BOB JEFFREY, CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF JWT WORLDWIDE, AFFIRMS THAT INDIA IS A PRIORITY MARKET FOR THE AGENCY, AND HE IS DEPENDING ON CCO-DESIGNATE BOBBY PAWAR TO DEVELOP IT IN AREAS BEYOND TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING
In the last few years, JWT has worked hard and consistently to build its reputation as a global creative house. And if platforms such as Cannes Lions and Spikes are benchmarks of any kind, JWT is amongst the agencies that have done well in the creative business. The year 2011 was a challenging one for JWT India with senior level exits and advertisers like Pepsi and Airtel adding another creative partner to their roster. But on the business side, JWT India has seen growth and according to Bob Jeffrey, chairman and CEO of JWT Worldwide, the agency globally will see a good year.
We live in a two-speed world, says Jeffrey, in a conversation with IMPACT, elaborating that there have been fast-growing markets such as many parts of Asia, including India, China, Indonesia and then places such as Brazil and Mexico. “And then we have the other speed that is North America and Europe. So there has been a difference because there are divergent economies in those two parts of the world and that is reflected. But overall, JWT would have a good year in terms of revenue numbers – we would have a growth year,” adds Jeffrey.
He says that JWT has been on track for 2011. “What everyone is concerned about is 2012, but we don’t have any way of predicting what that would be. There is still a question mark on what is happening in Europe and things look better now than they did a month ago. North America, I would argue, could be strong next year. If I look at our clients in the US, their business is solid. Take for instance, Macy’s, which is one of the largest department store brands in the world. They are very strong this year, more than they were a year ago. There is a lot of uncertainty, but I would not want to be the prophet of doom on what is going on.”
Sitting in his New York office, Jeffrey looks happy with the way the year has turned out for JWT globally. In fact, the agency’s global headquarters showcase new thought right from its design to the structure that intends to motivate a new and path-breaking thought process. Jeffrey points out that from an India viewpoint too, the year has been important since the agency has made some key appointments like Bobby Pawar as Chief Creative Officer and Max Hegerman as the Digital lead in the market. These alone are reason enough to set higher expectations from India for 2012. He speaks more on the global ops and on expectations from India in his conversation with IMPACT. Excerpts:
Q] Some agencies have been saying that India and China saw some slowdown this year. Have those markets delivered as per expectations?
They are on track in terms of expectations. There is slowdown in China but it is all relative because these are all markets that still have a lot of growth and development opportunities. Brazil is another market that will see a lot of growth. Brazil, just to be pragmatic about it, has a stable political regime, the middle class is growing significantly year on year and the gap between the rich and the poor is narrowing. Plus, they have some mega events that are going to happen like the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, so there is a lot of internal momentum towards getting ready for those two big global events.
Q] In 2010, you had articulated the agency’s way forward with Digital at the centre. Talent, advertisers were buying into that...
Our strategy is convergent with what is going on in the client world. I just saw the IBM study, which interviewed 1700 CMOs, and found the two biggest issues for CMOs are geography and technology. What I always talk about at JWT is that on both those counts, we need to lead into all the changes going on with technology because everything is happening very fast, especially in communication. Secondly, our strength is geography. By that I mean, we are well established in the mature markets but we have deep roots in the fast growing markets, much more than our competitors. We need to make sure that the strength we have with our international capabilities is evident to our clients and our people. I have been very consistent on those points in the last few years, Digital being part of the conversation – we have major clients for whom the shift in spends is happening fairly dramatically on some of their brands. We have certain FMCG clients who three to four years ago just had minor experiments, and today there are brands that are spending 20- 30% of their budgets on Digital, which is very significant.
Q] Are they clear on what is the return they are looking for their investment?
It is a continuum. Certain clients have more experience than others, and the capability because of how they organise and how we work with them to look at the matrix and return on their digital investment. There are other clients that are less concerned about the returns, but being more experimental in learning and testing as they go along. That is true for every client now. There is more of an appetite now for experimentation and change because clients are wary of running the risk of not doing anything because they know that just to stand still is not a good strategy.
Q] If awards were a benchmark of creativity, JWT has done well and yet when there are conversations on a larger canvas, there are many others that are discussed before JWT. Does that bother you?
It can be frustrating sometimes. It is really only since 2005 that we have put huge efforts on our creativity. Other agencies have been doing it longer than us, so they are more top of the mind. But now, if I look at how we are perceived by clients, we are definitely more competitive than we were five years ago in terms of creative reputation. It is a competitive world we live in and every year, we have done so much better at Cannes and regional shows like Spikes and the Effectiveness Awards. Every year, there is more pressure to do better work that gets more recognition. People are very interested in the kind of brand work we had done for Macy’s that was ‘Just Believe’ and ‘Smirnoff Night Life Exchange’ and now Brand USA, which is a huge marketing programme for which we are doing the communication, that would launch in March, 2012.
Q] What is JWT doing to infuse more of this new kind of thinking akin to what you did with Macy’s, a very content-led initiative?
We are doing a lot of training. We have a propriety process that we have developed called Discover, Collide and Me. It is a process that we are implementing globally among all the people working on brands on how to get better work, how to get to innovative work, how to get to world class work. We developed it in the last one year. We are doing a lot on training and educating our staff around the world. The second thing is that we have standards. We have criteria on which we evaluate our work on a scale of 1 to 10. Ever since we have been doing this measurement and evaluation of our own work, there is a complete correlation between the work and our performance in award shows. A lot of the work falls in the 5 or 6 category. If you get 8-plus, we actually have a bonus system set up for creative teams across the world. We only have four 9s so far and we have never had a 10. I am waiting for India to do a 10.
Q] The year is ending well for JWT India, but at the beginning, some of your key clients partnered with creative independents. What does it mean to you when a creative independent gets on the roster of a big client?
I will say this in a general way, but first of all, it is not ideal because we want to do all the work for our clients. But even when another creative agency gets on the roster, the scope of what we handle for these clients is so significant and so far-reaching that it is a capability unique to JWT. There aren’t a lot of agencies, let alone a smaller creative agency, that can take on that responsibility. Even in the cases that you mentioned- Airtel and Pepsi – we have significant relations with both of those clients that go far beyond just TV spots.
Q] Any specific comments on JWT India?
I think Colvyn (Harris) runs a great operation. He is very dedicated. I am amazed with the energy level of people in India, what we see with Colvyn. Now we have hired Max Hegerman, so we will see more Digital coming up at the centre of conversations. We have made some significant hires in India this year and we are expecting that to show in 2012.
Q] JWT India ops are probably the only ones with three National Creative Directors and one Chief Creative Officer.
That would not be the right thing to say – New York, for instance, is a very big office and we have many ECDs here. India is a bit complicated. New York for instance is a big office but everything is in one city. But in India, you have Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and it is all spread across. We have so many brands in India, that it is unbelievable. People don’t realise how many different clients we work with in India. We work with global clients like Ford and Unilever, as well as with clients that are global but specific to India like Pepsi. We have Pepsi in India but we don’t do much work on Pepsi in other markets. And then we work with a ton of local clients. And all these clients have expectations and we have to ensure that we deliver. If there is competition even with creative start-ups, then we need to have bench strength. It cannot be just one person – it is not physically possible.
Q] What about developing expertise in other disciplines?
Of the four disciplines that we are marketing at a global level – Digital is clearly number one. We just launched arch JWT. Shopper marketing is a big initiative for us because that is a discipline relevant to every market around the world, though every market is different. Mobile is a part of Digital but to my mind it is huge by itself. My prediction is that when they look at what happened during the holiday season, especially in the US, mobile would be a big deal. We just did a mobile app for Macy’s that was identified as one of the most important apps for mobile this year. The other area we have been promoting with a lot of our brands is branded entertainment. So those are the four areas that we are focussing on outside the realm of traditional advertising.
Q] By when are we expecting these to take shape in India?
India is a priority market for us and now that Bobby (Pawar) is there, we look forward to speaking to him for a lot of these things.
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