MxMIndia

Tag: Nakul Chopra

  • Nakul Chopra, the agency's CEO for South Asia, has set his eyes to be in the bigger league

    Publicis eyes the Top 3

     

    Nakul Chopra, CEO of Publicis South Asia, has had a long innings at the agency. Over the past 17 years, he has led Ambience in its transition first to Ambience D’Arcy and later Publicis Ambience. Today, he leads the operations of the multiple Publicis units in India in addition to overseeing the French network’s affiliates in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In a freewheeling interview with Pradyuman Maheshwari he says that with some of the best minds in the business already on board, and with fresh talent coming in, Publicis has set a course for its reinvention. Something that he hopes will buoy it to the top soon.

     

    You’ve had a long innings as head of Publicis in India, and over the last three or four years, we’ve seen Publicis take on a renewed focus what with Bobby Pawar and Partha Sinha on board and a slew of acquisitions. Your view on how the business has been?

    I’ll respond to your question in several parts. First, I haven’t been CEO of Publicis for such a long time. Second, you’re right; in the last two to three years we’ve acquired talent, agencies and clients too. But reinventing ourselves, or bringing in fresh talent, or making acquisitions is not new. If I go back to the time prior to the 2003-2010 period, Publicis concluded four acquisitions then, including Ambience, Zen and Madhyam in Delhi.

     

    We are one of the last entrants in terms of the Top 10 networks in India, so our relative youth also reflects in our size. We had to play a lot of catch-up with the rest. There is no published data in our field. You can only assume the size of your competitor, you can’t be 100% sure. But, by our estimates in 2003, our entities were at No 15, according to size, whether it was Ambience or Zen. Bringing them together and building the organisation through Phase 1 got us firmly into the Top 10 bracket. We’ve conducted acquisitions and — according to what we’ve been able to organically build on the basis of the strength we’ve gained as an organisation — we estimate ourselves to be at No 5. We made these moves with the clear view that we need to become one of the Top 3 players in this market. Of course, there’s been a huge qualitative upgrade with people like Bobby and Partha coming back…

     

    Do you think you could’ve moved a bit faster after the two stars came in?

    When I look back, one area of dissatisfaction could be the speed of our ambition to take things, versus the speed at which we’ve actually travelled. There are two factors we need to talk about in that regard. You can take small organisations, wipe the slate clean and give them a fresh start relatively fast. Partha and Bobby came into a relatively mature organisation where the pace of change has to always be measured by the ability of the client relationships to make that change. We are now the dominant agency for a lot of big clients like L’Oreal, Nestle, Citi and Procter. But we can’t drive only our change agenda; we have to drive our clients’ too, and pace ourselves by that. If I factor that in, I have nothing to be dissatisfied about. We’ve set some internal benchmarks too; if we’d set five or six goals, we’ve probably achieved four or five of them. We’ve not quite got to the 100% mark that we wanted to, but I think that’s within a normal margin of error that you have when you set out to do these things. It’s impossible to meet your ambition on every single index. You always set your three-year plans on a given set of market assumptions. But as you go through that three-year period, not all of them occur as predicted and you have to re-prioritise things.

     

    But the expectations were huge. They were expected to produce some magic…

    I wouldn’t say they haven’t. They both joined together and some of the industry controversies that preceded them, came along as well. It was a Big Bang arrival. Given that, you might just set yourself up for disappointment because they’d have to achieve something.

     

    In terms of creative awards, the best benchmark for excellence of a creative agency are the Effies and you haven’t done well there

    Let me put it to you like this. Have we met our own expectations with regard to the Effies? We haven’t. I can’t say that, being No 5 last year and No 6 this year, though there’s a very large gap between the Top 3. I don’t think it is a fairly big step for an organisation that’s not been on the map of the Effies, ever. But this year in particular, even Partha wouldn’t mince his words to say, that we’d expected to do better. What would I have done differently over the last 12 months to achieve this result? I don’t know. I’m not dissatisfied with the effort I’ve put in. With the material we had, we’d hoped we’re going to win more. But you win some, you lose some. Our first and most important focus has been on how much difference we can make to the clients’ business.

     

    Do you think your work did improve the clients’ business?

    I’m 100% sure of that, and I have enough client testimonials to go by.

     

    What’s the most effective work you’ve done over the last year?

    I think we’ve done very effective work for JK, for some of which we’ve won an Effie. We did very effective work for Ambuja Cement. I must confess that I – along with Partha and Bobby – was a little disappointed this wasn’t recognised at the Effies. I’m not pointing fingers, just expressing disappointment. We’ve done effective work for Nestle across brands as well.

     

    How much do awards finally matter to an agency? While at one level, one is doing a fair amount of business and clients continue to stay with you, at another, you’re getting some awards but not the numbers which the Top 2 or 3 players get?

    Awards matter a lot. Maybe not as much as the clients’ sales figures, but they matter because they represent recognition by your peers, and that can be a great motivator. You make an effort and it gets recognised. That gives you courage and motivation to do more of the same. Creative awards also matter, not just the Effies. It would be naïve to think that awards are an end in themselves. Winning lots of creative awards if you’re not making a difference to the clients’ business and if you’re being unable to grow your own business, is not an end in itself. In 2009-10, Publicis ranked third two years in a row at the Goafest for Creative Awards. It was very fulfilling for us.

     

    This was when Ogilvy was participating and was No. 1?

    JWT was No 2 one year and DDB Mudra was No 2 in another year. There was some controversy about the latter. By my reckoning, after they returned the medal, they should’ve been No 2 that year. Goafest does not, in any case, give you points.

     

    What about Kyoorius?

    Kyoorius is a very new phenomenon.

     

    You mentioned you want to be among the Top 3. With Ogilvy, Lowe and JWT already in that bracket, displacing one of them is a huge ask, right?

    When we were No 12 and I said we want to be in the Top 5, it was a huge ask. But we’ve made moves in the past three or four years which have startled people. We’re now in the Top 5. It’s not going to happen by doing business as usual. At the same time, we can’t startle and surprise people every year.

     

    Is there a target year by which you want to achieve this?

    We’d given ourselves three years to get firmly in the Top 5. We’ve achieved that. The next three years is when we seek to make the next move. But that depends on us being able to do some things other than great or effective work for our clients.

     

    Such as?

    It’s about how we build up our skills and capabilities. When you compare us with Ogilvy or JWT, or Lowe or even DDB, which is at No. 4, their range of services and therefore sources of revenue at this stage, are wider than ours. So it’s about finding effective solutions on that side too. Now we’ll have to see if we’re going to get those capabilities or acquire them

     

    How have your inorganic growth efforts been, since Beehive and Market Gate and I-Strat?

    I think all three have been performing fantastically well for us.

     

    Is the integration total?

    Integration is not a 24-month process; it takes longer. Our integration expectations from the three are quite different.

     

    Are there any other specific areas or gaps you’d like to look at filling by way of acquisitions?

    I’d answer this slightly differently. The gaps we’re trying to cover are in the experiential marketing and some specialised skills in digital.

     

    So will acquiring an experiential agency happen soon?

    It’s a question you all ask at every interview and it always begs the same answer. You’ll know when you know. It’s a capability we’re seeking to build, whether we build it via an acquisition or organically or through induction of talent.

     

    How has the situation with new talent, accounts etc been, apart from the big ones in the last three years?

    We’ve not only been hiring people, I see Publicis as an organisation which is constantly in metamorphosis. For me, the difference between Ogilvy, JWT and Lowe is that they seem to be organisations who’ve reached a destination. On the other hand, we see every year as a year of reinvention. For us, we’ve had a steady change or upgradation of talent across all disciplines.

     

    Are you looking at any new direction of business and of clients? Your peers have got into political advertising.

    As a group policy, we don’t do political work. You’ll notice that no Publicis group company has been at any of last year’s hectic political campaigns. Many of us were approached, but we don’t do it.

     

    Among the various agencies you have, will any of them see a significant change over the next few months?

    I don’t foresee that, with this being a fairly intense period of reviews. We may be unhappy with ‘x’ aspect in one unit, and ‘y’ in another, and we have the managers address those. Talent acquisition is a continuous process. We’ll continue to see that happen.

     

    If you were a 20-year-old, would you have joined an agency today?

    If you’d asked me this when I was a 20-year-old, my answer might have been ‘No’. But I did end up in an agency and never left. If I were a 20-year-old today, would I join an advertising agency? The answer is probably still a yes.

     

    It’s still a big bad world. You’d have possibly made more money on the client side.

    I think I had several occasions to do that throughout my career. As somebody who’s been in this business for more than 35 years, I just had a genetic match with the profession. Is today’s 20-year-old choosing advertising over other professions? Probably not.

     

    Personally, what goals have you set for yourself? Publicis is doing well, it’s going to be on course. Is there any unchartered stuff you are looking at?

    As an individual, I have a re-purposed life. At 54, I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son. The challenges and goals I have for myself have undergone a metamorphosis in the last three years and I’m not completely sure I’m up for all challenges the situation poses. But I’m doing my best to cope.

     

    A slightly shorter version of this appeared in ‘dna of brands’ on March 9, 2015

     

  • They are introducing for the first time Youth Labs for young delegates

    Plans unveiled for 10th edition of Goafest

    By A Correspondent

     

    L-R Dr. M.G. Parameswaran-President of AAAI, Mr. Nakul Chopra- Chairman of Goafest 2015 & Vice President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Ajay Chandwani, Managing committee member of the Advertisement

    The Organizing Committee of Goafest 2015 recently shared the roadmap for the event to be held from April 9 – 11 at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim. The Committee also announced key initiatives and released the first list of speakers at the event.

     

    In its 10th year, efforts are being made to make the event distinctive and grand. Nakul Chopra- Chairman of Goafest 2015 & Vice President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) said, “It is our endeavour to make Goafest 2015 better and superior. While the Advertising Conclave will be held on Day 1; the Knowledge Seminars will be held on Day 2 & 3. There will be a Leadership Summit on 11th April, which will bring together best minds in the field of advertising, communications, marketing industry to discuss, debate, interact, offer thoughts & experiences, share ideas and questions on our industry. These programmes are augmented with a series of presentations from leaders in their respective fields and panel debates.”

     

    Chopra further added, “We are also introducing for the first time Youth Labs for young delegates. These Youth Labs will have a separate Creative Lab and Media Lab. The aim of these Youth Labs will be to provide a platform for youngsters to interact with stalwarts in the industry and get them to sharpen and hone their skills.”

     

    The Organizing Committee also released the first list of speakers for the Knowledge Seminars: Ted Lim- Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific, Alan Moseley- President and Creative Officer, 180 Amsterdam, Neil Stewart- Head of Agency, APAC Region, Facebook, Guy Abrahams- Worldwide Strategic Marketing Officer, Zenith Optimedia and Devdutt Pattanik- Author & Mythologist.

     

    Dr. MG Parameswaran-President of AAAI said, “Goafest 2015 will have a great mix of speakers this year. Our effort is get the 2500+ participants to listen to and interact with the best, the world has to offer. As in the previous years, we will have stimulating Q&A sessions moderated by senior marketing professionals.”​

     

    For the eighth year that AAAI and The Advertising Club will come together to deliver Abbys, India’s definitive awards that celebrate creativity. Pratap Bose- President of The Advertising Club & Chairman of The Awards Governing Council (AGC), said, “The initiatives introduced last year were widely appreciated by all the stakeholders. We will continue to follow the stringent and now well accepted norms for Abbys. An exciting feature that we introduced this year is that the Campaigns that have been released till February 15, 2015, are now allowed to submit their entries at this year’s Abbys.”

     

    Continuing with the changes that were inducted in 2012 – there will be a Grand Prix for Film, Print, Radio, Outdoor, Design, Interactive Digital, Direct, Media and Integrated. This year too there will be awindow of ten days before the final judging round. During this window, shortlisted entries will be available for the entire industry to review. However, Abbys once awarded will stay awarded.

     

  • – CE0, Publicis South Asia & Vice President of The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) will be the Chairman of Goafest 2015

    Dates for Goafest 2015 announced

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nakul Chopra
    Pratap Bose

    The Organizing Committee of Goafest 2015 have announced the dates of the event.Goafest 2015 will be held on April 9th, 10th and 11th. The venue will be Grand Hyatt, Bambolim and the event will be open for all the delegates on all the three days. The ABBYs will also be held on all the three days.

     

    The Committee also announced that Nakul Chopra- CE0, Publicis South Asia & Vice President of The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) will be the Chairman of Goafest 2015 and Pratap Bose- President of The Advertising Club will be the Chairman of the Awards Governing Council.

     

    Goafest 2015 will be in its 10th edition and this is the 8th year that AAAI and The Advertising Club will come together to deliver ABBYs, India’s definitive awards that celebrate creativity.

     

  • Paritosh will continue to report to Nakul Chopra, CEO South Asia

    Paritosh Srivastava promoted to COO Publicis Ambience

    Paritosh Srivastava
    Nakul Chopra

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis has announced the promotion of Paritosh Srivastava to Chief Operating Officer for Publicis Ambience. Paritosh will continue to report to Nakul Chopra, CEO South Asia and will join the Management Board for Publicis Worldwide in India.

     

    Making this announcement Nakul Chopra commented, “This is a well-deserved promotion. For over three years now Paritosh has led Publicis Ambience admirably. The improvement in talent and quality has been remarkable – the growth has been outstanding. With further empowerment in his new role – I have no doubt he will take Publicis Ambience to new heights.”

     

    Bobby Pawar
    Partha Sinha

    Bobby Pawar and Partha Sinha in a joint statement said, “In Paritosh, we have a champion of great work. He is ready to push boundaries and rally around great work both internally and externally. This, coupled with his energy and charm makes him a great leader. We are delighted that he is getting bigger responsibilities and being entrusted with furthering the Publicis agenda in India.”

     

  • Apart from having strong roots in India, the company has successfully forayed into Europe, Middle East, South-East Asia and African markets

    SH Kelkar awards creative biz to Publicis

    By A Correspondent

     

    Fragrance and flavour provider, SH Kelkar & Company has awarded its creative duties to Publicis Worldwide. The business was awarded to Publicis following a multi-agency pitch.

     

    The family owned business which started manufacturing fragrances in 1922 is a professionally run, fragrance and flavour maker in India. Apart from having strong roots in India, the company has successfully forayed into Europe, Middle East, South-East Asia and African markets with manufacturing units in India and Netherlands. SHK is credited with being the fragrance and flavour provider of many iconic brands, both International and domestic and across categories.

     

    Nakul Chopra

    Nakul Chopra, CEO South Asia, Publicis said, “We are extremely pleased to have an opportunity to partner a pedigreed company like SH Kelkar. Especially given that their business will provide exciting opportunities for holistic communication solutions. We look forward to working with them.”

     

    B. Ramkrishnan, CEO, SH Kelkar & Co, stated, “We are a mid-sized company with global presence- and the largest fragrance house in India – with aggressive plans for the future. I am extremely happy that Publicis is partnering with us in our quest to firmly establish our identity in the global arena.”

     

    Paritosh Srivastava, Executive Vice President, Publicis added, “Fragrance is a business where science and art of the highest order come together, we have a creative resonance between our teams that will hopefully result in some great branding, design and communication. We are proud to partner a company with a heritage of almost 90 years in India and expanding to the world markets. We hope to play a significant role in SHK’s future growth plans.”

     

  • Fabindia has awarded its creative business to Publicis after a multi-agency pitch. The business will be handled out of Publicis Delhi office

    Fabindia awards creative mandate to Publicis

    By a correspondent

     

    Fabindia has awarded its creative business to Publicis after a multi-agency pitch. The business will be handled out of Publicis Delhi office.

     

    Speaking on the development, Subrata Dutta, CEO Fab India commented, “Fabindia is an iconic lifestyle brand that celebrates India and we want to leverage its inherent strengths. In Publicis, we have found the right partners to do this. We are looking forward to their contribution on our brand.”

     

    Partha Sinha and Bobby Pawar, Directors at Publicis South Asia, in their joint statement said, “Fabindia is the definitive Indian brand. To reinterpret a brand’s strength is once in a life time opportunity and we are looking forward to working on it. Our objective will be to engage the audience in a fresh, surprising and rewarding manner.”

     

    Nakul Chopra, CEO-South Asia, Publicis added, “Fabindia have indeed been a definitive benchmark in their market. At Publicis, we have a history of setting standards in the lifestyle and retail space. We are very proud to be associated with Fabindia and together we hope to create path breaking work.”

     

  • Ambuja Cement has entrusted the creative duties for brand Ambuja to Publicis

    Publicis bags Ambuja Cement creative mandate

    By a correspondent

     

    Ambuja Cement has announced that they have entrusted the creative duties for brand Ambuja to Publicis.

     

    Vivek Deshpande- Head Branding, Ambuja Cements said, “We have very ambitious plans for our brand – we wanted an agency who would partner us at every step of the way forward. In Publicis we found both the strategic and creative quality that gives us confidence. We look forward to this partnership.”

     

    Nakul Chopra

    Nakul Chopra, CEO Publicis South Asia added, “Ambuja is an iconic brand; we feel privileged to partner them in taking their brand to the next level. That this opportunity will allow for media neutral ideas which could straddle traditional and non-traditional media – makes it even more exciting.”

     

     

     

    Partha Sinha
    Bobby Pawar

    In a joint statement, Partha Sinha and Bobby Pawar, Directors Publicis South Asia said, “We are delighted with this opportunity – we have some ambitious ideas for the brand and are currently in the middle of executing them. It’s a fantastic brand team to work with and we are confident of delivering big on this brand.”

     

  • The three-day annual adfest will be held indoors in Goa in the last week o f May 2014

    Srinivasan Swamy to head “bigger, better” Goafest 2014, to be held indoors in Goa in end-May

    By A Correspondent

     

    There’s reason to cheer for India’s adfrat. Goafest 2014 has not been put off, and the Creative and Media Abby will be held as part of the fest. RK Swamy Hansa group Chairman and Managing Director Srinivasan K Swamy, better known as Sundar Swamy, is the new Chairman of the Organising Committee.

     

    Confirming the news to MxMIndia, Mr Swamy said that the Goafest this year will be bigger and brighter than ever before. We have expanded the awards and will have three evenings of awards. “The entire programme will be indoors so there is no reason to despair about the heat,” he added.

     

    Mr Swamy, who is also President, IAA India Chapter & VP-Development, IAA Asia Pacific. In fact, the IAA has had a hyperactive two years, since Mr Swamy took over.

     

    He has been associated with Goafest for some years as incharge of the industry conclave. According to information we have received, the dates will in all probability be around the last week of May and the event will be held indoors as against the beaches of Goa.

     

    As reported by MxMIndia yesterday (Feb 12),  Nakul Chopra had declined to be Chairman of the Goafest Organising Committee. While some may have felt that it was a setback, according to a senior agency captain, the appointment of Mr Swamy is sure to energise Goafest 2014.

     

  • The delays in holding Goafest meant much time away from the high pressure work as CEO – South Asia of Publicis Worlwide

    Goafest blues continue. Nakul Chopra steps down as chairman, org committee

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nakul Chopra

    The Goafest Organising Committee appears to have suffered another blow with the confirmation of the news that Chairman of the Organizing Committee Nakul Chopra has stepped aside from the position earlier this week.

     

    Confirming the news to MxMIndia, Mr Chopra said the festival is still sometime away and his primary work of leading Publicis Worldwide in the region is taking a fair amount of time, it was tough for him to reconcile both.

     

    Although Mr Chopra was unwilling to comment on the dates, as per information received by MxMIndia, it’s likely to that Goafest dates may get pushed to end-May to avoid a clash with the elections. “They should have ideally happened in the first week of April, but since they didn’t, the only option is to have it at the end of May. The next window is in October, when people get busy with the festival activity.”

     

    At the time of writing it was still not known who will replace Mr Chopra, though there are naysayers that his decision is indicative of the growing disinterest in Goafest. “The total silence will only benefit the alternative D&AD-Kyoorius initiative.”

     

  • Publicis Worldwide CEO Nakul Chopra makes a case for media & creative to co-exist + an interview with Beehive's Sanjit Shastri

    Time for full-service as Publicis buys Beehive?

     

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari and Fatema Rajkotwala

     

    The Publicis Groupe announced the acquisition of Mumbai-based Beehive Communications, a 10-year-old full-service independent integrated marketing and communications agency. Beehive will be absorbed in the Paris-based advertising conglomerate’s Publicis Worldwide agency network and will operate as a unit under the rebranded name, Publicis Beehive.

     

    Since mid-2012, this marks the Publicis Groupe’s seventh acquisition of an Indian company and Publicis Worldwide’s third. The first two being brand marketing consulting firm MarketGate and digital agency, iStrat.

     

    Beehive Communications has kept a low profile in the industry but been operational since a decade. With in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and a team of 130-plus, Beehive has its strengths in full-fledged teams for creative and strategy, a strong media agency offering, a full-circle digital solutions basket and research and BTL teams across 20 states in India. Its client portfolio has its key strengths in verticals such as tourism, education and real estate with brands such as Tourism Malaysia, Korea Tourism Organisation, Maharashtra Tourism, Gujarat Tourism, Indiabulls, Rolta, Palladium hotel group, Chambor, MT Educare and more. Almost 40 percent of the business comes from the media planning and buying activity and it has many clients which make use of its integrated functions.

     

    Partha Sinha

    While making the announcement in Mumbai, Nakul Chopra, CEO, South Asia, Publicis Worldwide, said this was part of the agency’s growth journey in the last year.  Clients and business have grown and the agency now has in its fold, the threesome of Bobby Pawar, Partha Sinha and Ambika Srivastava. From the Beehive side, the current leadership team will continue to lead the agency under the direction of Founder and CEO Sanjit Shastri who will now report to Mr Chopra.

     

    Bobby Pawar

    Explaining the thought behind the move, Mr Chopra said, “We have a broad strategy of what we want to achieve. We are clear that we want to be among the Top 3 in the country in terms of size, reputation and recognition.” While not revealing the money invested in the acquisition, Mr Chopra added: “Publicis is a latecomer to this market compared to others who have a huge lead due to historical circumstance. Catching up that scale is an intrinsic part of our strategy. Acquisitions are not born out of need but more when you have an opportunity to fast track your strategic direction.”

     

    Ambika Srivastava

    When asked what would be the primary advantage for Beehive post-acquisition by Publicis, Mr Shastri said: “The excuse that we are not aligned therefore we can’t grow fast, doesn’t exist anymore.” On why his agency has been keeping a low profile thus far, Mr Shastri said: “In the beginning, when we started winning travel and retail clients, we were terrified that bigger agencies will come and swat us like flies and pick up the business and go. That’s when we decided to keep a low profile.”

     

    Meanwhile, the move to have a full-service unit is sure to lead to some discussions in the trade given that media planning and buying and creative now work separately. Talking about the benefits of an integrated entity, Mr Chopra said: “There is considerable benefit that can be provided to the client with creative and media capability residing within the same organisation. This is especially true in the digital space where the divide is getting blurred. Media agencies do creative work and creative agencies do media work. This is a future-facing decision according to what we can see happening in mature markets. In the advice that we give to clients as a creative agency, we welcome the fact that media and access to media data are within the same agency. There may be merit in looking at them as separate functions but the end-consumer of advertising is concerned he/she experiences the media-creative strategy and execution all at one time. It will helps immensely in the quality that we provide by bringing the two together. The client is beginning to think one-stop shop again.” Clearly, we haven’t heard the last on this one.

     

    It’s been happy days for Nakul Chopra, CEO, South Asia, Publicis Worldwide. His agency is finally looking up with the acquisitions and the hires. Beehive founder-CEO Sanjit Shastri was with Mr Chopra when the interview was been done…

     

    You are a large creative agency. Was there need to acquire another agency?

    I don’t think need is what defines this. It is not that when you need an acquisition you go shopping for one – what are the chances you’ll find one with the right talent, the meeting of minds, financial agreements – it doesn’t work that way. We have a broad strategy of what we want to achieve. Publicis is a latecomer to this market compared to others who have a huge lead due to historical circumstance. Catching up that scale is an intrinsic part of our strategy. Widening of scale may have to be done within the organization. Acquisitions in that sense are not born out of need but more when you have an opportunity to fast-track your strategic direction.

     

    What kind of strategic direction did you see with this acquisition? For instance, in the case of MarketGate and iStrat the service specialisation was clear. This is a full service agency and a fair number of these services you provide too. You have a digital resource that may not do social media or some other services done by Beehive and you have to supervise media within the group too. Hence what was it that made Beehive a strategic move?

    We are clear that we want to be among the top three in terms of size, reputation and recognition. Size can also be a critical factor. If I go out and buy an agency which has more or less the same client profile as I do, then an acquisition would be pointless. Here, there have a width of service that I currently don’t have. It can be argued that we already have two media giants. Of the seven acquisitions that the group has made four may have been for digital strengths. Then why acquire one more? It is intrinsic to the holding group’s strategy that individual components of the individual brands, while they cooperate with one another, they also compete. We, Leo Burnett, Saatchi compete fiercely; we would pitch against one another. Some other part of the group having an offering is good to lean on and seek cooperation. It does not mitigate the fact that if I believe that it is essential to the growth of this brand, then I must have it here.

     

    In terms of the media agency business of Beehive, if a client is willing, would you now look at routing business through this agency as against the other group agencies?

    I am neither here as a spokesperson of the group nor are group media strategies decided by me. As far as I am concerned, there is considerable benefit that can be provided to the client with creative and media capability residing within the same organisation. This is especially true in the digital space where the divide is getting blurred. Media agencies do creative work and creative agencies do media work. This is a future-facing decision according to what we can see happening in mature markets. When you can see something in tomorrow and you have an opportunity like this, it makes imminent sense to do it.

     

    Having seen a time when there were full service agencies to later a branching of more specialized agencies… what is your personal view on what works better?

    In the advice that we give to clients as a creative agency, I welcome the fact that will have media and access to media data now within the same agency. There may be merit in looking at the two as specialized functions but the end-consumer of advertising is concerned he/she experiences the media-creative strategy and execution all at one time. It will help immensely in the quality that we provide by bringing the two together. I suspect as you look in the future, as the analog world gives way to the digital, the divide that we had in the past will get blurred to a large extent.

     

    For an academic discussion, do you see a time where you see yourself merging with a Starcom or ZenithOptimedia and becoming a large full-service integrated advertising agency?

    I don’t see merging happening in my working lifetime. However, the client is beginning to think one-stop shop again. There is a lot of new territory to be negotiated. Unlike the world of television and print that came about in spurts but had long periods of stability where learning curves were defined and verticals were formed, in the digital space, it’s changing every other day. You can’t say what element is having what impact if you cant look at it in a more holistic way.

     

    After interesting buys such as MarketGate and digital agencies and now, Beehive as a full service agency, are you looking at any more acquisitions?

    We didn’t sit down one-and-a-half years ago and decide to do three or four acquisitions. That’s not the way we approach it. What we did sit down at the start of last year was to set out a roadmap of where to where we want to take the organization. We are going to be very busy until the end of 2014 in capitalizing the deep and organic changes such as bringing in Bobby and Partha in. We believe this is the period in which we will create the future-facing organization which can genuinely engage with clients. That will take some re engineering within our organization in terms of training, putting in new processes in place etc. There will be a period of digesting all the change.

     

    Like in the case of healthcare, do you see possibly specialized sub-agencies focused on the verticals that Beehive as their strengths in such as tourism and education?

    In the case of healthcare, we were talking about something that is remarkably different. Here I don’t think vertical expertise will result in separate agencies. I definitely think that as we look at our organization in the future, it will lean into having specialists vertical as teams within the organization. We do currently have knowledge in verticals such as the food space, strength in the beauty and personal care space in Mumbai and now we will have much more knowledge in tourism and retail. But I don’t see us branding and selling it as separate services.

     

    And have Bobby and Partha settled in?

    I cannot believe how quickly and smoothly it has been. With Partha, the advantage we had is that he has spent five years in the past working closely with me. For Bobby, the word that comes to my mind repeatedly is – remarkable. It has been seamless.

     

    Did Bobby’s Ford Figo controversy bother you given you have large clients yourself?

    I was very clear much before the actions spewed out of that controversy that I don’t think any individual in the agency or at the client’s side can individually be held responsible. It was a breakdown of process. I am clear that he was not personally involved but as the guy on top of the team he took the blow, which if anything, should be all credit to him.

     

    Is there a parting line for proactive work at Publicis Worldwide?

    I think I have been quite unfavourably featured in the press for taking a simple stand when I say that I don’t understand certain terms such as ‘proactive work’. I understand only one thing – festivals have rules, most of them being the same. You should have a client. The client should be kept posted. It should be released in the media. I think we are celebrating creativity here. This is not a race; you don’t get money here, you get recognition.

    (Sanjit Shastri leaves the room)

     

    But there should be substantial release to the media and not just to few select publications for the sake of awards…

    I have asked this question before and I ask it again. A big client wants to put a Diwali ad which will be released in a publication once. He genuinely gives the brief and releases the Diwali ad but because it didn’t perhaps meet the definition of substantial, it does not qualify. Now, take the same example and flip it around to what is called proactive work. Agency turns up and tells the client that they have a great idea for a Diwali ad. Just because the story started that way, do you think it should be disqualified from an award? It’s rather silly. So, I have been very clear on this front.

     

    Now that Sanjit has left the room, I can ask an impolite question: tell us what is it that attracted you to Beehive

    Other than what I have mentioned, there was nothing that I was looking at such as a client that I wanted. I saw a great fit between what they had, the scale, the chemistry that we developed during our conversations and there was little overlap and no conflicts. So I am adding and growing my exposure to clients and width of services.

     

    But surely Beehive’s size is…

    You’ll be surprised on what Beehive’s revenues are. It can’t be spoken about, but they are substantial.

     

    Now there are a fair amount of agencies in Chennai, Coimbatore or the East that are doing a fair amount of good work. Are they now part of your acquisitions radar?

    It would depend on the scale.

     

    		 For an agency that’s got a handful of transnational clients, Beehive Communications has been particularly low profile. We started this Q&A with Sanjit Shastri, Founder and CEO, of the agency with the obvious question… “kahaan thhey aaj tak?”

     

    Beehive has always kept a low profile. Is that by design?

    I am not very good looking and I don’t speak too well so I’d rather concentrate on what I do best which is work hard and servicing our clients. Speaking to media is something that one does when one has to. We kept a low profile for very good reasons. In the beginning, when we started winning travel and retail clients, we were terrified that bigger agencies will come and swat us like flies and pick up the business and go. That’s when we decided that let’s not do PR and press releases and keep a low profile.

     

    It’s interesting that you say that because you are in a business of keeping people high profile…

    Our job is to keep clients high profile; not ourselves high profile. And that’s the way I like it.

     

    As an entrepreneur, you have built your agency from 2003 to a fairly large independent middle-scale agency, how does it feel now to have sold your enterprise?

    Prior to being acquired, we would have been in the top one or two independent agencies in terms of revenue. I don’t really see it as a sale because the spirit of entrepreneurship that we had at beehive will continue at Publicis.

     

    Is it a 100 per cent sale?

    Yes, a 100 per cent sale.

     

    I agree that the spirit of enterprise will continue but if were among the top three, you could have grown bigger…

    First, we will grow much bigger as part of the Publicis Groupe. Second, there is a debt of gratitude that I personally, and the Board of Directors at Beehive have to the very people who have been with us since ten years. For example, our Creative Head, Group Heads have been with us for 10 and eight years and they want to stay with us for another five years. The opportunity to grow in an international environment is much more than the opportunity to grow in an independent environment. There is only that much that we can do and with this, we can really do.

     

    In your old structure, did the team have stock options etc?

    No. But we looked after them well which is why they have been with us. Our Head of Media and Creative have been with us since 2003, our Head of Advertising has been with us since the time he joined us in 2007.

     

    Pardon our ignorance, but in terms of clients, who is your biggest? What according to you is your outstanding work?

    Tourism Malaysia is our biggest client. In my estimate, Malaysia is the largest individual international travel destination for leisure. And that is great victory for us. It is the only client with whom we have been working with for ten years and the contract is for two years more. It’s a 720 degree service where they make you go round twice. We do even food festivals for them; we do promotions in schools, painting contests etc. We have done a lot of work for Total Malls in Bengaluru, MT Educare, Century mattresses.

     

    Now as part of Publicis, apart from the scale that a multinational brings in, which are the specific areas that you think will see a value add?

    We had a pitch for a cruise company. I think we’ll win that. I just asked Bobby and he came down to our office within minutes and ensured that the creative was what we needed. The rest of the team, including Bobby, Partha, Nakul and Ambika’s knowledge of media is all that you need.

     

    Where do see your unit headed in terms of growth?

    We grow at around 15-20 per cent each year, which may be difficult this year but it will be maintained. I believe that will have about 180 people with us within the next year and a half. Of these, 30 per cent would be in digital and 30 per cent in the shopper-marketing space.

     

    How is the shopper-marketing space looking, especially with some international biggies joining the race?

    I believe for shopper-marketing client to be successful in India, it has to have a little bit of the Indian flavor in terms of execution, implementation and experience is it has to work. That’s where margins are and customer satisfaction is. I’m not saying that others won’t work but our focus will be to do this. There is enough space in shopper-marketing for everybody. It’s like an operational strategy where you have to run a kitchen with 1500 people working in it.

     

    For digital, it has been announced that there will be a synergy between the two company’s departments. How will this pan out?

    We will ask iStrat to carry out a lot of our execution. We will provide digital marketing solution to their clients and together we will provide a lot of execution and marketing solutions.

     

    How large is your media agency arm? Who are your clients in media?

    It’s fairly large. It brings in about 40-45 per cent of our revenues. We have Bisleri, Tourism Malaysia’s SAWAF region – South Asia, West Asia and Africa, which is about 30 countries.

     

    Since the acquisition has been announced, if there were one marked difference between yesterday and today at Beehive, what would it be?

    The excuse that we are not aligned therefore we can’t grow fast, doesn’t exist anymore.

     

     

  • Swami Sukhabodhananda, Graham Fink and Abhishek Kapoor have joined the line-up of speakers at Goafest 2013

    Additional speakers for Goafest announced

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Goafest 2013 committee has confirmed the participation of three more personalities as speakers: Swami Sukhabodhananda, Founder Chairman of Prasanna Trust; Graham Fink, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather China; and Abhishek Kapoor, Indian film writer and director.

     

    MG Parameswaran

    Goafest 2013 Knowledge Seminars Chairman M G Parameswaran said, “We have lined up a great list of speakers this year and this third set is possibly a bit different from the other names announced. We have Graham coming from China, the hottest consumer market in the world today. We also have two speakers from very different domain, and you can’t get any more different than this. Swamiji was the only speaker at AdAsia 2011 to get a standing ovation. I am sure he will bring a lot of new thought to the seminars. And who said ad awards cannot get a bit of stardust. Abhishek who delivered a super hit last month is sure to deliver a super hit talk in Goa!”

     

     

    Nakul Chopra

    Goafest 2013 Chairman Nakul Chopra said, “This stellar line up of speakers is among the very best that Goafest has ever had. The added diversity that speakers like Swamiji and Abhishek bring will be a unique and welcome addition to this year’s Knowledge Seminars. We look forward to great sessions with each one of these reputed speakers.”

     

  • MxM Mondays records the sentiment on the timing of Goafest and participation in the creative Abby

    MxM Mondays: Are delegates ready to face the heat at Goafest 2013?

     

    By Johnson Napier and Ananya Saha

     

    The festival that has been hailed as the Cannes of India beckons upon the advertising industry. April 4-6, 2013 are the days when the who’s who from advertising will be joined by a few from the media and marketing domains in keeping with the tradition of making it to the venue every year. The venue this year remains the same – Zuri White Sands in Goa! Like every year, the Goafest committee will be going all out to ensure that the event remains world-class, be it in the quality of speakers or the introduction of new initiatives or simply by bringing about a twist in the awards tale.

     

    But in doing their bit in raising the bar of the festival, what they have not achieved so far is holding the event in some other month in Goa – by now the biggest peeve facing delegates. The Goafest committee led by Nakul Chopra of Publicis this year, has been making attempts to actively bring it forward by a few weeks if not a month or two. But that doesn’t help solve the issue of the torrid heat that delegates have to put up with in order to enjoy a festival that boasts of being the largest of its kind.

     

    MxMIndia speaks to a few committee members and also some members from the ad and marketing fraternity and explores possibilities of whether the delegates can expect the unexpected…

     

    Nakul Chopra, Chairman, Goafest Committee

    There is a logistical issue with doing it in February from a perspective of the location. As one would know, the tourism season here starts from October right until March. The same is the case with Cannes where it is not a vacation season when the awards are held there. But we’ve tried our best by getting the event ahead in the first week of April. We do understand that the heat gets unbearable but we would make provisions to have more cooling areas in the venue.

     

    As for the non-participation dilemma, I don’t think that with Abbys and Goafest in its current avatar, anybody is staying away in protest. Probably some agencies have a principle of not participating in awards or any other personal reason but not because of some issue from our end. These were issues of the past and as an industry we have managed to fairly overcome them in recent years. Due credit should be given to the fact that Goafest is the only award of this size and stature that is being run by industry bodies. This enables us to reach out to as many agencies and delegates as possible and not be limited in our approach towards the industry.

     

    Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Group – Financial Services

    The heat and passion of advertising industry is stronger than the heat of Goa. Whenever you have it is immaterial. On a serious note, there is an economics of the whole thing. We try to do it away from the peak season, which helps us in two ways. One, of course the economics and second, it helps us with avoiding the crowd and congestion all over.

     

    It is a democratic country but it is too early to think or know who might not be a part of Goafest. So far, we have the support of every agency. And it is too early to think anything to the contrary.

     

    Anant Rangaswami, senior editor at Firstpost.com and author of The Elephants in the Room

    On the timing, all I can say is that April first week is better than April second or third week. That they managed to get it to the first week is not a bad thing. Also, it’s not easy to get an event of this scale to be held in February/March; it could be a logistical nightmare. Whether they should hold the festival at some other venue, I don’t know what’ll be the right thing to say as they had envisaged the festival with a certain concept in mind. I think it is a trap that they are finding difficult to get out of. Goa will continue to remain the venue as long as the name remains Goafest. That is not the case with other awards like Spikes that can be held at Bali, Singapore etc. For me, it looks like a big trap that they cannot get out of.

     

    As for non-participation in the awards, the number has come down significantly. As for McCann Erickson preferring to opt out last year, it  did not opt out of the awards because of any issue with the way it was conducted. Prasoon made it quite clear that he did not think that they had a body of award-winning work. I can understand that, because the awards are an expensive business, and it makes sense not to enter unless you stand a decent chance of winning. In this industry, every sector apart from television is about scam and scam requires investment, time, energy…it’s not easy. There’s serious money that goes in the development of scam. But what the committee has done in the past two years is also noteworthy as they have managed to eradicate issues like bias in judging by the jury, favouritism, leaking of results and other such things involving the awards.

     

    Arvind Sharma, President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI)

    The real challenge is getting rooms for so many delegates. With so much international tourists pouring in and domestic travel also seeing a spike it becomes difficult to arrange for rooms for so many delegates. But can it be held in early March, yes it certainly can. We are working towards it.

     

    Any awards show around the world, a few agencies will chose not to participate for a variety of reasons. We should be looking at the fact that the number of participating agencies is increasing every year at Goafest. It also means that the number of winners are increasing every year because part of the purpose of an awards show is to be a beacon of light for excellence and I am particularly excited that we are recognising excellence in more than 119 organisations.

     

    Shashi Sinha, President – The Advertising Club and Chairman of the Awards Governing Council, Goafest

    The event is a very low-cost affair and not on the scale of what one gets to see at Cannes. There is no-profit motive behind this event and the effort is to try and accommodate the youngsters by offering them subsidised rates. This whole exercise is designed on the basis of sponsorships. The goal is to ensure that we have the right balance of sponsorships and also encourage more youngsters to come and attend the event. The other point is that October-March happens to be peak season for tourism and therefore the rates are pretty expensive. To accommodate more than 3000 delegates therefore becomes a huge task. We have tried our best to bring it forward by hosting it in the first week of April. But we would be providing more cooling options at the venue like the display area that saw heavy movement last year by the youngsters.

     

    On the issue of non-participation by agencies, we have managed to successfully bring down that number significantly in the past two years. In fact last year there was only agency – McCann Erickson that did not participate. What we have managed to do is that if somebody is not participating we have made it clear that it is not because of the process; it is because of some other reason. Previously it was very convenient to blame the committee etc for the drawback but that is not the case today. One of the biggest reasons why agencies now participate openly is because of the transparency that we managed to bring in the process. That has cleared doubts that existed among agencies.

     

    Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner & Chief Creative Officer, Bang In The Middle

    I personally have not been there too many times and I did find that the heat was a torture. It is actually the old in the industry that are affected by the heat, the younger lot are not. It is a bit of summer blast everywhere in India at that time before summer actually begins. For youngsters, it implies lots of time on the beach, lots of time to run around, lots of beer, hang out in the shacks. It is going to be, let us say, 200 seniors and rest are going to be juniors. From that perspective, it does not really matter. Going to Goa, for youngsters, is the big thing no matter what time of the year. Seniors, anyway, are used to be driven around, staying in air-conditioned homes and offices. So to be outdoors, it is terrible. I am in creative, so I go for shoots, I do not complain. If I am in Goa then, I would prefer to stay in the auditorium or watch and learn rather than go out and stand in the sun. If I were young, say 25, I would be enjoying going everywhere. For organisers, to get hold of amenities is possibly a better deal at this time of the year. Since February and March are tourist seasons, availability of rooms could be a problem for organisers.

     

    For the agencies refraining from participating, I would say that everything is fair. It is all about the money at the end of the day. If I have ‘X’ amount of money and I am sure of winning a metal at international festival, I would rather put my money at Cannes rather than Goa. It is also about the fight of action between two or three groups. Personally, I do not ascribe to any awards. I do not want to be part of any awards. I am very happy doing whatever I am doing. I am not here cutting any favours. My whole responsibility is only towards the clients that I handle, and towards my juniors.

     

    I may or may not go. But boys and girls from my office will definitely go.