The Hindu Business Line : O&M Worldwide to use India as `studio for world'

THE worldwide network of advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) will look to its Indian outfit to outsource studio and production work and not so much creative work.

Terming studio and production work as a huge business, Ms Shelly Lazarus, Chairman & CEO of O&M Worldwide, told Business Line in an exclusive interview recently in Kochi that the agency has made a small beginning on it.

"What we are, indeed, doing is that since everything is electronic now we are seeing if we can use India as a studio for the world, outsourcing certain things which India can do more efficiently," she said.

The agency recently did some work for IBM where it adapted the software needed for reproduction of a commercial in Europe. "We just want to be absolutely sure that clients are comfortable and it's reliable and nobody feels loss of control," she explained.

Creative work, however, is more intimate and emotional and creative people are comfortable if they are in close proximity to their work. However, as she avers, once an agency starts to think globally, any place could be a resource for a creative idea.

"We have had various countries in the world where a creative idea originates. I can't think of a creative idea that starts as a global idea; it usually starts in some country and then you look at it and see if it can be adapted and has relevance everywhere, and then it starts to migrate," she said.

Describing Ogilvy India's creative work as outstanding, she said people are paying attention to it all over the world. "It inspires people all over the network," she added.

She described the recognition of the "brand by the boardroom" and the acceptance of O&M's backbone 360-degree branding as a significant trend in advertising.

"Earlier, advertising used to come into the marketing department, but now it's broader. We are presenting to the boards of directors as the first presentation because they want to see what's happening with the brand," she explained.

Mr John Goodman, CEO (India and South Asia) of O&M, said last year was really good for the agency when it registered a 20-per cent growth. He said he was "reasonably optimistic" of this year too, as he expects the agency to grow by 15 per cent.

Ogilvy India, he said, is the largest contributor to profits among 16 countries in Asia. "We are certainly number one in this market," he said.

Mr Goodman said the growth of the advertising industry and the growth of agencies are not linked anymore. "When you move to a fee structure, it doesn't matter how much you could be spending on media," he said.

If companies spend more on media, it's not necessary that the agencies will do better as the linkage did not exist today, he added.

Describing the cost of advertising in India as cheap, he said despite a country such as Indonesia being much smaller than India, its advertising expenditure matched India's.

"Indian advertising rates are pretty low because of the hugely competitive media sector, and rates are artificially low. It's inevitable that ad costs will go up as foreign investment comes and companies invest in building brands. India has a relatively small expenditure in that area compared to China where there is huge amount of foreign investment, some of which comes to marketing as well," he said.

(Interview with Ms Shelly Lazarus appears in Catalyst on Thursday, February 10)

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