The Hindu Business Line : `Upbeat about India'

TBWA, part of the $10.5-billion Omnicom group, is celebrating 10 years in the Asia-Pacific region. TBWA Worlwide's key people, Jean Marie Dru, President and CEO, TBWA Worldwide, and Keith Smith, President, TBWA International, were recently in India to celebrate completing a decade in the region. There has been widespread speculation that the Omnicom Group is interested in widening its presence in the country and would be using TBWA India to create an impact in the market.

K. George John, Chairman and Managing Director, TBWA India, spoke to BrandLine about some of TBWA's achievements in the country. John joined Lintas as a media planner in 1969, helping to introduce modern planning models to the agency. Moving to account management later, he handled some of Hindustan Lever's brand launches including Liril, Close-Up and Fair & Lovely. After 10 years at Lintas, he moved to Ulka (now FCB-Ulka) as Executive Director, where he turned FCB from a loss-making office into Delhi's second-largest agency. In 1988, John founded Anthem in Delhi. A decade later, Omnicom acquired 51 per cent of Anthem and the agency was re-christened TBWA\Anthem, which later became TBWA India.

With former chairman of HLL, Keki Dadiseth, being appointed as the Chairman of Omnicom India, the spotlight is back on TBWA and the rest of the Omnicom agencies. At 60, John is not thinking of hanging up his boots more so at a time when Omnicom has trained its guns on India where WPP, Interpublic Group and Publicis group agencies continue to dominate.

TBWA celebrating 10 years in the Asia Pacific region. How has the journey been for TBWA in India?

It is as good a feeling today as it was 10 years ago when we became the third agency to be co-opted into the TBWA family in Asia. We were made to feel wanted then; we are like a warm family today. I do not know of another network that makes you feel so part of an extended family, or what TBWA calls, a global creative community. The focus, it seems, is always on the agency and its people. Every 10th anniversary party in the region recently - Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai - was attended by family members first; our people and our clients. It is people first all the way.

It's not TBWA that does good work, it is good people that do good work; and TBWA celebrates the individual above all else, like no other agency network in the world. There is this special space that we have for achievers and talent - Young Blood; just so they do not get lost among the heavyweights.

TBWA's people-centric approach to the business seems in line with our own way of looking at this business - down to my starting this agency 18 years ago with 36 people and NO business.

Jean Marie Dru and Keith were recently here on the eve of your tenth-year celebrations. Considering the parent company has a majority stake in the agency, what has been its contribution to the Indian operations over the years?

Majority or minority is a company law technicality. You are a TBWA agency once your name announces it. This network started life as a loose confederation of like-minded agencies; some more creative than the others, some more profitable, some less so. What is more important for them to know is which direction you are headed in.

Do you believe that good work can change the fortunes of a brand in a fairly dramatic way?

TBWA has got our best people together in one forum or another. Our creative people are part of some community or the other — down to the junior copywriter. Our business managers are part of some leadership team or the other. It is such teams that are stressed on by Jean-Marie and Keith. At one level, their fondness for India seems a little different from other leaders - everywhere else it is about the economic opportunity that China or India holds. Here it is about what the rest of the network should learn from India. Or China. Or Thailand.

Yes, the network businesses fall in place, consolidation happens; but the biggest thing this network has done to us is how important it has made me and all of us here feel. Nobody talks to you as if New York or London or Paris knows best.

TBWA has been known for applying its Disruption Theory in advertising. To what extent has that been implemented in India and what has been its success rate?

We are winning pitches doing disruption days rather than normal pitch presentations, and by the end of the Disruption Day, the client is already feeling a part of the thinking; no longer a detached audience taking in two hours of power point slides. It is not a process, it is more than a few patented tools, it is a way of being — a way of involving increasing number of people into your thinking; it is not about lecturing a hapless audience or beating them into submission. It is a two-way thing — we learn from them, they learn from us, we learn together. The client's problem becomes our problem; our problem becomes their problem.

Worldwide TBWA is known as a leading cutting-edge advertising agency. In the Indian market why has the agency not lived up to this expectation in the past eight years of its existence in the country?

I sometimes wonder whose `expectation' this is really. To the best of my knowledge there are three major stakeholders in our business - parent company, client and people.

My bosses at TBWA never have articulated expectation gaps. Never once in eight years. On the other hand, the difference we make to the network in general and Asia Pacific in particular has been well acknowledged by them.

Talking about clients, we are a TBWA country operation that has consolidated all the TBWA global network businesses here. We have been dealing with these clients, who are familiar with the TBWA standards, for four to six years now. We have a portfolio of some of the finest clients consisting of network, multinational and local clients. Our relationships with them have only grown stronger in the last four years. We haven't lost a single key client in the last four years. Obviously, we have lived up to the expectations of our clients.

On people, I can say with full conviction that we have one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry. Obviously, we have lived up to the expectations of our people.

With Keki Dadiseth taking over the reins as the non-executive chairman of Omnicom India, how will it change the stakes for Omnicom in the country? What kind of a difference will it make to TBWA's operations in India considering it comes under the Omnicom group?

I know there are non-executive chairmen of holding companies in the country. WPP, I believe, has had one for some time. I am not qualified to give an opinion on such senior people. Also Omnicom should not be used as loosely as if it is an agency. It is a holding company of marketing services businesses and unlike some other holding companies, it holds the independence of its agencies very dearly.

What is the status of Omnicom's media agency (OMD) coming to India and consolidating the media-buying business amongst its three agencies - RK Swamy BBDO, Mudra and yourselves?

As of now, OMD deals largely through us, being the sole majority-owned agency. Beyond that I would not know about their plans. I do not think it is that much a question of `consolidating' as it is of unlocking future opportunities in the Indian media space.

In India, the Omnicom group does not have the kind of presence that WPP and the Interpublic Group have. Do you think Omnicom intends beefing up its presence in India considering the number of multinational clients has gone up over the years apart from Indian companies making acquisitions abroad?

I am only the TBWA representative in India. I get to know about Omnicom reading the same papers as you do. Sometimes I think even Omnicom gets to know about its `plans' reading such papers!

What is the status of TBWA's second agency - Radeus?. What are you doing to beef up its operations?

Nothing immediately. There is a lot happening at TBWA India that I should concentrate on. We will think about Radeus when it is time.

What are TBWA's strengths on the Indian market and how do you intend taking the agency forward?

TBWA's strength is the people that put in their many years in the agency. We have been through their thick and thin; they have been through the agency's. We are about relationships; these are the relationships that will take the agency forward. The other aspect is the quality of our client portfolio, which consists of Indian as well as global category leaders like Standard Chartered Bank, Bajaj Allianz, Moser Baer, Zandu Balm, Pedigree, Samsonite, Nivea, adidas, Finolex, Pril, and Malayala Manorama.

How has TBWA India fared this year with the ad industry being on an upswing?

It has been the best year ever for us in terms of growth, new business, and profitability. We had a 330 per cent leap in revenues in the last three years. In the last 12 months, we have gained 19 new businesses that alone will deliver a 50 per cent growth in 2007. TBWA\Worldwide is very upbeat about India and the performance of its Indian operations now, as is evident from the statements made by Jean-Marie and Keith last week. Further, India has not only emerged as a centre of excellence for Disruption practice, our people today have started playing a more active role in Asia-Pac. We are an integral part of both regional and global pitches.

More Stories on : Interview | Advertising

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
`Upbeat about India'

Premature adults

Effie show

Learning to sell

The spirit of Body Shop

Going to the grassroots

Give your prospects every reason to trust you

Zit zap