Being among the awards and the addition of social media agency Social Wavelength to its arsenal are the highs that JWT India is balancing with senior level exits and a relatively flat period on the business front. Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT South Asia, is positive that the tide has turned and remains focused on being a true partner to the customer
By Henna Achhpal
(With inputs from Saloni Dutta)
2013 is probably a year Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT South Asia, would like to forget. In a year which marked India’s best performance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, JWT India was at the bottom of the tally with just one shortlist. Not to mention the Ford fiasco. While Harris insists that the agency has recovered from the disaster and put stringent measures in place to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself, JWT India has emerged as a highly awarded agency this year at national and international ad fests. But even as 2014 seemed to look up for JWT India on the awards front, and Anuja Chauhan’s return as creative consultant on the Pepsi account made waves, headlines focused on senior level exits at the agency. On the positive side, the agency sharpened its digital arsenal further by acquiring majority stake in social media agency Social Wavelength after picking up 51% stake in Hungama Digital in 2012. However, in August this year, when JWT won the global pitch for the $103 billion turnover Tata Sons to promote the iconic Tata brand, the pitch was made and won entirely by the agency’s New York and London offices working in tandem, and Harris himself says JWT India had nothing to do with it. JWT India is not even working on the much publicized Tata global brand campaign. “It was a global pitch, and not masterminded out of India. Mumbai office is not working on the campaign, it’s London and New York,” Harris confirms, perhaps raising the question why JWT India is not working on a home-grown brand.
KEEPING SCORE
Among Indian agencies at Cannes Lions this year, JWT India bounced from the bottom of the tally to the top with eight metals. Two silvers in the Branded Content & Entertainment Lions, a silver and two bronzes in the Cyber Lions category, a silver in the Film Craft Lions category, a bronze in Film Lions, and a bronze in the Press Lions. At Goafest 2014 as well, the agency led with 40 metals including a Grand Prix, five metals at Clio Awards 2014, and topped the tally at Spikes Asia 2014 with nine metals. While Harris sticks to his guns about the agency’s No. 1 priority being delivering solutions to clients, he doesn’t deny that winning awards feels great. He says, “If the work we do for our clients happens to win awards and gets recognized on a global platform, that’s ideal and excellent. If you look at the quality of awards we won, they are in all the large categories and we won for real work done on large brands. Our work is being globally acclaimed. With that comes the motivation for our people to do better. When the agency becomes known for success, from a creative standpoint, it helps us build our business and attract the right talent. In totality, a lot of good things happen when you win awards. Meeting the client’s objectives is primary but equally important is when you win awards and get the recognition you want.” The agency’s work for Nike ‘Make Every Yard Count’ and Godrej Safety Solutions were among the campaigns that won the maximum awards.
IN FOR THE LONG HAUL
There may have been award wins, but not so many business wins. Barring JWT Mindset’s win of Hamdard Laboratories’ RoohAfza account, and the business of beauty and spa chain, Naturals, JWT India hasn’t welcomed many new clients to its roster this year. On the other hand, it recently lost MSM’s MAX and MAX2 business to DDB Mudra. JWT’s Videocon accounts went to Rediffusion Y&R which won the flat panel television and telecom business, and From Here On, which won the corporate, refrigerator, washing machine, and air conditioner business. Amidst this Harris, who believes in relieving stress with a good laugh, is unfazed. He prefers to focus on the agency’s consistency and long standing relationships with some of the top clients in the business. “Take GSK, we’ve worked with them since 1929. Pepsi has been with us for 25 years, from the first bottle being sold to the first strategy being written. Nike didn’t have a cricket strategy anywhere in the world, India was the first country,” he states. JWT Bangalore won the Nike business in 2005. Harris continues, “These are the best clients in their categories and we believe we have partnered what they have achieved. All of them are hugely admired brands, have gone on to market leadership, and lead their respective spaces. And the fact that we’ve been an agency partner all these years, there’s no shortcut. It’s a huge responsibility for our people to always deliver to the ambition of a client.” The agency is known for some of Pepsi’s most successful campaigns, Yeh Dil Maange More and Oye Bubbly. Most recently, going with the trend of online videos, JWT India launched two web films for the festive season, #GharWaliDiwali for PepsiCo and #MyDiwaliBreak for Nestle’s KitKat, which have been hits.
THE QUEST FOR TALENT
Great work comes from great talent and talent management, Harris says, is a continuous game of customization. A few months back, JWT announced leadership changes across the agency’s key offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Sri Lanka. JWT South head, Rajesh Gangwani, was appointed JWT Mumbai’s SVP and Managing Partner with NCD Tista Sen for a creative partner, while Colombo President Himanshu Saxena succeeded Gangwani as JWT South SVP and Managing Partner. Joy Chauhan took over from Saxena as President of JWT Colombo. NCD Senthil Kumar continues to lead JWT South and Kolkata as Saxena’s creative partner. Harris explains, “We are trying to get the right talent for clients. At every office level, we believe in being a full service agency. We use talent across offices only when there is a need for specialization. For example, Senthil works in virtually all the markets including Delhi. If a client wants a specialist skill, then we use people who are good for those markets, categories or brands. From a client standpoint, he is seeing the best of talent irrespective of where he lives.” The agency recently saw several senior level exits, the most recent being that of NCD Swati Bhattacharya who was with the agency for 24 years. At least four senior planning managers, all involved with the GSK account, also resigned in Delhi. Before that, Mohit Hira, CEO, Hungama Digital Services & Digital Head, JWT India, and Tarun Chauhan, Managing Partner, Mumbai called it a day as well. But Harris is not perturbed. “People leave for several reasons. We wish our good people could stay with us forever but people do take their own decisions. The way I see it, we are a stable company. In fact we are more stable than many of our clients because our teams have stayed in place for more years than our client teams have,” says Harris.
Meanwhile, Harris keeps up the cheer and lives by his motto: Everything in life is somewhere else, but you get there in a Jaguar. No prizes for guessing that he drives his own Jaguar.
Feedback: henna@exchange4media.com
