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Tag: The Social Street

  • Pratap Bose steps down at Social Street. Mandeep Malhotra to take charge

    By A Correspondent [Updated]

     

    Pratap Bose
    Mandeep Malhotra

    Advertising industry veteran and former President of The Advertising Club, Pratap Bose, has stepped down from his position of Chairman and Founding Partner. Bose confirmed the development to MxMIndia. Mandeep Malhotra continues as Founding Partner and CEO.

    Bose had set up The Social Street with much fanfare in June 2015 after a not-too-pleasant exit from DDB Mudra. He steered the company in his inimitable, aggressive style and saw the agency bag top honours at the Abby Awards at Goafest 2018.

    Both Bose and Malhotra are reported to have had equal equity in the organisation, but given the Lockdown, discussions on the same haven’t been completed.

    According to the grapevine, the company has been experiencing tough times financially, as are many others in the marketing services domain.

     

  • The consortium will be responsible for all promotional activities of theleague for the next five years starting 2019 until 2023

    The Social Street bags five-year contract for Champions Boat League

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kerala Tourism has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium represented by E-Factor Entertainment and The Social Street (AMP Communications) for the branding, promotions, marketing and revenue generation activities of the Champions’ Boat League (CBL). Following a multi-agency pitch,Kerala Tourism appointed the consortium as its official agency of record. The consortium will be responsible for all promotional activities of the league for the next five years starting 2019 until 2023.

     

    Said Samit Garg and Jai Thakore, Founders & Directors, E-Factor Entertainment: “For us it was like the God’s calling from the God’s own country. We are thankful to Kerala Tourism for this extremely fantastic initiative and inviting external partners to build and promote this amazingly passionate and traditional sport form. We look forward to creating some fabulous tourism sporting events and experiences along with getaways and excursions as a part of this entire exercise.”

     

    Added Mandeep Malhotra, Founding Partner & CEO, The Social Street: “The Champions’ Boat League is a pioneering step by Kerala Tourism to elevate the traditional snake-boat races, boat clubs and professional oarsmen to world-class levels. With a steep history of over 400 years, CBL is going to be the perfect collaboration of culture and sports. We were fortunate to find the best match in Samit, Jai and their brilliant team at E-Factor Entertainment to take on the challenge of the brand’s marketing and communication. Sports enthusiasts and travellers have exciting times to look forward to starting August 10, with a brand-new level of thrill in store.”

     

     

  • He will work in close cooperation with Mandeep Malhotra, Founding Partner & CEO, The Social Street

    Navin Fernandes to head Sports Marketing unit at The Social Street

    By A Correspondent

     

    Navin Fernandes

    The Social Street has announced the appointment of Navin Fernandes as the Managing Partner to head its Sports Marketing offering. In his new role, Fernandes will be responsible for all the agency’s sports-related aspects including strategy, new business, partnerships, events and activities. He will work in close cooperation with Mandeep Malhotra, Founding Partner & CEO, The Social Street.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Mandeep Malhotra says, “Navin is an exciting addition to the TSS family. We are thrilled have him lead the charge of our expanding sports offering. He brings with him a valuable and unrivalled depth of experience in the sports and marketing arena. His high energy level and enormous talent aligns well with The Social Street’s vison for doing things differently.”

     

  • The Social Street was awarded the ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ award

    The Social Street and Mindshare dominate Big Bang Awards 2018

    By A Correspondent

     

    The 23rd edition of the Big Bang Awards by Ad Club Bangalore, brought to fore the rising talent poll in advertising industry. Mindshare bagged four out of the top nine most coveted awards while The Social Street bagged the ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ award.

     

    The Big Bang Awards for Excellence in Communication and Media were given away in a grand function on Friday September 28 in Bengaluru.

     

    Said Hemant Mallik, Chief Executive, ITC Foods, in his keynote: “The advertising agencies have a bigger responsibility now, in the internet era. The challenges posed by social media can undo a great ad campaign. The agencies have to learn to respond to such challenges, quickly and aggressively.”

     

    Added Malavika Harita, Chairperson – Big Bang Awards Committee: “We have made every effort to recognise talent and acknowledge it. The fact that the jury had a tough task at hand was evident from several new faces amongst the winners. Keeping in line with the #For the Love Of Advertising, the participants displayed it’s not merely a profession but a creative platform.”

     

    Hindustan Lever Limited won the Client of the Year Award, winning across several categories.

     

     

  • The new partnership is designed to put creativity in sports at the centre of its approach

    The Social Street inks partnership with UK-based Works Ltd.

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Social Street has entered into a partnership with UK-based Works Ltd in a move to promote sports advertising.

     

    Works has been associated with several sporting events including the recent FIFA World Cup in Rusia where it was commissioned to roll out the official look for the event.

     

    Commenting on the new association, Mandeep Malhotra, Founding Partner & CEO, The Social Street added, “With Works we have gained a partner who will provide us with tremendous support to build a strong sports marketing arsenal. Their bespoke body of work – be it design, branding or production across mediums – speaks volumes. We’re extremely delighted to join forces with Works as our go-to partner for everything that is sports. We look forward to working with them on a series of joint initiatives in India and across South Asia.”

     

    Said Roy Webber, Founder & CEO, Works: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Works. India and South Asia have such an appetite and love for sport and entertainment – to be a part of the energy created by this growing and vibrant market is an exciting prospect for us. It’s so important to engage with a like-minded and trusted partner when we enter a new territory. Mandeep is building something quite special with The Social Street and to collaborate with them at this point marks the beginning of a great new chapter for Works.”

     

    Aimed at inspiring innovation in sports, The Social Street and Works will collaboratively approach assignments and campaigns to capitalise on opportunities in India as well South Asia.

     

  • WatchN'Play provides an opportunity for every cricket enthusiast to apply their knowledge of the game and compete with millions of other fans

    Social Street creates buzz for Hotstar’s latest feature

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Social Street has planned and executed an outdoor campaign for Hotstar’s Watch N’Play game. The campaign consisted of larger-than-life 3D figurines of a batsman’s avatar with the player himself missing. This is said to be symbolic of Hotstar’s search for players and asking users to fill in the missing space by playing the game on its IPL platform.

     

    Said Spencer Noronha, Managing Partner – OOH, The Social Street: “We were very excited to launch this new property for Hotstar. The idea was to create big buzz and drive ample curiosity for audiences to sample and enjoy this real-time gaming experience first-hand. It’s a delight to see the outstanding response that the campaign has received across cities, especially the curiosity we garnered for the 3D creatives.”

     

     

  • The initiative is an attempt to facilitate the realisation of equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities into the fabric of society

    The Social Street partners on ‘Inclusive India Initiative’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The National Trust, a statutory body of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, in collaboration with key partners organised the conference ‘Inclusive India Initiative – Towards an Inclusive India’- for intellectual and developmental disabilities on June 6 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.The Social Street partnered with the National Trust for the Inclusive India initiative on its advertising efforts – including digital marketing, social media, TVC, print, OOH and ambient along with planning and execution of its various on-ground activities and initiatives.

     

  • The TVCs and digital film take a humorous look at how a delicious and hot Indian breakfast can be made in just 3 minutes

    MTR unveils new breakfast campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    MTR Foods has launched a new range of Indian breakfasts called the 3-Minute Breakfast which is supported with a 360 degree media campaign including three TVCs and a digital film.

     

    Commenting on the breakfast range and the communication, Sunay Bhasin, CMO, MTR Foods Pvt. Ltd. Said: “The organized breakfast market in India is driven by a need for convenience with consumers sometimes forgoing breakfast, particularly on weekdays, due to severe time crunch in the mornings. The MTR 3 Minute Breakfast will now give Indians easy access to a hot, comforting range of Indian breakfast that they prefer in just 3 minutes by just adding hot water. Our communication also focuses on how easily a delicious Indian breakfast can be made in the time you take to do your weekday morning routine, hence removing any excuse to miss breakfast anymore.”

     

    Added Mahesh Gharat, Ogilvy & Mather: “The brief from MTR Foods was to communicate the key proposition of the 3-Minute Breakfast in a creative way by depicting various morning situations. We had to show the ease of making breakfast as well as drive home the key message that consumers need not compromise on breakfast anymore. As we had to talk to the young working professionals, we decided to take a relatable, humorous approach. All three films depict the morning rush in their lives when a lot cannot be achieved on time. But thankfully, MTR’s 3-min breakfast gets prepared in 3 minutes.”

     

    In addition to TV, The Social Street was assigned the task of creating a film that resonated well with the urban millennial.

    Commenting on the digital Film, Sonia Lal, Managing Partner, The Social Street said: “Our brief was to communicate with the young Target Group in the digital space and create some humorous content while conveying the brand message. The film shows a team of experts like scientists, astrologers and other specialists (one of them being a cat!) trying to understand  why the youth is mean  – with the simple answer coming from a mom who says that the youth skip breakfast because they are short on time and how MTR 3 minute range solves for this.”

     

  • Partners with Amsterdam-based brand & music consultancy authority

    The Social Street partners with Amp.Amsterdam

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Social Street has announced an exclusive partnership with Amp.Amsterdam, global leaders in sound design, identity and innovation to help brands in India leverage the science of sound in their brand communication.

     

    The partnership is set to merge the virtual with the real-and-make experiences which are interactive and hence contagiously social.  Said Pratap Bose, Chairman and Co-Founder, The Social Street: “Our partnership with Amp.Amsterdam was just the one we were looking for, as we aim for greater uniqueness in our array of brand offerings and getting deeper into the immersive experiential experience.”

     

    Added Dagmar Heijmans, Strategy Director & Co-Founder, Amp.Amsterdam: “The DNA and the people at The Social Street are a perfect match with the team, vision and philosophy at Amp.Amsterdam. We are very proud to partner up with India’s most innovative ad agency and open up new ways together to amplify brands in India.”

     

  • A quick chat with Pratap Bose, Chairman, The Social Street which won the second-largest number of metals in the Creative Abby and a few in the Media Abby too!

    Winning across 3 days gave us a lot of pleasure: Pratap Bose


    We’re going to do well at Goafest this year, Pratap Bose, Chairman and Co-Founder of The Social Street had told us before we left for Goa last week. The shortlists were good indicators that Social Street would do well, but being #2 in the metals tally? Well, he proved the naysayers wrong and also confirmed the point that you don’t have to be 10-20-40-70-year-old agency to be winning big at the Abby. In conversation with Pradyuman Maheshwari, Pratap Bose talks about the wins, scam work, the focus on print and the way forward for his agency. Read on…

     

    Just your second year in business and already right up there!

    We’re actually only 20 months old. It’s an amazing feeling. We’ve worked very hard to get where we are, at Goafest particularly. It’s been like a David versus Goliath story. The underdogs if you can call it that. All kudos to the team who’ve made it possible.

     

    You’re not actually an underdog. You’ve been there, done that. You know the…

    People wouldn’t have expected us to do that well at Goafest. But you’re right, we’re not an underdog. We are industry veterans. But yes, for a small agency to do so well at Goafest is a great sense of pride and achievement.

     

    You’ve done it in the past at Mudra when you were helming it. You obviously know how it works. So when did you decide to play the Goafest game?

    Honestly, it’s not just about playing the game well. It’s also about doing great work. If you look at our wins, we’ve won in pretty much all of the major 14-17 categories. So, it’s always good work at that pace. To win you have to start very early in the year. You can’t just leave it to December and then scramble at the end. Producing good stuff all throughout the year. That gives you the humongous tally of metals at the end of the day. That’s something I keep advocating to the people who want to do well at the awards. You have to be at it. You have to have a dogged goal to do great work. I don’t think we do great work to win awards. You have to do consistent work month-on-month and produce two-three great pieces of work every month and if you measure yourself with that benchmark, you’ll certainly do well.

     

    In terms of the work you’ve done… you’ve said in the past you’re not just an outdoor agency, you’ve done a fair bit of work for print and print-craft.

    Yes, we’ve done a lot for print and print-craft outdoor, even won a lot of metals for digital, branded content, PR, our strong units are out of home, promo and activation is where we score very high… so, yes, the results in terms of where we’ve won the metals is indicative of how wide our network is in terms of our integrated offerings across all verticals. That has paid dividends for sure.

     

    But is print one of your core strengths?

    It’s not, but we had a lot of fun doing print advertisements for clients and we won on big clients. We’ve won big for brands like Aegon Religare, IDBI.

     

    I must tell you that there’s a charge that a lot of work you’ve done is scam work.

    Scam is a dirty work. Sometime proactive. If any agency tells you they haven’t done proactive work, they’re lying through their teeth. There’s always a bit of it. If your main body of work… and this is not just the awards, because every day when you go to office for clients you don’t always do award work. But, yes, sometimes the work is proactive and you’ve made a lot of efforts with the client to say, let’s enter this field in this direction. It ticks all the boxes in terms of the parameters in which you have to enter. It has to be published, approved, released. I don’t like this scam word though I said it. Sometimes you do work that motivates the team and sometimes you have clients that allow you to do that.

     

    You’ve won some 40 metals in creative. And you’ve some metals at the Media Abby as well. How many of these are for genuine work?

    Most of them are. What gives me a lot of pleasure is winning across three days. While a lot of hoo-haa is done about a lot of creative agencies and media separately. We don’t have a very large media offering. We have a small media offering but it’s a great offering. But, to be honest, no agency has won across Goafest for three days. Maybe, one or two. So, that gives us a lot of pride. So, to answer your question, most of it is on large brands.

     

    Your strategy until now has been to fashion yourself more than just an outdoor and activation agency. But if you have to look at your play in the last three months, how have you fared by your own assessment?

    So we are just under two years now and if you read the book by Tom Peters, ‘Thriving on Chaos’, I think that’s what we went through. Because we’ve grown very rapidly. We have 180 people now. That’s a lot of people in these two years. But ultimately the true value that Social Street will derive in terms of where it’s going to be positioned and seen in the area of a highly creative company, backed by data, analytics, content, we’re looking at production services and we’re also looking at partnering and opening a few JVs outside of the country. I think that’s really how I see it.

     

    And how are the financials looking?

    I think we’re doing very well. As I said, we’re just under two years and this is a very important year, financially. By all indications it looks good. So, hoping for a great year ahead.

     

    When you were at Mudra, the great wins helped it get acquired by Omnicom. While you’re ou’re already funded. Are you going to use it to any advantage in terms of more investments

    Not really. Metals at Goafest don’t get you any VC funding. I can tell you that. It rewards you for the work you’ve done. It’s a recognition that we are now a force to reckon with in the awards scenario. Not just the creative awards, we’re also doing well at the Effies, Emvies and internationally at Cannes as well. But there’s no extra funding for winning metals at award functions.

     

    You mentioned about the David v/s Goliath analogy. How have the Goliaths been with you so far?

    We’ve received a lot of love and affection, to be honest. When you get on your own, people wish the independent agencies well, by and large. When you’re a part of a large network, you have a lot of competition and crab crawling. But we don’t have that at all. The industry is also happy for us and wishes us well.

     

  • Shonali Sharmaa and Shilov Mani will report to Mandeep Malhotra and will be based in Mumbai

    The Social Street beefs up leadership team

    By A Correspondent

     

    Shonali Sharmaa

    The Social Street has roped in Shonali Sharmaa as Managing Partner for the Experiential business vertical and Shilov Mani as Senior Vice President, Planning. Shonali and Shilov will report to Mandeep Malhotra, Partner & CEO, The Social Street, and will be based in Mumbai.

     

    Commenting on the appointments, Malhotra, Founding said, “Shonali and Shilov are bright additions to our team. Both of them come with exceptional capabilities and inherent understanding of brands, markets and consumers. I am confident that our clients will benefit greatly from the knowledge and experience Shonali and Shilov bring on board.”

     

    Mandeep Malhotra
    Shilov Mani

    Said Sharmaa: “We have heard it for years; collaborate, work together, integrate. Yet, we still seem to push our clients agenda be it in digital, activation, retail, OOH, et al in silos. My aim is to have ‘One seamless thought process across media’ to make The Social Street the most effective marketing communications agency.”

     

    And this is what Mani said in a communique: “What drew me to The Social Street was the visionof Pratap [Bose] and Mandeep to build a future-ready agency. We have an extremely robust – and powerfully diverse – set of talents and we have great clients. I am really looking forward to joining forces and make things happen.”

     

  • A freewheeling chat with Pratap Bose, CMD, The Social Street, on a year in existence, winning awards and his relationship with DDB Mudra

    Smooth ride on this Street

     

    Around this time last year, Pratap Bose, former chief operating officer at DDB Mudra, launched with much fanfare a full-service advertising agency, The Social Street. With some seasoned names in the business by way of partners, like outdoor and experiential specialist Mandeep Malhotra, entrepreneur Arjun Reddy who also runs a diversified portfolio of businesses, and Pradeep Uppalapati, a former senior director and India lead for global corporate development team at Accenture, Bose’s venture has been on a roll. In a freewheeling interview with Pradyuman Maheshwari, Pratap Bose, Chairman and Managing Director, The Social Street, speaks about completing a year in existence, winning awards and his relationship with DDB Mudra.  Excerpts:

     

    One year of The Social Street, since June 22, 2015. How has the journey been so far?

    If you asked me last June where I would be, [I’d say] I would not have expected such progress in one year. When we set out, we had big ambitions but I didn’t think we would do so well. I think we have put an impressive list of clients together and done some really good work.

     

    The Pratap Bose interview first appeared in dna of brands on July 11.

     

    Mandeep Malhotra, Founding Partner and CEO

    On Year 1: I have loved the year.  A couple of months in the beginning were a bit of an emotional turmoil journey but then I got back to the 16 hours of working a day. I love staying busy and I had a great year.

    On the road ahead: I think if there is passion and hunger, India as a market has so much more to achieve and do. I am fairly excited for the teams who have got a lot of hunger and passion in them. So, it is an upward journey but it is a very gratifying, satisfied journey ahead. Looking forward to it.

     

    Pradeep Uppalapati, Founding Partner and CFO

    On Year 1: There are two ways I would answer that. Personally for me, it has been a very fun experience, a lot of learning and I am glad that I am part of this. From a company standpoint, in the one year that we have been in existence, we have achieved quite a few things, so we as The Social Street I think are very proud of it. We would like to keep the momentum going and achieve better things.

    On the financial front: Financially, I think we have met all our goals, no surprises. And we are on track.

     

    Interviews by Anuka Roy

     

    How do you define ‘so well’?

    The fact that we have already hired 150 people and  opened our Bengaluru and Delhi offices.

     

    Three very fancy offices

    The Delhi office is nice and much bigger than the Mumbai one. About 135 clients have been signed on. We have not made too much noise in the media about which clients we have won, but that was intentional. We are happy keeping it quiet.

     

    But you are not known to be a quiet person…

    It was part of the strategy and PR plan laid out during the first year. As a new set-up when you announce a win, your competitor agencies [also wake up to it]. But that is not the reason. Besides clients and setting up three main offices, we also have quite a few satellite offices. It has been a fair progress.

     

    You started off with a full-service agency, but some areas were not covered until you hired a creative head…

    Contrary to popular belief, a Chief Creative Officer (CCO) is not confined to the creative department. We brought in a team from various agencies to fill the gap. We thought if we were going to be a creative powerhouse in the area of communication, barring the traditional stuff, we need a CCO to run that. It is a team that understands the whole new world of content and creating content for activation – which is really what Deepak does. I’m not saying that we don’t want to get into print or television advertising, but that is not the focus right now.

     

    Does that bracket you as a BTL agency?

    I don’t care about that because at the end of the day, I am going to run a successful and profitable business. I think the media is also to blame for this. Everyone thinks that the creative agency is the be-all and end-all [of advertising]. But the new world is all about technology, social media, content, sharing and creating meaningful pieces of work in the social and marketing space.

     

    Are you saying that in advertising, you no longer make money on the traditional, creative stuff?

    Obviously the margins for the non-traditional side of the business are always higher. But barring the top four or five agencies…

     

    In this one-year journey, you have established an alliance with Rediffusion Y&R.

    I think the Rediffusion deal was good for both for us, where we run everything in the communication space and leave them to do their creative job. That is a partnership which is working well. It is a mutually-beneficial relationship that expands both their business and ours.

     

    But Wunderman is in the same space as you, isn’t there a clash?

    Today’s age is really about collaboration. It does not mean that if two agencies are in the same space, they need to compete. While Wunderman is largely in B2C, consumer, direct marketing and all that, it is a skill-set that complements what we do. Direct marketing, data — that is not our core competency right now.

     

    Do you see this relationship with Rediffusion cementing further?

    As long as we do good work together, and a lot of trust is there, and we want to further the relationship, we would probably make it a stronger.

     

    By further, do mean equity? You are known to be close to Martin Sorrell…

    I am. But that is not on the agenda right now. We just started out. Unfortunately or fortunately, there has been a lot of positive vibes from the industry, as well as in the communication business. But I don’t think you ever set out to create a business with the intent of selling out. If you did that, you would probably be a failure.

     

    Would you ever look at selling out or part with some equity?

    Not averse to that but there is a point in time where you think about that. But right now we are not thinking about this at all, five or six years later if things work out then. You do not set out to start a new business with the intent of selling out.

     

    You mentioned that having an international agency connection helps you with big, international clients.

    Not really. Dhunji Wadia and I are good friends, and had been working together even before we started The Social Street. As we started looking into some businesses, it turned out to be extremely fruitful for both of us.

     

    In terms of talent, how are you doing?

    We always knew we would succeed in the business. It is how to handle the large clients and the large assignments with limited resources. Our challenge right now is to be able to deliver on the promise we made to our clients, especially the large ones. That is a pressure, because if you keep adding bigger clients, you obviously would need to increase your workforce.

     

    What about your promise to investors?

    Thankfully, the investors have a lot of faith in us. They are looking at us long term. It is clearly a five-year projection we are working towards. As long as the basics have been ticked off the checklist, I think we are doing well.

     

    All the cheques coming on time?

    (Laughs) Actually, we are collecting very well.

     

    Where do you see yourself a year from now?

    That is the beauty of being on your own. We have set an agenda for what we want to be, and the areas we are getting into, and it is quite a large list. Having said that, if an opportunity presents itself, let us say in B2C, I would grab it with everything I have got. At the end of the day, we are entrepreneurs at heart.

     

    This opportunity can be in the form of acquisition or in the form of business?

    It could be in the form of business, it could be acquisition which any way is a part of our strategy. We would get in to more joint ventures, collaborations with other agencies, internationally as well as in India. That is all part of the plan.

     

    Any particular direction you are looking at in terms of international?

    We are looking at a couple of international firms in the area of brand activation, promotions, digital etc. We are already collaborating with a few. We got our first assignment in Indonesia last month. So it will gradually move that way, is my sense. Entertainment, digital and content is the space I see myself getting into, in the next couple of years.

     

    You have a CCO in Deepak Singh now. Are there any other heads you are targeting and appointing in the next year or so?

    We are looking at a senior position in the digital space, as well as seniors in the area of account planning and activation. Deepak’s team will also grow and branch out into similar kind of talent in Delhi and Bengaluru.

     

    And traditional media?

    We already have [people] in traditional media. We run a media planning and buying business for a few clients. Given that we have all the tools and databases, media is the glue that binds all the entities. It has to make money on its own for sure, but the intent is not to make a large media company.

     

    What about creative?

    I think creative will grow as we grow. The demands that we have in today’s briefs — these are socially-relevant big ideas; and for that, you need a juxtaposition of activation planners and highly-skilled creative people in that area to make things happen.

     

    Does your deal with Rediffusion prevent you from getting in to a space which it is into?

    No, not at all. It is not an exclusive relationship in any case.

     

    When you started out, a large number of people moved in from DDB Mudra. What is your relationship with DDB Mundra now?

    All of them were great friends. I probably had one of the best times in my life with DDB, which was Agency of the Year at Cannes in 2010 and 2011, from literally zero. We even toppled Ogilvy at Goafest. But I think I got out at the right time. It was a decision which I thought was the right decision at that time. My relationship with DDB Mudra is [still] fabulous.

     

    There are rumours that Madhukar Kamath may be moving on next year. So wouldn’t it have been nicer if you were still there?

    No, not now. Is there an option to merge The Social Street and take over Mudra? Why not? (laughs)

     

    You mentioned awards. Like it or not, the success of an agency is determined by the number of awards it wins. How do you rate your performance, vis-à-vis awards?

    Awards are really wait-and-watch. I think we will do spectacularly well next year.

     

    You know the game well.

    I know the game. If my job is only to win Agency of the Year and do nothing else, I would win it hands down. But you have to run a successful business. But I can promise you next year, at Cannes or at Goafest, we will do spectacularly well. I am saying that because of all the ideas we are currently working on. While everyone was at Cannes, and even before we put our heads together, there were some stunning ideas.

     

    So, south of France next year?

    Absolutely!