We have undersold our industry so badly that today we are on our knees: Kawal Shoor

New Delhi: The CCI (Competition Commission of India) raids on ad agencies are a tumultuous event that has unsettled the entire advertising industry in the country. Allegations of unfair practices leading to the suffocation of healthy competition among advertisers, publishers, and agencies are the hot talk of the town at the moment. 

Several industry leaders and experts have been vocal about what went wrong and what is still amendable. 

In a conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, Kawal Shoor, the founding partner at The Womb, shared his two cents on the entire matter. Shoor focused on the aspect where competition dynamics are hindered by underselling or deals laden with huge discounts, one of the angles through which CCI is looking at the case in question. 

“We have undersold our industry so badly that today we are on our knees. It is how we have been in front of clients of late,” Shoor quipped. 

The entire CCI fiasco is based on cutting prices or meddling with its true nature for undue profits, as alleged. Shoor pointed out that this issue would not have occurred if agencies had realised the value of their work and conveyed that value properly to the client. 

“This industry has surrendered to clients because we don’t value ourselves. And the reason we don’t value ourselves is that we fail to invest time in understanding our clients’ businesses and their problems,” he said. 

He added, saying, “I have never seen a client who doesn’t appreciate value when they believe you can genuinely help solve their issues. That’s the nature of any negotiation. 

At least in our experience, we haven’t encountered clients who drastically undervalued us. The clients we work with choose us based on our ability to understand their problems—not just the surface-level issues but the underlying causes.”

The Womb is a creative agency that has worked on campaigns for Fogg, Mahindra Thar, Saregama Carvaan, among other popular brands. Shoor highlighted that advertising agencies – no matter what kind – exist to provide service to clients and solve their problems.

Putting things in perspective with an example, Shoor explained, “If a product isn’t selling, the problem isn’t just that it’s sitting on the shelf. The real issue is understanding what’s going on in the customer’s mind that’s preventing them from picking it up. If clients see that you truly grasp their customer’s behaviour—why they aren’t buying and what will make them buy—they won’t haggle over money.” 

Shoor further said that as an industry, these skills need to be properly brought and displayed on the table. “I don’t blame clients. If we make ourselves available at any price they dictate, why wouldn’t they push us further? The real question is: do we know how to hold our ground? This isn’t about arrogance; it’s about valuing what we bring to the table,” he told BestMediaInfo.com. 

Shoor also steered the conversation towards the innate structure that the players of the industry are functioning in. “The tragedy isn’t a lack of talent. Many brilliant minds in this industry feel pressured—whether due to agency structures or the relentless pursuit of top-line and bottom-line growth for parent companies. 

This pressure often forces people to say "yes" when they should say "no". It’s not a question of capability but of the compromises we’ve allowed to erode our industry.” 

This industry was never meant to be compromised. It was built on free will and creativity, Shoor stated. 

Displaying a classic scenario of “walk the talk”, Shoor’s agency, The Womb, has never pitched to a client ever since its inception. Having worked on products like Britannia Pure Magic, Britannia Bourbon, Mahindra Thar, Fogg, Scorpio, Symphony Geysers, and Nilkamal, among others, The Womb has onboarded the clients without a pitch. 

According to Shoor, when clients work with agencies without pitches, the agency is no longer seen as a vendor. Tying his thoughts in a nice statement, Shoor said, “You buy vendors; you partner with partners.” The absence of a pitch ensures that the agency have free will at their work and the dynamics are those of equals rather than a client and a vendor, Shoor argued. 

‘If an agency is ‘vendorised’, clients often demand multiple options—‘Not’ this; bring three or four more.’ But that’s not how we operate. Just as clients are experts in making shoes, juices, or refrigerators, we are experts in building brands and creating ads. We don’t tell them how to make shoes, so they should trust us to do what we do best,” Shoor stated. 

Shoor suggested that agencies need to know their worth and should partner with clients rather than struggle to align themselves with the brands. “Equal partnerships foster influence and influence is key when managing a client’s marketing budget,” Shoor commented.