MxMIndia

Tag: sir martin sorrell

  • Transition to AI-powered Creative and Technology

    Media.Monks is now just Monks

    Sir Martin Sorrell’s Media.Monks is now going to called Monks. Just that, but guess the objective is to move beyond the globally beleaguered media industry.

    Media.Monks, the operating brand of Sir Martin Sorrel’s S4 Capital has announced what it calls a more streamlined and more effective offerings.

    Media.Monks will transition its services into two “fully synchronised” practices: Marketing services and Technology services, both powered by Monks.Flow, the AI-powered, marketing and workflow platform.

    Said Sorrell who is S4 Capital Founder and Executive Chairman: “Many of today’s agencies are wrestling with the pace of change in a world profoundly transformed by technology. It’s always been our ambition to disrupt the legacy model and today marks another important milestone in that journey. With this shift in the way we deliver our services to market, we are better able to help clients transform the economics of their businesses and are well-positioned to develop and define the future of our industry.”

  • Ogilvy is the star in the mush, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

    Why Ogilvy has survived the WPP mergers, and others haven’t

     

     

    Prabhakar MundkurBy Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    With the recent apocalypse of well-known agency brands, JWT, Y & R, Wunderman, Grey and several others, it seems in comparison, that the only agency to escape the onslaught of mergers in the WPP group is Ogilvy.

     

    There is a near mythical story about a conversation that was once overheard in one of New York’s many synagogues between two heads of the world’s top communication conglomerates. “You know JWT is past its prime. It is very good at handling old established brands like Kellogg’s and Unilever. The best ad agency in the group is Ogilvy. They handle modern brands like IBM and many others. They are ready for the future. The two men departed the synagogue after that propitious meeting. Almost 25 years later, the JWT brand was slain.

     

    The dialogue in the synagogue seems to have come true in many ways. Ogilvy has withstood the test of time as one would call it. They have continued to be one of the most creative agencies in the world coupled with their knowledge of new media, customer experience and data-driven communication. It is no wonder then that it continues as Ogilvy and refuses to be overcome by mergers and acquisitions. The only acquisition ever was when Sir Martin Sorrell pitched for the agency from WPP in 1989 when he acquired Ogilvy in a hostile acquisition for $864 million. A move that irked David Ogilvy into calling Sorrell ‘an odious piece of shit’ publicly. A little later, David Ogilvy’s tirade against Sorrell changed from ‘shit’ to ‘jerk’.

     

    But David Ogilvy quickly changed his earlier animosity against Sorrel. He was to write much later, “To my surprise, I liked you. . . I was flattered when you quoted my books, and even more so when you invited me to become Chairman of your company, which goes by the name WPP. I accepted your invitation..  . It remains for me to tell you that I am sorry I was so offensive to you-before we met.

     

    When Ogilvy was dying of cancer, Sorrell visited him and promised to look after his wife and even paid for his nurses, according to Miles Young.

     

    The magic of Ogilvy 

    For one, Ogilvy pursued excellence in creativity relentlessly unlike its contemporary brethren like JWT. Also, Ogilvy embraced direct marketing much earlier than some of the other agencies in the old days, quickly giving it skills beyond mass media. For many decades, JWT produced middle-of-the-road advertising for its largest client Ford which once accounted for 25% of the agency’s revenue making JWT Detroit its biggest office in the world. That coupled with its client portfolio of old world brands perhaps was it undoing. It failed to embrace the tilt to modern forms of communications as well as Ogilvy. Its slew of modern brands like IBM, Verizon, Ikea and others I believe helped Ogilvy to keep in touch with the future much better than other agency brands which have got acquired and withered away. It has been creating iconic, culture changing advertising ever since Ogilvy founded the agency in 1948.

     

    So here is a lesson to the rest of the agency brands out there. Please look at what Ogilvy is doing. Because if you follow them, you will stay alive and hope to avert the death of advertising as predicted by many.

     

    Let me end this piece with one of my favourite quotes from David Ogilvy.

     

    “The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything”

     

    Long Live Ogilvy!

     

  • The question really is how WPP is going to transfer the legacy of JWT and Y & R into a Johnny-come-lately such as VML, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

    WPP fells two great brands in one stroke

    Courtesy Pexels, under Creative Commons Licence

     

     

    Prabhakar MundkurBy Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    Is this the final death of advertising as we know it? The last nail on the coffin? Or is it that the communications conglomerate that started it all has forgotten what is branding in their quest for “interconnectivity of brand experience, commerce and customer experiences” words that Jon Cook, Global CEO of VML used to the announce the death of Thomspon, previously J Walter Thompson and Y & R, previously Young & Rubicam.

    Not to speak of Wunderman.  

    Although I don’t think Wunderman was nearly as great a brand as either J Walter Thompson or Y & R, it had certainly gained a reputation starting from its origins as a direct marketing agency.  Somehow I am unable to shed tears for Wunderman but to think that both J Walter Thompson and Y & R do not exist even as the initials depresses me. To me, it is the death of creativity and strategy more than the death of advertising. The fact that they had been reduced to initials itself was depressing but I had just begun to accept it.

    Strangely, the erstwhile JWT which was named after its founder J Walter Thompson had sold the business at the turn of the early twentieth century because he thought that advertising had no future.  While it did well in the intervening 100 years or so it is strange that his spooky prediction about the future of JWT should finally turn out to be true. 

     

    So what is VML?

    Do those 3 letters conjure up any images in my mind? I am afraid not. Who do those initials belong to and what do they mean to the rest of us? To me, I am sorry to say, it sounds like a company producing scooters at best. Maybe that classifies me as an advertising dinosaur. But even dinosaurs must have their say on history.

    John Valentine, Scott McCormick and Craig Legible started VML in 1992 in Kansas City.  I never thought that a great communications company would emerge out of Kansas City. Kansas city is known only for BBQ and a mighty good time!

     

    The Challenge for WPP

    The question really is how WPP is going to transfer the legacy of JWT and Y & R into a Johnny-come-lately company such as VML. What happens to 100 years of thinking about advertising and branding that made JWT famous?  Thanks to stalwarts like Stephen King, Jeremy Bullmore and many others.  People who laid down the foundation of the advertising business and built interesting theories about how communication worked. Or the creativity of Y & R who is known to have produced the first colour television commercial in advertising history? Or the theory of Archetypes and how that could be brought to hear on advertising which first emerged from writers that worked at Y & R?

    What happens to the legacy of proprietary knowledge, analytical rigour and creative solutions  these two great advertising agencies brought to bear on the rest of the communications industry?

    Or are 100 years of history and knowledge going to dissolve in the vacuous nothingness of AI, technology, customer experience and commerce? That is a lot of words that somehow  don’t convey much to me but are found in the press releases of the new age communications companies.

    In retrospect, Wunderman-Thompson was a good example of bad branding from the world’s largest communications conglomerate. Why would they have  delegated Thompson to second place in the first instance? More people surely knew Thompson rather than Wunderman. And in process kill an over 130 year old brand with much higher equity. 

    Wunderman was a small entity. Thompson was a big entity.  Wunderman-Thompson was a non-entity. So I am not even sure I  should be shedding any tears now that both of them are dead. 

    I am sure  “Commodore”  J Walter Thompson as he was lovingly called must have flipped a few times sadly in his grave last evening when he saw the VML press release.

    Goodbye, J Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and Wunderman.  

    Hello, VML, whoever you are!

    And Sir Martin what do you think of what your successor is doing?

     

    PS: Meanwhile, Sir Martin’s successor has just got himself another five-year contract from the Board. Share price is trending at a third of its 2015 peak and lagging behind Publicis and Omnicom to No 3.

     

  • In winning the Coca-Cola business, Mark Read follows Sir Martin Sorrell in integrating group firms for pitching globally, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

    The Rise of the Holding company

     

     

    By Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    Prabhakar MundkurWhen WPP won a large part of the Coca-Cola business worth $4 billion, it was an affirmation that the holding company once looked upon as just a holding company that does nothing but inspects individual company, P&Ls had transformed themselves into an integrator of their individual companies.

     

    True integration has eluded the ad agency business for over two decades now, if not more. Sir Martin Sorrell took the lead for integration by pitching for large businesses globally. Mark Read has followed quickly in his footsteps by employing the same methods to win the global Coke business easily one of the top advertisers in the world for a long time.

     

    Conflict of Interest

    Once upon a time, agencies got bogged down by conflict of interest to handle more than one account in the same category.  This is because the traditional agency was unable to build an effective firewall that convinced clients that conflicting accounts could be handled without a leak of confidential information within the agency. No longer.

     

    Because holding companies have been able to put together special teams hand-picked from each of their operating companies offering a wide range of disciplines for mainline advertising to digital, to form individual units that handle each conflicting account, it promises a very effective firewall which means that clients are no longer worried about conflict. WPP’s GTB for Ford, Red Fuse for Colgate-Palmolive and now Open X for Coke are just examples of how these specialist units can operate.

     

    While it may seem like an innovative way to handle clients, the Japanese have been doing this for the last many decades. If you have been to the Dentsu or Hakuhodo buildings in Tokyo, you will notice that there can be as many as three or more automobile accounts being handled by these agencies, with each agency unit being located on a different floor.

     

    For example, Nissan could be on the 13th floor, Honda on the 17th, Suzuki on the 20th and Toyota on the 25th. The beauty of this structure is that employees working on a particular floor do not have access to any floor but their own therefore providing an effective firewall that ensures confidentiality of the individual account.

     

    WPP’s Coke win includes creative media and marketing technology business for 200 countries so it is a fully integrated business. I quite liked the Open X name for the WPP unit which handles the Coke integrated business.  Unusual for Coke who has been hesitant to commit themselves to any agency in the past although IPG has had the longest run.  I remember a time when Coke thought that it did not need their creative agency McCann and began flirting with individual Hollywood producers for their commercials.

     

     

    It’s a pity that the major new creative platform of Real Magic was launched just two weeks before the WPP announcement.  While I thought that the Real Magic commercial worked well, initial feedback from the gaming community suggests that it has put the brand back by a few years.  Tim Crow sports and eports advisore says, “Gaming is not a divided world. They are a big tribe that doesn’t need Coke’s help to connect with each other because they already are. Games are about fun and the competition brings people together… Coke [came off as] tone deaf about gaming and what it is. They’ve put themselves back years with the gaming community with this globally.”

     

    It would be interesting to see how WPP takes this theme of Real Magic forward.

     

     

  • With the change in leadership, the last vestiges of a Thompson company in India blur into the distance, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

    Wunderman Thompson: Pinning the tail on the donkey

     

     

    By Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    Prabhakar MundkurSir Martin Sorrell when asked what he thought of the Wunderman-JWT merger had once used a euphemism in his characteristic style when he said: “So in a way, and I will probably be chastised for saying that, but Wunderman would be like pinning the tail on the donkey here.” Of course his comment was on the Indian market, where JWT was a giant and Wunderman a little, fledging marketing services agency. Unfortunately, many other markets faced the same situation.

     

    Thompsonites, which normally refers to JWT employees and alummi who are still very much in love with the agency, shed a few silent tears to mourn the merger three years ago. After all, JWT left a huge impression on the world – in fact often known as the University of Advertising.

     

    First established in 1864, no doubt old Commodore J Walter Thompson must have done a few backward flips in pain in his grave. It was not just the merger but the ignominy of it. I have always wondered if the Thompson employees in the merger felt like losers?

     

    Everyone knows that there are possibly only three alternatives to a post-merger branding situation.

     

    :: Adopt the name of the stronger brand for the merger. When US Airways merged with America West, its executives decided to retire America West. Made sense since US Airways was the stronger brand. Or when DHL acquired Airborne Express. Incidentally, I think JWT was the stronger brand in this particular case.

    :: Using the best of both brands. Wunderman Thompson falls in this category. But the first name of the double barrelled name, normally means that the first name is the horse they are backing. Considering the relative fame of JWT and Wunderman and their relative sizes it was a bit of a surprise to the Thompsonite. While using both the names is a good strategy, usually which names comes first also signifies that there is a winner and a loser. In the Wunderman Thompson case clearly JWT was the loser.

    :: The merger creates a new brand name and identity for the merged companies. Bell Atlantic’s merger with Nynex 2000 created Verizon for example.

     

    I think what irked most Thompsonites was the backbench given to their favourite agency.

     

    The redeeming feature of course was that given the relative sizes of JWT and Wunderman in India, the man incharge of the combined entity was Tarun Rai, earlier CEO of JWT, a deviation actually from the global formula where the merger was largely headed by the Wunderman chief. Thompsonites in India took some solace from that. But this fate has affected all the other great brand names in the WPP group as well. Y&R, Grey unfortunately have also had the short end of the stick. As a global rule, Mark Reed of WPP seems to have made the digital head the CEO of the merger. Has this preference or bias to do with the fact that Mark Reed himself was a Wunderman chief? Maybe.

     

    A number of marketers do claim that while digital is growing by leaps and bounds, it is having a detrimental impact on creativity. A study by Simzek in 2018 which surveyed more than 500 marketers around the world suggests that the industry is still struggling to nail the marriage of digital advertising and powerful creative work. I can’t help feeling that the Wunderman-JWT merger is likely to have impacted the overall creative quality of the new agency. In the larger quest for digital to deliver on measurability, the quality of creative has often been suspect.

     

    I have often also wondered how clients have reacted to the change over the last few years. My favourite clients Unilever, Kelloggs, to name a few, have always put good strategy and creative quality in the front. As an industry outsider now, I wonder how they are adjusting to the change.

     

    With Tarun Rai taking up another assignment within the network, the last vestiges of a Thompson company in India blur into the distance. I of course wish Wunderman Thompson and its new leader the very best for the future. But clearly all the remnants of my Thompson memory have been as brutally deleted as when you reformat a hard disk. And all the wonderful JWT memorabilia of yesteryears that I carried with me perhaps now has no real heir.

     

    I will give them a decent burial in my memory.

     

  • On board will also be Low Earth Orbit to scale up competitive advantages

    PR agencies waiting to be acquired, watch out. Martin Sorrell’s S4 & MediaMonks expand into PR & Comms

    By Our Staff

     

    Indian PR agencies waiting to acquired may be enthused with this report. Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4Capital and MediaMonks have announced their expansion into the PR and communications space with the addition of Low Earth Orbit (L.E.O.). In joining, former Edelman executives Kevin King and Jess Clifton will be taking on senior leadership roles within MediaMonks.

    Jess Clifton
    Kevin King

    In these newly appointed roles, Kevin King will serve as Global Head of Brand Reputation, focused on building a future-forward public relations and communications offering rooted in modern media relations and digital-first planning. Jess Clifton will serve as Head of Brand and Marketing Advisory, focused on scaling MediaMonks’ capabilities to help brands maximize their investments across technology infrastructure, organizational design, go-to-market strategy, media, campaign planning and execution.

    Said Wesley ter Haar, MediaMonks Founder & Executive Director at S4 Capital Group:  “We are thrilled to welcome Jess and Kevin to the MediaMonks/S4 family. Every brand needs to promote their brand and products, but they also need to protect themselves when faced with reputational challenges. Similarly, every brand is asking for strategic support that is more agile and comprehensive to deliver maximum value. Building out a PR 2.0 and Advisory practice will be a significant competitive advantage as we marry it with the S4 holy trinity of data, content and media.”

    Added Clifton: “Brands are in a constant state of navigating disruption to their business. We are excited to bring advisory and reputation together with MediaMonks incredible creative, strategy and media capabilities,”

     

     

  • Keeping in mind “economic realities”, entry to the event is priced at Rs 2950 (US$39)

    Zee Melt to be held online, on Sept 3 & 4

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kyoorius and Zee have announced the 2020 edition of Zee Melt, which is scheduled to be held virtually on Septemeber 3 and 4.

     

    The organisers have lined up industry stalwarts like Chuck Porter, Rory Sutherland, Sir Martin Sorrell, Vikki Ross, Fernando Machado, Beth Ann Kaminkow and Laura Jordan Bambach amongst others. Keeping in mind “economic realities”, entry to the event is priced at Rs 2950 (US$39).

     

    Punit Goenka and Rajesh Kejriwal

    Speaking on the association of Zee Entertainment with Zee Melt, Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL, said: “We have been proud partners of MELT since inception and have seen it grow in stature and influence. We’re delighted that, together with Kyoorius, we have adapted to a complex environment and ensured that the sharing of knowledge continues.”

     

    Added Rajesh Kejriwal, CEO, Kyoorius: “We have taken advantage of the amazing adoption of digital communication and developments in tech to create a world-class conference with the finest speakers from across the world. We have also tried to address a global audience through convenient scheduling and relevant content.”

     

    Anant Rangaswami

    Said Anant Rangaswami, Editor, Melt: “We continue with the philosophy, since inception, of taking into account the long tail of interest of the communication professional. This will be clearly visible in the curation of speakers, panel discussions and workshops.”

     

  • WARC releases an evidenced-based and practical guide for advertisers faced with a recession like no other

    Lessons & Guide for Marketing given Covid-19

     

    By A Correspondent

    The Covid-19 pandemic has caused shockwaves across the globe with major economies falling into a recession like no other in recent history.

    As the advertising industry considers how to proceed, WARC, the global authority on marketing effectiveness, has released a comprehensive, evidenced-based report: The WARC Guide to Marketing in the COVID-19 Recession.

    The guide includes learnings from past recessions, how the COVID-19 recession is different, lessons from China, key actions that brands can take now, and growth opportunities beyond the lockdown.

    Said David Tiltman, VP Content, WARC: “A global recession is now highly likely, and the shape of the recovery is difficult to predict and will vary by sector. With many brands unable to distribute products and services, the usual advice to “keep advertising” may not apply in all cases, and marketers need to take a nuanced approach based on their brand’s situation.”

    Added Lena Roland, Managing Editor, WARC Knowledge: “This WARC Guide to Marketing in a Recession pulls together the best thinking from across the industry on navigating the post-lockdown period. It presents advertisers, agencies and media owners with relevant frameworks, actionable ideas, and offers examples of how major marketers are already putting plans into practice.”

    The five chapters covered in the WARC Guide to Marketing in the COVID-19 Recession are:

    • The playbook for ‘normal’ recessions

    A large body of research studies suggest that significantly reducing adspend in a recession has negative long-term impact on brands in terms of sales, market share, growth and return on investment. Companies that maintained investment recovered more quickly.

    WARC has identified five marketing lessons from previous recessions:

    (1) In a recession, media costs decline. (2) Defend your share of voice – cutting ad spend risks damaging market share. (3) Investing in adspend brings long-term advantage. (4) Decline in share can be hard to reverse. (5) “Going dark” beyond six months can weaken brands.

     

    • Recession 2020: What we know so far

    The COVID-19 recession is the first pandemic-driven downturn of the modern era. It is a healthcare crisis, leading to a severe economic slump. That also makes the shape of the recovery hard to predict, as consequences of the lockdown become apparent and there is risk of further outbreaks.

    Sir Martin Sorrell predicts a “reverse square root” recession – a sharp downturn, a partial bounceback then a plateau.

    Cuts in media spend have been immediate and sharp. According to the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, the COVID-19 outbreak will wipe more than £4bn from the total UK ad spend for the current year, across all channels.

    The 2020 downturn is set to be a demand and supply-side shock, caused first by lockdown and then by critical value chain components breaking down, particularly in China, leading to disruption in product and service delivery.

    In a recent interview with WARC, Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman, S4 Capital, said: “You can’t say to a client spend your way through this. If you don’t have distribution, what’s the point?”

    In a recent GlobalWebindex survey across 17 markets, 83% of consumers say they have delayed a purchase. But the impact of recession varies by brand and category.

    In a new paper, exclusive for WARC, Les Binet, Group Head of Effectiveness, adam&eveDDB, said: “Different businesses face very different problems, and those problems will change as the crisis proceeds. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your strategy should be tailored to your business, and it should evolve as your crisis unfolds.”

    • Recession 2020: Actions to take now

    As lockdown measures are lifted and the recession takes hold, WARC offers key actions to help brands rebound. They vary depending on a company’s resources, and if operating in a boom or bust category. Brands should:

    (1) Review their lockdown playbook. (2) Keep advertising if they can. (3) If a brand has to reduce adspend, use other levers to remain visible. (4) Maintain creative where possible. (5) Tailor the approach to brand-building and activation. (6) Kill or cut back on ‘dwarf’ brands. (7) Look for signs of new habit formation. (8) Audit e-commerce capability. (9) Build strategic alliances. (10) Review pricing but try to avoid discounting.

    • Early lessons from China

    As lockdown is lifted, Chinese consumers remain cautious and media habits are changing again, meaning marketers should retain a degree of flexibility in their media plans.

    According to Publicis Groupe China, online video, social, and news content will be key during normalization. For outdoor ads, the rebound will be primarily in commuting routes, residential areas, and elevator areas.

    Brands are also starting to reconfigure digital initiatives around e-commerce. For example, Friso China registered new customers into its CRM program through e-commerce incentives (discount coupons).

    Restoring consumer confidence is proving a key challenge in China – and many brands are finding that packaging innovations can help resolve this. Meituan, an online-to-offline service launched contactless shields that protect customers from infection when eating.

    The travel sector, one of the hardest hit by the first wave of the pandemic, should prioritise domestic demand based on the experience in China and North Asia.

    The crisis has broadened the role of the big online platforms, such as Chinese retail giant JD; and China’s wide-ranging apps and digital services, which played an important role in the lockdown, are now doing so in the normalisation period, but data privacy is increasingly a concern.

    • Opportunities for future growth

    While the return will be gradual and tentative, and the playbook will vary by region and sector, downturns are an opportunity to initiate and accelerate change. WARC highlights opportunities to help brands on the road to recovery:

    1) Supporting small and local businesses is a powerful strategy: SMEs will be among the hardest hit. Consumers may support initiatives that help rebuild local business and communities.

     

    2) Finance brands can go beyond communications to support hard-hit consumers: According to Google, online searches for “financial help” recently grew 203% in just one week, as unemployment jumps.

    3) Consumer goods brands can play with pack size to meet consumer needs: For brands seeking to defend market share from private-label, adding value through formats, innovation or value-on pack is going to be critical.

    4) Develop a ‘close-to-home’ strategy: People will be eager to leave their homes, but the potential of a further outbreak – combined with economic hardship – means many will prepare their homes as a safe place of sanctuary and safety. Trend forecasting company WGSN (WARC’s sister brand) predicts home health and hygiene will be a key investment category.

    5) Close-to-home means food stockpiling habits may persist: Conagra, the CPG company, says increased trial of frozen food during the lockdown offers a long-term opportunity for the category. Food companies may benefit from range extension and new product development in frozen and long-life products.

    6) The ‘health economy’ will create new opportunities: The pandemic may be the catalyst for radical and lasting transformation of how health and wellness is experienced and delivered. Brands in categories outside health and wellness may be affected too, and should review opportunities to form partnerships that can reassure or help health-focused consumers.

    7) COVID-19 is accelerating the need for digital transformation: Many of the trends caused or accelerated by the COVID-19 require the rewiring of companies around data and digital services. At a time of significant consumer change, there is an opportunity for CMOs to play a leading role in interpreting those changes and acting as ‘superconnectors’ between internal functions.

     

    Added Jodi Harris, Global VP for Marketing, Culture and Capabilities, Anheuser-Busch InBev: “Marketing is swiftly moving beyond branding and communications to providing business solutions that address people’s needs… We’re taking on a new leadership role, connecting multiple disciplines within the organization to accelerate programs that make a difference in our communities and people’s lives.”

     

     

  • For years Ogilvy, JWT, and other agencies in the WPP group saw each other as competition. Now they might have to see each other as collaborators when they meet each other in the elevator every morning, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

    Prabhakar Mundkur | Bay99: Collective Spaces means Collective Intelligence

    By Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    Bay99, the new WPP campus in Mumbai, is a wee bit late considering that they have opened the WPP campuses in all the major cities of the world like Amsterdam, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan Bogota, Mexico City, Sao Paolo not to mention all the North American cities including New York and Chicago.

     

    All credit of course for creating a collective space called the WPP Campus must rightfully go its founder Sir Martin Sorrell. Sir Martin had been doggedly pursuing the idea of a horizontal offering for at least ten years now.  Having been a holding group that acquired various pieces of business over the years, Sir Martin abhorred the idea of vertical silos that often became the primary enemy of agency companies, defeating all efforts of consolidation and cooperation.

     

    Technology and the internet have in many ways spoilt us. Because it made us believe that the solution to getting everybody to work together was IT infrastructure, intranets and cloud-based file sharing systems.  But there is nothing better than working out of the same space to create true cooperation and collaboration amongst companies. Collective intelligence is not a problem unfortunately that only technology can fix.

     

    What might have been the trigger for creating common working spaces for WPP companies? Certainly, on one hand client demands for better consolidation because clients wanted to take advantage of the scale of WPP.  But also, because there is a constant demand for coordination between the different companies and the parent group.  Sorrell once said “WPP’s 205000+ individual brains represent the planets greatest store of marketing services insight, expertise, creativity and experience.”

     

    So Bay99 represents the collective intelligence of the WPP companies in Mumbai.  The companies of course might have to think a little differently.  For years Ogilvy, JWT, and other agencies in the WPP group saw each other as competition.  Now they might have to see each other as collaborators when they meet each other in the elevator every morning.  Not an easy task but they better get used to it.

     

    WPP Mumbai HQ
    The lounge area at Bay99, the all-new WPP headquarters in Mumbai. Source: Twitter

    Bay99 is an interesting name.  Firstly it brings back memories of Bombay, and of course the 99 for old city dwellers gives an approximate indication of its location.  WPP’s objective has always been to be the anchor tenants on a piece of property. And so, it will be the anchor tenant with Bay99.  Situated within The Orb, a brand-new complex next to the international airport in the Sahar area, the location offers various amenities, including convenient transport and social options. The Orb complex will also offer more than 40 dining and entertainment options within walking distance for staff to enjoy.

     

    In a first for WPP’s India offices, the co-location will bring together more than 16 companies under one roof, with a space of 380,000 square feet over a 10-year lease.

     

    Bay99 then will be the best manifestation of the horizontality mantra first made famous by Sorrell.

     

  • A quick chat with S4 Capital boss Sir Martin Sorrell on the sidelines of the IAA World Congress at Kochi

    Been bullish on India for years…

     

    Former WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has always been bullish on India. And he continues to be that as Executive Chairman of S4 Capital, which is building a new age, new era, digital advertising and marketing services platform for clients.

    Sorrell was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. Prior to that, Sir Martin was the Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company PLC for 9 years. S4 Capital PLC recently merged with MediaMonks and MightyHive, and is listed at the London Stock Exchange under SFOR.

    We had a quick chat with Sir Sorrell on the sidelines of Day 1 of the IAA World Congress (Feb 20)

     

    So you’ve been making frequent trips to India in the recent past.

    They are no different to normal.

    Earlier the normal was different…

    But I would say that no dissimilar frequency. I wouldn’t differentiate particularly.

    And the million dollar question is—

    Only a million?

    Well, billion actually, given the acquisitions that you’ve made globally. But are you looking at furthering your business interests with S4 in India?

    Organically, quickly and by acquisition as quick as we can… so we’d be doing both in India.

     

    Any clues on your wishlist?

    No, I’ve got a wishlist but I mean whether in term vision reality is other question and whether what people tell you and what is there is another question as well.

    Is old friend Sam Balsara’s Madison still on your radar?

    Our operation, you must remember, is focused purely on digital.

     

    Right, but when you launched you were looking at digital content, data, media planning and buying?

    No, not media planning. First party data and informing digital content and digital media planning which is programmatic.

    The traditional media agency doesn’t come under your radar?

    Well as defined by that, no.

    But at the end of the day it’s all about relationship with clients, right?

    Yes, but that’s a very old-fashioned way of looking at the business. I mean I would turn the question around you and ask you, is it? I mean it may well be that faster, better, cheaper is becoming more important. It may be that people are looking at doing things in a more transparent way. It may be the clients felt that they want to take back control of some of these things. So may well be that they are worried about the height of the gardens in, the height of the walls in the old garden.

    You say that things are not transparent in the traditional media agency model that you created?

    Well I would say that the Indian market tends to be less transparent than other markets.

    It’s often said the media agency business is not all that transparent because of what’s happening?

    Yes, I think, sometimes there’s been a perception of that and sometimes clients or associations of clients you know have been pushing that line unfairly. Sometimes I don’t know they obviously have come across situations, one hopes given by what they said. They come across situations which they didn’t think were fair. But what I would say you can compare India to other markets, I think there is scope for a more transparent model.

    Back to acquisitions. So are these around digital agencies? But there aren’t too many options out there, right?

    No they are small.

    Small?

    Yes because we are at the beginning of the journey. So they are growing bigger.

    But no many of them are doing really all that well, right?

    That broad, sweeping generalisation is probably unfair. There are some that are doing ok. Yes, the ones I’ve seen are doing ok.

    Is there a timeframe for these acquisitions?

    We’ve never had a timeframe…

    Given that you know you are coming here often enough. You are meeting people.

    The cheapest way of doing things is organically.

    But time to get to the market is longer?

    Yes, it takes longer time.

    Have the organic operations started?

    Yes, in the process of starting.

    Any people you’ve hired already?

    Yes.

    Could you reveal the name?

    No.

    You bought Media Monks last July, Mighty Hive in December. What next?

    Well we started in Tokyo and Japan. We are going to start shortly in India. So the one other market we’ve identified is Germany. I would like to do something in Germany and may be France, Spain and Italy at some point in time. But I think that geographically for the moment we know that India would be I think our 15th country.

     But the biggest market place is US?

    Yes I mean US, by and large US is about a third of worldwide advertising. But don’t undersell India.

    Of course.

    Yes, we will the most populous country in the world. Bigger than China, may be not the wealthiest on a per capita basis or absolute basis. But it is growing and I got more faith, probably more faith than you that it is going to grow more faster.

    And you’ve fairly very close to the Indian market, you know the, clients, you know the business?

    I’ve been bullish on India for years.

    Since you are so bullish about India, could you give an indicator of what you’d think would India be as part of your foot print in percentage terms?  

    It’s impossible to say. I mean it depends, if we get traction from a model. The data-driven content and media model could be very significant. Because the other thing that happens here is, you got lot of BPO, back-office type work being done here and so the nuance to the  Indian operation, it’s not just sort of a front office operation, back office operations as well. And the people are so talented. I mean if you said to me, what is the attraction of India? I would say scale and quality of people. Despite the scale, which usually the bigger you are, the more average you get. Despite the quality of the people here is outstanding. Look at the quality of the WPP people – Srini and his colleagues I mean they are superb, yes superb.

    You miss them?

    Listen, I always miss talented people. And as I have said pretty much every time I have come here, if we had the same quality of people outside India that we have in India, I could have retired a long time ago.

    The retirement question keeps coming up.

    Well, I will retire on the job.

    Since you are betting so big on digital, people like P&G’s Mark Pritchard have cast aspersions on the transparency in digital?

    Our operation includes one significant P&G brand, P&G Braun. Our operation plays exactly to what Mark Pritchard has been saying. The willingness to experiment, try different models, faster better cheaper, unitary structure, focus on digital. It plays exactly to what he wants.

    You had mentioned last year, in fact on the day when you announced S4, that you want S4 to be run the way consulting firms work. Given their access to CEO, the Board. Is S4’s operations like them?

    Well I’d love S4 to have a relationship. We want the consulting practices   which gave us that sort of fourth dimension. So you’ve got data driving  content and media making for the three dimensions. The fourth one would be that access. Yes, we do have access to the C-Suite. We do. We can get in there, we do get in there but you know, do clients I mean, this would apply to the Big 6, but do clients really takes seriously our ability to digital transformation or digital disruption? I think the honest answer is no.

    But the consultants have access to the C-Suite

    Having access to the C-Suite and being able to execute is two different things.

    They are buying agencies, right?

    But they are buying small, they are buying bits of pieces and if you got the 100 billion or 40 billion dollar company buying a two or three million dollar company and buying four of them, compounds the felony four times. You know it’s eight times more difficult to integrate four, two or three million dollar operations or even a 100 million dollar operations.

    You were bullish on the way a firm like Accenture was doing. Now you are more critical

    I don’t think I was bullish

    You had said the advertising industry needs to align like the?

    I think I am saying the same thing. They do have that access and I think we have the access as well. But, clients don’t believe that we can put together digital transmission jobs. I mean the claims Publicis, for example, make around digital transformation are unrealistic. If you and I were CEOs of a big business which had a transformation issue or disruption issue in digital and we saw presentations  from Publicis  or from Accenture, I don’t think we would choose Publicis or Deloitte. I don’t think we’d choose Publicis. Likewise I think if we were competing Publicis, we were competing  against Accenture for the implementation of digital marketing job. I don’t think there would be a pro Accenture. So they are all complementary strengths. All I am saying is the way the consultancies can get those complementary strengths is not by tinkering with a dozen small acquisitions. You won’t move the needle.

     

     

  • It is no coincidence that the merged entity has been named Wunderman Thompson and not Thompson Wunderman, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

    Finally, J Walter put to rest!

     

    By Prabhakar Mundkur

     

    J Walter Thompson the agency which was first established in 1864, and celebrated its 150th anniversary with aplomb in 2014 is finally putting James Walter Thompson the founder to rest. In 2005, the agency tried to rid itself of any connection with its founder by rechristening the agency to its initials JWT, which involved a logo change from the earlier famous signature of its founder.  That seemed like an effort to tear away from its past.  In the process it might have lost some of its charm.  But on its 150th anniversary good sense prevailed and Sir Martin Sorrell decided to rechristen the agency as J Walter Thompson because he thought the name was immensely powerful.

     

    Now finally with the merger announced yesterday by WPP with Wunderman to make it Wunderman Thompson, the ad agency finally puts the first two names of its founder to rest.  In some ways, the merger and the double-barreled name reflect changing times for the ad agency business.  It is no coincidence that the merged entity has been named Wunderman Thompson rather than Thompson Wunderman.  Neither is it a surprise that Mel Edwards earlier CEO of Wunderman is the global CEO of the merged entity and will have operational control of the merged entity. And Tamara Ingram the global CEO of JWT has been relegated to the position of Chairman of the combined entity, always a less active and more ceremonial role.   It is a clear signal to the marketing industry that the ad agency is now playing second fiddle in the communication business.

     

    WPP earlier did the same with Y & R when it merged it with VML a digital marketing agency in the WPP group.  By calling the new entity VMLY&R it reiterated that the ad agency was probably no longer as important as it earlier was.

     

    But with this new merger and name change, we lose over 150 years of the J Walter Thompson heritage.  Its culture, its many innovative firsts in the advertising business, its prominent place as the University of Advertising and last but not least its status as the inventor of strategic planning thanks to the famous Stephen King.

     

    So, what does the future hold?

     

    Certainly, it does seem that Wunderman will lead the merger.  Wunderman was founded in 1958 by the Wunderman brothers and has over the years transformed itself from a direct marketing shop to a modern digital agency. Mike Reed now CEO of WPP, is known to have steered Wunderman to its current position of ‘creative driven, data inspired’ in his earlier stint as CEO of Wunderman.  His affection for Wunderman is therefore quite natural given his earlier acquaintance.   He once defended the onslaught of the consulting businesses into the communication arena by differentiating Wunderman as, “We are different from Accenture. We are creative”.

     

    In many ways, the new merger in theory at least would be a very powerful entity with both digital and traditional marketing skills.  But the advertising business has yet to prove beyond doubt that integrating balance sheets necessarily lead to integration of diversity in communication skills. Sir Martin’s famous coinage of “horizontality “has remained more or less an admirable mission rather than transformed into regular practice.

     

    One can’t therefore help but wonder if JWT and Wunderman continue to operate as two different silos under one merged name.  It would certainly be a pity if it did.  What is intriguing is that if this is the model of the future for communication businesses, will the other large groups like Publicis, Denstu Aegis, Omnicom and Interpublic follow?  That’s a million-dollar question.

     

    We will need to wait and see!

     

     

  • Although there is no official communication on this, the succession has been announced internally via mail.

    Rahul Jauhari & Navonil Chatterjee to take charge at Rediffusion Y&R (& Everest) as Dhunji Wadia to retire in August

    Dhunji Wadia

    By A Correspondent

    There is going to be a change of guard at Rediffusion Y&R as Dhunji Wadia will retire from the agency network in August 2018. Rahul Jauhari and Navonil Chatterjee will take charge as Joint Presidents at the Rediffusion Y&R group. Wadia had joined the group in 2010 first helming Everest and then in late 2014 as President of the Rediffusion Y&R group. While there is no official communication on this, the succession has been announced internally via mail. Jauhari is currently Chief Creative Officer, Chatterjee is Chief Strategy Officer.

    Rahul Jauhari
    Navonil Chatterjee

    Although, the agency bagged the coveted State Bank of India account recently, there have been mixed reports on how the agency is doing in terms of business, thanks to an indifferent advertising services scenario in the country as well as a longstanding dispute with WPP group. But now with the exit of Sir Martin Sorrell from WPP, as reported by MxMIndia earlier, there have been talks of Rediff Y&R buying out the 40 per cent stake of WPP and Dentsu. In the past Rediffusion has lost some prized accounts like Airtel and Colgate.

     

    With over three decades of experience in the business, Wadia has been associated with major national and international brands like Parle, Tata, Unilever, Nike, Levi Strauss, Diamond Trading Co, Kellogg, Aditya Birla Group, Sony Entertainment Television – Max and SAB, Kotak amongst others. Both Jauhari and Chatterjee joined Rediff in mid-2015.