2008: New Year, new challenges for Indian advertisers
CNBC-TV has asked ad bigwigs on what to expect in the New Year.
Harit Nagpal, Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone, said there is a high degree of competition in the market. “At the end of every quarter, one is answerable for the money spent.”
Sanjay Behl, Head of Brand and Marketing, Reliance Communications, said there is a lack of demonstrable behaviour to overcome complacency on a daily operative level.
Balakrishnan, Chairman and CCO, Lowe India, said advertising is possibly the only area where there is global recognition.
Arvind Sharma, Chairman of Leo Burnett, said Indian brands are beginning to go into other markets and a lot of them are already in West Asia, Egypt and South East Asia.
Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Harit Nagpal, Sanjay Behl, Balakrishnan Chairman and Arvind Sharma:
Mahuya Charturvedi, GM, Lodester Universal: Fortunately for all of us in India today we are facing tremendous amount of growth in the markets so normal marketing activities are also getting us great growth and great benchmarks but in a way the setting benchmarks for tomorrow. My question to all the marketers and also to all advertising professional that therefore it is making us a little more placid are we doing enough to push the envelope.The economy is growing. What are you guys doing? Are you just riding the curve?
Sharma: Everybody is growing. But competition is increasing. Smart marketers recognize that if they go to sleep for a month, they will be left far behind. So, I don’t think this is the time when anybody is placid.
Nagpal: What is happening alongwith the growth is a high degree of competition. If I have to stay ahead of my competitor, I need to manage my cost and efficiency alongside. These mergers, acquisition and IPO public listings have for the four quarters in this country. At the end of every quarter, I am answerable of the money that I have spent.
Are you saying that there is no room for innovation?
Nagpal: There is room for innovation in areas of knowing your segments and the media.
Behl: I do not see a sense of complacency. But I do see a lack of demonstrable behaviour, to overcome that complacency, on a daily operative level. Whenever you ask for a communication plan, at the end of the day, you get a TV creative, which is a standard traditional media kind of a solution.
Are you saying that agencies are complacent?
Behl: I am saying the execution is not demonstrating adequately.
What about marketers and advertisers, who are collectively benefiting from the fantastic growth story that India is writing?
Behl: First of all, the growth is not coming easy. It is based on a lot of fundamentals and there is a realization that one needs to do a lot of things to get growth.
But there are industries, sectors, marketers and business people, who are working to deliver that. Secondly there is a fundamental shift in every single aspect of consumer behaviour that one would see. India is getting a lot more younger, people are getting restless and intend to spent a lot more today. Materialism is becoming a success criteria today.
One can take economic trends or infrastructural trends; television is reaching without cable in every home through DTH now, even in the smaller parts. The speed of change is what is worrying and not complacency.
Tejas Patel, Manger - Brand Communications at Mudra Communications: Being in advertising for around five years, one of the recent trends that I have noticed, is that more and more clients are preferring to go beyond an agency for their design and strategic needs. These are some of the services that the agency has successfully offered to the clients till date. Why is there a need for a client to go beyond an agency?
Balakrishnan: If an agency provides a strategic input or design inputs, then I don’t think clients will go. If a client knows that a agency is good at certain things, then he will stick with the people he knows.
But the bigger picture is that we, as agencies, have tried to fight this battle by acquiring expertise and knowledge in clients’ area. I do not think clients should be happy with agencies knowing a lot about their business. I think clients should be happy about agencies knowing about their business.
But are there areas where one is going and looking for help and specialist skills outside the agencies?
Nagpal: Only if the agency does not have the specializations embedded.
How often is that happening?
Nagpal: Very rarely.
Behl: Yes, it does happen. So, I cannot disagree with that. The first choice is obviously to say that we have an in-house resource, a partner agency that understands the brands who have been with us for long now. So, they will understand our needs more.
But if the specialization is not good enough and if it does not really come through, then there is no choice. A Chief Marketing Officer is not a Chief Marketing Officer today; he is a Chief Accountability Officer there. So, he needs to get the world’s best into every single thing one does. If the agency cannot provide that solution, then one needs to look outside for solutions and we do.
CNBC-TV has asked ad bigwigs on what to expect in the New Year.
Harit Nagpal, Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone, said there is a high degree of competition in the market. “At the end of every quarter, one is answerable for the money spent.”
Sanjay Behl, Head of Brand and Marketing, Reliance Communications, said there is a lack of demonstrable behaviour to overcome complacency on a daily operative level.
Balakrishnan, Chairman and CCO, Lowe India, said advertising is possibly the only area where there is global recognition.
Arvind Sharma, Chairman of Leo Burnett, said Indian brands are beginning to go into other markets and a lot of them are already in West Asia, Egypt and South East Asia.
Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Harit Nagpal, Sanjay Behl, Balakrishnan Chairman and Arvind Sharma:
Mahuya Charturvedi, GM, Lodester Universal: Fortunately for all of us in India today we are facing tremendous amount of growth in the markets so normal marketing activities are also getting us great growth and great benchmarks but in a way the setting benchmarks for tomorrow. My question to all the marketers and also to all advertising professional that therefore it is making us a little more placid are we doing enough to push the envelope.The economy is growing. What are you guys doing? Are you just riding the curve?
Sharma: Everybody is growing. But competition is increasing. Smart marketers recognize that if they go to sleep for a month, they will be left far behind. So, I don’t think this is the time when anybody is placid.
Nagpal: What is happening alongwith the growth is a high degree of competition. If I have to stay ahead of my competitor, I need to manage my cost and efficiency alongside. These mergers, acquisition and IPO public listings have for the four quarters in this country. At the end of every quarter, I am answerable of the money that I have spent.
Are you saying that there is no room for innovation?
Nagpal: There is room for innovation in areas of knowing your segments and the media.
Behl: I do not see a sense of complacency. But I do see a lack of demonstrable behaviour, to overcome that complacency, on a daily operative level. Whenever you ask for a communication plan, at the end of the day, you get a TV creative, which is a standard traditional media kind of a solution.
Are you saying that agencies are complacent?
Behl: I am saying the execution is not demonstrating adequately.
What about marketers and advertisers, who are collectively benefiting from the fantastic growth story that India is writing?
Behl: First of all, the growth is not coming easy. It is based on a lot of fundamentals and there is a realization that one needs to do a lot of things to get growth.
But there are industries, sectors, marketers and business people, who are working to deliver that. Secondly there is a fundamental shift in every single aspect of consumer behaviour that one would see. India is getting a lot more younger, people are getting restless and intend to spent a lot more today. Materialism is becoming a success criteria today.
One can take economic trends or infrastructural trends; television is reaching without cable in every home through DTH now, even in the smaller parts. The speed of change is what is worrying and not complacency.
Tejas Patel, Manger - Brand Communications at Mudra Communications: Being in advertising for around five years, one of the recent trends that I have noticed, is that more and more clients are preferring to go beyond an agency for their design and strategic needs. These are some of the services that the agency has successfully offered to the clients till date. Why is there a need for a client to go beyond an agency?
Balakrishnan: If an agency provides a strategic input or design inputs, then I don’t think clients will go. If a client knows that a agency is good at certain things, then he will stick with the people he knows.
But the bigger picture is that we, as agencies, have tried to fight this battle by acquiring expertise and knowledge in clients’ area. I do not think clients should be happy with agencies knowing a lot about their business. I think clients should be happy about agencies knowing about their business.
But are there areas where one is going and looking for help and specialist skills outside the agencies?
Nagpal: Only if the agency does not have the specializations embedded.
How often is that happening?
Nagpal: Very rarely.
Behl: Yes, it does happen. So, I cannot disagree with that. The first choice is obviously to say that we have an in-house resource, a partner agency that understands the brands who have been with us for long now. So, they will understand our needs more.
But if the specialization is not good enough and if it does not really come through, then there is no choice. A Chief Marketing Officer is not a Chief Marketing Officer today; he is a Chief Accountability Officer there. So, he needs to get the world’s best into every single thing one does. If the agency cannot provide that solution, then one needs to look outside for solutions and we do.