In conversation with Priyanka Mehra, Rai, CEO of J. Walter Thompson South Asia and Senthil Kumar, the agency’s newly minted Chief Creative Officer, talk about creating ‘famous’ work, challenging the team to do its best and focus on digital first
Two years after the exit of Bobby Pawar, J. Walter Thompson India last week announced the appointment of Senthil Kumar as its new Chief Creative Officer (CCO). Kumar, an NCD at the agency until his elevation, will now partner Tarun Rai, CEO, J. Walter Thompson South Asia, to lead the overall creative mandate for the agency across its six offices in India.
“Senthil and I worked together at the Mumbai office many years ago. Having been out of JWT for seven years, I see that the nature of our business has changed. However, while picking a CCO, I didn’t want to form any judgment about Senthil. He has moved on, done some fantastic work, but the role is very different from what he had when I was there in 2008. So I took time. I wanted to see Senthil as who he is now, I wanted to see him with clients, I wanted to see how much respect he has in his organization and outside,” comments Tarun Rai on Kumar’s appointment as CCO. Gradually, Kumar seemed the best fit for the role, and the formal announcement therefore was just a matter of time.
“Initially, I felt good because Tarun had already identified me as his creative partner. Tarun is much senior to me and he felt that I could be his equal partner and we could take India’s largest agency forward. His confidence in me made me feel good. Now it’s time to do some work and prove that right,” says Kumar about his new role.
You are as good as your last idea: Kumar
A believer in leading by example, Kumar advocates that creative reputations belong to another era, and that creative leaders in this new era have to make their reputations every day. “Leadership is only possible if you lead by example. You can’t sit down and put your feet up and ask everyone else to work. Over the years, I have learnt that you are as good as your last idea. You will lose respect if you are a back-seat driver. I just want to challenge my team and say, ‘If I can do this, you have to do it better’,” he adds.
One of the reasons that worked in Kumar’s favour is his big ambition, according to Rai. “It is important for creative people to have a huge ambition. If they don’t have the ambition of winning a Grand Prix at Cannes, they won’t even get a Bronze Lion,” he says.
So in an industry filled with creative egos, where agencies are known to be personality-led, how does it work within J Walter Thompson? “Our job is to the give the best opportunity to creative people. And we believe that they become famous only because they are doing fabulous work for the agency, and therefore the clients that they are working with are all famous. It is completely okay for people to come and realize their ambition at JWT. You become famous because you are doing great work,” states Rai.
‘Senthil might be starting a trend’
Rai does admit that he looked for possible candidates outside the agency and internationally as well. In fact, he feels that the first six to eight months after his return to JWT post a gap of seven years gave him the added advantage of being objective. “After doing all the evaluation, I still thought he (Senthil) was our best bet. Therefore, the time that I took to get Senthil on board was just to make sure that when I go in with my gut feeling, I have also evaluated the parameters the job requires. Is he the best? Or is it because I like him? I think it is time for the new generation of CCOs to take over. The new age CCO is here and I think a person like Senthil might be starting a trend,” adds Rai.
Rai reveals that the important aspect when he was scouting for a creative partner was to have a person from the creative field who works in this new world of communication rather than the old one; works across platforms, thinks digital first, has got the youth and energy to deliver on various platforms rather than just think of what used to be thought a decade ago. “The key reason why I chose Senthil is because I think with him, maybe we are going to start a new trend of the next generation of creative heads in the country. Here is the time when the baton is going to be passed to the new leaders,” he concludes.
ON WHETHER Tista Sen now reports into Senthil
Tarun: Literally, if you ask me, he is the CCO and Tista is the NCD. If you ask technically, yes he is the one who is accountable.
Senthil: Both of us are captain and vice-captain. I don’t take it as ‘reporting to me’... it is a team that we put together.
ON key areas that both are going to focus on
Tarun: We need to improve and do fantastic work across the brands and across platforms. We want to lift the entire work to a new standard and out of that, there would also be world class work. We need to get young people from within and outside the industry. We need to have a big ambition. One of the reasons why I wanted Senthil on board is that he has got great ambitions. His ambitions are not limited to winning awards at Indian award shows, his ambition is to do work which is world-leading.
Senthil: There is no doubt that we want to be digital first. As an agency, you want that to be an advantage. I have increasingly seen that clients are now looking for creative stewardship. I have always maintained that there is one brand message and there is one consumer and between that, there are many platforms and those many platforms are being serviced by many agencies. The chances of being that message being fuzzy is very rare. Therefore, if an agency like JWT can provide the creative stewardship, a client would welcome that.
ON WAYS TO create THE ‘digital first platform’
Senthil: Firstly, I will change the way the 300 people across the six offices in India think. Therefore, shift them from thinking film first. Secondly, look at collaboration, which is a key factor. Why don’t we build our own capabilities? We will invite people who are not in the industry, from other disciplines like digital. So, we will get the right people, create a melting pot of talent. When our people get to interact with people from outside, they will love it a lot more because you have guys better at what they do. When we put these teams together, it will be an opportunity for everyone.
The Lion Hunter
Senthil Kumar’s journey from youngest ECD to youngest CCO
Senthil Kumar began his journey with J. Walter Thompson (JWT) Bangalore in May 2000 and has today worked across all the offices of the agency including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
During his 15-year stint with JWT, Kumar has had an interesting and rewarding journey from becoming the youngest Executive Creative Director at 33 to being appointed the youngest Chief Creative Officer at 42 last week.
Prior to JWT, Kumar worked with Trikaya Grey Advertising in Bangalore and Colombo, and Akshar Advertising in Bangalore, but it was JWT that changed the course of his life.
A much-celebrated creative leader, Kumar’s work has won him more than 300 international and innumerable national awards, including 10 One Show Pencils, 7 D&AD Pencils, Film Grand Prix and Lotus Roots Grand Prix at Asia Pacific Adfest and several Golds at Spikes Asia, Clio and Goafest. He also holds a record of 16 Cannes Lions, earning him the title of ‘The Lion Hunter’.
Kumar has won India’s first Cyber Lions and Branded Content Lions at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and worked on an expanse of brands like PepsiCo, Nike, Levi’s, Google, Ford, The Times of India, Nestle, Unilever, ITC, Diageo, ING bank, Kingfisher Beer, MRF Tyres, De Beers, Unicef & Rotary.
In his new role, Kumar will be working closely with Matt Eastwood, Worldwide CCO at JWT, and will also be on the J. Walter Thompson Global Creative Council.
Feedback: priyanka.mehra@exchange4media.com
