By Anuka Roy
The first thing that gets your attention about Stratagem Media is its logo. It is a chameleon. And if you are wondering the reason behind this, it’s simple. A chameleon does not change colour, it merely blends in with as per the need of the hour. So, the belief as mentioned in the company website is, “In fact to a chameleon, stratagem is inherent! Its adaptation of colours is its natural stratagem. Similarly, at Stratagem Media, we believe that we reflect the colours of our client and adapt to their ever-changing requirement from time to time.â€
Founded in mid-1991, by media services veteran Sundeep Nagpal, Stratagem operates in the fields of media buying, planning and consulting. Currently, the company is celebrating its silver jubilee year. On this occasion, we caught up with Nagpal to know more about his journey, the current trends in the industry and more.
The beginning
There is no answer to why I began. I was young and it was an impulsive decision to be on my own. I began by just actually offering whatever I thought I knew to anybody who I thought could use my services. So, I had been lucky that I had worked on some of the best brands in the country by that time. I decided to offer my services to media professionals, initially to those agencies that did not have in-house media planners. Thankfully, there were maybe half a dozen of them who said that we do not want somebody full-time and were looking for somebody part-time. That is exactly what I wanted, so I said I can give you part media planning service and I will operate out of my office but I will also come here and take briefs whenever it is required. There were three or four such agencies who tied up with me later in the sense that they became clients. And, that is how we started.
Then and now – the difference in media planning
Now, the service of media planning, first of all has not only become very large in scope because the media players have increased so much but also it is more easily available. There are individuals, agencies who have enough of expertise now. In those days, there were a very few of us and we were somehow a rare breed those days. Obviously, now, one has to think about how to stay afloat.
There are many brands who now know what media is planning, they understand it, and they get some of the nuances, even the Indian entrepreneurs they know about it. Now, I do not have to explain to people what I do. Earlier, I had to explain to them in great detail that this is what I do but now I do not have to explain so much.
Milestones
Somewhere in the mid-90s, my company was asked to start a new kind of an initiative with seven medium-sized agencies, which was a media buying initiative on behalf of all those seven media agencies combined. That was a milestone because nobody had done it before, we did not know how to go about it and we went and did it. Whatever time it lasted, it did not last for more than two and a half years but whatever it was, it was perfectly natural. There was no worry about why it was not working. Everybody understood these were the pitfalls and therefore we may not be able to push it forward. But that was a fantastic time because for me it was a great moment as I had done this.
In 25 years, there have three or four milestones. Again, somewhere in the mid-90s we started working for brands who not only wanted to use media planning but media companies such as newspaper groups and television channels wanted to understand how to increase their advertising revenues. So, we started consulting with them. We used the same knowledge and background to help them to earn more advertising revenue, again something nobody had done before. I was very happy that I am to do this and continue to do that even today.
Then, the third milestone was in the late-90s where we stopped working with agencies because the entire industry changed because these agencies either they were absorbed by other larger agencies or they lost their main clients or for whatever reasons. So, I reinvented the whole process and was working directly with brands, with advertisers. That was another milestone for us.
We did a couple of other things which were very unique. One was, we worked with a large financial investment company on a three months project where they wanted to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a particular television network in the current competitive scenario. That was a humongous exercise which we never realised that we would be capable enough to do it but we did it.
Now, of course, we are looking towards a few new things as well in the area of digital perhaps.
The evolution of clients
They have had to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff- this is good and this is not and this is what is going to work for me. Earlier, they did not bother and left it for the agency to bother. Secondly, despite the fact that they have learned something, unfortunately or as a parallel the number of options has grown hugely. They are still grappling and they are still not consistent with what they want to try. See, as a final result of any particular communication exercise there could be many things that could have gone wrong. Very few people understand how to identify what has exactly gone wrong in the communication exercise which is an overall thing or let us say in the brand’s bottom line or top line. There could be 100 reasons but you should not give up what you have started on. Try it consistently, identify the problems and move on. Plug the loopholes, most people do not want to plug the loopholes. That is probably the wrong attitude.
Surviving the obstacles
Any business goes through ups and downs because of the market. Initially, like I said, I was quite content providing my services to the ad agencies but the mid-sized agencies I was working with were either absorbed by larger agencies or they lost their main clients, the big pitfall that happened for me was that I was not ready for it. I did not even expect it. And, it happened almost overnight. I was forced to stand up on my own again. So, that challenge happens anywhere. Now, for example, if I was to look for challenges, how do I keep pace with changes that are happening in the media sector and I do not want to call it just digital because within digital there are so many options. And, I do not want to necessarily say I am an expert in all of them. But I must know how to judge one from the other. Once I know that, I need to know how I execute it for a client. We have a very small set of clients and thankfully some of them are very happy with us in the sense that within the realm of whatever they require we have delivering well enough which is now nothing to feel very happy about but the next thing is how do I get some growth for them as well and for me as well.
Looking forward
The future is a mix of some trepidation in my mind along with some amount of excitement. There is excitement about doing something new but at the same time there is a concern that will I get it right.
By Vikas Mehta
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