IAA Knowledge Conclave turns focus on the spirit driving smaller agencies

Several big names from advertising and industry gathered to speak on 'Emerging Agencies: Taking it to the next level'

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | October 28, 2013

Subhash Chandra at IAA knowledge conclave

The International Advertising Association (IAA) - India Chapter organised the 2013 Knowledge Conclave on Saturday, October 26, 2013 in Mumbai. The conclave debated on 'Emerging Agencies: Taking it to the next level'.

Chief Guest Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group and Zee Network, shared his insights about entrepreneurship and what it takes to be a big entrepreneur. He also spoke about how Zee will now venture into Veriea Living - and take the Indian philosophy and knowledge of Ayurveda, vaastu, etc., abroad.

"To be a successful entrepreneur means one will go and succeed in something he has no previous knowledge of. To do that, I feel, one has to follow some basic rules. One, you can never go back on your word. Two, try live in the present. Three, always remember that the customer is the key person in your success story. You will never be successful if you get comfortable and stop listening to the customer," said Chandra.

After the welcome speech by Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman, RK Swamy Hansa and President, IAA - India Chapter, the conclave started with a session by CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia. Srinivas spoke on how to flourish as a mid-size media agency.

Srinivas' talk covered the different changes which the industry has been going through. From the digital wave which is clear by the 35-40 per cent year-on-year growth in digital in the total ad spend in India, to the smaller and medium-sized media agencies with their advantage of grassroot innovation and specialisation which he termed as the “democratisation wave”.

The other two changes Srinivas spoke about were the India B wave and the disruptive technology wave. The former can be explained as the phenomenon whereby larger agencies find it difficult to tap into the smaller towns and cities, and smaller agencies will go ahead and widen the net as they are more likely to understand the mindset. According to Srinivas, technological advancement has meant a lot of changes in advertising as well, as explained by the growth of smaller and niche agencies. “They have moved from audience targeting to audience planning,” he said.

"There is a lot happening in our industry outside of our offices, whether it is digital wave, demographic wave, new technology, etc. So the rallying points for an agency are that you keep your sights focused on these. We need to relook at the rules of the games," said Srinivas.

The dias was then taken over by BS Nagesh, Vice-Chairman, Shopper's Stop, who spoke on 'Preparing to win in a hyper competitive environment'. He emphasised the value of trust-transparancy-accountability. Nagesh also spoke about how smaller areas have equal or more potential than malls and high-end spaces. He emphasised on learning through the years, so that one can be kept abreast of all trends.

A panel discussion followed on 'The path ahead for emerging agencies'. The panelists included Ali Merchant, Director, Triton Communications; Harindra Singh, Vice-Chairman and MD, Percept, and Vinod Nair, MD, Network Advertising. The session was moderated by Sandip Tarkas, President - Strategy, Future Group.

While Merchant spoke on how to compete with existing larger agencies and make an existing agency into a larger agency, Singh elucidated on the need to specialise and package the services properly for clients. According to Nair, the biggest mistake one such small agency could make would be to think small. “It is the willingness to learn and the conviction to succeed which is important,” he said.

The final session was a presentation on the future of interactive media by Pranay Chulet, Founder & CEO, Quikr.com. According to Chulet, the change in the consumer mindset can be seen clearly nowadays. “From being just at the receiving end, the consumer has become an activist. If harnessed well, this can be an incredibly powerful tool,” said Chulet.

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