FoxyMoron has roped in Karthik Hariharan to spearhead its South division based in Bengaluru. Prior to FoxyMoron, Hariharanwas leading a portfolio of key accounts at Leo Burnett Orchard for over two years.
Commenting on the appointment, Suveer Bajaj, Co-founder, FoxyMoron said: “We are excited to welcome Karthik to head our business in the South. Having worked in leadership roles across various integrated business lines, Karthik’s skill and experience will be a perfect fit to the FoxyMoron repertoire. Karthik’s solid understanding on how brands are built will now translate beautifully on digital, specially complimenting the nature of our business.
FoxyMoron has collaborated with Famous Studios to create a new digital content lab.
Suveer Bajaj
Commenting on the collaboration, Suveer Bajaj, Co-founder, Foxy Moron said: “With our recent investments in the development of the content space, we feel that this partnership with India’s largest, oldest and most reputed studio will bring formidable change in the content arena. Famous’s technology and infrastructure coupled with FoxyMoron’s keen eye for creative and publishing will help give us a unique edge both for brands and publishers.â€
Anant Roongta
Added Anant Roongta, Director, Famous Studios:“Content is the most crucial aspect of marketing today. After over 70 years in the industry, we’ve seen a lot of growth and are always looking for new ways to evolve. We are proud to take this leap ahead, with which we aim to give content a completely unique outlook and we are thrilled take our studio to the next level with FoxyMoron’s creative approach to achieve great new heights.
Coty has awarded the digital mandates of Wella, OPI and Sally Hansen in India to FoxyMoron. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch.
The mandate focuses on building and developing the digital presence of all three brands by highlighting their product offerings and creating a distinct brand personality. The agency will be involved in the strategy, content creation and design across all social media platforms. The main objective will be to build affinity via brand advocacy on digital.
Discussing this alliance, PK Hariharan, General Manager – India Consumer and Professional Beauty, Coty said: “We are pleased to have FoxyMoron as our digital partners. In today’s competitive landscape it’s important we use multiple tools to reach our consumer and digital is a great canvas to showcase just how much the brand has to offer. I am confident that our partnership with FoxyMoron will help us create more resonance with our customers and bring forward the true spirit of our brand. Our digital strategy is aimed to maximise visibility and create high impact across the country, to increase our reach and maintain our focus on building affinity.â€
Added Suveer Bajaj, Foxy Moron co-founder: “With years of experience in the categories of beauty, personal care and make up, FoxyMoron has gladly taken on the responsibility of introducing Coty, a global leader in beauty to the already saturated Indian markets. The brands are chic and edgy and wish to flirt with the young, fun and urban youth of our country. The agency’s approach has always resulted in strong communication that embodies the ethos of each brand. We are excited to on-board this international giant that celebrates and liberates the diversity of each one’s beauty and are confident that we can, with our immense creative richness, help Coty see a path filled with beauty and transformation.â€
A recent Gartner study in the US predicted that by 2015, 25 per cent of organisations will have a CDO and that the chief digital officer may be the most exciting strategic role in the decade ahead. While such statistics are often swept aside by Indian head honchos as a US reality, the wave may reach Indian shores faster than expected.
Though a relative late starter, digital has made swift inroads into the Indian marketplace. Brands are upping the ante on digital allocations. No Indian marketing head can have a conversation without talking about how serious they are about digital. They’ve even moved to saying “It’s not the wave of the future but what’s happening right now!” which is an improvement.
But where are all the CDOs then? Globally, organisations as diverse as Starbucks, Metropolitan Museum of Art, BBC Worldwide, Amnesty International are known to be already deploying the services of a CDO. While the title is yet to gain vogue, some companies are making a few non-cosmetic changes.
PepisCo tweaked its structure to make digital a strategic vertical reporting in directly to the head of marketing. Earlier, it resided with individual brands. Deepika Warrier, vice president – Po1 (Power of 1) marketing, PepsiCo India, is clear that digital needs to be incubated by the CMO as it requires focused mentoring to build interactions with other business functions. Their team is led by Rishi Dogra, who along with the digital mandate is involved with a unique concept called Pepsi Labs. He works with co-creators incubating, experimenting and testing new content ideas. PepsiCo claims to have doubled its digital budget from last year.
SBI Life has a business vertical to tap the potential of online sales of life insurance policies. Shares Chandramohan Mehra – country head – digital business, SBI Life Insurance, “Through the channel, it distributes products exclusively developed for online business, and has gained leadership position in direct-to-consumer sales.” He was formerly the VP and head of brand at SBI Life Insurance.
Jasmin Sohrabji
Jasmin Sohrabji, CEO India and South East Asia, OmnicomMediaGroup is convinced about the case for a CDO. The reason it hasn’t happened thus far is due to scale and scope. Even among the more digital aware, spends hover at about 10 per cent, offering little or less than threshold scale. As focus (and spends) move to digital platforms, the relevance for a CDO will come into play, she feels.
Adds Rishad Tobaccowala, Chairman, DigitasLbi and Razorfish, “CDOs should be the evangelist for ensuring the company remains relevant to changing behaviour. His role is important in the early years of digital to ensure a voice for tomorrow.” The case for a CDO becomes even stronger in a backdrop where digital budgets are increasing but cutting edge case studies are few and far between.
Most conversations hover around aggregating fans and likes on Facebook as also prerolls of campaigns on YouTube. But has the market reached a stage where the advent of a CDO is imminent? Or is this yet another instance of India leapfrogging a few stages of development, to create its own delivery-mechanisms?
At L’Oreal India, where the digital spends have been ramped by nearly 125 per cent over the last year, the function is embedded within respective brands. Satyaki Ghosh, director, consumer products division, L’Oreal India avers that they could eventually have a CDO, but he would service the entire company as against just the Consumer Product division.
The CDO role needs to have a larger platform to build the digital capability of the entire organisation and the digital business, according to Arjun Srivastava, consumer practice leader – India, Egon Zehnder.
Marico too is currently embracing a decentralised structure. Sameer Satpathy, EVP and business head, Marico India says, “The medium gives enormous flexibility in terms of engagement, creativity and speed.” All their brand managers are being trained and certified on using digital, in order to have an enabling ecosystem.
CVL Srinivas
Which is as it should be says CVL Srinivas, CEO (South Asia), GroupM: “CMOs need to drive digital as part of their core job. Most advertisers still look at digital as a silo and struggle to integrate it into their mainstream plans.” However digital specialist Harshil Karia, cofounder, Foxy-Moron makes a case for digital having grown too big for a CMO’s mandate.
He says, “CMOs haven’t naturally taken to ‘digital thinking’ and ‘digital as an ecosystem’. It is difficult in a world where maintaining Share of Voice, pleasing brand ambassadors, coordinating to get the best out of various agencies and reporting to management and sales teams is a priority.”
A private sector bank claims that only 5 per cent of its business is coming from branches. The rest is from other channels that include digital: mobile and internet as well as telebanking. In such a scenario the medium is no more just for marketing or brand building but has a huge business implication as well. The biggest need for CMOs today is to adapt or otherwise provide for the digital landscape since it will emerge as a key component of marketing strategies.
Kent Wertime, COO, Ogilvy Asia Pacific, and co-author of DigiMarketing, believes “The CMO has to determine today how to integrate traditional means of marketing/channels with digital channels, the capture and use of data, and build new relationships with big digital media players/platforms.”
Digital gives insight in real time through social media and its endless streams of conversations and insights. Increasingly, it will be about harnessing this information. For instance, Dell has a chief listening officer, who “listens” to what consumers are saying and feeds these insights to the CMO. So whether as an adjunct to the CMO or his equal, a company serious about the future would do well to consider the CDO.
