As Shubha George assumes her new role at Red Fuse, she realizes how critical it is for a leader in her position to retain relationships with the different agencies. She likens herself to an orchestrator, wherein she makes sure that Red Fuse is well connected with GroupM, MEC and Bates, as well as Genesis Burson- Marsteller for the PR aspect. In fact, ensuring that the connection is maintained and developed even further, is integral to her role.
“What I realized when I came into Red Fuse is how silo-ed you get as specialists, whether it is media or digital or advertising. You don’t realize how silo-ed until you come back together,” says George. “I was part of a full service agency before I went into media, but only when I joined Red Fuse did I understand and realize how much the business has grown and how silo-ed each of the specialists have become. As an agency person, if you realize that, you can imagine what would it be like for the client who has to work with so many agencies and yet make sure that you have a seamless campaign executed across different touch-points. That’s what has got me really interested, for one.”
George has now become an evangelist for this sort of a model. While all large advertisers have been absolutely keen to understand how it works, the common reaction George gets is a look of incredulity on their faces saying, “Does it really work like that, do you guys actually sit together in one location?”
A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
George says that for many of her younger team members who have never had any interaction with their creative counterparts or their digital or media counterparts, working at Red Fuse is a complete revelation. “With people across specialisms working together, there is a much richer understanding of each of the specialisms among our team members, and that I think is very critical for developing holistic leaders for tomorrow because these are the people who will be running brands and businesses in five, six or may be 10 years down the line. If they don’t have the advantage of understanding multiple specialisms, they will never be true leaders, especially in the future when things are going to get only more integrated,” explains George.
Here are edited excerpts from a free-wheeling chat Shubha George, Managing Director- Red Fuse Asia & CEO -India had with Priyanka Mehra on different levels of collaboration and partnership between Colgate and Red Fuse, learnings from the India market, why Red Fuse has made her a better practitioner of her craft.
integrated agency, your ability to respond very quickly to a crisis situation is tremendous. There are no distractions because at that point you can prioritize and say listen, this is what I need to do and this is what I will do. And again as a client, they are clear that this is your 100% focus for the next one or two weeks. Whereas, when you are working with an agency which has multiple responsibilities, whatever said and done, there is only that much time they can put in because the other clients cannot come to a standstill. So the crisis management situation is definitely an added plus. Having said that, I don’t think Red Fuse is just for crisis management.
Q] What next for Colgate from a Red Fuse perspective?
I want to take our expertise forward in the areas of digital technology, e-commerce and content, robably in the reverse order. The other areas are integrated working, and there is really no end to how you get better at it. While we have spent two years together at Red Fuse, I wouldn’t say we are perfect in terms of integrating our different specialisms. That is an on-going process and I think while we have gotten much better today, compared to when we started out two years ago, there are still ways in which we can improve.
Q] You mentioned in an earlier interview that Red Fuse actually influences the market-place decisions made by Colgate, can you tell us about the working partnership between Red Fuse and Colgate?
There are different levels of collaboration and partnership between Colgate and Red Fuse. It is an exceptional partnership at all levels. Whether it is at a global level in New York, or the regional level or at the market level - that partnership is very strong, with a collaborative spirit that transcends markets and levels of seniority.
Q] If we consider what happened to Nestle last year, do you think that integration within the brand and trust level are much higher with a model like Red Fuse in a crisis situation for a brand?
That is for sure. Because you are an I only say it makes things easier because you have a team that is dedicated to your business. Then again, how a client and agency respond to a crisis is entirely dependent and specific to them.”
Q] As you take on the new role, what are the challenges you foresee?
When you move from a single market role to a multimarket role, the main challenge is really to understand those markets, the consumer in those markets and the marketing challenges in those new markets. That is definitely the most critical part of the job. The other challenge is really that of adapting to working styles that exist in different cultures in different markets. That is very important, and as a leader, I should adapt to the working styles of different markets as well and at the same time ensure that there is transference of best practices from one market to the other. So, those are the challenge areas, and I would really focus on and work on them.
Q] What is the kind of learning from India that you would apply to other markets?
To some extent, there are some basic, sort of underlined strategies, principles and tactics which work universally which every market would be adopting and using. At the same time, if there is a best practice say from India or China or Philippines or wherever, when you need to take it to another market you still have to adapt it. I don’t think there is any such thing as you just take the step and run with it to another place and it’ll be successful. I am not only looking at taking things from India to other markets, but also from those markets into India. For example, if you look at communicating to rural audiences, that is something where we have a lot of experience in India and it could be useful for some other emerging market in Asia where rural communication could be important. On the other hand, think how you look at e-commerce and that’s an area in which other markets in Asia are far more advanced. There could be a lot of learning from those markets for India as e-commerce is just beginning in India. It works both ways - you have to take the principles, the learning, the successes and the failures and adapt them. In the market that is adapting, your learning gets that much quicker. The market that does it first really takes the sort of steeper learning advantage.
Q] Don’t you miss the MEC new business wins and the high from that?
Somebody used to call us ‘pitch junkies’. We used to work constantly on new business pitches there and I do miss it to some extent, but not all the time. I know missing it sounds very romantic, but when you are doing it, pitches can be such a nightmare. But working with multiple brands and clients, after a certain amount of experience, you don’t really miss that because you would have worked with almost all categories. But what I did miss at MEC was when you are handling so many clients, you really don’t get the opportunity to practise your profession on too many brands. You are really not a media expert on anything, you are just pretty much a leader who is managing the business. So, there is always a danger of losing touch with your craft. That is something I should be thankful for at Red Fuse, because I have now become a better practitioner of the craft in some ways.
