors have an equal right to expect the content of advertisements to be presented fairly, intelligibly and responsibly. The Code applies to advertisers, advertising agencies and media. Huh? Theyre supposed to do all these things? So why do we, every single day, see misleading advertising in category after category in newspapers, on TV channels, in magazines, in outdoor, on the radio, on digital? Why? Lets take stock on the state of affairs at ASCI. Consumers are not aware that such a body exists. Hardly any effort has been made by the ASCI and their stakeholders to address the issue If a complaint is made, the time taken to decide on the complaint is far too much
97
There is no proactive, suo moto complaint made by the ASCI itself There is not enough use of technology to hasten the process (though, one must admit, efforts in this area are being made Complaints are studied on a case-to-case basis, nothing is done to address failings in entire categories. To my mind, there hasnt been a single public forum inviting members of the public to share their thoughts and concerns on irresponsible advertising They are, like the AAAI, full of hot air, making pronouncements that they do not follow up on To illustrate the extent to which the ASCI is fangless and toothless, lets take the case of ASCI and education ads. ASCI, under pressure from many complainants, introduced an advertising code for the educational sector. When they announced the code, the ASCI said: Under the proposed guidelines, educational institutions will not be able to promise jobs, admissions, job promotions, salary increase, etc. without substantiating such claims and also assuming full responsibility in the same advertisement. The proposed guidelines discourage institutions from claiming success in placements, student compensations, admission to renowned institutes, marks and rankings, and topper student testimonials unless every such claim is substantiated with evidence. Recently, ASCI has been receiving several intra-industry complaints against claims being made in ads of various educational institutions. Many students and parents too have complained to ASCI against claims made in advertisements by educational institutions, said Dhananjay Keskar, ASCIs chairman. Yet, every single day, we see ads that do all the things that ASCI says they should not be doing. Open any newspaper (and education as a category was the largest category by spend in 2011) and its flooded with ads that promise jobs (which they arent supposed to do), claim success
98
in placements ( which they arent supposed to do), make claims without substantiation (which they arent supposed to do. They get away with it because ASCI isnt doing what it is supposed to do. And education is just one category that is grossly guilty of offences that it gets away with. Real estate is another big culprit. They will continue to get away with it, because most consumers do not know that ASCI exists and, worse, that all that ASCI can do is to force the advertiser to withdraw the ad. There is no punishment. Maheshwar Peri, former president and publisher of Outlook Group and now promoter of Pathfinder Publishing Pvt. Ltd, which publishes Careers 360, has long been a vocal critic of the toothlessness of the ASCI especially in the context of education ads. Google Maheshwar Peri + IIPM and you will get a sense of his long and arduous battle. According to Peri, with whom I have had a number of conversations on the subject, misleading education ads, combined with the pressure on nationalised banks to approve of education loans, are creating a massive chunk of non-performing assets (NPAs) for banks. Lets see how this works: Students/parents see ad for college/institute The ad promises placement (and since its an ad, it must be true, thinks the gullible consumer) The educational institute concern has tied up with banks for loans Students apply for a loans Loans are approved and disbursed Students graduate Students do not get jobs as promised
99
Students fail to pay loans Loans become NPAs And remember, it all started with advertising. Sadly, in this case, misleading and irresponsible advertising. Ive used education as an illustration, but there are many categories where misleading ads do significant harm and ASCI does nothing about it. If ASCI continues to fail at their job, the government will step in, as threatened, and set up the NCPA. For the moment, ASC I has got a reprieve. Adi Godrej, in his capacity as CII president, released a whitepaper on the subject of self-regulation in advertising. Godrej said that the whitepaper reinforces that selfregulation in advertising works across the globe in controlling misleading advertising, as seen in over 70 countries. In India, too, we believe in the efficacy of ASCI to regulate misleading advertising and, more importantly, its ability for speedy redress. We urge the Department of Consumer Affairs to reconsider its recent proposal to set up a parallel Administrative Authority which we feel will delay the process of consumer redress and be counter-productive. Instead, we request them to consider partnering with, and strengthening, the current mechanism of self-regulation through ASCI, a win-win for consumers, industry and the government. Mr. Godrej runs a company that does responsible advertising and perhaps is unaware of the extent of lies, half lies and plain bullshit in many of the ads that target the most gullible sections of society. ASCI needs to take advantage of the breather that Godrej has got them. Use this time to find a way to inform the largest number of consumers that ASCI exists, of how they could benefit from ASCI. Make it simple for
100
consumers to be able to get in touch and complain. Create a mechanism so that complaints are heard and disposed of in under 48 hours. Create a large, inclusive committee of honorary members (including consumers) from across the country who look for ads that transgress and lodge suo moto complaints. For example, I could find at least 100 ads in the education category which fail by ASCI guidelines. It is in being proactive and quick that ASCI has some hope and some reason to exist. Mr. Godrejs submission that more than 70 countries selfregulate their advertising is not good enough reason for self-regulation in India. We have a body that is supposed to self-regulate, but does not. (An aside. A few days before this book is published, on November 13, I read this: Advertisers cant say they werent warned. Three years ago, right after joining the Federal Trade Commission as director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, David Vladeck stood before the ad industrys self-regulatory group at its annual conference to lay down an aggressive agenda. Bucking the bureaus traditional practice of focusing almost solely on fraudsters and hucksters intent on scamming consumers, Vladeck vowed to crack down on deceptive advertising by the nations largest brands. National advertising is, once again, a high priority for BCP, he told the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) Theres no reason that advertisers with trusted brands that consumers rely on should get a pass, Vladeck maintains, adding, We havent slackened in our antifraud efforts. But we figured whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The result has been impressive settlements with food and dietary supplement merchandisers creating stricter standards for all advertising. In the most recent cases, the FTC obtained full refunds for consumers, extracting historic settlements of $25 million from Reebok and $40 million from Skechers for ads for sneakers promising miraculous toning and weight-loss properties, AdWeek had reported).
101
It must start doing so. As with the AAAI or The Advertising Club, there is no professional team to handle ASCI, and this body, too, depends on honorary members with other full-time jobs to make it work. Unless this is corrected, the government will step in because the volume of irresponsible advertising is growing by the day. Itll get worse, once digital gains in spend share. Tracking traditional media is a piece of cake compared to tracking the Internet. The Internet. That, perhaps, is what will save advertising from the proposed NCPA. Consumers, on social media, are doing what ASCI fails to do informing their friends, colleagues and loved ones of misleading communication or failed services. For example, (and I underline that this is just an example) theres a Facebook page called Airtel sucks. Heres an update by an irate customer (reproduced verbatim). Airtel really sucks... i have activated DND service, but still receive hell lot of SMS... i was using airtel postpaid service, and they charged me like anything... when contacted Customer care, the response was we cant help U... and for that reason i have switched from postpaid to prepaid... then they have deactivated my outgoing calls asking me to submit proof docs, even which i have submitted th em.... and reached airtel outlet to fix it... they said we ll activate... then in another 1 day they have deactivated my incoming calls... and from then i was unable to even reach airtel customer care from 121... and when reached outlet again to fix it, the response was like i have to take a new sim on the same number and that sim will be activated in another 3 days........ so my gentle suggestion is not to take airtel connection........,........... Another consumer is ready with advice. Lodge your complaints here. I have already done that. http://fcamin.nic.in/
102
The Airtel sucks page has 799 likes as this is written. Go to google and enter <Brand name> sucks. This works with almost any big brand in India, including education brands, and you discover Facebook pages, links to blogs, links to Youtube clips, and so on. Do the same with <Brand name> cheats. Consumers have figured out theres no point waiting for ASCI or any other body to look after their interests they tell each other about their experiences, good and bad. But there is only so much that consumers can do for themselves. What we need is to be able to read stuff like this (reproduced from in.yahoo. com): Vodafone New Zealand has reportedly been fined 960,000 dollars for a misleading marketing campaign. The latest conviction takes Vodafones total bill for using misleading advertising to almost 1.5 million dollars, the highest ever fine for one defendant. In July the company pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to 11 representative charges brought by the Commerce Commission of misleading consumers. According to Stuff.co.nz, the judge had cut the penalty from a 1.2 million dollars starting point to 960,000 dollars to include a 20 per cent discount for early guilty pleas by Vodafone. The Commerce Commissions competition manager Stuart Wallace said the decision showed that companies needed to ensure their headline message was not misleading.
103
With the growth of digitisation and consumerism, there has never been more need for a body like ASCI. And if ASCI fails to do the job, we need some organisation, even if it is government controlled to do the job. What can ASCI do to stay relevant? Professionalise the management team, hiring executives with advertising/marketing backgrounds Create a national team that proactively looks for misleading/ irresponsible ads Use technology to dispose such as video-conferencing to improve response time Work with media houses to get them sensitised to the responsibility that they must bear as well, and get them to refuse advertising which makes claims that cannot be substantiated or are in any other manner unfair or irresponsible Find a way to penalise advertisers for misleading claims, etc In the cases of the AAAI, The Advertising Club and the ASCI, the main problem is common: the lack of a permanent, well-paid professional team. The need for ASCI is greater than the need for the other two bodies and one hopes they are the first off the blocks. Luckily, thanks to the pressure from the NCPA proposal, they might just do it, kicking and screaming. If they dont, and the NCPA is born, no one in this ecosystem should complain. After all, who runs ASCI? Its run by advertisers and representatives from the main beneficiaries of advertising media, media agencies and advertising agencies. Ive described the current statuses of The AAAI, The Advertising Club, ASCI three bodies that should have a huge role to play in improving the fortunes of the industry. Theres another critical arm of the ecosystem that needs to get its act together: the trade media.
104
I have twice been editor of trade magazines on advertising in India; first, with Impact, and, more recently, as the founder-editor of Campaign India, published by Haymarket Media. When at Campaign India, I gained an understanding of how difficult the job of being editor of the average trade magazine normally was, and, in comparison, how easy mine was. The editor of PrintWeek India magazine, a title devoted to developments in the printing industry, and also published by Haymarket Media, sat in a cubicle next to mine. His biggest challenge was the fact that the people and companies he wrote about were also the people and companies who advertised in the magazine. If PrintWeek was critical of a particular company or a particular individual, it was curtains. Proposed or running campaigns could be cancelled. At Campaign India, the content focused on advertising, with little attention paid to media. However, the revenue was almost entirely from media houses. So if Campaign criticised a particular TVC, there was no threat to advertising revenue. If we ranked an agency poorly in the Agency Report Card, there was no threat to revenue. Basically, at Campaign India, I had the rare luxury as editor of a trade magazine to write fearlessly and honestly. This freedom is available to all trade publications in the space. Yet, I would dare say, except for Campaign India, no one took the opportunity to criticise the industry constructively. That is letting the entire agency business down. Trade magazines must offer constructive criticism continuously. The criticism should be defendable, however. Take the case of what happened at the Abbys at Goafest 2011. The organisers, not wanting to declare a winner was spectacularly ambiguous
105
about the weightage of each metal , which left the world in a situation where each individual could interpret this in the way he or she chose. To me, that was unacceptable. This is what I wrote then in Campaign India: Explanation: Since the organisers of the Abbys have decided not to weight the various metals, we have decided to go by the tally given to the media by the Awards Governing Council. Simply put, the AGC decided to arrange the columns as is done in the Olympic Games: most integrated scores over most golds, scores over most silvers and, finally, most bronzes. Seen in this light, Ogilvy & Mather is on top of the heap, with 1 Grand Prix, 5 Gold, 8 Silver and 17 Bronze metals. O&M won its grand prix for their entry titled IMC for Cadbury Dairy Milk in the Integrated category. The agency won gold metals for An Eye for India entry in the Design category, A sensory experience to a 400 years old culinary tradition entry for Dum Pukht in the Direct category, Vodafone Blackberry Boys for Vodafone in the Film category, IMC entry for Cadbury Dairy Milk and Vodafone Blackberry Boys for Vodafone in the Integrated category. However, if you went by the most metals one, Mudra would have won. If you went by the Cannes system, O&M would have won. Predictably, Bobby Pawar, Pratap Bose and Madhukar Kamath of Mudra were unhappy with the Campaign India interpretation. I spent uncomfortable hours with them, individually, explaining our stance. All accepted with grace, even if they had some misgivings. As far as I am concerned, this was a cop-out by the AAAI or the Awards Governing Council, and I made it clear I thought so in the issue immediately following Goafest. The point is, none of the other trade publications made a whimper of
106
protest which is why I say trade media lets the agency business down. As any business grows, the need for trade media increases as well. Today, the need for trade media in advertising, thanks to the changing nature of the business, has not only grown, it has changed. It must criticise, it must not be afraid to lose friends, it must learn to take defined positions. That is when it plays the role of trade media celebrating the good, criticising the bad, keeping a watch on developments and warning the business of perils ahead. This is what Campaign India did under my watch. Sadly, it is failing to do so today. MxM has entered the trade media fray and has demonstrated that they are not afraid to be critical. What they lack, perhaps, is the knowledge of the business, and that can be corrected by good and appropriate hires. And thats the punt Im making in this space: watch out for MxM. Its going to be your friend or your enemy, depending on what youve last done. The positive developments in trade media are in the area of nonmagazine activities that both exchange4media group and afaqs are immersing themselves in. More events, more studies, more publications. More are needed. To advertising agencies, Ill suggest that you interact more with trade and help them in understanding what content will interest you the most. After all, you are the beneficiaries of the content. This book will, hopefully, provoke conversations and debates on some subjects. But let me suggest areas that trade magazines could help advertising agencies on: 1. The talent shortage 2. The remuneration conundrum 3. Education in digital
107
4. Case studies on collaboration 5. Handling conflict 6. Understanding of media for creatives 7. Understanding of finance and accounts for creatives 8. Debate on scam ads 9. Understanding how PR works 10. Understanding social media The Curious Digital Marketer from afaqs Campus, to me, is a great example of the extended role trade media can play. Look for more such initiatives, where the product or the event is not just another excuse to network, but for professionals to gain knowledge from.
108
I live in a building on Mount Mary where we have five permanent staff, who juggle their duties as liftmen, general dogsbodies, watchmen when required, and so on. All five are Nepalis. When I moved here about 4 years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the politeness and cheerfulness, always greeting residents, including me, with a warm Good morning, or Good evening. A year or so ago, when I entered the lift, all I received was a curt nod. No Good evening. I didnt think too much of it, attributing it to a bad day. The next day, it was another of the 5. Again, no exchange of pleasantries, just a nod. To cut a long story short, this happened, from this point on, with whoever was on liftman duty. It puzzled me and bothered me because their cheerfulness was something Id gotten used to. Then, a few days later, I had my Eureka moment. I noticed a earphone, with the wire leading to the shirt pocket. I asked the liftman what he was listening to, and he answered Nepali music. All the liftmen had discovered this new entertainment, music from their homeland. Now, as I write this book, its progressed. Whenever I see them, theyre staring at their phones, with the tell-tale earpiece. Theyre watching Nepali movies and Nepali music videos. I did a check with some of the drivers of residents of the building and asked them whether they watched movie on their mobiles. The drivers, 12 in all that I questioned, were Tamilian, Malayalee, Oriya, Maharashtrian and from assorted Hindi speaking states. All 12 100 percent of the respondents had movies and music on their phones. The Tamilain had Tamil movies, the Malayalee had Malayalee movies, and so on. I asked them where they got the movies from. The process, for all, was
109
the same. Each knew a shop which downloaded the movies or songs on to the phones. The charges varied between Rs. 30 and Rs. 80, depending on what was downloaded and how much was downloaded. Thats crazy, I think to myself. Twelve drivers, five of the building staff, all watch content on their phones and they pay for the content (its another issue the rights holders probably see none of the money). And I wonder how much this business is worth. The Rs.4050 Nokia Asha 200 accounts for 38% of music downloads from Nokia India store, says a status update on twitter. I google Nokia Asha India 38%; I confirm this figure. Wow. Thats CK Prahlad-like. This is an extraordinary example of consumption by the bottom of the pyramid where owners of phones which cost around $80 are paying for content and, as a market, theres a single Nokia model which gives the Nokia India store a whopping 38% of their revenue. About a fortnight ago, as I started the final edit of this book, my daughters name flashes on my twitter timeline. Shes not the most frequent of updaters, so I check what she has to say. (She lives in Bangalore and uses auto rickshaws as her primary transport solution). I reproduce the tweets verbatim: Just helped an auto driver install facebook on his touchscreen smartphone. Wow. The next one is more telling. He says he puts his phone on to charge every night and downloads
110
movies. By the morning, he has two new films to watch! I join the dots and the picture one sees at the end makes my hair stand on end. This is the stuff of marketing dreams. And the next Saturday, when I have oodles of time, I ask the liftmen whether there are ad breaks in the films. No. I ask the drivers whether there are ad breaks in the films. No. The auto driver who my daughter speaks of watches two movies a day. Thats at least three hours per day consuming content. And none of that is advertising, none of that is branded content. Advertising agencies are already late. The mobile hardware guys, the service providers have created an affordable environment for consumption of content. The fantastic thing about this story is that it underlines that content, in this digital age, will be consumed when the consumer chooses to, not when a broadcaster or publisher decides it should be consumed. The only problem is that, currently, most of the content, though paid for, is pirated. It wont be long, though, the rights holders come to grips with this leakage, much as they learned to deal with video cassette piracy and DVD piracy; there will still be significant leakages, but there will also be enough in terms of legal sales to make it worth the trouble. And there will be a need for ads. Ads that are made specifically for the small screen, ads that are made in the languages which consumers in this massive, developing market are familiar with. Lets make this simple, and list it out in bullet points: There is a growing demand for consumption of content on mobile phones The Nokia Asha figures clearly suggest that owners of lowest priced phones are willing to pay for content
111
Content is consumed in many Indian languages The business, currently, is largely in illegal content Marketers will want to tap in to the growing number of these users Even the lowest demographics are embracing social media And you, dear reader, have a massive opportunity to create the communication that your client will need. Are you in a position to take advantage of the opportunity, is the moot point. Most of you have little or no capability in languages other than English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam. Most of you have no idea of the challenges of creating communication for screen as small as the mobile screen. This becomes one more opportunity for someone to eat into your revenue pie. From the technology point of view, which is the understanding the challenges and limitations of the small screen, the digital agencies are way ahead of your curve. From a local insight and language understanding point of view, the agencies based in various states are far better placed. There can be no doubt about this. Digital and mobile telephony, combined with the diversity of languages, are the biggest opportunities for advertising agencies or the biggest threats.
112
The complexity of demographics in India is daunting, to say the least. The biggest problem, to my mind, is in defining and understanding the most important demographic in the country today: youth. How do find the archetypical Indian youth? What do youth want? What are their aspirations and needs? What content do they want to consume? In which language? Where? When? When I worked at Channel [V] in advertising sales in the early 90s, these were questions that dogged the think-tank at STAR TV. When MTV was planning their launch in India, they got tied up in knots on a very fundamental question: should it be a Hindi channel or an English one? There were no clear answers then. Today, there are some. Youth want content in the languages that they are comfortable with be it Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu, Kannada, whatever. You can be cool even if you cannot speak English or Hindi, so we have music channels in virtually every Indian language. But the language issue is the only question to which an answer has been found. What about the rest of the questions? I have found this device to be the easiest way to describe the difficulty, over the years. When my daughter was living in Mumbai with me and studying at Jai Hind, I spent some time thinking about her demographic. She was 17. SEC A, clearly. So she would be in a box which said female, 15-24, SEC A. So I thought a little bit more about her. When she left for college one morning when I was leaving late, I looked closely at everything she carried, everything she wore, and so on.
113
She had laptop, a mobile phone, her handbag with the usual accessories and she was dressed like any teenager, in jeans, a top, shoes. When you total up the cost of all that she carried with her when she left for college, it added up to over Rs.60,000. Now, I imagined a girl in Raipur, studying at one of the coolest colleges there. She would still be cool in a cheaper brand of jeans (because the better brands are not available there), in a cheaper mobile phone, cheaper handbag, etc. The cost of all she carried and wore would be significantly less than in my daughters case, but shed still be in the cool set in Raipur. And shes in the same box as my daughter, female, 15-24, SEC A. So is the girl in the coolest college in Dombivali. The girl in Salem. The girl in Durgapur. You could do the same exercise with my son, and the complexities will be as stark. My son and daughter are very, very important to marketers and will continue to be so for some time to come, which is why I spend so much time on the issue. The demographics of India are inclusive of the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (2011 census), more than a sixth of the worlds population. Already containing 17.5% of the worlds population, India is projected to be the worlds most populous country by 2025, surpassing China, its population reaching 1.6 billion by 2050. India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan, I glean from Wikipedia. The emphasis, though is mine.
114
Some data, which is a must while on this subject. All from a Tata Consultancy Services research document. Indias Generation Y is fast changing the communication paradigm by quickly adopting new modes of networking using social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, as well as tools like instant messaging (IM) and chat, according to the findings of the TCS GenY survey 2011-12, which was released today. The findings of Indias largest survey of over 12,300 high school students across 12 Indian cities reveal that smart devices and online access are making GenY instant connectors. This is transforming the way tomorrows professionals are conducting their academic and social lives. Top 10 Trends Percentage Use Facebook Access internet from home Own mobiles Use internet for school-related research Own and access the internet through a PC Use internet for chat / to connect Make voice calls to communicate Use email as a tool of communication Prefer IT as the first option for a career Spend more than an hour on the internet everyday (Note: These percentages represent all-India Figures.) Commenting on the survey, N Chandrasekaran, CEO & MD, said,Combination of more bandwidth, availability of smart devices and the surging popularity of social networks is changing the way lndias high school students conduct their academic and social lives. As significant
115
85 84 79 74 68 68 59 45 34 33
employers of lndias talented youth, we need to understand how to leverage these social trends to create engaging careers for tomorrows professionals. Now comes the truly frightening bit (from the same study). TV is Remote: Indian youths like their entertainment on the move. Their least favorite gadget is the television with less than one percent voting for it. Their favorite gadget with 28% votes is the mobile phone. Gaming consoles are also increasingly becoming popular even in minimetros with a little over 16% of students owning at least one gaming console as compared to nearly 45% in metros. Music players are also very popular with 60% of the respondents owning them. Tablet PCs and Tabs, though nascent, have penetrated far more intensively in metros with 15% respondents listing it as their choice of device to access with mini-metros at 7%. I kick myself for not having noticed it earlier. My children hardly watch TV and can hardly tear themselves away from their laptop/iPad/PC/ mobile. Their least favorite gadget is the television with less than one percent voting for it. Today, advertising agencies favourite medium is TV the least favourite gadget of the largest and most important demographic. More about youth and this, from an article written one year or so ago. The under-25 demographic constitutes roughly half the population of the country. Yet very little is understood of their culture and consumption behaviour. One reason is, of course, the lack of historical data. This is the first generation thats grown up in liberalised India. From television to computers and now smartphones, this is also a group of digital natives who keep pace with their peers around the world on a secondby-nano second basis. All of this determines their aspirations and their consumption behaviour
116
Today, the desktop itself is nearly extinct. The 18-year-old wants a laptop, one that will be used exclusively by him. He decides which one, by asking his friends, comparing models and prices online, and then presents his recommendation to his parents whose only job is to pay for it. He checks for a basic warranty: hell be replacing it with a newer model in three years, in any case. A lot, then, has changed in the past decade. And companies and marketers are scrambling to keep abreast of what the message should be and how it should be communicated, said Veena Venugopal and Krishna Gopalan in Outlook Business last year. If we sum all this up: India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35 Their least favourite gadget is TV There is very little historic data about their consumption habits Theyre all over the country, speaking many languages, most of which the traditional ad agencies are not used to doing work in More categories and more brands in these categories will be forced to target this demographic. More brands will be created to target this category. Digital will enable you to receive mountains of data in real time, helping you to deal with the complexities in the youth demographic. With the data, micro-targeting will be a clear possibility (it already is, to a large extent, but it will be far better understood). Data will tell you that my daughter is different from the girl in Raipur, the girl in Dombivali, the girl in Salem and the girl in Durgapur. The challenge will be for planners to analyse the data and figure out which girl needs to receive which message. Is there a case, then, to create a cell in the agency whose sole responsibility is to understand what youth and everything about youth? There is and if you understand a population demographic that accounts for more than 50
117
percent of the entire population better than any other agency, it could be the first step towards making you a consultant to brands. And if you dont understand youth, youre on a long slide downhill. In a funny way, what were seeing in advertising is not very different from what we see happening in the nation both are being let down by institutions that were created to perform certain duties and tasks and fail to deliver.
118
For an industry that exists to create stories for their clients brands, theyre, by and large, incapable of creating a credible story about the agency brands that they work for and run. Over the years, over coffee and cigarettes and lunches and dinners and drinks, Ive had countless conversations when someone is bitching about how he had to sack a client because the client wanted to negotiate the retainer downward or about how an agency pulled out of a pitch because the retainer wasnt adequate, and so on. To those I know well (and there are many), I ask, Why should the client pay you Rs. 10,00,000 as a retainer? What do you give him for the money? What do you deliver that is twice as valuable as whatever is delivered by the agency which won the account for Rs. 5,00,000? In essence, I want to know, Whats your story? Many do not have a story -- and theyre commodities, and need to price themselves as such, except in some circumstances, which Ill come to. Many have stories: their person-brands. An Ogilvy can say that they would charge the client whatever rate they quote because Piyush Pandey heads the agency and will be involved in the business. Lowe can use the Balki name, McCann, the Prasoon Joshi name, Taproot, the Agnello Diassantosh Padhi names, and so on. And then there are those agencies which have track records of work done that they can use as their story. Beehive Communication can easily claim that they have expertise in the travel business and can demonstrate the claim with a mountain of published work. CreativeLand Asia can claim that they get digital and showcase work done for Audi, Hippo and Appy. Origin-Beanstalk can claim an understanding of business-to119
business communication for media brands, and rattle off the names of Mid-day, CNBC TV18 and Nick to buttress their story. Then there is the third-party ratification of your competence awards. Whats your story? Do you have one? Can you create one? Is there a believable story which prospective clients will like to hear? There are many possible stories, for those who are not brand new agencies without the person-brand advantage. Fast and reliable is a story, with certain clients. For example, in a business like telecom services, when bean-counters come up with a new tariff plan to shore up this months revenues, how soon you can come up with posters is a story the client wants to hear. How soon you can have the creatives translated and laid out is another. Category expertise is another story, if it can be demonstrated. Many do not realise this opportunity because theyre stuck in the old belief of conflict. In many categories, what seems like a conflict client is no conflict at all. For example, how does a builder with a project in thane have any problem of you did work for another builder with projects in Powai? And another, who had a project in Bandra West? None. So an Origin-Beanstalk has worked with tens of builders, project by project. Every month sees them being able to reinforce their story of expertise in the category. If you dont have a story, youre a commodity and you will be forced to charge accordingly. But, as I said, there are exceptions. Exceptions are when the clients in question are new to advertising and brand-building. When the clients havent heard of Piyush Pandey and Balki and Prasoon and Aggie. When the clients do not want to work with large agencies, afraid that theyre too small for such a relationship.
120
Mudras Ignite attempts to get clients in this situation. So do all agencies in small towns, with their new business executives sniffing around for someone ready for the picking. So if you have no story to tell ,check if you either have a story or can create a believable one or get used to the idea of working cheap. The reality is that the supply side (the number of agencies vying for business) is growing every year and that the demand side, the number of clients (or the size of the business) is nowhere near keeping place. A rudimentary knowledge of economics will tell you that there will be pressure on prices. It gets worse when you take into account the pressures on the multinational clients. As the USA stays sluggish, Europe in trouble and China sending negative signals, the great white hopes are (largely) India, Africa, Russia and Brazil. These are the countries they need to milk and these are the countries where they will keep a close eye on cost. Procurement will be a commonly used and understood word, in the context of advertising and multinational brands, in the next few years. Procurement will demand metrics that justify your fee, they will ask for proof of return on the investments that they make in advertising. Its already common practice in media and itll become common practice in agencies without a story. If there is a story, either a person-brand story or a demonstrable track-record story, the marketing head at the client will fight for you and convince procurement. After all, his performance depends on the effectiveness of the communication created by agencies. For the larger agencies (by which I mean the top 50 agencies in the country), there is one way to stretch the good times. By creating more person-brands.
121
In January 2009, I had written in Campaign India. R3s Agency Image Study measures Piyush Pandey as the most mentioned creative in the business. If one links this with the rating that creativity gets in the list of the qualities that clients look for when appointing an agency, the gain to O&M (and to Sir Martin Sorrell) from Piyushs media profile cannot be anything but significant. (To those who are stumped by R3, this is what they do. Our core service offerings include proprietary tools and processes in all aspects of improving marketing efficiency and effectiveness, as well as in the areas of Agency Relationships + Remuneration + Reviews). The more person-brands an agency creates, the easier it will get when it comes to dealing with pressure to sign on low retainers or lower retainers. If youre new or newish, a track record is obviously something you cannot do overnight. What you can do is to create person-brands. Start doing it now. Here are a few steps. Contact and create relationships with the trade media, notably, but not restricted to, Brand Equity, Storyboard, Campaign India, All About Ads, Impact, exchange4media, afaqs, afaqs Reporter, Catalyst and Strategist. Keep journalists informed of all developments in your agency. Make it easy for them; mail jpegs and mpegs where applicable. Start writing and submitting articles to all but the TV magazines. Cant write? Hire a ghost writer. Attend trade events regularly. Save phone numbers of journalists so that you recognise them when you receive calls and can contact them when you need to. Teach at prestigious educational institutes.
122
Of course its hard work. I didnt suggest that it was going to be easy. Ask all those who are person-brands. Theyve slaved, over years, to become what theyve become brands. Thats why, as the going is getting tough, theyre finding it easy. You think you have enough of a headache and enough competition look out for a bigger headache and added competition the expat. Matt Seddon, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi India, is a milestone in Indian advertising, being the second expatriate to head an agency in India (the first was Charles Cadell of Lowe Lintas). Weve have Max Hegerman, who headed Tribal DDB and now heads digital at JWT India. Weve had Graham Kelly as executive creative director, Ogilvy Interactive. Why is Seddons appointment a milestone, then? Its because Hegerman heads just digital, Kelly has been ECD of a division; Cadell headed an agency that was doing very well, thank you very much. Seddon, though, has taken charge of a shaky Saatchi & Saatchi India. Why him? Why not an Indian, I wanted to know when I heard of his coming to India. Afaqs spoke to Saatchi & Saatchis deputy chairman Richard Hytner and got me the answer. What is it that an Indian CEO couldnt have done that Matt brings to the table? Hytner: Matt, more than anything else, brings Saatchiness. Matt has been with Saatchi & Saatchi world over and particularly Asia for around 20 years. He knows Saatchi very well. He knows the culture, the philosophy of Lovemarks. He wouldnt have any kind of difficulty in embedding Lovemarks into this operation. The fact that he understands the local market and the local people makes him a sensible choice for Saatchi & Saatchi in order to take over the India operations head-on. So far, as I can see, the business has turned around. Some of our core
123
clients are looking more satisfied than they were before. Matt is growing a team of locals, who will be responsible for the future. It is an absolute key task for any leader to get local talent. It was originally planned that he would be based in Mumbai. But, now his focus has shifted to Delhi. For me, the critical takeout is the sentence, Matt has been with Saatchi & Saatchi world over and particularly Asia for around 20 years. He knows Saatchi very well. Replace Matt with, say, Michael, and replace the agency name with any other network agency name. There are so many possibilities, so many agencies who could ponder on Hytners decision and ask themselves, should we do the same? Hytner is underlining the importance of alignment to the agency. Hes prioritising the alignment over local knowledge and local insight, which he believes will be available through the team of locals. Its interesting and I believe Hytner has got it right. There are many instances where the India office is completely different, culturally, from the core values of the international brand that it weakens the brand. BBH tried to inject, to paraphrase Hytner, BBHness by having Paul Ward in Mumbai during the formative first years. Ward temporarily made BBH India a four-legged stool, rising to the position of managing partner, India. By the time the book is your hands, Scott Goodson would have announced that StrawberryFrog was launching an India operation. Will we see another expat come to India to ensure StrawberryFrogness? Im beginning to believe that we will see more and more network agencies bringing in people at the highest echelons of the agency because they know the agency, what it stands for, what the culture is like.
124
What is unsaid by Hytner (and unsaid by the management of BBH at the time of Wards appointment in India in Wards case) is that the fact that there exists an existing strong relationship with Seddon and the agency, and, consequently, a very high level of trust and that is of immense value. Will more agencies, as they increasingly look to India to shore up revenues, place people they trust and are aligned with in CXO level positions, especially when incumbent CXOs underperform? I think so and I think it would be the sensible thing to do. Thats why I say Seddons appointment is a milestone. And I dont think its going to be limited to CXOs. Well probably see them move in to occupy need-gaps in specialist areas, such as digital, film production, shopper-marketing, etc . Ill digress for a bit and talk to you about Mindshare India and Ford. Mindshares Chennai office was handling the Ford business, a considerable business with considerable demands. As a result, Mindshare Chennai was well staffed and vibrant. When Ford decided to move their marketing operations from Chennai to Delhi, the Chennai branch of Mindshare had to be downsized. Staffers who the agency wanted to retain were offered transfers to other Mindshare offices around the country. Look after loyal, committed and gifted talent was the signal. So it will be with multinational agencies. If they are forced to downsize in New York or London or Paris, thanks to the slow growth or degrowth in these markets, managers will have a moral dilemma to deal with. How do you sack someone who has proven loyalty, proven commitment and has delivered to the company? Offer them options, as Mindshare did, in other offices. Except, this time, it will not be within the same country, itll be in another country, in another continent.
125
They will bring with them proven loyalty and proven commitment and they will bring the same <agency brand> -ness to the agency as Seddon is expected to bring Saatchiness to Saatchi & Saatchi India. While we havent seen the junior and middle level professional expat make too many inroads into advertising, theres enough evidence to suggest the influx is not far away, especially if you live, as I do, in Mumbai, but specifically in Bandra West. Walk into a pub, a bar, a restaurant, any evening, and its peppered with Caucasians. Go for a walk or a jog on Carter Road or Bandstand, and its the same. Many, many, work in industries closely linked to advertising TV production, music production, design. As the early adventurers get used to India and start enjoying working here (as many of them seem to be doing), friends from the countries that they come from get to know. And things are not great in many of them. Consider the state of affairs in the UK, the home to many of the agencies who dominate Indian advertising. This, from the BBC, at the end of June this year. The number of new UK graduates working in jobs like cleaning or bar work has almost doubled to 10,000 in five years, according to government statistics. The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, also showed more than 20,000 were still out of work six months after leaving university. Overall the data showed 71% in work and a further 16% in continued study. Universities Minister David Willetts said graduates were still doing better than people without degrees. The figures showed 9% of new graduates were jobless six months after completing their degree in 2010/11.
126
Graduates. Would they rather work in an agency in India if theyve qualified to work in one, or in bars or in cleaning jobs in the UK? This is just one example to illustrate the principle. We will see an influx, partly because of the state of the economy in Europe and partly because of my theory on Matt Seddons move to India.
127
Piyush Pandey is a freak. I cannot think of another word that suits him better. This is how, largely, dictionaries define freak: A thing or occurrence that is markedly unusual or irregular. Piyush is markedly unusual. Piyush is irregular. When Piyush was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the AAAI, I had asked Sir Martin Sorrell to write the editorial for a special issue that Campaign India planned to publish on the occasion. This is what he wrote. Brand Piyush stands for everything that is good about Indian advertising and its communication - a great intellect with deep creative understanding and power. As I have said many times before, if we could replicate our Indian agencies and business across the world I could have retired a long time ago. Full of insight, humour, intelligence and intellect, Piyush is emblematic of the growth and development of the Indian advertising business. This is what Miles Young had to say about Piyush. I first met Piyush on my inaugural visit to India in 1995, just after I had moved to Asia. Then he was the Executive Creative Director of the Agency. Right from get-go I realized he was not just an ordinary creative director: he was much bigger than that. He was a personality, but a personality with a pointof-view, and what put him into a league of his own was that this pointof-view extended to the world, not just to the confines of the ad business. That, in turn, made him a much better Creative Director. His contribution was that he raised our sights. He embraced the idea that being No. 1 in India was good, but not good enough. But for India to be of the great agencies in the world, and for the Indian advertising business to prove that it could be world-beating, it meant a change of
128
orientation and of behavior. He pushed through those changes, and more than anybody else is responsible for the high repute in which Indian advertising is held now around the world. He is our conscience its as simple as that. In all our global meetings, he brings us back to earth, to the important things. He cuts through the complexity, and reminds us of when we are actually there. Earlier this year, when Piyush was honoured with the Clio Lifetime Achievement Award, CLIO Director, Karl Vontz said, Piyush truly embodies the spirit of this award. He not only possesses wonderful creative vision, but he is a great leader who motivates everyone around him with his enthusiasm and passion. We look forward to celebrating his body of work and his ongoing contribution in the field of advertising. Over the years, Ive had the opportunity to speak to many international agency CEOs when they visit India and their India offices. Often, Ive met them before they begin their India operations. In some instances, Ive met them when theyve just decided that they need an India operation. Almost the first question that Im asked is, Who do you think will be the next Piyush? And I want to tear my heart out. No one will be the next Piyush Pandey. He is a freak. He is one of a kind. He cannot be replicated. Over the years, Ive spent some quality time with him, the two of us alone. Some of it, talking about work and about the industry. Some of it, talking about Things. Just Things. For some years, Id been badgering him to write a book about his experiences in advertising.Piyush struggled with the notion of an
129
autobiography he thought it was the ultimate in vanity. How could anyone write an autobiography without repeated references to oneself and isnt that vanity? I tried to explain that the youngsters in the business would benefit from his experiences, that he had a responsibility to share them. I volunteered to write the book for him, offering to go to his house or office or to his house at Goa and have conversations with him. These conversations, I said, would be transformed into a book. He kept hedging, till, one day, he called and said, Partner, lets start on the book. Ive got the solution. Come home NOW. I was then at the Campaign India office, which was about 10 minutes away from Piyushs residence. I went, immediately. I do not have permission to share the following, but, what the hell, its Piyush, and Ill get away with it. I entered his house and sat down. His major domo brought us some tea, and we lit up our cigarettes. His said, Partner, my struggle with the book is that it would be too much about me. My careers has been such that, at every stage, there have been people who have helped me and there have been people whom I have helped. I was struggling on how to articulate that and Ive found the solution. Well call the book Two Blood Groups. Thats what I have. One blood group is a universal donor, the other is a universal receiver. Ive received through my career from others, and Ive donated as well. Its been a few years since we first spoke about Two Blood Groups. In between, one evening, he called and asked me to come to his house immediately. He said he wanted to discuss the book. I went over. His major domo walked in with glasses of rum and we toasted. Piyush brought out a sheaf of papers, all shapes and sizes. Each sheet had a poem on it, in Hindi and written in long hand. I cannot share what he wrote about, but each was better than the previous one. I sat, enthralled and transfixed. The doorbell rang, and in walked Rajiv Rao. Piyush explained to Rajiv why we were there. In Piyushs grand scheme of things, these verses would be
130
transformed into a book. Each poem would be reproduced in the original, Hindi. I would translate each poem into English. Rajiv would commission artists who would embellish the poetry with illustrations. Rajiv was flying to South Africa in a few hours, glancing nervously at his watch. Piyush finally allowed him to leave, and we decided to follow up on the book and finish it by the end of the year. Since then, we havent had a meeting of any consequence on the book. Its so brilliant, its a shame. Every now and then, I talk to Piyush about Two Blood Groups and the book of verse and he quickly changes the topic to something else. My guess is that they will never be written/published, because a) he still thinks writing an autobiography is a show of vanity and b) in his prioritisation, work comes before the book of verse. Its sad. I hope Im wrong. His autobiography would virtually tell the story of modern advertising in India, the advertising which has helped put India on the global map. His verse will tell you how much Manwatching he has done, even if he has never heard of Desmond Morris. Both will tell you how much he loves mankind and how grateful he is for all he has received. Theyll tell you how much more of a planner he is than a creative person. Theyll tell you why you must be intensely curious. Both will tell you that he is a freak. And while I get irritated with the question, whos the next Piyush?, one has to think of the question, What happens if Piyush, sort of, retires? And, but the time we come to 2016, the freak will not be full time in the business because of his generosity. His generosity will be urging him to make way for the next generation, and he has been working quietly on the transition for some time.
131
Theres a new element in measurement of the performance of communication: Digital and Social media. Put up a new ad, and, within minutes, the responses come in: Likes, forwards, shares and comments. Worse is when you can see the number of reads or views. I need to rewind to about 2000, when I was at TBWA\Anthem and wed just released a TV campaign for IndianOils Servo. We waited, petrified, for Wednesday to come, and, with it, Brand Equity. Would the Servo campaign be covered in their Best/Bekaar column? If it was, would it be pronounced Best or Bekaar? Wednesday came, and we heaved a sigh of relief. Two sighs if relief, actually. Because, it was covered and it was in the Best section, not the Bekaar. That was it, we could relax, and live to fight another year with the client. There was no other trade medium we had to worry about. No likes, no hashtags, no comments on articles. Compare this with today. Ultratech India launches a brand called 18 Again, a vaginal rejuvenation and tightening gel. Curry-Nation is the agency. The TVC is reviewed in Campaign India, and, within minutes of publishing, the story is inundated with comments. The worst product and campaign ever! Its an insult to mother nature!! When will we learn that aging is more natural than a pill or botox! Get over it! Everyone ages. And those who endorse or campaign for products like this are dead already, says a comment. As this is being written, there are more than 40 comments, most of them negative. On Youtube, the commercial has over 1.4 million views. There are over 2000 people whove voted on whether they like or dislike the commercial.
132
The opinions, as of now, are about 50:50. What does one do, as CurryNation, or as Ultratech? Worry about the comments on a trade site? Celebrate the 1.4 million views? Should one be concerned about the 50 percent (of those who shared their opinions on Youtube) who disliked the TVC? On the thought behind the campaign for the new product, Priti Nair, director, Curry-Nation, said, This is a one-of-a-kind women-centric product, and the idea is to create a demand for such a product in the Indian market. Since the product is targeted towards concerns that are not usually talked about publicly, the challenges of creating a campaign for this is also higher, Campaign India had reported. If this was the brief, I would say that Curry-Nation has delivered in spades especially when you see the 1.4 million number and the conversation that this commercial provoked on social media. The TVC got people of both sexes to talk about a subject that is not discussed in public, which is what seems to have been a primary objective. The larger issue is the fact that one no longer has to wait ages for research to tell you how a commercial is received you will know in hours, or at the worst, in a few days. This might not be pure, structured, scientifically-designed research, but its one hell of a dip stick. Look at what else can be used to measure communication. Mahindra Xylos official Facebook page has over 800,000 likes. In the last few days (this is now October 2012) this is a sampling of their activities: 1. Theyve done a poll, asking readers whether they would like a Cheetah face or Cheetah spots on the bonnet (the face wins). 2. A couple of days earlier, they had asked, What should we paint on the BONNET/HOOD of the XUV500? Tell us how you would bring
133
to life the cheetah inspiration into the XUV500 in a special way while painting the exteriors of the XUV500 in the CHEETAH THEME. The responses are in the thousands, giving Mahindra the opportunity to pre-test many of the ideas presented by the agencies concerned (and, indeed, these activities themselves might be handled by the agency handling the advertising). Testing and instant measurement both have many positive aspects but they do have negative aspects as well. What happens when the negative comments outnumber the positive ones by a large factor? What happens when the TVC gets no traction on YouTube? To me, this is a big worry for creative agencies. There are some who know how social media works and also know how to game it. They work closely with social media agencies and ramp up the numbers and ramp up the positive feedback as well. I would not suggest that you try and game it (clients will catch on, fairly soon), but I do suggest that all agencies should actively try and figure out how to use social media to amplify their work to deliver maximum views for their clients. Whether the creative agency does this on its own or with a social media expert or PR agency as a partner is unimportant what is important is that it needs to be done. These are questions that your client is likely to ask you and you need the answers: 1. Why are we getting so many negative comments on the commercial? 2. Why are we getting so few positive comments on the commercial? 3. Why are we getting so few views on Youtube? 4. Why is no one talking about us on twitter?
134
There are more, but Ill stop at twitter. How many of you are on twitter? How many of you know how hashtags work? How many of you have thought of a hashtag while developing an idea for a campaign? Social media presents one spectacular opportunity for all creative agencies it makes a seemingly immeasurable creative measurable. Look at what BBDO/Proximity did for 7 Up with the #IFeelUp hashtag. The campaign for 7Up which broke at that time, to me, was average. It was the amplification of the campaign with the hashtag, and the subsequent measurability, that made the campaign a seeming success. (Im sure, knowing that it is Pepsi-owned, 7Up would have done much deeper research into the success or failure, but my point is that social media amplification makes the campaign significantly more successful than it otherwise would have been). The problem here is a legacy mindset; looking at media in silos. Print is print and has a certain job to do. TV has another task, radio a third, and so on. Thats why the need for creatives to understand how media operates. Most professionals in media agencies have been comfortable with the concept of media multiplier for more than a decade, so for them to understand the possibilities is easy as pie. The creatives will have to learn it they have no choice any more. Its also a lesson that, while you may work on a single campaign with many other partners, collaboration is a key aspect to success and, therefore, you have no choice but to learn to collaborate.
135
The big, fat national campaign will become smaller and slimmer. The Cola majors, for years, have worked with a complex marketing budget (theyre not the only ones, but, to my mind, theyve handled it the best). Theres a large chunk of the budget which is available to the central marketing team to handle national, mass media campaigns. Out of this budget comes the big TVCs, the national celebrities, the big ticket national event sponsorships, and so on. Another chunk goes to the distributors in each state, to be spent on those activities the distributor, in conjunction with major dealers, deems fit. So the Cola majors will also be in the best position to deal with the new world that we see with the explosion of media. Today, when you have the options to talk to consumers in the languages that they speak, through print, TV, radio and the internet, the power of Hindi and English diminish. There will be need to create more and more communication in local languages. The most significant impact that I see is that the budgets for the national celebrities and the Hindi TVCs will come down, diverted to regional celebrities and TVCS in local languages. This will happen to the most well-penetrated of national brands. Lets face it, a ShahRukh Khan doesnt stand a chance against a Dhanush in Tamil Nadu. Thats one example, and thats enough. The Colas are just one example, but there is no doubt that all welldistributed FMCG firms will be under pressure to change the national versus regional balance, forced by, I say again, the explosion of new media vehicles in the regions. The national budget, in time, will be less than the sum of the regional budgets. Central marketers, faced with the squeeze on their budgets, will, in turn, squeeze their creative agencies. (I must add that I see this happening in
136
products with depth of penetration. It will not happen, for example in cars or air-conditioners). They will look hardest at the budgets for television commercials. Theyve already squeezed the daylights out of their largest cost-head media, so theres no room to touch them. Clients are also coming to get a better sense of the margins that creative agencies have in films. Oh, yes, they do have a better sense of the quiet deals between the production houses and creative agencies, so they know how squeezable you are. To make matters worse, as weve discussed earlier, clients are more than happy to meet prospective partners including independent production houses. Unknown to you, clients are meeting production houses, looking at their showreels, getting a sense of the costs and comparing them to what you were paid for your last few films. In the last year, weve seen, literally, hundreds of new production houses being born, and each of them is knocking on marketers doors, bringing the price down. Ask those who run the largest production houses in the country, and this is what you will learn: 1. This year has been tougher than last year 2. Margins are lower than last year 3. Loyalty in agencies is dropping 4. Competition is increasing A couple of years ago, I was having a drink with Rahul Welde, Vice President - Media at Unilever for the Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey region. and we were talking about the developments in communication specific to supermarkets. He spoke of how the day was not far when they would know how well a new commercial was doing almost in real time by the sales numbers that they would be able to receive. If the sales went up, the communication was working. If the sales were flat or went down, the communication failed. In such an instance, he believed, the offending
137
communication would be yanked and replaced by one that would have to be created, based on feedback quickly received. He saw four impacts of this new measurability: 1. The production cost per piece of communication would have to come down 2. The turnaround time for a new piece of communication would come down dramatically 3. The life of a piece of communication (even if it is good) would come down 4. Creative agencies would have to learn data and measurement If Welde was ahead of his time then, I think the time has come for Indian agencies to ponder on Weldes thoughts of two years ago. Ive been thinking of it from the evening he shared his views, and I can now smell the coffee. Take a look at what Prasoon Joshi said in September this year ion an interview to Business Standard. I see a short-term approach to advertising rather than a long-term one. Its more about being here and now. So, yes, duration of campaigns is shorter, budgets tighter. The emphasis is on promotional schemes. While at one level it is understandable, in my view, when times are uncertain, the focus should be even more on brand-building rather than consumer promotions. Of course you need promotional schemes to lure consumers to the marketplace, especially when sentiment is weak and inflation is eating into household budgets. But when active brand-building is abandoned, even temporarily, it sends the wrong message to consumers. They begin to wonder what is keeping the brand silent. This may not augur well for the long-term health of the brand. The prudent thing for agencies to do is to address this elephant before your clients force you to. Its no secret, anymore, that some clients are
138
deciding on the production house you will work with. More of this will happen, unless you demonstrate your commitment to helping the client do his job well. For starters, you could do things like the following: 1. When you review an extravagant concept before presenting it to the client, do ask yourself, are their more economical ways of saying the same thing? 2. Does this have to be shot in South Africa? Cant you shoot in Goa? 3. Is post-production in London really required? Cant we get the same in Singapore? Or in Bandra? 4. Does the crew need to be as large as it is? Does everyone have a defined role to play? 5. Does this have to be shot on location? Cant technology help? 6. Is the director who is demanding a monumental fee the only director who can do the film? Can he be squeezed? Also bear in mind, as in the case of Matt Seddon and my theory, that more and more international production houses and film professionals will look at India for business. Some already are. Some are getting organised and getting set for India. For example, the Mumbai London Advertising Forum 2011, organised by the Advertising Producers Association of the UK, took place in Mumbai from 7 to 9 November 2011. Essentially, the event comprised two days of presentations at the Blue Frog, where 20 speakers, 10 of whom were delegates from the UK and 10 of whom were Indian advertising people presented. Then you have Mofilm. What is Mofilm? You could ask marketing heads who met them at Goa last year and will meet them again this year. Till you do, Ill give you an idea, straight from their website: MOFILM is a global crowdsourcing company that connects some of the worlds biggest brands with our community of 50,000 filmmakers in more than 140 countries around the world.
139
Many of the worlds biggest brands use us to provide them with breakthrough content that can be used online, or to create memorable advertising campaigns that can be broadcast during occasions such as the Super Bowl. Lets face it, film production, too, is largely headed the creative agency way, and being increasingly seen as commodities by most advertisers. If, as Welde predicts, the life of films reduce, the premium one would be willing to pay for a big-name director or big name production house will reduce as well. Tarsem for Coca-Cola was fine when you knew you would run the film for a year. Tarsem for Coca-Cola will not be fine if the life of the commercial is a month.
140
Who are the person- brands of tomorrow as the old guard starts edging toward 60, towards retirement? Based on my thoughts on the needs of tomorrow, Ive made a list of those I would watch closely, especially if it came to retaining the individuals, buying an agency with one or more of them in it, hiring them where possible or look out for them starting off on their own. Its not a ranking, its but an alphabetically arranged list, based on their first names. Its an odd number, all of 34. I started the list without pre-deciding on a convenient round number. Abhijit Awasthi, Agnello Dias, Ajai Jhala, Ajay Gahlaut, Anil S Nair, Arun Iyer, Bobby Pawar, Colvyn Harris, Joseph George, Josy Paul, Juju Basu, Kartik Iyer, Madhukar Kamath, Mahesh Chauhan, Malvika Mehra, Mohit Jayal, Nitesh Tiwari, Nitin Pradhan, Prasoon Joshi, Pratap Bose, Praveen Kenneth, Priti Nair, R Balki, Rajiv Rao, Ravi Deshpande, Rohit Ohri, Sajan Raj Kurup, Sambit Mohanty, Santosh Padhi, Satbir Singh, Senthil Kumar, Sonal Dabral, Subhash Kamath, Swati Bhattacharya and V Sunil. Theyre the people who will run the future. Some of them, because they know how to run large organisations, which very few know how to. Some of them, because they get the new communication task, where traditional media meets digital meets experiential meets PR. Some of them get the needs of the evolving client. Some know how to collaborate. I need to add one more name. Whether he is in Ogilvy or retired or semiretired, he will continue to have a significant influence on the business of advertising in India. To truly understand what his influence has been, go through the list of 35 above and count how many have worked with Piyush Pandey. Hell be there.
141
So how do the BIG networks stack up? Which of the networks is best placed to deal with the massive changes which we will witness over the next few tough years as the global economy deals with slow or no growth? What are the challenges that they have, peculiar to themselves? To me, WPP is, by a country mile, the best placed to deal with the challenges described in the book. They have the most person-brands and in the Indian context, thats a significant factor. Having said that, there are some areas that will concern them. To begin with, O&M is the best placed of all WPP agencies. Indeed, its the best placed of all the network agencies. Its got robust offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. Piyush has, over the past five years, ensured that each office is an office of creative excellence, not letting the talent feel that they are not part of a winning agency. Good work is produced in all offices. The problem with O&M in India has to deal with two problems, both HR related. The first is to figure out how to motivate talented creative to stay in the agency. Take the case of Malvika Mehra and Amit Akali. Once theyd tasted blood with the success of Bingo (and other brands) in Bangalore, where do they go from there? Mumbai was closed, as it already had Abhijit Awasthi and Rajiv Rao. To them, the answer was, look out of O&M, and off they went to Grey Worldwide. O&M has proven that it is a great place for nurturing talent, for bringing out the best in the creatives. The challenge for HR is to figure out how the talent is motivated to stay. That involves two issues more responsibility and more remuneration. Part of the solution lies in dealing with the second problem: Size. O&M, like many other network agencies that follow, has costs and organisation structures that are built on the old revenue model and that has to be
142
dismantled anyway. The agency size must be trimmed, the people cost needs to come down so that they can continue to compete with agencies built in the new era. Theyve already embarked on a new focus in Neo@ Ogilvy, and that should be a considerable contributor in the way the agency handles the new demands. JWTs biggest problem is managing the morale and the leadership changes theyve seen of late. Losing Rohit Ohri, manager of their biggest India office, was a big blow. Losing Agnello Dias is another big blow. Seeing work of three solid brands, Airtel, Hero and Times of India, created by other agencies cannot be easy to swallow. Bobby Pawar has a job no one would envy. He comes to JWT from Mudra, where he won a bucketful of awards. He steps into the shoes of Agnello Dias, who has covered himself in glory after turning, for a short while, independent. The largest office, business wise, has seen a change in the management leadership as well with Ohris departure. The big plus is Pawars India track record. He joined Mudra, a competent and nonflashy agency, and turned it into a power to reckon with. Its the size of JWT that will be more than a handful: three big offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and three relatively smaller ones in Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Another big advantage for Pawar is that his colleague at Mudra, Max Hergerman, who headed Tribal DDB, now heads JWT Digital, as Pawar already is more than comfortable with digital and is comfortable with integration with digital. So Pawars task is to get the creative team back to high motivation levels and thats no small ask. Meanwhile, Colvyn Harris will be hoping that the Pawar decision was the correct one and managing the motivation in the non-creative areas. Additionally, since he has, over the years, led from the front and been the
143
face of the agency, his job will also include assuring clients, especially Delhi clients, that all is well with the agency despite the exits of Ohri and Dias. As with O&M, the rightsizing exercise needs to begin in earnest as well. Hes got another problem: Contract. With his promotion in September, Harris will become South Asia CEO (India, Sri Lanka and Nepal) and take charge of Contract Advertising as well. So what happens to Ravi Deshpande, chairman and chief creative officer, Contract Advertising? Till Harris September promotion, both he and Deshpande reported to Micheal Maedel. Now Deshpande will report to Harris as will Umesh Shrikhande, CEO, Contract. Thats the task for Harris -to get both Deshpande and Shrikhande to be comfortable working under his leadership. If he does manage to convince them, Harris will breathe easy. If Deshpande and /or Shrikhande choose to leave, Harris will be saddled with the tasks of managing morale, managing clients and managing revenues at Contract as well. Itll be more difficult than the JWT quagmire, in a way. Contract has a work culture which is very different from JWTs insofar as it has, in the past 5-6 years, clearly projected itself as a creative-friendly agency, with a creative face in Deshpande. As a result, Contract has found it easier to hire and retain creative talent. The size of the agency is such that, between Deshpande and Umesh (who work brilliantly as a team) they are accessible to the entire agency. The loss of Deshpande, if it happens, would be a big loss, the loss described earlier when a person-brand leaves an agency. The pluses at Contract are that they are both digitally aligned and design aligned, so, as far as future-proofing is concerned, theyre in a good place. Then we come to Grey Worldwide. Of all the successful network agency offices, Greys must be the youngest by average age, making the
144
agency well-equipped to deal with the transitions of the immediate future. What the agency has done successfully since Mehra and Akali joined is to become known more as a creative agency than has been the case in the few years preceding. Mehra and Akali are clearly the faces of the agency, with Jishnu Sen staying away from the limelight. Having said that, what Greys new creative abilities need is stronger and more forceful servicing and new business development. There are too many accounts where the RoI isnt too good, which results in creative resources being utilised inefficiently. Greys disastrous adventure with event management company Rams is in stark contrast to JWTs success with Encompass was a lesson in the importance of integration, alignment and collaboration. Greys PR division folded up a few years ago as well, again underlining the problem with integration. Greys average employee age will help them in the digital space, and their size is such that they will be able to compete on retainer fees with many of the new kids in town. The biggest challenge? Overall quality of people in the middle and lower rungs. The other WPP agencies are not worth spending too much time on, except to say that Y&R will come to India strongly in the next couple of years. It will, because it has to. Clients of Y&R cannot be tossed around like a football and a solution must be found. Omnicom is a bit of a mixed bag. In terms of size of assets, theyre considerably better off than they were a decade ago. Theyve now got 100 percent in TBWA India, a majority stake in DDB Mudra, a fully owned subsidiary in BBDO India and a stake in RK Swamy BBDO. Additionally, theyve Proximity, which is currently managed by BBDO. BBDO India is the newest of the lot with, therefore, a new cost structure. Theyre lean, mean and hungry, and beautifully poised for the future. Their ability to work with partners has been proven with their work for Aviva and for Gillette. Their digital capability in Proximity has been underlined with the Visa TVC (which was before the Visa global account moved to BBDO from TBWA). The Jhala+Paul team works well, with
145
a lot of mutual respect, which allows Paul to be the face of the agency. Omnicom must be celebrating each time they think of BBDO India. Not so much TBWA India (which Ive dealt with earlier). [Disclaimer: I worked with TBWA India under the original promoters of Anthem, which TBWA acquired]. TBWA India still struggles to find its way, even if, for the first time in the history of the Indian entity, it made a mark at Cannes and at other awards shows in the last year. Tequila, their DM arm, launched after the 100 percent takeover, came a cropper as well. The PR division is closed. The agency business plods along. Thanks to downsizing, they might have improved from a bottom-line perspective, but that is not why they acquired the agency when they did. What can be done? Sadly, the answer is a complete overhaul. Alternatively, if they want to play catch up, TBWA India will have to acquire another Indian agency for the billing something I do not think they will have the appetite to do. What will happen, then? A change at the top, and hope for the best. Im not going to take a punt on this one. RK Swamy BBDO is so completely un-Omnicom that it stumps me. Sure, it makes money but thats not the only thing Omnicom agencies do. They churn our great, exciting, vibrant advertising for their brands. RKS is now an agency with an older DNA (and there are others). The Swamy brothers have cashed in reasonably well with the stake sale and the compensation for allowing BBDO to enter Indian with second company. The agency does well with government and public sector clients and clients who are relationship dependent. The first category will continue to grow, the second will not, as clients, as Ive mentioned earlier, are happy to flirt. Despite having two iconic brands (Mercedes Benz and Raymond) RKS is not known as a creative agency. Its solid and boring, and not the kind of agency that young entrants to the industry want to join. They will have a problem with attracting talent, especially when sibling BBDO is doing vibrant, cool work. DDB Mudra has a bit of a tough time ahead. Theyve lost people at
146
the top: Bobby Pawar, Sandeep Vij, Arijit Ray, Sudarshan Banerjee and Max Hegerman to name a few. In addition, they lost Anurag Gupta, the chied strategy officer at Mudra Max, last year. With these losses theyre down to just three faces in Madhukar Kamath, Pratap Bose and Sonal Dabral. The losses are interesting: Sandeep Vij was the face of Mudra Delhi, Bobby Pawar was the face of Mudras creativity, Max Hegerman represented the digital face of Mudra, Sudarshan Banerjee was the business development face and Arijit Ray was the Bombay head. Anurag Gupta oversaw a large chunk of their revenues from experiential marketing and outdoor. These are big, big losses, and Kamath, Bose and Dabral will not have it easy, first in replacing them and next in getting the newcomers to ease into their roles and become effective. Bobby Pawars role in changing the image of Mudra to a creative agency is significant. From no-hopers, they were breathing down the neck of O&M as far as awards are concerned. Dabral, Pawars replacement, doesnt do too badly on the awards front either but his current situation will not allow him to focus too much on this area. And he shouldnt. The next couple of years will be tough going for Mudra I see it as a period of consolidation, and Im certain DDB would see it similarly. What does IPG have in India? Its got Lowe, its got FCB, its got McCann Erickson. If I were the IPG executive sitting in New York and India was my remit, Ill be doing a jig. Lets begin with Lowe. Its a tightly run ship. After the exit of Prem Mehta, its been clear that its run by R.Balki so it was transformed into a creative agency. The unassuming Joseph George is slowly but surely growing into the CEO function, much in the style that Ranjan Kapur chose to run Ogilvy. Naveen Gaur looks after the Delhi business with competence. Deepa Geethakrishnan, their president in charge of creative, chooses to keep a low profile, as does Subbu, S.Subramanyeswar, who heads the planning function, Arun Iyer is coming into his own as a national creative director [Disclaimer: I was a colleague of his at TBWA]. Whats heartening about Lowe is that there is a team in place,
147
not rag, tag and bobtail. Most of the names mentioned here have spent a decade with Lowe. Lowes got loyal clients, George runs an efficient, cost-aware organisation. Lowe is leaner than JWT and Ogilvy, so their competitiveness is better, price-wise. Will they have to right-size? I think they will have to do the same that I suggest Ogilvy does cut the numbers and up the quality of the middle and junior levels. What else? Id get more of those named to brand themselves better and more aggressively. On digital, thanks to their client Idea, and the category that it is in, mobile services, and to their Unilever clients, theyve been forced to think digital and that stands them in good stead. Then we come to McCann. Other than Prasoon Joshi, whose name can you recognise? For reasons best known to McCann, except for Joshi, the rest of the top management stays close to invisible. Govind Pandey is seen at some of the industry events, but thats that. Joshi, then, is stretched to the limit and it doesnt help that he has global responsibilities as well. As far as digital is concerned, McCann hasnt yet demonstrated that they are too enamoured by the medium. They will have to come to terms with it and embrace it. It doesnt help that Joshis first love is films; that causes the agency to focus, predominantly on TVCs. While they have a stable client base, McCann will have to move up a gear as far as new media is concerned. That will come from re-jigging their middle management and getting younger talent in. Obviously, they will also have to create a face that is seen as a clear number two in the agency a creative number two. That will be essential as they look from 2016 onwards. The million dollar question what if Joshi, who is already so involved in Bollywood, wants to direct a film? Will he be able to balance Bollywood and advertising as Balki has proven to be able to do? Much will depend on the number two creative face. That needs to be created, quickly. Next up from the IPG stable is draftFCB. What can one say about draftFCB? By and large, its a solid organisation, with loyal clients and the least attrition at the top in comparison with any of the top 20 agencies in India. Thats good and thats bad as well. MG Parameswaran, the
148
face of the agency, is first up for retirement. Once he goes, its like dominoes with the top management as they retire one by one. Willy nilly, we will see, in the next three-four years, massive changes at the top, beginning with the CEO. I cannot think of a single agency where something like this has happened by natural retirement and perhaps this state of affairs should have been anticipated earlier. draftFCBs creative, since the time KS Chax Chakravarthy joined, has been hard-working and effective, even if there has been no stand-work. As Ive said earlier, that wouldnt matter to their clients, as long as goods fly off the shelves. Thanks to their working on automotive brands, draftFCB has upped its digital play, and that sets them up well for the future. Their big problem? Getting the agency younger, replacing those who will retire and giving the incumbents enough time to settle into their new roles. Big pluses? The acquisition of a digital agency which is in the offing and formalising an active relationship with the global sports marketing major, Octagon (already a part of the group), which is also in the works. If IPG would be very pleased about India, the same cannot be said about Publicis Groupe. Publicis is in a mess in India, except for Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett has the solidity of Arvind Sharma and KV Pops Sridhar at the top and a host of aligned brands that they service efficiently. In keeping with Leo Burnetts ambitions, the India office also ensures that they do reasonably well at awards shows, even if the majority of work they win for is in the scam area. Ive dealt with BBH India at length earlier and, for the life of me, I cannot see it working with the three-legged stool structure. Someday, soon, they will have to dismantle the structure and name one individual as numero uno, or, sadly, see the creative partner leaving time and again. Theyre already lost two in a short period. Considering how well partners at BBH India are paid, life must be very uncomfortable for them to move out and this is something Simon Sherwood at BBH London will have to think about. Publicis India and Publicis Ambience are a shadow of their old selves, and show no signs of getting better. Its unclear what they stand for, as is the case with Publicis Capital. All three agencies are woefully short of faces,
149
and, except for work for globally aligned Garnier and Citibank, the work has been humdrum. Theres serious chatter on acquiring an agency (one of those listed earlier in the book), and that should give the billings a boost if it does, indeed, come through. The bigger issue is, even with the acquisition, what do these agencies stand for? What are their stories? I cant see one. Saatchi & Saathchis India game now seems to be a long term one. Well have to wait and watch as, today, one cannot yet see what theyre gunning for and where they see themselves. If theres no turnaround story, its Dentsu India. With Rohit Ohri now at the helm, with the acquisition of taproot, and with the hiring of Arijit Ray, Dentsu India is now set to be a decent Delhi/Mumbai player. I wouldnt go overboard, though. I would see taproot focusing on a handful of clients and not spreading themselves to thin working on Dentsu clients, so I do not foresee great organic growth. Rather, what Dentsu would do is to build their image as a creative powerhouse, challenging agencies in Delhi and Mumbai. Considering Ohris long stint in JWT Delhi, JWTs clients will naturally be seen as the low hanging fruit. Ohri is in advanced negotiations with a digital agency and that should sort out their digital play. Fortunately for Ohri, they agency under discussion has strong Delhi/ Mumbai operations only. I wouldnt rule out another acquisition of a traditional agency either. Overall, its all up from here for Dentsu, a very different story from a few years ago. Havas Group has just the one agency in India: Euro RSCG, now renamed Havas. Since Suman Srivastava left the agency, its been all downhill. Theyre suffering attrition at all levels, and that is a worrying sign. The work on the clients they do manage to get is decent but there siply arent enough clients. Theres one sliver of hope, though, their digital division, Euro RSCG 4D, is upping its game, reputation-wise. But, sadly, one asks, whats their story?
150
So, as I end this book, let me try and sum it up. 1. There will be a huge focus on cost 2. There will be a need to improve talent to align your team to the challenges of the future 3. There will be a need to make your team younger 4. Large agencies will have to reduce the number of people in order to stay competitive 5. Digital agencies will be a threat to traditional agencies traditional businesses as well 6. Media agencies will be a threat to traditional agencies traditional businesses as well 7. There is need for creatives to understand media and measurement 8. Agencies will have to figure out what they stand for and then tell the story 9. People brands will remain key to growth in India, and the next few years will see some significant people brands leave the business and others take their places 10. There is need for agencies to speed up on their understanding of Indian languages thanks to the fragmentation of media and the long tail. Get into relationships with local agencies or acquire them if the opportunity is big enough 11. Mobile will be a big space, bigger than anticipated and sooner than anticipated 12. Fat margins in films is a thing of the past, especially as the life of campaigns shrink 13. More expats will come to India, at various levels of the business
151
14. New agencies have a significant advantage thanks to their cost structure 15. The Vivek Suchanti model will be one to watch 16. Clients are willing to flirt and will flirt. There is no such thing as a loyal client 17. Collaboration will be key to being in control of an account 18. The role of the creatives will be supreme, the suits will have to step back; learn from Ranjan Kapur 19. WPP will still be in control of the business of advertising in India 20. Piyush Pandey will reign supreme as the most influential individual in the business, even if he retires in the next few years As I said at the beginning, you might agree or disagree with things I say in this book. The important factor is not the difference of opinion; what is important is that these differences are discussed. Discuss them on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/TheElephantsInTheRoom, discuss them with on twitter (anantrangaswami@twitter.com) or send me a mail at anant461@yahoo.com.
152

The Elephants in The Room

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Elephants in The Room

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Anant Rangaswami, 51, was, till May 2011, the editor of Campaign India magazine, of which he was also

Cover design by Anya Rangaswami

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

Outdoor Lions 375

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

Media Lions Cyber Lions Radio Lions

399 399 299 399

Design Lions 399

Promo & Activation Lions PR Lions 399

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016

The Elephants in the Room: The Future of Advertising in India 2016