Q. If you were to take stock of Euro RSCG today, how would you evaluate the agency?

I think in terms of our offering, we've got a few interesting things. We believe in the concept of being in the creative idea business. Our insight into consumers, which we call Prosumer study, is just beginning to unveil in the country. We have now started sharing with our clients the findings of our Prosumer studies and have started training more of our people on these lines. We are also putting emphasis on the strategic-planning kind of group. I think we are doing a lot in terms of training our people or showcasing this to our people, which is helping us win all the business right now. We want to continue this momentum right now. There is much more integration today with the global set-up and hopefully that will result in a few businesses. Currently, we are the best agency to work with in the country.

Q. Who is a Prosumer?

In every group there are one or two people who influence what the group does or thinks. It could be something as simple as where one should go for dinner or which movie to watch or which cellphone to buy. People who influence the group are the Prosumers. They are not opinion leaders, but opinion spreaders. Suddenly pink becomes the colour of the season, how does it happen? Somebody creates an idea, but that idea is spread by Prosumers. That's why they are so important. On an average a Prosumer will speak to nine people compared to a consumer who will speak to two people about the same thing. That is why word of mouth is critical. Today there is no such thing as saturation marketing, yes, years back a spot during the airing of 'Mahabharata' or 'Ramayana' would help create a brand, but today it is not enough.

You probably receive whole lot of jokes on your mobile phone or via email, there are some who read them and delete them, and there are those who read them and forward them, the later tend to be prosumers. At the same time, there is some screening happening as all stuff is not forwarded so they are picking stuff that interests them. What we have is an algorithm where there are a set of questions that we put in every research that we do. The prosumers tend to answer those questions in a certain way, so when the questions come back we know who the Prosumers are. What we have found is that typically what Prosumers say, the consumers follow in 6-18 months. If you are able to study what Prosumers think today, you will be able to predict what consumers will think 6-18 months from now. It helps to predict trends. Every client we have gone to has loved the idea of the Prosumer. It is not our product, but our differentiator and our investment.

Q. How does it help to be a part of the global network apart from winning businesses?

All things that we are talking about – be it Prosumer or others – are intellectual properties of the network. When I say global learning, we are actually setting up sectors of excellence, be it automobiles, travel, telecom or healthcare. So, we actually have verticals where we can have global learning. Apart from winning businesses, it also helps while attracting people. There are a lot of people who have got an opportunity to work across the network, especially in the Asia-Pac region be it Hong Kong, China, Malaysia or Singapore. So, it helps in attracting talent as people feel that they might get a global career as opposed to working in a creative hot shop, which will just restrict them to a career in India.

Q. Do you see it as a disadvantage if an agency in India is not part of the global network?

There is always going to be two kinds of agencies – the big network agencies and the small creative boutique. If you are going to be in a big network agency then you better have a global network. If not, then you might be a small creative hot shop, which depends on one or two people and disappears when they leave or when it morphs into a network, which is painful process.

Q. Basically what you are saying is that the way ahead is to morph into a network...

Yes, that's the global model and so far seems to have consistently worked. Now and then, people have spelt death of the network model. I don't believe this as being part of a global network has a lot of strength. With growing globalisation and a one globe-one brand concept, people will need network agency. Not to say that there will only be global campaigns because clients know that one campaign does not fit all, therefore, you need to have maybe not country-specific but region-specific campaigns. Maybe we can have groups of country that share a campaign. The clients also need an agency which will have a single process around the world and has control systems that ensures consistency in that product. This will help in delivering integrated communication around the market. Boutique agencies have a role perhaps, but the role is because of the brilliance of individuals.

Q. Does it put pressure on India to perform when it is part of the network agency, considering that the markets in Europe have reached a saturation point and Asia Pacific is seen as the potential market to deliver numbers?

Frankly, the Indian numbers don't add up to that much. As a percentage of global company's revenue, it is tiny today. But it may not remain tiny always. Everybody is investing in India because of the potential and not because of the actual size. Currently, for Indian agencies it is all about growing the top line – let's be there, have a very competent offering because the market is growing. It's not about profitability as much, of course, everybody expects you to be profitable. It's not that Euro RSCG India will perform so well that Euro RSCG worldwide's financial performance will get affected. Such a small percentage doesn't matter. Today the way US performs affects the company.

Today, Indian multinationals tend to be B2B models. They are not marketers in the global market. They are producers, traders, but not marketers in the real sense. When Indian companies become big marketers that is when Indian agencies and their revenues will start becoming relevant as a percentage basis to global company. Also, I think that the Indian media is very cheap. Communication as a percentage GDP is very low. But all these will grow and when that happens, India will be important. Right now, it's not. The reason why I am on the executive committee of Euro RSCG Worldwide is because India is important, it's a key country because of its size as well as potential.

Q. Personally, were you anticipating that you will be announced as the CEO of Euro RSCG India. How prepared are you for this?

Extremely prepared, because the change was a gradual process. I became President in January 2005 and internally it was announced in November 2005. Ishan Raina taking a backseat and me moving to the pilot seat was a thought out process, it didn't happen overnight. I hardly feel the change as earlier, too, people in the company used to report to me and I would then report to Ishan (Raina). Certainly, the worldwide guys now look at me for numbers, but nothing really has changed for me. Maybe people look at me differently now. Otherwise in day to day work it's still the same.

Q. What is the task at hand for you as CEO of Euro RSCG?

The agenda now is to be one of India's best agencies. We see ourselves as a planning- creative led agency. I am going to have a lot more planning in the system and am going to ensure that at least on all the key clients we have a triumvirate – the account director, creative director and planning director working together. I think that's the model for the future and creates value for the client. I think, what also needs to be done is that the account director needs to be the integrated account director – what we call the power of one account director. He or she gets the revenue on that client regardless of the discipline the clients spend money on – be it advertising, direct marketing, CRM or PR. So, we are building this power of one account director. That's the model going forward.

Q. Is it difficult to get good planners because we always hear that there is dearth of planners in the industry?

It is always difficult to get good talent. Getting planners is as difficult as getting account servicing people or good creative people, I don't think it's more difficult or less difficult. I have not always hired planners who have been planners, a lot of my planners have been account management people or media people. The qualities I look for are inquisitiveness and the ability to tell stories. Advertising is about telling stories, so you need to take complex things and explain them in simple language. The difference between researcher and planner is that the researcher sticks very close to the facts, whereas planners use the facts but take leaps of fancy, which is what a storyteller does. And if you can narrate the story well to the creative person, they can then create magic. Our business is not about producing the 30 second TVC or about so many column cm of doing print ad. I think the best planners are quiet people who are great conversationalists, but they are not necessarily superstars themselves.

Q. Difficult to think of when in today's world almost everybody wants to be a superstar…

I don't think that is the case. I for one don't see myself as a big extrovert superstar. In fact, I am fairly embarrassed when in the limelight. I am the sort of guy who would like to be at the back. I know many others who are like that and I believe that the day and age of flamboyant advertising is over.

Q. Coming back to Euro RSCG bagging a lot of new businesses in the recent past, what is the formula behind these spate of wins?

We did win a lot of business last year, but I think we didn't go around talking about them. We got empanelled by Bharat Petroleum, we got hired by Bank of Baroda, but we just didn't go about talking. Why? I think right after announcing my appointment as CEO, we bagged the Reckitt account, which was a story in itself. It has been one of our problems perhaps, if I can say so, because we have a start-up kind of mentality and then we wanted to stay in the background and let our work speak for us. I think it comes from not wanting to be a superstar. There is no magic formula, there is no sudden change, no 180 degree or even 90 degree change, it's just that businesses are fructifying now. Even now, we haven't gone about sending press releases saying we have won such and such business. Some have come through clients and the international win got picked up from Ad Age and we confirmed it. Suddenly we are in news and when I think of it, it might be bit of a stress to maintain this momentum of being a so-called 'happening' agency.

Q. You had earlier spoken of the notion of not handling conflicting businesses being bizarre, what is your stand on the subject now?

I think it's all rubbish. The same client doesn't see conflict in their other advisors, be it management consultants, lawyers or auditing company. With all their other partners there is no conflict. The clients want to partner with an agency who has domain knowledge but how can I have domain knowledge if I don't handle your competitor? Do you really believe that agencies go around leaking information? Look at the people movements from client organisation as well as agencies, so where is the secrecy? The junior people are moving anyways and there is no rule to say that competitive organisation would not hire them. It happens all the time, so much for confidentiality!

So, as we go forward and as the agencies need to have more domain knowledge, it will become extremely expensive for one client to keep its agency exclusive. You need to trust agencies. Every idea taken to its extreme is wrong, but that doesn't make the idea wrong. If the client is not exclusive to me how can they expect the agencies to be exclusive to them? These are early days and I know few clients who are amenable to this concept.

Q. What happened to the Sony Entertainment Television business, why was the business split?

The channel needed more bandwidth. The business has grown dramatically for SET from two channels to four channels. With that kind of explosion, they were looking for more views. In all honesty, they have loved what we have done, especially the work for ‘Deewana bana de', 'Indian Idol' and 'Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin'. At the same time, when you handle a business as intensive as a channel for over four and a half years, there is fatigue and certain amount of everyday friction. There were operational issues, but let me add that they believed that we added a lot of value and officially recognised that, which is why they have given us Max, which has been our favourite brand in the portfolio, and they have given us SAB, which, shall we say, is the huge Prosumer-led brand. I am happy that we retained at least half of the business, which is a tribute to what we have been doing. I am positive about the business. I think the whole team did a fantastic job and were upbeat to retain the business.