MxMIndia

Category: MEDIA

  • The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch that went on for around three months

    PayUMoney appoints Leo Burnett as creative agency; Mindshare to handle media duties

    By A Correspondent

     

    Online payment solutions company PayUMoney is set to launch its first multi-media advertising campaign to raise awareness about its consumer offering. This will be a nationwide campaign that will run across months and target online buyers. PayUMoney has appointed Leo Burnett to handle its creative duties. The agency will be looking at the whole creative process and will be the agency on record for the Gurgaon-based company.

     

    The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch that went on for around three months. The pitch process also included the evaluation of a few media buying agencies and Mindshare netted the media planning and buying mandate.

     

    Varun Jha, Marketing Director at PayU India said, “Leo Burnett’s thought processes on contemporizing the brand thought, creative connect, out-of-the-box thinking and passion made them an obvious choice.We are confident that the team at Leo Burnett understands the unique nature of PayUMoney’s business model and will be able to execute a communication strategy that will enable us to grow in the exciting segment of online payments. We are excited to share our passion with Leo Burnett team to take PayUMoney to the next level.”

     

    Samir Gangahar, Executive Director, Leo Burnett commented, “PayUMoney is transforming the way Indians make online payments. We are happy to associate with them at such an early stage in their journey and help them in making PayUMoney synonymous with a simple payment solution for every need.”

     

    Ravi Rao, Leader South Asia at Mindshare said “Online Payment is on the cusp of a major revolution and we are proud & excited to partner with PayuMoney, the leader in this space. We see great opportunity to engage with this evolving consumer and bring about behavioral change.”

     

    PayUMoney is accepted as a payment option on more than 62,000 websites. It offers unique prepositions like buyer protection and reward points to users who pay through PayUMoney.

     

  • Annual Digital & Media Predictions highlight how to optimizenative advertising, paid micro-video and location-based marketing

    Millward Brown unveils Media & Digital predictions report for 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    Millward Brown has released its Annual Digital & Media Predictions for the year ahead. For the seventh year running, the company is providing marketers with a clear guide to the challenges and opportunities of the next 12 months.

     

    Authored by Millward Brown experts from around the world, the 2015 report identifies the need for marketers to empower programmatic media buying systems to do more than simply access cheaper and more targeted impressions.

     

    To make this transition, marketers will need to build creative that can be customized and seamlessly delivered by media buying algorithms. Millward Brown says brands that achieve this will be able to create a new form of dynamic and relevant storytelling.

     

    At the same time,marketers will need to ensure the advantages that come from programmatic targeting are not delivered at the expense of other key campaign objectives such as communicating brand messages and building long-term desire. Successful programmatic providers will increasingly differentiate themselves based on their ability to deliver campaigns that not only drive behaviors but also improve brand metrics.

     

    “To date, the debate around programmatic media has been firmly centered on the ‘how’ of operations and behavioral metrics such as cost per click,” said Mark Henning, AMAP Head for Media &Digital at Millward Brown. “In 2015 we expect marketers to be equally focused on the benefits programmatic may be able to bring to building meaningful brands and the opportunities to leverage it more creatively.”

     

    Prasun Basu, Managing Director, South Asia Region at Millward Brown said,” Millward Brown’s Annual Digital & Media Predictions provide a guide to how marketing is likely to change in the next 12 months. A series of media conclaves in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru will provide marketers and media professionals a platform to discuss these trends and exchange ideas that will impact the way brands reach out to consumers.”

     

    Millward Brown also anticipates other important changes in the media landscape around the world and describes in the 2015 predictions how marketers can “get media right”.  These include:

    :: As native advertising becomes an established medium, advertisers should partner with best-in-class publishers who strike the right balance between advertising and editorial.

    :: New and exciting paid marketing opportunities will emerge on micro-video platforms, but only brands who know, learn and love those platforms will succeed.

    :: Location-based marketing opportunities will become powerful when brands focus on consumers’ interests rather than on their own.

     

  • Jean-Thierry Augustin appointed President, Sports Strategy & Development at Discovery Networks International; Peter Hutton to join Eurosport as Chief Executive Officer

    Discovery to go big on sports, hires top deck

    By A Correspondent

     

    Discovery Communications has announced two new executive appointments that will further strengthen the company’s global sports expertise and strategy. Jean-Thierry Augustin has been named President, Sports Strategy & Development in a newly created position at Discovery Networks International, and Peter Hutton has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Eurosport.

     

    Augustin, who previously held the position of CEO at Eurosport, will report directly to JB Perrette, President of Discovery Networks International and continue to be based in Paris. Augustin will work closely with Discovery’s international leadership team and Peter Hutton to create a compelling sports business development strategy that utilizes sports as a game-changing asset and drives new growth globally.

     

    Hutton joins Eurosport from MP & Silva Group, where he held the post of Co-Chief Executive Officer. As Chief Executive Officer of Eurosport, Hutton will oversee the negotiation of sports rights and lead Eurosport’s content strategy to bring renewed focus to programming, production, promotion and platforms. Hutton will take advantage of Discovery’s local infrastructure and global platforms to maximize Eurosport’s value across more than 70 countries and in 20 languages. Hutton also will report to Perrette and will be based in Paris, with a start date of March 1, 2015.

     

    Perrette said, “As we approach the one year anniversary of Discovery’s acquisition of Eurosport in May, our focus is now on unlocking the full value of our must-have sports content for the entire Discovery Communications portfolio to benefit our advertisers, affiliates, audiences and shareholders around the world.”

     

    Perrette continued, “Jean-Thierry has been at the helm of Eurosport for a number of years during which he has proved to be a tremendous commercial leader and this new role will harness his expertise to build Discovery’s global sports strategy and expertise. Similarly, Peter has excelled in the sports media business. With extensive experience in Europe, Asia and Middle East, and strong relationships with broadcasters and rights holders, he is the perfect executive to strengthen Eurosport’s position as a global leader in sports. I am excited to work with both Jean-Thierry and Peter as we take our business to an exciting new level.”

     

  • Even the entertainment factor is now commoditised across award shows with performances looking interchangeable like their sets, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: And the Awards are Here… Are you Bored already?

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    It’s the first quarter of a new calendar year, and the awards season has started in its full glory. Every media house worth its salt has a business stake in at least one, sometimes two or eve three, award shows. Every weekend has at least one being aired. By the end of it all, everyone would have won something. Because it’s just fine to create a category to fit in a desired winner. Or just force-fit the desired winner into an existing category anyway, like Mary Kom being a social drama at a recently aired awards show.

     

    The television audiences, of course, watch the awards shows for their entertainment value. The winners’ list is generally out in the media well before the actual telecast. In any case, with less than 5% of the TV audiences being theatre-goers, they couldn’t care less for who won the award for the Best Singer or the Best Supporting Actor, for example.

     

    Unfortunately, even the entertainment factor is now commoditised across shows. All performances, across award shows, look interchangeable, like their sets. In general, we have song-and-dance routines set to contemporary Bollywood hits, intercut with star reactions (mostly cheat footage) and anchors trying to make the audiences laugh with their film industry jokes.

     

    With such homogeneity of content, the shows with the better anchors tend to rate better. The Salman Khan-anchored Big Star Entertainment Awards may not have the equity of Filmfare or Screen Awards, but often ends up being higher-rated than them. Kapil Sharma hosting Filmfare this year should boost its viewership prospects.

     

    About a decade ago, a television channel had two reasons to air an awards show. It would get them the bucks, and it would propel their image of being a complete entertainment channel with big-ticket offerings. Today, the second reason is no longer relevant. Audiences have poor recall of even the biggest award shows, beyond their limited window of promotions and telecast. And channel association has weakened considerably over time, as media clutter increases and properties change hands between channels.

     

    Expecting India to have its own Oscars or Golden Globes is, of course, wishful thinking. IIFA was set up with the ‘Academy’ approach, but the film industry does not share a common view on awards. In fact, many stakeholders do not have a view to begin with. They are happy to be present if there is prior intimation that they are winning an award, or if they are being paid to perform on stage.

     

    But even with all these limitations, can the conceptualisers of such shows not stretch their imagination and at least conceive “entertainment” that’s not a rehash of what we have seen for almost 20 years now, about 8-10 times every year? Wishful thinking, did you say?

     

    No one wins an award for guessing that nothing’s going to change in a hurry.

     

  • The Journalism Awards have been instituted to promote best practices among journalists and encourage good quality writing, fair play and high ethical standards

    RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism announced

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mumbai Press Club has invited entries for the prestigious National RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism–2015. The Journalism Awards have been instituted to promote best practices among journalists and encourage good quality writing, fair play and high ethical standards.

     

    The entries must be submitted by 28th February, 2015.

     

    In the fifth year now, the RedInk Awards have been restructured and further expanded so that television journalism is now on par with the written word. A new category has been introduced to honour ‘The Journalist of the Year’.

     

    Entries in the form of articles or stories published in the print & digital medium and television stories broadcast during calendar year 2014 and impactful photograph of the year published in the print or digital medium are invited from Indian Journalists in the following categories: Business, Crime, Environment, Health and Wellness, Human Rights, Lifestyle & Entertainment, Politics, Science & Innovation, Sports, The Big Picture.

     

    Special RedInk Awards have also been instituted for the following categories:

    - ‘The Journalist of the Year’ Award will be for a body of work in calendar 2014 that contributed to creating a lasting impact. (This category is open to stories published in any journalistic medium – print, digital or TV.

     

    - ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for a senior journalist who has contributed substantially over several decades to the growth and strengthening of the profession.

     

    The selection will be made by a special jury from amongst a shortlist drawn up by the Managing Committee of the Mumbai Press Club. Responses from journalists will also be taken into consideration. The winning entry in category 11 and 12 will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 1 Lakh, a trophy and a citation.

     

    Click to download the entry form

     

  • To leverage Amagi's TV content localization platform to air Japanese copyrighted content in foreign countries with licensing and piracy safeguards

    Itochu Cable Systems announces partnership with Amagi

    By A Correspondent

     

    ITOCHU Cable Systems has announced its partnership with Amagi, the leader in cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure and targeted advertising, offering overseas distribution of Japanese TV content through advanced cloud technologies.

     

    ICS works with leading TV networks in Japan to provide them a distribution platform for Japanese content in other countries. “Content licensing and distribution across multiple geographies can get quite complex. In Amagi, we have found the perfect content localization platform that can safeguard the interests of Japanese content owners. Amagi’s technology solutions are highly innovative and truly world-class,” said Kenichi Yamagata, General Manager, ICS.

     

    Amagi provides secure, reliable, and flexible channel playout at a fraction of traditional satellite broadcast costs. Using cloud technologies, Amagi enables both large and niche broadcasters to not only operate channels but to also localize content without creating new satellite feeds. Amagi has installations in more than 10 countries, and holds patents in the area of TV content watermarking for geo-specific localization.

     

    “Amagi has deployed its STORM platform in many countries to cater to content licensing, viewer preferences, and regulatory compliance challenges for TV networks. ICS being the leading video system integrator in Japan, we are very proud to partner with them, and offer our technology innovations and best-in-class TV broadcast platforms to their customers,” said KA Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi.

     

  • After 16 years at the Beeb, veteran broadcast marketer joins the CNN International to head adsales in Asia Pacific

    BBC’s Sunita Rajan to head CNN’s adsales in APAC

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sunita Rajan

    She’s always made money on news, now she’s making it. After over a decade-and-a-half at the BBC, Sunita Rajan is joining CNN International Commercial’s executive team under Chief Commercial Officer Rani R Raad with a remit to continue building CNN’s business growth trajectory in the Asia Pacific region. That’s what the press release tells us. Simply put, Sunita Rajan is joining CNN in March 2015 to head sales for APAC which includes the Mumbai and Delhi offices of the broadcast major.

     

    Ms Rajan will oversee an extensive client base across the breadth of the Asia Pacific region and will lead teams based across five offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Delhi and Mumbai and a network of representatives across Asia, overseeing the strategy to drive advertising revenue for CNN’s global portfolio of multi-platform products among Asia Pacific based advertisers. She will also be part of Mr Raad’s management team which guides the brand’s international commercial strategy.

     

    “Sunita’s wealth of experience coupled with her dynamic leadership style will be a huge asset to CNN as we look to continue our growth path in the Asia Pacific region,” said Mr Raad.

     

    “This is a tremendous opportunity to build further growth for the global news leader across its extensive portfolio of TV and digital products in a region as exciting and dynamic as Asia Pacific,” said Ms Rajan. “I’m looking forward to taking up this new role working with such a highly talented team.”

     

    Ms Rajan’s media career has spanned 25 years and has included roles at Star Television, News Television (India) and BBC Worldwide, where she was most recently Executive Vice President Advertising Sales, Asia Pacific.

     

  • Shailesh Amonkar elevated as Chief Operating Officer at Sakal Media Group

    Shailesh Amonkar is now COO at Sakal

    By A Correspondent

     

    Shailesh Amonkar

    Shailesh Amonkar, Chief Marketing Officer, Sakal Media Group has been elevated to the role of Chief Operating Officer – New Businesses.

     

    He will report to Abhijit Pawar, Managing Director of the group. This is effective April 1, 2015. For the present, Mr Amonkar will help in the transition to Jwalant Swaroop who took charge as Chief Executive Officer of the media business on January 1. As CEO, Mr Swaroop is overseeing four functions in the company – editorial, sales, marketing and circulation. As was reported, Mr Swaroop will report to Mr Pawar and work closely with Bobby Nimbalkar, Head Strategic Council of Sakal Media.

     

  • There is no life without the "Should" for Indian TV journalists though sometimes they do revise the "should" to "shouldn't", writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Should TV channelwallahs use the ‘should’ so very often?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Sports journalists in English-speaking countries favour this sort of a story: “Can Roger Federer win another Grand Slam title?” or “Can Rafael Nadal walk on water?” or “Can Novak Djokovic reunite the former Yugoslavia?” I must qualify that these are the stories that print journalists specialise in, many of them commentators and experts. It must be emphasised that there is no way anyone can actually answer any of these questions, let alone the people who ask them and they know that very well. Also, they can keep asking the same question in perpetuity for their own entertainment and no one’s edification.

     

    Indian TV journalists however are obsessed with the word “should”. So everything is “Should Roger Federer win another Grand Slam title?”, “Should Rafael Nadal walk on water?” and “Should Noval Djokovic reunite the former Yugoslavia?” Or, more realistically: “Should the Indian cricket team have only batsmen and no bowlers?”, “Should MS Dhoni solve Indo-Pak relations?” and “Should Lalit Modi be made chief minister of Rajasthan?”

     

    There is no life without the “Should” for Indian TV journalists though sometimes they do revise the “should” to “shouldn’t”, thus demonstrating a subtle understanding of apostrophes and negatives, and also “Why shouldn’t”, thus being philosophical enough to think in various dimensions.

     

    However, it occurs to none of them that “should” is not about news or about debate, it is about speculation. But ah well. As you can see, “can” is used to idiotic effect by other journalists elsewhere.

     

    And here’s one of the silliest headlines you can find, based on the fine newsroom principle where a sub-editor is banned from reading an entire story and must base his headline on throwaway lines within. In context, Roger Federer had a fairly easy first round match at the Australian Open currently on in Melbourne. But not if you read this headline:

    http://www.thelocal.ch/20150119/federer-struggles-to-advance-in-aussie-open

     

    **

     

    Yes, obviously the tennis season is well underway and my mind has turned to other things. Sony Six has wrested the Australian Open, the first of the Grand Slams, away from Star Sports India. Star Sports India is not that interested in tennis, or so an insider told me, which is their prerogative. In the light of which, unfortunately for us tennis fans, they still have the rights to Wimbledon and a few other big tournaments. The other two majors – the French and US Opens – are with Ten Sports.

     

    Sony Six’s first day at Melbourne was all right – no gimmickry, no one sitting in the studio pretending they were on the grounds and no concentrating on unknown Indians while ignoring the biggies. However, they did stop the broadcast while play was still on which is always annoying…

     

    **

     

    Indian TV news now cannot look beyond the Delhi state elections. Or whatever Delhi actually is, since it is not really a state. Everyday on TV is an endless series of breathless speculation about who is going to do what to whom. Since everyone is quitting their earlier parties and joining the BJP, there is some drama on air but not that much.

     

    In other news, Barack Obama is coming to India for the Republic Day parade and while you and I might remember him in India before, for the BJP and its fans in the media, this the first time. Plus the cricket World Cup starts in February so we will have more of the “Should MS Dhoni travel to Mars” and “Should Virat Kohli smile so much at Anushka Sharma” sort of stories.

     

    Also I have it on very good authority that Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Philip Marlowe and several other detectives are soon going to return from retirement and death to assist Arnab Goswami and his band of TV crime solvers from other news channels to discover who really killed Sunanda Tharoor.

     

  • Hungama launches campaign to focus on engaged consumers via loyalty rewards

    Hungama unveils campaign to promote new offering

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama.com has announced the launch of the second phase of its ‘Zindagi Ka Soundtrack’ brand campaign. The second leg of the 360 degree campaign will be following up on the successful October 2014 campaign by introducing a refreshing and lucrative new offering for their loyal consumer base – ‘Dabake Free Gifts’. This new offering seeks to make the Hungama experience even sweeter as along with the music streaming services the patrons already enjoy.

     

    With the plethora of music options to suit every mood, that Hungama has to offer, the music streaming portal is already an indispensible part of the lives of its loyal consumers. And now with ‘Dabake Free Gifts’, Hungama gives its large pool of listeners the unique opportunity to gain something more from the thing they love already.

     

    Hungama.com has handpicked prizes that appeal to its consumer base, which is mainly made up of the youth. The prizes include products from brands like Apple, Bose, Phillips, Blaupunkt, Samsung, Nokia, JBL, Lenovo, Sennheiser, Wildcraft, Portronics, Benetton, Happily Unmarried, Epitome, Chumbak, MOM Italy, etc. as well as experiences like fine dining at select five-star hotels & restaurants, holidays, etc. As an added incentive for users, Hungama will also be offering free talktime to users as a part of the rewards.

     

    Siddhartha Roy

    Commenting on the idea behind the launch of the second phase, Siddhartha Roy, CEO at Hungama.com said, “The first phase of our brand campaign received an overwhelming response from consumers, which also led to Hungama’s mobile app’s move to the top position in the download charts. As the market leader in this space, we felt it was important for us to now start communicating with our consumers about how while Hungama’s app is entertaining them, it can also simultaneously reward them. Hungama, across our multiple platforms, has the largest set of engaged active users and this campaign is our way of acknowledging their loyalty to our platform.”

     

    The TVC of the campaign will go on air from 18 January, for two weeks, across national and regional channels. The campaign will also be extended to the digital platforms. To activate the campaign on Youtube, Hungama.com has created a series of 5-second advertisements for the platform. The campaign will also be promoted via social media, where fans winning prizes will have their pictures clicked and uploaded to Hungama’s pages.

     

  • Taranjeet's main responsibilities will be to increase the commercial opportunities for Twitter in India

    Twitter appoints Taranjeet Singh as Biz Head for India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Taranjeet Singh

    Twitter has appointed Taranjeet Singh as Head of Sales for its India operations and will be based in its Gurgaon office. Taranjeet’s main responsibilities will be to increase the commercial opportunities for Twitter in India and to work closely with brands and agencies to maximise the value of real-time marketing on the world’s largest platform for live, public conversations.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Parminder Singh, Twitter’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia, India and Middle East and North Africa, said, “India is a very important market for us – we’ve seen strong usage of our platform across the board last year and now is a great time to increase our local sales presence by bringing in Taranjeet as our country business head. We’ve seen growing momentum from brands and agencies to use Twitter to connect with their audiences in real-time for major events as well as everyday moments in India. Taranjeet will lead our partnership with brands for maximize their creativity and deepening their customer engagement on our platform to take our sales business to the next level in India.”

     

    Taranjeet has more than 19 years of sales and business development experience and a comprehensive understanding of the media industry. In his last assignment as the Sales Director, South Asia for BBC Advertising, he was responsible for revenue and business strategy for BBC World News and the website www.bbc.com. Prior to joining the BBC, Taranjeet held various positions at Outlook Publishing Pvt. Ltd., including heading advertising sales and business development in Northern India.

     

  • For the Maxus India boss, 2014 was a huge high: 20+ new clients, Rs 300 crore+ business, many awards, including the biggest of them all – the Emvies

    Leaning into change with Kartik Sharma

     

    For the Maxus South Asia Managing Director, last year was a huge high for more reason than one: 20-plus new clients, Rs 300 crore+ business, many awards, including the biggest of them all – the Emvies. Pradyuman Maheshwari caught up with Kartik Sharma who completed a year at the helm earlier this month.

     

    Fond memories of 2014?

    Last year was fantastic in many ways. Apart from the role change for me personally, we got many new leaders into the system. Anand Chakravarthy, Navin Khemka, Monaz… a lot of internal teams got promoted. Business was fantastic! We earned about Rs 300 crore of new business, we had 20-plus new clients added to the roster.

     

    Vis-à-vis the rest of the industry?

    Different agencies have got new businesses. Twenty-plus is a big number for us. We haven’t had so many wins in a single year. We focused the beginning of 2014 on 3-4 key pillars – people strengthening, new business and product. Product, in terms of how we deliver client delight every single day.  A lot of emphasis on strengthening products. We launched Resolve which is a global proprietary planning tool and Moribus, our behavioral science unit.

     

    How was it stepping into Ajit Varghese’s shoes?

    Both internally and personally I don’t think anyone was trying to make any kind of comparison. Each leader has a different style of working. For not even a single moment when I stepped into the role, had I even thought of how Ajit would have done it or this is what I need to do. That puts artificial pressure on you. A directional understanding on what you want to do for Brand Maxus was very clear from Day1. Then you actually set out to do it in the best way possible, using your own way of working.

     

    If you were to compare your style of working with his, what would be one key differentiator and the one thing in common?

    Obviously, each of us come with a different perspective to business, Ajit has his own way of wearing his lens and looking at situations. I have my own lens and somewhere we complement each other. Even now, whenever there are challenges, we talk and try and solve a problem.

     

    The perception is that Ajit is very aggressive in his approach, even in the way Maxus has to be projected, whereas you are cool and calmer?

    That’s the way we are. The way we convey our thoughts is different. I’m equally aggressive when it needs to be. There’s an external side and there’s an internal side. It’s how you convey it. We express it in different ways for a common goal. I can’t change my style. This isn’t a surprise feedback. That’s the way I am.

     

    Ajit had you around. Do you have any one as your second-in-command?

    I have the entire Maxus team with me. I’m not just saying it for the sake of it. I have a very strong team, a very diverse set of management team members, which is actually helping me. We talk to each other on a daily basis. We understand all of them as people first. There’s a huge level of understanding and comfort, as individuals, as professionals, which actually helps us solve all problems.

     

    Having Anand from broadcast, Navin from another network makes it a melting pot of various cultures?

    We always wanted to have a very diverse set of people, not just agency people. That was a very conscious decision. They bring in freshness, different points of view, which is very critical at this stage of building a business.

     

    Last year, one of the biggest highs was the Emvies. In fact when dna interviewed Ajit when his elevation was announced and when we asked him if there was an unfinished agenda, he said it was winning the Emvies. Twenty-plus clients, Rs 300 cr-plus business, top talent… would you say coming out tops at the Emvies was the biggest high of the year?

    It’s one of the biggest highs. We’ve always wanted to win Emvies. It’s recognition coming from clients. It was very important for us. When a client or a larger universe, ecosystem says that you’ve done a good job, it helps us to see ourselves in a very objective way. Some of them are even competitors sitting and rating you. That was an important aspect for that. We’ve come very close to winning in the last four or five years but we missed by a whisker. We wanted to win, with a big margin, which happened! There was a lot of hard work at the back of it.

     

    How much of winning the Emvies is a joy more because you’ve beaten sibling Mindshare?

    I think more than beating, we’ve always wanted to win. Our goal is not just to beat Mindshare. It could be any agency for that matter. Mindshare is a great agency, we respect them.

     

    In your typical bouquet, how much of the work is full-service?

    It is increasing, if you’d asked me this a couple of years ago, it was little. Now, more and more have seen merit in doing it through us, I don’t recollect a number but it is definitely more than it was two to three years ago. At least about 10% plus.

     

    That’s a significant number! 10% of Maxus business is full-service. But, does it worry you that 10% of Ogilvy’s or any other agency’s business also could be full-service?

    We’re in a competitive world where the competition is not just creative agencies. We’re in an interesting space where everybody is competition in some way. Media owners, creative agencies, IT companies, there could also be a lot of boutique companies who could pay huge competitive consultants. The ecosystem is too large to worry about competition. That worry will never make you perform to your best. All you have to do is, run as fast as you can.

     

    Does the fact that programmatic buying and that you’re going to have number crunching outsourced, are these the things that are worrying signs for an agency like yours?

    No, we will be part of this in the next few years and we’re building skills in each of these areas. It’s not a major concern at this stage. It’s a major concern of the business. As the business is changing, the same question about creative, 8-10 years ago, nobody would’ve thought media agency and creative. We’ve seen the shift happening that media agency can also make creative. It’s more and more of getting ready and leaning into change.

     

    Leaning into change is the credo of Maxus. What are the leanings you are looking into for next year?

    Leaning into change is a philosophy, a guidepost for us to change ourselves and also the clients we work with, get ready to see and do things which have not been done before. An example of that is Moribus.  There is no previous benchmark of how a behavioral science unit should be. Even when we started creative as part of our offering in digital, there was no prior things saying these are things you can or cannot do. Each of those elements to me, is about leaning into change.

     

    What’s the target for this year?

    We would like to continue the momentum from 2014. We will be aggressive in our pitching. We don’t want to speculate a number. But, definitely, we want good business. Digital continues to be the focus and things like programmatic will gain more prominence in the next two years. You’ll also see a lot more focus coming in on content initiatives, Power of 49 was one stellar example, but we’re doing many more. A lot within the next 3-4 months will come on product also.