MxMIndia

Tag: WPP

  • Institute for Real Growth launched at WPP and Kantar event bringing together senior business leaders to discuss India findings of a global growth study

    WPP and Kantar launch their cross-industry initiative, IRG

    By A Correspondent

     

    WPP and Kantar announced the launch of their latest global cross-industry initiative -Institute for Real Growth (IRG) in India. IRG, notes a communique, is the first programme of its kind to help CEOs, CMOs and other senior business leaders to drive more effective growth strategies.

     

    The not-for-profit, independent Institute, co-founded by WPP along with Facebook, Google, Kantar, LinkedIn, the NYU School of Professional Studies (NYUSPS), Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, Spencer Stuart and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) aims to help organizations focus on sustained, long-term real growth by equipping leaders with best practice approaches to their strategy, structure, capability and leadership.

     

    The IRG was launched in India at an event titled ‘Real Growth Summit’ held recently in Gurugram and attended by numerous top leaders from major corporates.

     

    Said CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, India for WPP: “The study highlights that the definition of growth is very subjective in India. This reality makes it critical for businesses to identify what will drive real growth for their business. IRG has been founded for this very reason – to help organisations achieve sustained long-term growth by enabling its leaders with proven approaches which are based on knowledge, innovative thinking and peer to peer coaching and partnership.”

     

    Added Preeti Reddy, CEO – South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar: “Growth is hard and is becoming even harder. Companies are realising that the old formulas no longer guarantee growth and that growth itself is becoming episodic. They need to develop an architecture for ‘real growth’ and approaches that will deliver sustained all round growth. We are delighted to collaborate with the IRG program and inspire clients and our leaders to embrace these new approaches to meet the challenges of growth.”

     

    Said Marc de Swaan Arons, co-founder of the Institute for Real Growth: “Together with my co-founder Frank van den Driest, we have expanded on WPP’s global growth study to create an industry-wide program that is focused on helping senior leaders make better business decisions and steer their organisations on the growth journey. IRG is the only platform where growth leaders can learn from world-class Over performers and topic experts and collaborate with peers to solve their specific business growth challenges.”

     

     

  • Ogilvy will shift its office to the new location on Monday, August 26

    Ogilvy, JWT (now Wunderman Thompson), GroupM, etc to relocate to new WPP campus in Sahar

    By A Correspondent

     

    Soon arch rivals Ogilvy and Wunderman Thompson will work under the same roof. As part of its global growth strategy, WPP has announced invest in two co-location campuses in India. The roll-out will commence with more than 3,800 people moving into a new Mumbai Campus in late August, while a Gurugram campus will be set up next year. According to the information received, Ogilvy India (and its group agencies) will shift its office to the new location on Monday, August 26.

     

    All co-locations will support the WPP community with world-class facilities. The campuses include conducive spaces for talent to work and engage in collaboration and will also provide clients with easier access to WPP’s network of agencies.

     

    Said Mark Read, CEO of WPP: “India represents a region with immense opportunities for WPP. We are committed to building further momentum for our businesses there, through our campus investments. Having modern, dynamic workplaces creates real impact for our people, and enables collaboration and ideas to thrive. We work with some of the most progressive clients and teams in India and we want to support their efforts in creating outstanding work.”

     

    WPP’s new Mumbai Campus will be named BAY99, which alludes to the city’s historical roots and is also the campus’ postal code reference. Situated within The Orb, a 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. On-site, staff will enjoy a host of modern facilities, ranging from a rooftop terrace, recreation lounge, library, cafeteria and more.

     

    Commenting on the new campus, WPP Country Manager for India, CVL Srinivas said: “India is one of the most exciting markets for WPP with great growth potential. By investing in co-location campuses in key cities, we are bringing to life our vision to lead the market as a creative transformation company and to build a strong, cohesive WPP community. We support some of the biggest brand names in India and more than ever, clients want to be connected to easy processes and solutions, as well as a complete suite of services. The new Campus means our teams will have increased access to each other’s expertise and this will go far in enabling our talent to do their very best work for clients.”

     

     

  • The former Mindshare and GroupM big boss will join as CEO at Aqilliz in October and drive blockchain in digital marketing 

    G’man goes Big on Blockchain

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gowthaman Ragothaman, the former Global Client Lead at WPP and popularly known in the industry as G’Man, has announced the launch of Aqilliz, a blockchain solutions provider.

     

    Notes a communique: “Aqilliz is created in collaboration with Zilliqa, a high-throughput public blockchain, which will provide the infrastructure for secure and scalable futuristic solutions for enterprise clients. Spearheaded by a team of industry experts and experienced blockchain engineers, Aqilliz is uniquely equipped with technical capabilities, direct industry connections, and an academia-corporate understanding.”

     

    Said Gowthaman Ragothaman who will join as Chief Executive Officer at Aqilliz in October: “In today’s platform economy, tech solutions are trying to address the needs of either the brands, platforms or the consumers, and not the entire platform economy as a whole. With the help of blockchain, we can address these needs equitably and in turn, unify all players in the digital marketing landscape. We’re excited to be at the forefront of this change, as we set a new industry standard that champions greater transparency, cost-efficiency, and trust. As we work together with Zilliqa, we will continue to build on the promising results seen on Project Proton,”

     

    Added Amrit Kumar, President and Chief Scientific Officer at Zilliqa: “Businesses often struggle with moving from awareness to implementation. Aqilliz fills the knowledge gap, identifying key areas where blockchain is well-positioned to offer far-reaching solutions that will benefit all participants of the digital marketing ecosystem. Now that Zilliqa is open-for-business, we are excited to embark on a new venture that will allow our platform to be mobilized as the entry point for enterprise adoption,”

     

    The communique shared with MxMIndia further notes: “Incubated and taken to market by Anquan, the Singapore-based technology group, Aqilliz equally benefits from its strong understanding of all the participants across the value chain. Aqilliz will actively collaborate with various partners in the advertising, data, marketing, technology, and analytics industries, and will be onboarding clients by the end of the year.”

     

    Said Max Kantelia, Co-Founder of Zilliqa and Anquan: “From technical milestones backed by cutting-edge research to a diverse array of promising partnerships, we are very proud of what has been achieved by Zilliqa over the past two years. By marrying technical strength and industry know-how, the collaboration with Aqilliz is poised to accelerate the mass-adoption of Zilliqa.”

     

     

  • Investment by Bain Capital Private Equity values Kantar at $4.0bn; WPP leverage target to be met a year ahead of plan; £1.0bn shareholder return planned

    WPP sells 60 per cent stake in Kantar to Bain Capital

    By A Correspondent

     

    WPP has entered into an agreement to sell 60 per cent of Kantar, its global data, research, consulting and analytics business, to private equity major Bain Capital. The proposed transaction values the whole of Kantar at a headline enterprise value of $4.0bn.

     

    The WPP Board believes that the proposed transaction will allow Kantar to strengthen its industry-leading position through the combined expertise and resources of Bain Capital and WPP. It also crystallises significant value for WPP’s shareholders, while giving them continued exposure to an attractive business with the potential for further value realisation in the future.

     

    The transaction values 100 per cent of Kantar at $4bn. The equity value after expected completion adjustments is $3.7bn. After transaction costs, tax and WPP’s continuing investment of $0.4bn to own 40 per cent of the equity in Kantar, net cash proceeds to WPP are expected to be $3.1bn. The consideration is payable in cash. WPP may receive additional consideration over the next three years in respect of certain contingent liabilities, in the event that such liabilities are lower than estimated. Additionally, WPP may receive certain other payments during the life of its partnership with Bain Capital.

     

    Said Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer, WPP: “Kantar is a great business and we look forward to working with Bain Capital to unlock its full potential. As a strategic partner and shareholder in Kantar, WPP will continue to benefit from its future growth while our clients continue to benefit from its services and capabilities. I would like to thank Eric Salama, his team and everyone at Kantar for their tremendous contribution to WPP – a contribution that will continue as we develop the business together. This transaction creates value for WPP shareholders and further simplifies our company. With a much stronger balance sheet and a return of approximately 8 per cent of our current market value to shareholders planned, we are making good progress with our transformation.”

     

    Added Luca Bassi, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Private Equity: “Kantar is a market leader in many areas and we are excited to be partnering with its management team and WPP to build on this remarkable platform for growth. We see many opportunities for expansion and will invest in technology to expand the company’s capabilities and reinforce its global leading position.”

     

    Said Eric Salama, CEO, Kantar: “Our new ownership structure presents a great opportunity for Kantar, our employees and our clients. In Bain Capital we have a partner who shares our ambition, brings relevant expertise and – with WPP – can help us accelerate our growth and impact for clients. We are focused on delivering ‘human understanding at scale and speed’ and the ‘best of Kantar’ more consistently. We will do so by investing more in talent and by becoming a more technology-driven solutions provider.”

     

     

  • The deal with Goyal is said to have been done a few months back, but according to sources, there are two reasons for the holdback of the announcement

    Is Sandeep Goyal buying into Rediffusion?

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sandeep Goyal

    At the launch of his book ‘Blog Buster’, the entire top deck of Rediffusion was in attendance. Nothing unusual about it, except that when the book was being written by seasoned advertising person Sandeep Goyal, a former Group CEO of the agency, and now rumoured to have bought a significant majority stake in the creative agency.

    Goyal has laughed off the suggestion whenever we’ve raised it with him, and a senior source in Rediffusion preferred to not comment.

     

    The 46-year-od creative agency has seen its highs and lows, and in recent years, this was caused by a rough relationship with WPP, which owned 26.7 per cent stake in the agency. Last year, MxMIndia broke the story on the stake sale, which was confirmed with an announcement in a few months.

    The deal with Goyal is said to have been sealed (if not inked) a few months back, but according to sources, there are two reasons for the holdback of the announcement: one, a legal tangle that’s waiting to get sorted… a fairly old one, we are told. And, two, there is a possible clause in the parting of ways with WPP that there will be no change in the equity structure of Rediffusion until a year of the deal which was announced in August 2018.

    Industry observers say that if Goyal does take ownership of Rediffusion, his aggressive approach to business could see some key clients across the spectrum coming to the Rediffusion fold.

    Watch this space.

  • 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.

     

     

  • The Gender-Equality Index identifies companies committed to advancing women in the workplace

    WPP named in Bloomberg’s 2019 Gender-Equality Index

    By A Correspondent

     

    WPP was named an industry leader in the 2019 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) which recognises companies committed to transparency in gender reporting and advancing women’s equality.

     

    Bloomberg’s 2019 index includes 230 firms from 10 sectors, headquartered across 36 countries and regions. Assessing information against a globally-established threshold, the GEI looks at how companies promote gender equality across four separate areas: company statistics, policies, community engagement and products and services. WPP is the only company among its peers to be included in the list.

     

    Said Mark Read, CEO of WPP: “As we continue to build a culture at WPP that is inclusive, collaborative and diverse in our talent and in the work we create, we’re proud to be recognised in the Gender-Equality Index as a leader in our industry.”

     

    Added Peter T Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club: “WPP’s GEI inclusion is a strong indicator to its employees, investors and industry peers alike that it is leading by example to advance ongoing efforts for a truly inclusive workplace.”

     

     

  • In January, WPP will launch Team Newell to accelerate Newell Brands’ growth globally

    Newell Brands appoints WPP as global communications partner

    By A Correspondent

     

    Newell Brands has selected WPP as its communications partner for its portfolio of brands globally following a review of some of its agency relationships.

     

    In January, WPP will launch Team Newell to accelerate Newell Brands’ growth globally (https://www.newellbrands.com/our-brands), whilst also helping the client to leverage its scale and bring a new focus to developing integrated communications across a broad range of channels. Team Newell is an expansion of the relationship between the client and WPP that began in 2016 when J. Walter Thompson was hired as the client’s lead agency.

     

    Geometry, Mindshare and Eicoff will add their respective expertise in shopper marketing, media investment management and direct response television to Team Newell. Additionally, the former Wunderman (now Wunderman Thompson) has been engaged on the client’s digital marketing work, and VMLY&R on social media. Those agencies join existing Newell agencies, BCW, Superunion and Wunderman Thompson as Team Newell. The team, which will be based in New York, will continue to be led by Eva Ruzicka.

     

    Said Mark Read, WPP CEO: “We are delighted to have expanded our relationship with such a valued client, and to support Newell with our simple, integrated offer that harnesses the full power of WPP for clients.”

     

     

  • 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!

     

     

  • WPP’s ‘Date with Data’ summit throws up interesting facets on how numbers can be crunched for profit

    Will Data be the Annadata of the future?

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    We all know that data is the future of the marketing services business. The immediate future at least. And those who want to maximise on things now, even the present.

     

    Marketing services conglomerate WPP organised its first ever ‘Date with Data’ Summit on Tuesday with a galaxy of marketing gods and its own star-studded network.

     

    The idea was to exchange ideas and insights on data-driven marketing and the use of technology across marketing solutions. Keynote speakers and masterclass presenters emphasised the evolving role of data and its profound influence on the industry across all sectors. And thereby of course underscore its expertise with all things data.

    Speaking on the relevance of Audience Planning: A Journey or a Destination, Gauravjeet Singh, Head of Media South Asia, Hindustan Unilever, said, “It is a great experience to attend industry forums like this which really discuss the cutting-edge work that is happening around data. It is important to validate what one believes which helps during discussions with panellists and eventually leads to the right direction.”

     

    Addressing the growing need for marketeers and thought leaders in the industry to efficiently utilise the power of data, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India, said: “WPP strongly believes in driving collaboration amongst various stakeholders of the industry and this event is our attempt to create a platform for sharing different perspectives on how data is helping reshape marketing and businesses. As responsible users of data, we strive to enable thought-provoking discussions around important themes. We witnessed great participation from our clients, partners and colleagues.”

     

    The Summit opened with masterclasses on Data Visualisation-To Drive Data Adoption and Data Driven Thinking; Building A Data Driven Organisation; Unlocking the True Potential of Mobile Data; Data Privacy and Responsibility and Connecting Data (Data Integration) and Generating Targeted Insights (Data Analysis). These sessions were conducted by experts from Google Cloud, InMobi, Kantar and Data Alliance.

     

    The afternoon saw panel discussions on topics such as Decoding The Consumer: Fundamentals to Future, that addressed advancements in insights, research and analytics; Connected Commerce: Decoding The Last Mile, which highlighted how data and analytics are being leveraged to bridge the gaps in commerce. Audience Planning: A Journey Or A Destination touched upon innovative approaches of using data whilst Data As A Source of Creative Inspiration explored how data can be used to inspire creative content and communication planning.

     

    Speakers and participants from companies such as Vodafone, ITC, Pepperfry, Hindustan Unilever, Ford India, Google, InMobi and Nykaa were amongst those that delivered key presentations and business insights.

     

    And here are pointers from what the various panellists said:

     

    Panel 1: Decoding the Consumer: Fundamentals to Future

     

    Siddharth Banerjee – Executive Vice President of Brand and Marketing, Vodafone

    Data signals help to pick up on consumer behaviour. Data collection can be harnessed in days and weeks rather than months and years. Facebook analytics is used to understand consumer behaviour, it is important for marketeers to harness the information. Future models will have evolve. I would rather use two or three word acronyms over artificial intelligence. Some fundamentals don’t change.

     

    Tushar Vyas- Chief Strategy Officer, GroupM South Asia

    Miniscule part that buys ITC product will be open to understand consumer behaviour

    Machine and data is augmenting the human mind to make the decision.

     

    Shuvadip Banerjee – Vice President of Marketing Services, ITC limited

    Data is being collected, curated mined on a daily basis. Bringing this data together is a challenge. End-to-end perspective gives a richer view. Quantum has increased.

    Data will help us predict consumer behaviour. Data is supplementing something critical. Never loose contact with your consumers.

     

    Panel 2: Connected Commerce: Decoding the last mile.

     

    Vikas Agnihotri – Country Director, India Sales, Google India.

    Certain weather conditions leads to how the food ordering habits change

    Helped a client on-board payments identified catchments areas where merchants will come on board. Omnichannels is going to stay it is a big part. Eg: Maruti has more than 700 dealers in the country. 9-10 customers watch a video before buying a car. It is a yearly study done by Google. There is a very strong correlation that shows customers are able to see and buy products from the store. The customers are now more informed about the car before they purchase it.

     

    Kashyap Vadapalli – Chief Marketing’s Officer Pepperfry

    Control marketplace, partly how we sell it to our merchants. Data what we use is consumer behaviour. What kind of patterns lead to a completion.

    Buying behaviour is important. Life time value. Then we know category of consumers we have to tap on. Browsing behaviour, gives us an idea of what to do

     

    Sanjay Suri, Chief Technology Officer, Nykaa

    We save all data (click, search) earlier we used to do base level analysis. Ability to look at the cohorts who have come on week by week.

    Use different Market strategy. Breaking the cohort into a granulated level, figuring each segment and personalising it.

     

    Panel 3: Audience Planning: A Journey or a Destination.

     

    Gaurav Jeet Singh – Head of Media South Asia Unilever

    It is all sophisticated marketing. Purchase decision is important.

    Performance marketing is confused with Audience marketing

    Looking at large data structure which don’t talk to each other.

    How does our data marry 2nd party data and how does 2nd party marry 3rd and complement the other.

    You need to go after data that is most recent or refreshed every month. A lot of data set ups are not recent.

     

    Vasuta Agarwal- VP and GM, South Asia InMobi

    Becomes critical with partners and shares. No one solution to fit different markets.

    Define relevant signal and sources

    In the non-economic world you don’t have a single view of their customers which is a problem. Sometimes we take data we take at face value. We don’t know how many times it is refreshed and how recent it is. Another challenge is authentic data. And needing teams to check the data.

     

    Rahul Gautam- VP of Marketing Ford India

    Small share in the Indian context of 5%. People are going against others opinions to buy Ford cars. Taking those signals to target my audience that’s success. It will help all advertisers to be sharp on the money.

     

    Kartik Sharma – CEO South Asia, Wavemaker

    Cohorts of people are being able to identified through audience planning. Initially audience planning was more like demographic planning, now it has become sharper. Look at the consumer take signals and build something of it.

    Recency of data is important. How do you make meaning out of signals is difficult. If you don’t have the resources and people it is task to do.

    Audience planning is a Process

     

    Panel 4: Data As A Source of Creative Inspiration

    Aditya Swamy – Head of Agency Partnership Google

    Looked at data from audience POV. A strong idea laid across the tool, you are sure to win the market. Mass brands can bunch users by their spending techniques and their behaviour. 2015, YouTube had two YouTubers who had million subscribers now in 2018 there 400 solo native Youtubers who have a million subscribers. These people have looked at data analyst and constantly reading comments.

    Looking for tickets while traveling is something MakeMyTrip would tap onto but Samsonite is tapping on those queries.

     

    Kainaz Karmakar – Group Creative Director, Ogilvy

    Campaign creativity for awareness – Savlon Swast campaign.

    Target audience children. By simple data point of washing hands, we have reached 2.3million children. We carried out a project where children in villages were given chalk to write with and once done it was used as handwash under water. This data point has made a difference.

     

    Deepshikha Dharmaraj – Chief Business Growth Officer, Genesis Burson-Marsteller

    It is the biggest challenge to combine data and creativity. Data is pure info unless you can create a story with it. A great campaign is built when it starts with your assumption, thought and then with the data and add a layer of how it work with the audience. Data+ creativity= Magic. It is about storytelling. Influencers are what driving the storytelling technique. Some people don’t want to engage with influencers because of payment. But engaging with them creates a better story telling method. And it also reaches the audience faster.

     

     

  • BBDO will take on the creative process starting November 1, 2018

    WPP loses Ford creative portfolio to Omnicom’s BBDO. Activation, media, digital and production to stay with GTB. W+K also on board

    By A Correspondent

    Over the past five months, Ford Motor Company has been reviewing its advertising and marketing relationships. In the first major exit of a prized client after the exit of founder Martin Sorrell, WPP has announced it has lost the creative agency business to a rival. And the rival is BBDO. Wieden+Kennedy has also been hired for innovations and special projects.

    Said BBDO CEO Roberson Andrew via a tweet: “Today is a big big day. We have a wonderful new brand to help build.”

    WPP agencies will continue to handle activation, including media planning and buying, digital and production. These responsibilities also include Tier Two advertising work in the U.S., the China advertising operations with its joint venture partner, all Lincoln advertising, and all the Ford public relations business.

    BBDO will take on the creative process starting November 1, 2018. Meanwhile, WPP will internally be discussing the impact of this development and a townhall is said to have been arranged later today.

     

     

  • Cook will report to Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer of WPP

    WPP merges Y&R with VML. Jon Cook to oversee ops

    By A Correspondent

     

    WPP has announced the creation of a new agency, VMLY&R, uniting two leading brands to deliver a contemporary, fully integrated digital and creative offering to clients on a global scale.

     

    Notes a communique: VMLY&R’s proposition will combine brand experience and brand advertising, drawing on the complementary expertise of VML and Y&R to create connected brands that drive value for clients.

     

    The new agency will be led by Global Chief Executive Officer Jon Cook, who is currently Global CEO of VML. Jon will report to Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer of WPP. David Sable, former Global CEO of Y&R, will continue to support Cook, VMLY&R and its clients as Non-Executive Chairman as he transitions to a new role in WPP.

     

    Added Read: “VMLY&R will be a powerful brand experience offering and a core agency brand for WPP. VML and Y&R have distinct and complementary strengths spanning creative, technology and data services that make them a perfect match. This is an important step as we build a new, simpler WPP that provides clients with a fully integrated offering and easy access to our wealth of talent and resources.”

     

    Said Cook: “I’m thrilled for the VMLY&R team as we start this journey together and harness the best of each agency to deliver culturally relevant world-class work. The landscape of our industry is changing rapidly, and we are committed to being an invaluable partner to CMOs around the world. I look forward to leading this unprecedented unification of two exceptional agencies.”

     

    And this is what Sable said: “VMLY&R has been nearly 18 years in the making as we have worked to build two successful brands and develop partnerships together with clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Dell and the U.S. Navy. I’m proud of this pinnacle moment as we are now able to provide clients one robust, seamless offering. I look forward to supporting Jon and our VMLY&R client partners as I take on my new role within WPP.”