For South Korea's No.1 advertising agency, Cheil, as it pushes aggressively for a larger global growth, being a Samsung creation is both an advantage and disadvantage. In its home base, it has leveraged its work for Samsung Electronics to get a lot of other business, but in other geographies – India included - it is still a challenge to come out of Samsung's shadow. “The maximum phone calls we get for potential new business are from companies we know there will be conflict of interest with,” says Alok Agarwal, COO, Cheil India, ruefully.

But the new managing director of Cheil India, Jae Hong Kim, a former professor of English Literature from Seoul City, who took charge of the country operations early this year, is pretty clear about “adding more spice to the existing recipe” and looking beyond Samsung.

The same thought is echoed by Michael Cheonsoo Kim, Global COO and senior vice-president of Cheil Worldwide who was in India on a whirlwind trip. BrandLine caught up with all three top Cheil executives at their sprawling Gurgaon office to find out what's brewing at the agency. Excerpts:

You have been talking of getting more non-Samsung business and focusing more on global growth. What's the mix currently?

Michael Kim: Sixty per cent of Cheil's entire billings come from overseas business, 40 per cent from the domestic Korean market. Cheil now has 28 offices globally.

In the domestic Korean market, the ratio of Samsung business versus non-Samsung business is 55:40. We represent over 30 different brands in South Korea ranging from Hankook Tire to Korean Air.

In the global market, however, only 20 per cent is non-Samsung business. Our goal is to eventually reduce our dependence on Samsung business to less than 50 per cent.

Actually, we are an independent agency, but somehow the perception globally is that we are closely associated with the success of Samsung. While the work we have done for Samsung has been ammunition for our growth, it's also been difficult to break the perception.

Are there any advertising solutions from the Korean market that you have applied successfully in India?

Michael Kim: Several solutions we did successfully for some of our Korean clients can be applied to Indian companies. Ours is a 360-degree approach to developing the brand. Take aspects like end-to-end retail solution and in-store communication – there's a gap in India in that space. Also, the digital experience. In new media, Cheil has cutting-edge solutions that appeal to the young generation.

The whole marketing communication paradigm has shifted now. Earlier it was a linear manner – the model was on building customer awareness about a brand, then creating preference.

Nowadays, in a connected environment, we see customers searching, gathering information, sharing experiences – getting into the consideration set is all about what we call grabbing Life Share, a model in which we have challenged the traditional paradigm of mindshare. (see box)

And, the customer has to be carried through all the stages of seeking – TV, mobile mode, retail space.

The retail space, people do that very badly in India. Brands do not put so much effort into in-store communication – we want to change that. So, we feel a project management capability is needed in advertising.

What about digital marketing? You have invested a lot recently?

We have invested in strengthening our digital marketing in the US, through our acquisition of The Barbarian Group.

Now, we see that the whole world of digital marketing is shifting to mobile. The heart of digital marketing will be the mobile market … so I believe we should invest more in India in the mobile space.

You will be completing a decade soon in India – what's your vision for 2013?

Jae Hong Kim: We are already among the top 15 agencies in India on revenue terms. But I would put more focus on reputation. We would like to be the number one agency on reputation.

If you think of the leading global agency this year, it's Wieden and Kennedy - not any WPP agency or Omnicom.

We also would like to be known as the cutting-edge, stylish agency for the young generation.

Michael Kim: And, of course, we would like to be within the top five in India. It's my personal belief that the size of the dream makes the size of your life. We should be ambitious all the time, but not crazily ambitious – only enough to reach the dream.

So where will growth come from? Any acquisitions?

Globally, we acquired 49 per cent stake in BMB (Beattie McGuiness Bungay), which has entered India in a joint venture with Madison in Mumbai. So, inorganic growth is there.

But organically we are growing through tapping social media, mobile, retail. Going forward, the talent in our digital team will grow exponentially. I would say, the engine of our growth will be mobile and digital, social as well as retail marketing.

A lot of top level changes have happened in Cheil India recently. Was there a conscious strategy?

Alok Agarwal: Yes, there has been some amount of refresh in our team. Some is due to expansion – we have hired to strengthen the retail division, specifically to fill the gap we see in in-store communication. We have done significant expansion in field staff, in below-the-line national network.

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