The Hindu Business Line : `Smarter creative, media people find ways'

Our people undertake a lot of training programmes so that they are enriched on a continuous basis. We have HR programmes to look into hygiene factors of people’s lives. At the same time, we are continuously finding ways of paying them better.

Ever since media and creative have become specialised divisions, one comes across many people who find more drawbacks than merits in the system now.

It is a drawback. Despite its inherent problems, the smarter creative and media people find a way to collaborate. But this needs to be solved formally.

Specialisation is definitely necessary, but you need bowlers and batsmen to work together as they have to play. Yet they need specific training to contribute to the team better. We tackle this issue in the agency with the concept called Brand Team Leader (BTL). The task of the BTL is to get people together from both the sides and ensure that his/her brand benefits from these skills.

O&M has been one of the pioneers of the 360-degree philosophy. What is going to be your future strategy?

The clients’ need is 360-degree and the agency is ready to provide 360-degree solutions. In fact, we are trying to bring the 360-degree way of living into the agency itself by getting people from various disciplines to do different kinds of work. We have Pratap Bose, who comes from Activation and is going to taking over as the CEO. Similarly, Renuka Jaypal, who heads OgilvyOne, comes from an advertising background. When you have cross-pollination of this kind, the 360-degree way of living and delivering to brands automatically sets in.

Any acquisitions on the cards?

360-degrees is an ongoing exercise, therefore, we would always look at adding more avenues to our brand communication to become more 360-degree.

We are not looking at any acquisitions immediately, except in markets such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Pakistan, we have an association with an agency called Interflow, and we are formalising shareholding there. In Bangladesh, we are tying up with a local agency. As far as India is concerned, we already have David and Meridian, which are part of the Ogilvy family, and instead of acquiring more agencies, we would like to grow the existing ones.

And finally, what is the need of the hour for the Indian advertising industry?

If we have to continue to be a solid industry, we have to attract good talent. We have to continuously find ways to ensure that talent keeps coming. After all, an advertising agency is nothing without its people.

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