By Johnson Napier
When a passing reference is made of a company being large, mid-sized or small, it has largely got to do with the total workforce or employees that drive that organisation. So where one organisation may employ 2000 plus employees and quantify itself as large, a mid-sized organisation would be half that size and a small organisation even more minuscule in number. But where the parameter of (work) saliency is concerned, companies of today are out to prove the numbers theory wrong and would rather let the “qualitative output” theory take precedence. Like the advertising industry, where even a 25-people organisation is threatening to put a biggie out of its comfort zone when it comes to attracting and retaining the best of clients.
The Indian ad industry of today is synonymous with great creative works, the names, number of people behind its execution and other such details notwithstanding. One agency, a mid-sized one, that is surging ahead with this thought process as an ingredient for success is Grey India. Synonymous with its motto that reads: famously effective, Grey has been in the news for churning out creative and client servicing solutions that are gems in their own might. Its ability to think out of the box could be gauged from the numerous awards that have flanked the agency year-on-year – both in India and on the global stage. Further, providing a boost to its showing in India are its growth figures that have been in the positive for a long time now. But despite the hype and (client) glory that’s reminiscent of the agency, it still isn’t being looked upon as someone that could be a firm contender for the top spot – an agency that could topple the likes of Ogilvy, JWT, and the others for the top honours. And this is something that the think-tank and top captains at the Group are working towards. Elaborating the need for a rehaul, Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO, Grey Group Asia Pacific I think Grey, said, “Historically, Grey has been known unfortunately only for its thought leadership and its very strong client servicing and planning skills. I think somewhere we didn’t do justice to ourselves when it came to the creative product. And clearly we wanted to change that perception.”
Sorting the talent conundrum
It wasn’t surprising then that the agency was involved in some high profile hiring and elevations a few months ago. The task of anchoring the ship in India was left to the able shoulders of Jishnu Sen, the current President & CEO of Grey India. And one of the first things that Sen set out to do as the captain was get the right team in place – a bottleneck that was crippling the agency of its various rewards. Also, the fact that a host of reputed names had quit the agency didn’t help either. Vouches Sen, “When I came on board, I met with Nirvik Singh and said that the plan has to be based on people. This is not going to happen just by me because an agency is built by people. The plan essentially had to include the pillars of planning, creative and servicing working together. So my first step was to hire Bindu Sethi, a legendary planner. I told her we don’t have planners and that the task was hers to start from the scratch.” And so having got Bindu Sethi on board, she was quick enough to sort out the people hurdleand had a team in place to handle the planning aspects for the group.
The next step for the agency in India was sorting out the creative talent mess. As Sen says, “After all, an agency is known for its work and the people that drive that work. So we got Amit Akali and Malvika Mehra to join us from Ogilvy, which was a huge boost to us. And then our holy quartet was complete – me, Bindu, Amit and Malvika.” In fact getting the right talent in place wasn’t an exercise that was restricted to India alone. Added Nirvik Singh, “One of the things we looked at was how do we increase our talent pool across Asia Pacific. And across Asia Pacific, we have changed our creative leadership in at least 6-7 countries. What we have done in India under Jishnu’s leadership is that apart from creative, we have hired some terrific strategic planners. We also promoted Bindu Sethi to become head of Planning for Asia Pacific. Under her and across Asia, we now have close to 50 planners. And all this has happened in the past 8-10 months. I was very clear that one of the things that I wanted to do across Asia was to push our talent quotient as high as possible.” And so with talent getting the desired push in India, the results of the rehaul were for all to see.
Says Sen, “With the team in place, we went ahead and pitched for businesses in full force. Our first big win was Reliance Communications. And you need a big win to set a momentum going on. Then we got the Honda business this year in Delhi, the market which has not been strong for us traditionally. Ferrero consolidated all its business with us. We also won the Nat Geo account. So right now, our work is going out and is being appreciated.”
The quantum of the wins could be best summed up by the growth numbers recorded, which accordingto Sen stood at a modest 20-25 per cent, well above the industry average.
Scouting for newer growth avenues
Having sorted the talent hurdle, the next task now for the agency is getting the offices to fire on par as each other. Says Sen, “In the case of Grey considering the size we are, the growth drivers will still primarily be Mumbai and Delhi. There is no going away from that. I really want Mumbai and Delhi to grow triple in the next couple of years. And then we’ll be of a certain size. As for the South, I think we do really good work for Britannia in Chennai. It’s a pretty impressive roster of clients. There is Britannia, 3M, Fortis Group in Bangalore... I’m pretty proud of what’s going on in South.”
With a firm grip on its clients, the focus now for the agency is to buck up its offerings and keep doling out solutions that are in sync with the changing times. Even if that means taking the focus away from the conventional forms of advertising and increasing focus on mediums like digital. Affirmed Singh, “I am of the firm belief that our industry has changed more because of digital than ever before. If you look at our industry from broadcast to narrowcast to currently individualcast – that’s the fundamental change it has gone through. I think the social media business is a very critical piece of our business and it will only grow from strength to strength. Has it taken off in India, I think the internet penetration numbers are still slightly skewed. But it is the business of the future. It has to be.”
Having mapped out a strategy to excel in the creative race, the goal now is to be seen as a firm contender for the top spot. Ascertained Sen, “Would I like to be in top 3, maybe, but it has to come well planned. I don’t believe in signing on business just for the sake of it. I won’t compromise on what we are doing as an agency just to sign on newer accounts and get more money. It will never happen. We’ll be happy being a mid-sized agency as long as we are happy doing what we are doing.”
Summing up his expectations from the agency and the team for the future, Nirvik Singh said, “The way I would judge it is that if in any country you are speaking to a prospective client or speaking to a head hunter and you said, could you name me the top 3 companies in this country, then I would very much hope that our name would be there in that list. To me that means that we would have done our job.”
Well, that’s just what any agency would deem for its team, and that’s what would also set Grey apart from its peers.
BEING FAMOUSLY EFFECTIVE
Post a vigorous talent turnaround exercise, Grey Group is all charged to turn the tables and make a thumping comeback on the creative scene. And it’s not just India and China where the action is centred around; it’s a scattered and well thought-out awakening activity that’s taking place across the 17 APAC countries in which Grey has a presence.
Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO, Grey Group Asia Pacific opens up on his plans for the group and more, in an exclusive interview with IMPACT’s Johnson Napier & Meghna Sharma. Excerpts:
To begin with, the agency is seeing a rehaul in the way it is prepping up to face the Indian market what with so many elevations and new talent being added recently. How do you view this change from a South Asian perspective for the agency?
I don’t think you should look at India in isolation. I think one of the things we looked at was how do we increase our talent pool across Asia Pacific. And across Asia Pacific, we have changed our creative leadership in at least 6-7 countries. One of the issues was when Jishnu Sen was brought in there was a very clear mandate that he would take over the functioning of the agency. We were waiting for a more appropriate time and I was going to get free from the India-only business and look after Asia Pacific. So Jishnu’s promotion had been on the cards for a very long time. What we have done in India is that apart from creative, we have hired some terrific strategic planners. We also promoted Bindu Sethi to become head of Planning for Asia Pacific. Under her and across Asia, we now have close to 50 planners. And all this has happened in the past 8-10 months. I was very clear that one of the things that I wanted to do across Asia was to push our talent quotient as high as possible. That’s what has been done. What you are seeing in India has been replicated in Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Vietnam, Bangkok, Japan, China and the other countries.
Undertaking such a drive is too gargantuan a task. What merited such a geography-wide change for Grey?
I think Grey, historically, over the last 90 years has been known unfortunately only for its thought leadership and its very strong client servicing and planning skills. I think somewhere we didn’t do justice to ourselves when it came to the creative product. And clearly we wanted to change that perception. I am delighted that in such a short time we have managed to not just change perceptions but I think you can see the results on the ground – whether it’s the awards, or the businesses won, etc. So it was a conscious decision to say that we will do a critical evaluation of where we want to take the agency. And the agency business is all about people. Therefore the idea was to get in as many talented people to join us. There is no end line. This is a continuous process.
Eight to nine months would be too early to gauge the aftereffects but has there been any significant outcome of the change?
I don’t think it’s too early. In fact last year, we were named amongst the top 5 networks in Asia Pacific. I’ve been in Grey for around 22 years and we have never been on that list. So we have made significant progress and as I said earlier, the results are there from an awards point of view and from a business gain point of view. And it’s across countries. Whether you look at India by winning Reliance Communications, Ferrero or our Singapore office that won the KFC business - which is a big piece of business, and many other businesses across other countries. Also we are winning business at the regional level as well. One such big business from regional and globally was the reassignment of Panadol from GSK to us.
You’ve mentioned Singapore and Malaysia, which are the other key markets from APAC that Grey is ballistic about?
The one great thing about the geography currently is that in all 17 countries we are in the black. This is something unusual because most networks have one place that’s on fire. But all the reorganisation that we’ve done is proving that we are heading in the right direction.
I think what we are seeing is huge growth coming from Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. So while China and India continue to grow for us we are also seeing big growth coming from these three economies. Also, we are seeing decent growth coming out of Australia, Hong Kong and Japan – despite the tsunami.
Was there an emphasis to focus on a selected few countries when you took on the mantle of chairing the APAC region?
I don’t think there was any such thing on my mind. It wasn’t a country-specific thing for me; more of a discipline thing. The fact is that we want to be honest genuinely to the philosophy that we practise, which is to pride ourselves in saying ‘famously effective since 1917’. And I think you cannot be famously effective if you don’t have the right people and unless you practise the philosophies every day of your life. So it was more about getting more talented creative leadership, talented planning leadership, thought strategic leadership and then look at where we are at the digital space and what do we need to do to improve our skills. And in other areas, for example, where we see growth is shopper marketing, first moment of truth... and against those we went and did something. So people’s piece was a creative piece and then in the digital piece, we went and bought over Yolk in Singapore - one of Singapore’s leading digital agencies. Right now, we are actually expanding Yolk’s services in other countries. Also, we bought a company called DPI in Hong Kong, which is one of the world’s best shopper marketing companies. So where we find that we don’t have skills, and if the acquisition comes through, then we will acquire.
Currently are you contemplating any acquisitions in your sphere of operations?
We are currently looking at various acquisitions. And to tell you, I think the next big thing will be mobile. People are grappling with how you can monetise mobile. But clearly given the amount of smartphones that are being sold, given how you can individualise messaging through technology, I really thing mobile is the next future. Now, how do you monetise that is what people are grappling with. I think there are fantastic technology companies in that space and at which point they will be a creative company that does mobile and manages to marry the creative and technology, those are the things we need to look at because of opportunities in that space.
We know of the senior talent pool that’re driving the show for you in India, but what about Asia Pacific? Who are the people that are driving the works for you across the 17 Asia Pacific countries you are present in?
In Singapore we have hired Ali Shabaz as our ECD. Ali is one of the well-known and most awarded CDs in Singapore. He oversees Indonesia as well. And Ali went and hired Joseph Wong who is one of the most well-known creative people in Singapore. I think the great thing about getting the right leader is that they are able to build a great bench strength as they go and get better people as well. So our Singapore office now with the acquisition with Yolk, has grown into a 125-people office. And if you look at the organisation now, we have some great clients – KFC, GSK, Abbot Labs, Allianz Insurance, ESPN, a lot of business from the Government of Singapore... So we can see the results coming in very quickly.
While getting the right person for the top job is high priority, there are agencies that prefer looking at outside talent to drive the show for them here in India and vice versa. Do you think it’s a feasible model to adopt?
At the end of the day, it’s about the person, it’s about the culture and it’s about the chemistry. You can bring in the best person but if that person doesn’t understand India and doesn’t work well with the existing team then what is that person going to achieve? So there is no hard and fast answer to that. It works for some and doesn’t for the others.
Agreed. Moving on, you earlier mentioned on how awards were an inspiration for your agency to bring out its best. How hopeful are you about your agency’s performance at Cannes this year?
We make it a point to send as many entries to Cannes every year. However, we actually have a very robust internal system. And until the work doesn’t hit a particular benchmark number, the work doesn’t go into Cannes. We had a good showing in Cannes last year. I’m hopeful that this year we’ll have a significantly better showing.
Is this how your clients also judge you? On the number of awards you’ve bagged at Cannes?
Clients are happy about winning awards anywhere. At the end of the day, every human being wants to win an award whether it’s from X, Y or Z but the importance people give to Cannes is significantly more because you are genuinely competing against the world’s best.
While on awards, one of the trends being spotted is the emergence of young turks who are ensuring that the tally of metals keeps increasing for an agency. What is Grey’s emphasis on young talent and fostering their growth in the domain of advertising?
I think we are very happy with our youth. In fact, the under-30 award in India has been won by one of our youngsters, Pallavi - the most promising new talent. Our Vietnam office has just won a global award to design the new cover of Advertising Age globally. It’s a young team who are still in their 20s. This is a young person’s business and therefore there is no question of not supporting people who are young.
Despite agencies spending a fortune on training and cultivating talent, the view that comes across is that advertising is an unstable profession to be in. Why do people jump jobs more often than not in this profession?
Well, I don’t know. The people we have here have been here forever and ever. I have been in one company now for 22 years. I think people have different ambitions, and then things like culture, personal ambitions come into play. But the larger point is that is it only those 6-7 people who are playing tic-tac-toe or has that 7 become a 14 and 14 a 21, because if it’s only 7 then it means that there is not enough new talent coming in which I think is worrisome.
Also, the trend is to set up individual ventures at the moment. And there are plenty of success stories to cite…
Across the world boutique agencies have always come. Some have been successful and some have not. That’s part and parcel of the business. If you say that this is a people’s business and somebody wanted to put a name outside their door and open their own agency then there’s nothing wrong with that. If that person’s got talent then business will come. Some agencies are fairly successful and some are not.
Moving on to another hot debate surrounding the Indian ad industry: pitch fee. As if the current set of problems weren’t enough, a new and unthinkable problem arose recently when one client (of global presence) demanded a commission for hiring an agency. How would you react to this misleading jibe adopted by the client?
I think pitch fees has been discussed in India for the last 10 years. I think the issue really is that unfortunately, the industry hasn’t come together on it. There are countries which impose a pitch fee. Malaysia where I used to work earlier, there is a clear pitch fee. If a client is calling for a pitch, the client will tell the advertising association body that they are calling for a pitch, they’ll inform which agencies have been called and then they’ll tell them what the pitch fee is. It’s very transparent. Here, unfortunately, for whatever reasons it hasn’t been transparent - which is unfortunate.
Do you see the scenario changing?
I think it’s very difficult. I think it requires a complete mindset. It requires a change from clients; a pitch need not be a beauty braid but an actual pitch. And I think agencies have to come together to say, ‘Look, are we going to be sailing the boat together or not?’ And conceptually, everyone comes together to sail on the same boat then something happens and then people get into different life rafts and go away somewhere. But if agencies don’t come together and sail under one boat, the pitch fee thing will never happen. So agencies are as much to be blamed as anybody else.
While digital is what would drive the industry forward, social media is one tool that has shaken the industry off its feet. Agree?
I think the word digital can mean different things to different people. Where we began digital, it was about people designing websites and now digital is delivery of platforms on mobile to social media conversations and such kind of things. I am of the firm belief that our business/industry has changed more because of digital than ever before. I think the fact is that for the first time the consumer has more power than ever before. If you look at our industry from broadcast to narrowcast to currently individualcast – that’s the fundamental change it has gone through. With the internet you can talk to a person one-on-one, you can get feedback on your products one-on-one…the fact that they have the ability to influence 20 others within an hour and other such habits…So I think the social media business is a very critical piece of our business and it will only grow from strength to strength. Has it taken off in India, I think the internet penetration numbers are still slightly skewed. But it is the business of the future. It has to be. Also, when digital gets delivered on the mobile phone you will have a far larger audience, especially in India.
But as of now, nobody has taken a lead in the mobile space. A lot of people are still experimenting; a lot of people are still finding solutions. I think in a lot of countries, social media has taken off much more than here. But again, it’s not like India has to play catch up. It’s also about how organisations play the value volume game that will determine which medium they want to consume.
Talent is one issue that you have spoken of extensively; what are the other ills plaguing the industry?
Yes, talent is a huge problem facing the industry. And it’s not just a trend akin to India; most countries in Asia are facing a talent crunch. The other big challenge is technology. People seem to forget that Facebook did not exist 8-9 years back; it’s a different world today. How do you keep up with that? So I see these two as big problems today. But I also see that the advertising industry has to embrace technology as never before. We as an industry used to look at TV advertising, radio advertising and print advertising where the technology hadn’t evolved in the last many years. If you have to play the game of the future you have to understand the technology of the future. So I am of the belief that because of this space you may be able to attract newer kind of talent that we have not been able to do before. So you would be forced to become stronger primarily because of this.
Also, pricing seems to be another problem. And then the eternal questions that faces us: our business bundles and unbundles back every 15 years. We used to be a complete communications industry where media and the others were all together. Then we unbundled the business where we now operate in silos. And now there is talk of the industries getting back and consolidating.
This could also be due to the fact that media agencies are getting better recognised and rewarded today for doing spellbinding creative works. Does this reflect badly on the abilities of creative agencies?
At the end of the day when there is fragmentation and there is pressure on the bottomline people are going to do different things. The point here is that the world of fragmentation means the world of specialisation. A media agency is a media agency because it’s a specialist media agency or a digital agency is a digital agency because it is a specialist digital agency. So would you go to a digital company that specialises in mobile phones and say, do me a television ad? I don’t think you would. Should you be going to a media agency and saying let me buy a creative ad from you, I am not so sure. The whole purpose or business of fragmentation was driven by specialisation. You had one agency where one person seemed to know a little bit about advertising, about event management and something else and then said no, I want specialist people. And that’s how fragmentation began. By definition, if you are a specialist then that’s your sphere of activity. Also, by definition if you are a specialist then you should be paid more than a generalist. And now will the business come back, I don’t know.
Where does one draw the line? Don’t you feel the emergence of many specialists will eventually lead to a clutter of services?
I think the question is whether do you create silos or do you create practices? The big debate in my head is should you be creating separate P&L silos or should you be creating disciplines and should you have practice leaders? So should you work as a consulting company that has practiced leadership in place, like a practice guru for shopper marketing or a practice guru for PR, etc – maybe that’s a practice model of the future. I think what you do need is that if the business continues to be broken up then I think you will require more and more of those people. So where will it end, I don’t know because at the end of the day the world of technology keeps changing. As we speak we are looking at hiring a social media expert. Was that the case two years ago? No, it wasn’t. I think technology is forcing us to revisit some of our basic tenets.
How would you sum up the APAC growth story for Grey in 2010?
We’ve had spectacular growth in Asia last year. It would be fair to say that we had upwards of 15-16 per cent growth. While most countries performed well, Indonesia was sensational, India was also very good…so it’s been a very good journey for us.
And being part of the WPP Group, how do you see yourself stacked up against the others?
WPP has lots of companies but I think there are these major lead network agencies like Thomson, Grey & Y&R. I think we are the newest kids on the block to WPP. I personally see the WPP thing as a big thing for us. It allows us access to a whole bunch of partners across the world; access to a large talent pool if you so desire. More importantly, WPP is acquisitive by nature so it allows us the money and allows us to fulfill our ambitions through the acquisitory route. Which is important, because I would think that Grey was on a pause button as an organization. That was because Edward Meyer, who was the chairperson of Grey then, had made up his mind in 2003 to sell the company. So from 2003 to 2006, there was very little investment that was made into the company and it has taken us some while to get there. So I think it’s a great thing. It’s only fair to say that we are the most improved network of WPP in a long time now.
If you were to set a goalpost for Grey for the next year, what would it be?
I would’ve loved to use words like biggest and best but they don’t make any sense. The way I would judge it is that if in any country you are speaking to a prospective client or speaking to a head hunter and you said, could you name me the top 3 companies in this country, then I would very much hope that our name would be there in that list. To me that means that we would have done our job.
And how soon do you see that happening?
I hope it happens in the next 12 months. In a lot of countries we have got there and in a few countries we are getting there.
