MxMIndia

Category: Ad Agencies

  • The brand and the agency had engaged in a partnership earlier to launch Antara Senior Living’s first ‘community’

    Dentsu Impact bags creative mandate for Antara Senior Living

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dentsu Impact has bagged the creative and social media mandate for Antara Senior Living. The brand and the agency had engaged in a partnership earlier to launch Antara Senior Living’s first community in Dehradun.

     

    Amit Wadhwa

    Speaking on the win, Amit Wadhwa, President, Dentsu Impact said: “This is our second innings with Antara and it’s a matter of extreme pride for us that they decided to partner with Dentsu Impact once again. With Antara Senior Living expanding into a larger audience space and moving into a new and exciting phase, coming back couldn’t have been sweeter. The interesting thing here is that we are looking at the brand holistically, which includes digital at the core of it.”

     

    Renuka Dudeja

    Commenting on the partnership, Renuka Dudeja, Head of Marketing and Communications, Antara Senior Living added: “We are very happy to re-engage with Dentsu Impact. The first time around was very different as we were just bringing in a whole new dimension to senior living. The category was very nascent, and we had a huge task at hand to launch Antara Dehradun. Now that we are a well-recognised brand within the category, the focus is to make Antara Way of Life more relatable to a much larger audience and touch many more lives. Team Dentsu Impact with their vast and varied experiences seemed just the right partners in this journey. We look forward to a great partnership.”

     

     

  • The ceremony was held at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on 6th of November

    Divya Karani is Mumbrella’s ‘Agency Leader of the Year’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Divya Karani, CEO, Dentsu X India has been named the ‘Agency Leader of the Year’ at The Mumbrella Asia Awards 2019. The ceremony was held at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on November 6.

     

    Commenting on the win, Karani said: “I feel extremely honoured. To be recognized by the astute Mumbrella Asia Jury is absolutely gratifying. The accolade attests our differential design thinking that is rooted in understanding consumer motivations and in delivering experiences beyond exposures on our clients’ business.”

     

     

  • The industry bodies must act, create norms and ways of self-regulation, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Ogilvy-Vivo Plagiarism Case: The Industry Needs To Know

     

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala [Updated*]

     

    Like many others, I was super-excited when Ogilvy took Vivo to court for plagiarism. It seemed someone was gutsy enough to take on the issue the industry has been facing for a while.

    It led to a high decibel short buzz. There were debates and the industry was discussing the next course of action. What could be done? How can the menace of plagiarism be tackled? Why must one differentiate between straight plagiarism and pitches? How could the fraternity protect their creative IPR?

    Alas, just like the buzz around some other issues within the country, the campaign against plagiarism died an abrupt death.

     

    The Recent Development Is A Dampener.

    Now, in what was colloquially known as the Ogilvy- Dentsu – Vivo case and was primarily a direct dispute between Ogilvy and Vivo, the two parties  have come to an amicable agreement settling the dispute out of court. It is something everyone expected.

    It cannot be a case of  ‘I am Sorry’ or writing 100 times ‘No, we won’t ever do it again’. And hopefully, not a matter of a quid pro quo where future assignments come Ogilvy way.

    No, none of us can do anything. Not that we have done anything.

    Many people have welcomed the development.

    Is it about ‘Keeping it within the family’ and ‘not washing dirty linen in public’?

    The Ogilvy – Vivo case was one of the rare high voltage cases of Indian advertising that shies away from raising such an issue.

    Definitely two parties have a right to an out of court settlement. That is a defined process.

     

    It May Act As A Deterrent Or Set An Precedent.

    Yes, I agree, the point is well-made. Plagiarism was in the spotlight for some time. But, then it is half the battle.

    Yes, it may help the creative process and such act as a deterrent for possibilities. Maybe, people, agencies and clients will think twice before plagiarising creative concepts. However, it is setting an example. It may become a precedent, giving rise to claims and out of court settlements. And in that case, it will be detrimental to the industry.

     

    Industry Needs To Know.

    Sorry, Arnab Goswami, for taking your line, but may be the industry does need a hard and differential debate on the subject. I do think that the industry wants to know. In many ways, Ogilvy and Dentsu are leading agencies and Vivo is a large client, and hence, the industry has the right to know. And I am equally sure that nothing will be shared. That is what happens to out of court settlements which has non-disclosure as a necessary binding clause.

    However, if someone were to share, the industry would want to know:

    • What really happened?
    • What made Ogilvy withdraw the complaint?
    • What is the agreement?
    • Did Ogilvy accept it to be a case of creative-coincidence?
    • How did the creative-coincidence happened or was agreed?
    • If, yes, how did it happen?

     

    Expectations

    The problem of plagiarism is alive ad growing by the day.

    No solution has been found, presented or discussed in public domain.

    The issue must be kept alive. The industry bodies owe it to the industry to act, to create norms, ways of self-regulation, the process of internal reporting and decision-making. Any such thing will not be legally binding, but it will be a start.

     

    *  an earlier version of this article and the visual that accompanied it had mentioned the legal tangle between Ogilvy and Dentsu, when it was in fact between Ogilvy and Vivo

     

     

  • EIH has selected Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform to ensure seamless user experience

    Oberoi appoints Mirum for marketing cloud services

    By A Correspondent

     

    East Indian Hotels Limited, the flagship company of the Oberoi group, has appointed Mirum India for providing marketing cloud services. EIH has selected Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform to ensure seamless user experience through relevant communication for the right target audience and customers.

     

    Said Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO, Mirum India: “We are proud to be associated with one of the leading and internationally acclaimed names in the hospitality industry, The Oberoi Group. We are confident of implementing a seamless marketing automation system to address the customer needs, with our Salesforce platform expertise. We believe an integrated MarTech solution will support and positively impact the Group’s customer communication and engagement needs.”

     

     

  • United States advertising will grow +6.2% in 2019 to $244 billion in 2019 reports GroupM's This Year Next Year report

    US adspends to grow 4% in 2020: GroupM

     

    It’s still a few days before the first of the India forecasts are released by IPG Mediabrands and Publicis Media. And perhaps some India numbers from GroupM. But here’s GroupM’s review of 2019 and the forecast for 2020. Shape of things to come?

     

    U.S. advertising will grow +6.2% in 2019 to $244 billion. This will mark a fourth consecutive year of solid mid-single-digit growth for the industry on an underlying basis. Taking out directories and direct mail makes the health of the industry look even stronger, with a +7.6% underlying growth rate for 2019, although including political advertising in all years brings growth down a few notches to +3.8% all in. However we look at it, growth has been robust relative to the general economy, which is generally decelerating on an underlying basis.

    2020 still looks solid; we are forecasting +4.0% growth next year. We expect some softening next year as the economy reverts toward normalcy after a period of growth likely supported by factors including the 2017 domestic tax cut, an expanding federal deficit and low interest rates. As the effects of these fade, heightened trade barriers should concurrently become a drag on the overall economy. The 2020 Olympics also likely provide some marginal benefits, although we note that it can be difficult to identify the degree to which Olympic activity captures spending that would already have occurred or if it causes incremental spending to flow into the advertising market.

    In more tangible terms, the key variables driving our model are personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and industrial production (IP), which combined have a solid 0.8 R2 correlation with normalised (excluding political) advertising. PCE will likely decelerate versus 2019 levels, while IP might go slightly negative. Using these inputs without adjustment would yield a zero-growth domestic advertising market next year, although it would be hard to imagine a three to four percent nominal GDP/PCE growth economy not producing a similar rate of growth in advertising. Further, we know that a range of factors implicitly not contemplated by our model are holding up advertising growth.

     

    Digital-first marketers are likely driving much of the industry’s recent growth. We have previously written about the emergence of massively scaled digital brand owners whose businesses are endemic to the internet. We can point to Facebook, Amazon, Netflix,Alphabet, eBay, IAC, Uber and Booking.com as eight companies that are likely to spend more than $30 billion on advertising globally this year. Most of this spending will go into their home market, the U.S., adding billions of incremental spending every year into the domestic advertising economy. If we add in the next tier of digital endemics that may not have existed even a decade ago at anything like their current scale—think Wayfair, Chewy.com or any of the dozens of other digitally oriented companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising annually at this point in time—it’s not hard to imagine additional percentage points of growth emerging from these types of marketers.

    Such rapid growth from these marketers as we have seen in recent years should abate, and eventually they should normalise their growth rates. This would contribute to industry-wide ad spend deceleration. However, the U.S. is more likely to produce more of these kinds of marketers in years ahead than are most other economies, and so there is some reason for a degree of optimism around these figures. For example, we expect the new and existing streaming video services to account for multiple billions of dollars in domestic advertising spending by the time these services are all operating at scale.

    Overall, our best “feel” for the advertising market is to forecast a lower growth rate beyond 2021, and we incorporate a +3.0% expectation for subsequent years.

    Advertising revenue to pure-play internet-based companies should grow by double digits next year to reach $127 billion in revenue, representing a 50% share of industry revenue. We forecast digital pure-play media (i.e., excluding digital revenues associated with traditional media owners) will end 2019 with a +20% increase. Growth is still expected to be resilient next year, rising by +13% in our forecast and accounting for 50% of all media we track here. There is undoubtedly still room to grow. We can certainly point to other developed economies that currently see digital advertising accounting for higher shares of industry-wide spending, but we think the aforementioned digital endemic marketers will increasingly replace traditional companies that came before them. As those marketers necessarily skew their spending toward digital advertising, spending shares shift in the aggregate toward digital media.

    TV advertising is soft as we close 2019 and will end the year with a -7.0% decline (-2.0% excl. political), falling to $65 billion in ad revenue. Of course, many of the digital-first brands we’ve been discussing will also spend on traditional media, especially television. While defining a “digital brand” is highly subjective, those marketers are undoubtedly making up for most of the cuts in spending that other marketers appear to be making. Excluding political, underlying television advertising is trending toward a low-single-digit reduction during 2019. National TV advertising will be closer to zero, or even up very slightly, while local is down by low-single-digits. We expect this declining trend to persist, even with new forms of premium TV advertising regularly emerging. Certainly the ad-supported SVOD services will be attractive environments and their enhanced targeting capabilities will also appeal to advertisers. They will partially offset the ongoing erosion of traditional TV’s reach and frequency, but the core set of advertisers that have historically driven TV spending are likely to reduce the budgets they allocate to the medium.

    Outdoor should be the fastest growing “traditional” medium, up by +8.0% to reach $8.3 billion. Among other media, outdoor remains a standout for its capacity to sustain growth. This is supported by ongoing innovation, especially in digital out-of-home and OOH’s relatively unique capacity to generate, capture and sustain attention. These advantages are more apparent to many marketers as traditional television continues to weaken. Digital formats are increasingly important, now accounting for half of spending on OOH, with further share gains still to come especially as more automation takes root, including the emergence of performance-based targeting and data-driven trading. At a category level, digital brands and luxury marketers have provided the industry’s recent boost, and much of this has been concentrated in the largest urban markets. These factors have enabled the medium to grow by +8.0% this year, a level that is not likely to be sustained. We expect more modest +4.0 to +5.0% growth levels over each of the next five years. Notably, this represents a gradual increase in the share of spending in the overall advertising economy, which presently amounts to 3.4%.

    Radio is likely to be flat going forward. Radio appears set to hold on to its revenue base this year and is not likely to grow by much any time soon. While there is growing interest in the medium from national advertisers—especially supported by the likes of Pandora and Spotify as well as the emerging category of podcasting—the traditional base of geographically constrained advertisers that should be optimally positioned to support locally oriented media like radio has weakened over time.

    Print will continue to be weak, although it retains value as a niche medium. Unsurprisingly and despite improvements in measurement and its capacity to engage deeply with consumers, overall, the medium is still set to decline on an ongoing basis. Double-digit declines are likely to persist for newspapers and magazines, even including digital extensions. Directories will likely look worse, with -20% or greater declines going forward. By declining in only low single digits, direct mail looks somewhat more positive.

    U.S. political fundraising is approaching $16–20 billion for 2020; political advertising is expected to be $10 billion or more. So far, our forecasts have excluded politics from media spending because the scale of such activity meaningfully distorts year-over-year growth trends. Disclosures from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) covering the first half of 2019 indicate that total federal election fundraising was approximately $2 billion, up around +45% versus 2018 levels and +46% versus 2016 levels. During the prior two-year cycle, the first half-year accounted for only 15% of fundraising, and during the two-year cycle before that, the first half accounted for 16%. This indicates that fundraising through the end of 2020 will exceed $10 billion and could approach $12 billion for federal races, of which somewhere between 60–70% ($7–8 billion) would likely be disbursed during 2020. Local, nonfederal races are tracked separately and via different sources, but data from FollowTheMoney.org indicates that in 2018, there was a total of $8.7 billion in fundraising during that calendar year alone. Assuming that number rises next year, we could expect $16–20 billion in total political spending on all activities in the U.S. in 2020.

    How much of this will turn into media spending? Our understanding is that in a typical campaign, 60% of funds raised may be deployed into media spending, which would translate into $9.6–12 billion in total activity during 2020, which places our $9.8 billion estimate on the low end of this range. Consequently, we recognise that the current political cycle could lead to higher levels of spending than we currently incorporate into our forecast. As our estimates currently stand, and including political advertising in all years, we forecast 2020 advertising growth of +7.1% on a broadly defined basis (including directories and direct mail) or +8.1% on a narrowly defined basis (excluding directories and direct mail).

    Media is a means to an end; the marketer’s goal should be to optimise the mix of external and internal resources available to drive business growth. Putting all of this into some context, we are mindful that marketers can look at the data included here to gain a sense of the health of their media partners now and over the next several years. However, even a media owner in decline may still be investing in new and better ways to connect with audiences. At the same time, other media owners may be healthy in terms of revenue growth but may be neglecting to invest in everything they can to make their ad inventory more effective. As marketers continue to view media as a means to an end, investments in internal marketing infrastructure, marketing technology software and external services are among the other ways to support marketing excellence. We encourage marketers to put processes in place to optimise the balance between all of these elements. This will ultimately be more impactful than the choice to invest or stay away from any one type of media as it grows or declines in the years ahead.

  • The Dentsu Marketing Cloud Platform will operate as a marketing intelligence platform

    DAN Programmatic launches Dentsu Marketing Cloud Platform

    By A Correspondent

     

    DAN Programmatic has announced the launch of Dentsu Marketing Cloud Platform to power the network’s advanced analytics capabilities.

     

    Shamsuddin Jasani

    Commenting on the launch, Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar – South Asia said: “In our recent conversations with marketers, there is a growing pain point of limited data control due to the black boxes in which various ecosystems operate in. We are constantly hearing that clients are looking to gain deeper insights into their audiences and their journeys and to turn those insights into better brand and audience experiences. To address this concern, we have invested in developing from ground up the Dentsu Marketing Cloud Platform to present clients with greater insights to enhance marketing effectiveness and increase their control over their data.”

     

    The Dentsu Marketing Cloud Platform will operate as a marketing intelligence platform, which will house intelligence from the globally acclaimed DAN Data Labs ecosystem, first, second- and third-party data. It brings together advertising and analytics to help surface deeper insights, establish enriched customer connections and drive better marketing results.

     

    Gautam Mehra

    Added Gautam Mehra, CEO, DAN Programmatic & Chief Data Officer, DAN – South Asia: “Under the Dentsu Marketing Cloud Platform, clients will be able to better segment their audience cohorts using advanced analytics. With the integration of client owned or DAN owned pixels governing the flow of data, clients will be able to run proprietary multi-touch attribution models, market mix models and a whole gamut of services to not only provide better insights, but to deliver high touched consumer experiences through sharper targeting,”

     

     

  • Siddhartha Roy named Benglauru Branch Head, Mullen Lintas

    Leadership changes at Mullen Lintas, Bengaluru

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Bengaluru offices of Mullen Lintas and Lowe Lintas have announced new leadership appointments. Kishore Subramanian, who successfully led Mullen Lintas’ agency office for over four years, has passed the baton to Siddhartha Roy.

     

    Meanwhile Subramanian will be moving to Lowe Lintas as its Bengaluru office’s Planning Head.

     

    Speaking about the key changes, Virat Tandon, Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group said “I am delighted to welcome Sid to Mullen Lintas. In him, we found the skills to hyper-bundle the group’s services and give unfair share of attention to our brands. I was truly impressed by his entrepreneurial spirit and a future facing solutions mindset. I am positive that Mullen Lintas Bangalore has an exciting future under his leadership. I would also like to congratulate Kishore for giving Mullen Lintas Bangalore a formidable start by way of the brands and team he put together. Kishore is a planner at heart and that’s what he wanted to get back to. So, he takes over as the Planning Head for Lowe Lintas South. I am certain that he will bring his magic to the fabulous brands that Lowe Lintas Bangalore has and further develop the already strong planning product.”

     

    The new appointments are effective immediately.

     

     

  • Candid conversation with the Havas India Group CEO on how he and his agency network are doing…

    Rana Barua Unplugged. Building a full-service Havas

     

    A candid conversation with Havas India Group CEO Rana Barua on how he and his agency network are doing. This interview was taken a day before the Publicis Groupe news broke, else we would’ve touched on that too. Enjoy the chat with Rana Barua, who has spent around a year and two months helming Havas India as Group CEO. Enjoy

     

    So is it Achche Din at the Havas group in India? How’s it doing?

    You may call it ‘Good days’ because there is a roadmap. There is a clear vision,  there is definitely a clear direction and for us it’s a journey which has just begun. In a way it probably started a year or year-and-a-half back some months before I walked in. So, yes, Achche Din for the people working in Havas. For people like me, Bobby, everybody who has been working together and who will join us.

    But while internally we are going about doing our job, when we go back to the client’s business, one will have to be extremely cautious, about how we are budgeting, how we are planning our costs.

     

    You said that if you’re going to be cautious about costs, but you are also looking at hiring more. A bit of a contradiction there?

    No, it’s not a contradiction because these are all linked to plans. What I meant is that if you realise that a lot of these things have been linked to a business model and those costs have already been planned. So, it’s not cost linked to client revenue or something. If we are acquiring certain agencies, if we are getting bigger in size, then there are certain profiles or certain kind of expertise we require. Either we are getting it as an acquired agency or we are going to acquire that person from the market. So those are key profiles that we will require to manage this ship now, because from a three-agency structure we have now become five, very soon we’ll become six and the group continues to believe in investing in India.

     

    You mentioned about three agencies and the buzz in the market is that you are looking at acquiring something in the areas of experiential and public relations. I’m sure there’s a method to the entire plan.

    Yes it is.

     

    What is your 2020 vision? What will be discussing a year hence?

    The year 2019 was a foundation for us in a way. As I was telling some people recently, from a nobody, we’ve suddenly become a somebody in ecosystem. Even though one is much smaller than the rest of the networks, one is still a somebody. Why? Because, from 300-odd people, we have grown to around 700-odd people. With our final acquisition, we will cross around 1000-odd people and that’s a decent size for a network which was very small and unclear about which way it was headed. But next year, it is very clear that we have to not only grow all the verticals or all the companies that are going to come together. There are certain mandates that the group will be working in a very strong integrated way across all the companies which is why you are right, some of these accusations are being thought through very, very, very clearly. How it will fit into the overall Havas ecosystem? How will it benefit Vivendi as a group also? So, it’s keeping both the factors in mind that will it overall work for Havas? Which is a very strong advertising media and a help network globally, how does it also work across with our concern of Vivendi.

     

    This Vivendi bit sounds very good to talk about, but is there really going to be some integration with it?

    Yes it is, because I’m just keeping it very simple for you I will not even get into the very evolved model, what they work globally in. In India, even if I see just two parts. If I see music, which is Universal Music and if I see gaming, which is Gameloft. If I can manage to get integration with these two people right and if I see the kind of audience profile that India has, if you look at the people, the youth, the SECs, if you look down the line when you get into smaller towns and all across and if you say that music cuts across, so does gaming.

    If you ask me ‘have we kind of even dabbled on it?’ No, we haven’t. We haven’t dabbled at all because the year one has been extremely different challenge for us. But in a year or two, you’ll probably see a lot more of conversations around both UMG and Gameloft working with Havas. And to answer your question, clients are excited. They are definitely keen to know more.

     

    Excitement is of course is one, but at the end of the day, they have to put money on the table…

    You will see some examples by the first quarter next year. As we speak, there are conversations that have gone into the fast-forward stage. It was just a matter of time before we worked together on it.

     

    Let me ask you a very unfair question. You joined in October 2018 and have spent at a year and two-odd months at Havas. How would you rate your own satisfaction level with the way things have shaped up? On a scale of 0 to 10.

    So I would say, I’d probably be around 5-½-6 from overall rating points.

     

    You’re being unfair on yourself.

    No, I would like to score myself at an average of 8, which is what I normally work at. I would love to imagine a 10 always, but let the world decide that for me. I work personally at a rating of 15 out of 10. That’s the level I want to achieve for me and definitely my core team.

     

    The Rana Barua one has heard of in your previous stints, you are known to be very aggressive at Contract… almost like were a contract-killer. That doesn’t seem to be the case now.

    That’s also because the mandates are very different. Contract was a creative agency, just-get-it-off-the-ground kind of a mandate and, secondly, Contract had a massive, good reputation. All one had to do to ensure was to get the right people, get the energy back and you could get going from Day 1. I think in Havas’ case, the mandate has been very different. First to get it off the ground ws itself a big task. So I changed my entire approach here, You’ll [soon[ see the way I work. You’ll probably be witnessing a bit more of the last month or two because we’ve become very active in the business world and social media world, the kind of work that we have started putting out. There’s a lot more of integration stuff that is happening because the first three to six months was also about getting one of the biggest things back into order. So, I was extremely low profile.

     

    Which is what?

    Which was our very, very strong relationship with Reckitt and Havas Creative. That was a very large mandate for us to ensure that…

     

    Yes, that a lot of people have been talking of…

    Yes, of the 180 days in the first half, 120 days was spent in Delhi and Gurugram

     

    Tell me something, you know the unfortunate factor is that people look at , ‘what new accounts have you won?’ and at the end of the day, one expected you and Bobby to move with accounts from the previous job, but that hasn’t happened. Unfortunately nothing [much] has happened. Is that something that worries you?

    No, it’s not. Actually what has happened on the contrary is a lot more clients have come in and consciously one of the decisions has been to keep it off a lot of media conversations and just ensure that we get work out, rather than talk abou it. So we’ve won a lot of businesses, which is why the business has turned around for us this year.

     

    On the creative side?

    I’m talking about, just the creative side. Our next year is definitely much better than this year also because right now as we speak, we are probably going to be landing with at least three or four more clients. And these are all pretty large scale pitches.

     

    You are in the perception business so, if you don’t give the names of the accounts or clients…

    We have the names, we’ll give you all of the names of the accounts. So, we’ve got a list of clients that we won over the last 2-3 months which is pretty sizable clients and pretty good clients. And that’s keeping us busy.

     

    With decent retainership?

    Very, very decent retainers. Some of them are very, very large scale retainers. So, we are pretty happy and comfortable with where we have reached and to be honest that’s also the feedback from our global teams. Because they have seen the numbers and are pretty happy with the kind of clients. Our client base is about 20 close to 25 now and was abysmally low when we came on board.

     

    Let’s look at Havas business by business. First, Havas Media. Anita Nayyar has moved on to a larger role and Mohit Joshi is incharge. There were some murmurs of some disconnect at that time between Anita and the current dispensation at that time, but I think that‘s kind of eased out. How is the media business looking?

     

    Media business will be good this year. I don’t see any concern because we have had a tough Diwali. But if you see all our clients, nothing or nobody’s dropped out. So everybody stays.

    Overall, for media next year will be tougher. You can see the overall crisis that’s happening in the economy. That’s going to have an impact.

     

    You have Auto…

    We have Auto, we have e-commerce. We have probably got a healthy mix of; we may not have the largest mix, but we got a healthy mix of new clients. We got a lot of digital clients also, we’ve got digital business so, I cannot pinpoint and say that the mainline business is going down.

     

    But the general sentiment is that the retainership monies in [Havas] Media are not very high.

    Actually you can never build a model with retainership. It’s overall scale of the business that will help you and of course if you are sharper and if you’ve got a bit more of the larger digital pie, it helps.

     

    And then creative? What’s the scene now with the change of leadership in creative? The earlier person moved on and Bobby Pawar. You also had some others join in?

    I think Bobby and I are very clear about the roadmap. While we’ll keep growing and you will hear more about the client acquisitions, you will see more work coming out. But we’ll probably need one more year to get it off the block. By next year, we’ll become a decently midsized agency, from being a relatively small agency, which had maybe one large client called Reckitt. By mid-2020, you will see Havas Creative finally attending a midsize proper status.

     

    See, one is of course size, the other is in terms of the kind of creative work that comes out when you do have some small agencies also doing some great creative work, winning awards, etc. That also doesn’t seem to have happened.

    That will all happen next year because I think, this year was naturally an extremely challenging year for us. First we had to get clients into order then we had to get people back into shape. I think, by June onwards everything started getting going on. If you see the list of clients that we won post June, that’s when the game started.

     

    Let me put an uncomfortable question to you: while this thing about it taking time for things to happen is fine when you have ordinary generals, but here you have yourself and you have Bobby Pawar – the big shots, the maharathis of the business. Why should it take so much time?

    It’s not taking time, that’s what I’m saying. Let me repeat again. The first six months was putting house into order. The last six months which is post July, is when we’ve gone back into the market – starting pitching selectively. We’ve won businesses. It’s showing in our new business list. We’ve moved up to a position of around 8th or 9th. That’s why I keep saying, from a nobody to a somebody…

    Second stage would be now, putting the work out because all these businesses have come in the last month or two. If you look at Hike messenger service, the entire business was Harmon Kardon, picking up a very large-sized project from Dabur, then all the pitches that have happened in the last one month of which some announcements you’ll get to know maybe in a week or two. Again, we have picked up two. We are now being invited for the pitches which wasn’t happening at allWe’re getting invited for pitches for Delhi, because now they know there are people. They have reference points, because it’s not just us as reference points. We just tell the clients that why don’t you speak to this client who’s just signed us on and that feels good because, honestly, you’re right six-nine months back it was a bit of a thing that what do you do? How do you manage? What’s your story? What are your credentials? Because credentials is where you win a lot of these conversations.

     

    So, you’re saying 5.5 on 10.

    Okay, 6. For a person who works at around 9 and 9-½, it’s a 6 because of my last few months.

     

    How are the acquisitions looking?

    Acquisitions are looking good, they’re probably falling into shape slowly. There are a lot of plans at work. Think Design, Langoor.

     

    But they are small ticket.

    Yeah. Overall, yes. Easy to manage also, so it helps.

     

    Yeah, but small ticket means low revenues

    Yes, it helps. I’ll tell you why. Because, it’s easier to integrate. It’s easier to work together. It doesn’t really create an obstacle.

     

    How has it been culturally, in terms of the integration with the teams?

    With all the teams?

     

    Yeah.

    I would presume like any other initial time, it takes a bit of time, but then slowly and steadily once you get your backend, systems and processor working together it just makes it easier.

     

    Hmm.

    We have been having many conversations on many things.

     

    Conversations are good, but sometimes there’s overdependence on meetings and conference and workshops, etc.

    I agree.

     

    I’ve been pictures of many, many workshops that you have. Just too many of them?

    Not really because I think for us, it’s necessary. Since we are trying to built a culture

     

    But what really matters in most such businesses is the ‘dhandha’. If the ‘dhandha’ is there then everything falls into palce.

    So, that’s the point. I think you’re right. So in the next year, with the delivery of numbers I think, the overall morale will be in a much better shape. That’s what we need to do.

     

    Are you saying it’s not too great now?

    Definitely it is good. We’re all so new together. Somebody just walked in two months back, somebody walked in three months back, somebody is going to walk in a month later. I think, the idea is that how do you have six or seven companies together come together? Same vision, same purpose and ensure that you deliver to the common goal.

     

    In terms of people, are you looking at adding on some more folks on your creative and media, media for instance, earlier you had Mohit reporting to Anita. Now, it’s just Mohit so it there somebody whom you’re getting?

    No, so Mohit will continue to report to me and what we are trying to do is to just change the structure and probably look at some other resources which are required in the media world, in terms of certain profiles which probably are very necessary for today. We did get a head of investments, who came back. There are certain profiles that are clearly required. We have a digital head in the media world also, in the media agency. So to answer your question, there will be some very clear profiles we want to bring on board in media, but nothing in between Mohit and me as of now. In the creative world, yes we are going to chase…

     

    A deputy for him… in terms of looking at the Mumbai office?

    Yeah, so there is somebody within the system who’s been asked to work closely with him, who’s currently looking after the Delhi office,We also want to build Bengaluru, havin a big client in Swiggy there.

     

    And for creative?

    Yes we are relooking to restructuring the overall creative bit also. There will be some more names. A. a lot of business has increased so we need people. There’s a lot more of expectation from us on Reckitt so we are going to change some profiles.

     

    How are you in terms of your bottomline, topline? How is that working?

    It’s pretty healthy this year so from what we were… yes absolutely profitable.

     

    Are you earning more than you’re spending.

    Yes, absolutely.

     

    Are you looking at winning awards and participating in award show?

    Yes, we will. Yes.

     

    What is it that, is there something that keeps Rana Barua awake at night? Is there something at all? Or are you sleeping well? Given of course, Havas.

    Coming from networks where I have seen integration can collapse, you can just work in silos. Because, without any mincing words, if Havas doesn’t come together as a group of agencies, which is truly integrated and works with the scale and size it will become a huge challenge for itself. There are already too many large-size networks out there, right? So, I will never be alone, Havas Creative taking on some creative agency. I will never be alone, Havas Media taking on some other Havas Media agency. So, what is a big challenge I see for myself? If I have to keep on working it month-on-month, is to ensure that the group is truly working in a strong, integrated way.

     

    But that’s easier said, right?

    Yes, it tough.

     

    Do you think it’ll help in just destroying the existing structures and just making it one agency? Because right now you’re still Havas Creative and Havas Media.

    It is one, that’s the lucky part.

     

    P&L wise it still is…

    No, no. We’re sitting together. So, your creative and media, everyone is sitting together. Everyone sits together. It is genuinely working together. Most pitches are happening together because people don’t even ask for resourcing or support. In most networks, at least some of the size networks I come from, you would reach out via email to say that who will work with me. Here, the guys just walk into each other’s cabins, but they are all sitting next to each other.

     

    Would you like to call Havas a full service agency?

    It is a full-service agency.

     

    You still have different letterheads.

    No, that’s just the expertise for the clients but if there’s a creative presentation, the media head also goes as a partner and nobody even knows. You don’t get to know. So they’ve just don’t two pitches, where the creative and media agencies have gone together and pitched.

     

    Are you looking at outdoor also? Acquiring something…

    No, we do have our own outdoor unit and have a collaboration working with All About Outdoor. We are not looking at acquiring anything.

     

    I was asking you specifically because whether you were looking at the Dentsu route to grow and acquire.

    No, we are keeping it simple. We will only have one expertise and will never have multiple expertise.

     

    So let me ask you the question once again: how much would you’ve grown if we meet this time next year. Don’t give us numbers, just a 1x, 2x…

    In terms of people,  we’ll probably officially land up with 2x from where we are today.

     

    Revenues?

    In terms of overall toplinerevenue, we will definitely be double of where we are because of both acquisitions and organic growth.

     

    How would you like Havas to be described as? Cool, hot, profitable. Any word descriptor that you would like to give to Havas?

    If Havas can become genuinely, full-sized… what was the term you used?

     

    Full-service

    Full-service agency! It will truly be a kick for us because that will differentiate us as an outfit outside. Because that’s the intent actually.

     

    If you were to say how far are you from the target? Say if you were to give a Mumbai to Delhi travel example… where have you reached?

    In being a full size agency?

     

    Have you reached Borivali or, say, Mathura?

    As I said, I don’t see any results before next year. I’m very clear in my head how we are going about the entire…

     

    Are big bosses abroad happy to wait for the one year?

    As long as you are delivering the number, it is fine, but it’s sum of all parts working together. The individual parts have to deliver. Then overall as a sum, you have to deliver. Right now all the individual sums are working together and delivering.

     

    Well-oiled and no rusted components?!

    As of now, none. Like I said, it’s new. It’s so new. The creative has fallen back into shape. Media had a moment to just ensure that the momentum is far more. If you say, what do I lack? If you see, a lot more of aggression across the group. The group lacked aggression, the group lacked presence, the group lacked intact. The group lacked a lot of these things. You will see a lot of those happening right now. Because no point in being an empty vessel and making a lot of noise without clients, without issues. We had so many issues, so many problems. Plus we had to streamline all of that. First, get that out of the thing, get the people, then you’ll see a lot more of conversations.

     

    All problems over.

    All problems are definitely not going to be over. Problems will continue. I think idea is to just…

     

    But the big problems…

    Big problems, yes, you can say are over. Big problems are pretty much now been now taken care of.

     

    No rusted components now?

    No, I don’t see any of this.

     

  • India’s oldest experiential agencies is Havas’s third buy for 2019

    It’s Shobiz for Havas

    Image courtesy a screengrab of the popular game Pacman

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    In 1974, the veteran Alyque Padamsee commissioned one of the biggest event organiser Rehamatali Tobaccowala to launch Rexona in India. Tobaccowala wa known as one of the biggest wedding celebrations in Mumbai and beyond. And then Rehmatbhai, as he was popularly called, was involved with the Indian versions of Evita, Man of La Mancha and Jesus Christ Superstar.

     

    In 2016, Shobiz Experiential Chairman and Managing Director passed away at the age of 84. When in the early 1990s, this correspondent was to introduced to Rehamatali Tobacowala as the Father of the Indian Events and Experential Industry, the sector itself was in its infancy.

     

    Today, three years after Rehamatbhai’s his company was acquired by leading communications marketing services conglomerated Havas for what’s being billed as a handsome sum.

     

    This is Havas’s third acquisition in 2019, and perhaps its biggest. Shobiz may not be the #1 in size, but it’s decidedly the first and most experienced experiential agency. It employs over 300 professionals across its five offices in India. According to industry sources, a few years back Shobiz was close to inking a deal with WPP, but that didn’t happe. The current acquisition by Havas took over a year to fructify.

     

    Headquartered in Mumbai, the Shobiz portfolio boasts of over 142 recurring clients. While Sameer Tobaccowala, CEO, Shobiz will continue to oversee the business along with Vishnu Mohan, Chairman & CEO, Havas Group India & South East Asia, the daily operations will be led by COO Tejpal Singh Patpatia who will report into Rana Barua, CEO Havas Group India.

    In May this year Havas Group acquired Think Design, the leader in user experience consultancy and design in India, followed by the acquisition of Langoor a full-service digital agency led and driven by creative technologists in September this year.

     

    said Sameer Tobaccowala, CEO, Shobiz:

    “Crafting unforgettable brand experiences has the power to engage consumers in ways not seen before. Havas Group’s integrated approach to brand building coupled with their entrepreneurial spirit resonated with us. We are confident that this collaboration will unlock unprecedented growth opportunities for us and forge stronger consumer connections that foster trust, loyalty and business results. We are thrilled to be a part of Havas and look forward to a meaningful journey ahead, together,”

    Said Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO Havas Group comments in a statement: “India has increasingly become a priority for Havas, and even more so over the past 12 months. With the acquisition of Shobiz we have delivered on our ambitious growth plan to triple our footprint in India. Shobiz’s talented teams are renowned for their solid track record and their excellence in the planning and flawless execution of complex events. After strengthening our local digital and service design capabilities with the acquisitions of Think Design and Langoor, we can now significantly boost our activation and experiential offer on the rapidly growing events market in India. Shobiz is a precious addition to Havas and I welcome them warmly.”

     

    Added Vishnu Mohan, Chairman & CEO, Havas Group India & South East Asia:

    “Experiential marketing is a critical component of an integrated approach to brand building as consumers are demanding personalized and meaningful interactions across all touchpoints. The acquisition of Shobiz will further strengthen the breadth of our multi-disciplinary Village model of working and bring on board a different kind of creative skills set. Shobiz’s transformation from a leading production house to be one of the country’s leading experiential communications agency is impressive and I am delighted to welcome Sameer and his entire team to the Havas family.”

     

    Said Rana Barua, CEO Havas Group India: “Shobiz’s acquisition adds an enviable strength to Havas Group with its forte in the experiential space. Shobiz’s thirst for innovation, impact and results, adds tremendous value to our existing offerings as a group, and seamlessly fits in with Havas Group’s multi-faceted, integrated, client centric “Village” style of working, giving us a distinctive advantage and making it a much stronger force to reckon with.”

     

    So what’s next for Havas. Accordiing to the grapevine, it has started discussions with a few leading PR agencies for a buy. But that’s possibly next year.

  • The campaign has been conceived in the form of a popular Christmas carol

    Ogilvy & Licious unveil year-end festivities

    By A Correspondent

     

    Licious has launched the Licious Carol on the occasion of the festive Christmas season. The campaign has been conceived in the form of popular Christmas carol, Jingle Bells.

     

    Said Sujoy Roy, Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy, Kolkata: “We wanted to do something unique for the holiday season. The point of the exercise was to talk about Licious Spreads, without being too preachy. Besides, it’s meant for the holidays. Why not have some fun with it? The best thing about the musical is that one can hum along with it,”

     

    Added Manohar Kumar – Business Head, Packaged Food Business, Licious: “Licious Spread is a unique & an innovative offering from Licious. Its India’s 1st Meat spread, a completely new category that currently doesn’t exist in the Indian market. The key marketing task has been not only to drive awareness but also to educate consumers about its usage & consumption occasions. Given the festivity around & popularity of Christmas jingles, it’s an interesting approach of communicating the message in a fun way. Best thing about this musical is that it cuts across age and gender.”

     

     

  • She will be reporting to Nikhil Mahajan, EVP and Chief Growth Officer

    BBDO India appoints Jazryk Gill as Vice President

    By A Correspondent

     

    Suraja Kishore, Jazryk Gill and Nikhil Mahajan

    BBDO India has strengthened its Delhi management team by getting on board Jazryk Gill as Vice President. She will be reporting to Nikhil Mahajan, EVP and Chief Growth Officer. With close to 13 years in advertising and marketing, Gill has worked in Dentsu Marcom, Wieden+Kennedy, Cheil and Lowe Lintas.

     

    Commenting on the ‘s appointment, Suraja Kishore, CEO, BBDO India, said: “Jazryk is a welcome addition to our leadership team at Delhi. She brings with herself a great blend of purpose and performance orientation to our business. Her sense of ownership is inspiring and her passion is contagious. I am certain she will be add more value in what we have to offer to our partners and she will be an active agent of change that we are championing at BBDO.”

     

    Added Nikhil Mahajan, General Manager and EVP and Chief Growth Officer – BBDO India: “Jazryk is a new age thinker and a doer. Her effortless understanding and knowledge of ‘Now’ is a great ingredient for shaping the future of our brands and the role we play as brand custodians. She has successfully practiced and demonstrated the power of media agnostic ideas that moves today’s generation and we can’t wait for her to take that to the next level here at BBDO.”

     

     

  • Prior to joining Madison BMB, Ameet was a Business Head at Creativeland Asia

    Madison BMB appoints Ameet Joshi as General Manager

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ameet Joshi

    Madison BMB has appointed Ameet Joshi as General Manager. Joshi has over 18 years of experience across advertising agencies and was until recently a Business Head at Creativeland Asia.

     

     

     

    Raj Nair

    Commenting on this appointment to the team, Raj Nair, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, Madison BMB said: “Ameet is a welcome addition to the Madison BMB team as General Manager. He comes armed with nearly two decades of experience of working at leading creative agencies, on diverse industry portfolios. Armed with an infectious enthusiasm to get things done, Ameet will lead all account management functions and conversations with all our key clients. With a focus on adding value on current and new relationships by directing all aspects of business strategy and maintaining consistent strategic inputs and co-creating value for brands and businesses. He will also help in guiding the agency focus on new business development strategy. I look forward to him partnering me in taking Madison BMB to greater success.”