‘We believe the future lies in measuring attentive reach rather than simple reach’

The Omnicom-IPG merger has been one of the biggest developments in the media agency landscape. How has the integration worked out culturally and operationally?

The integration has gone remarkably well. It has been a partnership that was a long time coming, and fortunately, both organisations already shared very similar cultures. That made the assimilation process much smoother than many would have expected.

Having spent over 15 years with Omnicom, I have witnessed its evolution firsthand. Now, leading UM and Initiative, I've had the opportunity to learn from the strengths of the legacy IPG agencies—their people, products, and ways of working. The welcome I've received across markets, especially in India, has been incredibly encouraging. There's still a lot to learn, but the journey has been exciting, and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.

Has the way you service clients changed after the merger?

The biggest shift hasn't come because of the merger—it has come because the industry itself has evolved. We don’t see ourselves as a media agency; but as a strategic partner that helps clients simplify an increasingly complex marketing ecosystem. With rapid changes in platforms, technology and AI, our role is to help clients navigate that complexity. We are becoming an extension of their teams, and the key shift in servicing clients is to ensure we simplify the rapidly changing external environment for them.

It's been about six months since you took over the leadership role. How has the experience been?

It's been an exhilarating experience. There has been an enormous amount to learn from the teams across UM and Initiative, and today I feel like I have been with this team for a long time.

Both agencies have strong talent across markets, deep client relationships and have built impressive platform capabilities. We're now combining those strengths while shaping our ambitions for 2027. It's been a journey filled with learning, opportunity and growth.

How has the year been for the APAC region?

Initially, clients were naturally sceptical and had questions about how the merger would impact their business, the teams servicing the account and day-to-day operations.

However, post-integration, we've demonstrated that bringing together two global organisations has not impacted the actual working teams but has actually strengthened client partnerships. Clients now have access to stronger products (Omni and Acxiom), enhanced capabilities, improved service to clients and delivering outcomes. In terms of growth, we’ve seen significant growth with India being top of the charts on account wins. Lodestar UM won AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India) and Amazon Music while Initiative brought in Netflix India. This proves that the integration has only made us stronger.

When you're pitching today, what are clients asking for? Has technology become the biggest differentiator?

Clients are primarily asking agencies to simplify the complex environment. Brand building remains important, but the way brands are built has changed significantly. There is increased pressure on using data to deliver value and building long-term relationships with consumers. At the same time, are we delivering the highest lifetime value for consumers as well. With AI, data, emerging platforms, e-commerce, the focus is on how technology can drive value for the client while simplifying the highly fragmented ecosystem.

AI is the biggest topic across the industry. How do you see it reshaping media planning?

At Omnicom, we strongly believe in the responsible use of AI. Our philosophy is "human in the loop," ensuring that people remain involved at every critical stage of decision-making. Internally, AI is improving operational efficiency and processes by automating repetitive tasks such as data collection, sampling, etc. and deliver extended value to clients, reporting and analysis. It's helping media planners identify audiences faster, improve segmentation, conduct competitor analysis, build better strategies and speed up our delivery.

For example, one QSR client traditionally excluded health-conscious consumers from burger campaigns. AI identified a valuable audience segment—people who indulge on weekends during "cheat days." This insight changed planning and audience segmentation for weekdays and weekends, and we significantly improved campaign ROI.  AI helped at every stage of media planning and now we are even using it in reporting and to deliver data and numbers to clients faster. AI is strengthening and enhancing the work we do and cannot replace planners—it is making planners smarter, more effective and deliver optimization.

Could this AI-driven insight, weekday/weekend be applied across other categories?

Absolutely. AI is changing the way planners think and see things differently while planning.

For example, one healthcare client selling flu medication traditionally invested heavily during winter and rainy seasons. Instead of relying on seasonal assumptions, we flipped the strategy to being prepared through the year. An AI-driven engine was built that monitored Google search trends and when it increased. Whenever flu-related searches spiked beyond the normal baseline in a particular location, media investments were dynamically shifted to those areas. This transformed media planning from a static seasonal approach into a dynamic, real-time model driven by actual consumer behaviour.

With retail media, quick commerce, CTV, influencers and new formats like micro dramas emerging, how should marketers approach the changing media landscape?

Platforms are evolving at a rapid pace.
Rather than predicting the next platform, agencies need to build flexible and agile teams with capabilities that allow them to adapt as consumer behaviour changes across the consumer journey/ touch-points.

Every channel plays a different role in the consumer journey. CTV, retail media, out-of-home and influencers all contribute differently and have a specific role to play. As brand marketers, we need to change our perspective on how to connect with people.  From using one creative across platforms, we then educated clients on the building for the platform. This should be our perspective while thinking. Each media placement plays in the entire funnel of the consumer journey, and, therefore, how exactly do we need to build on it. Messaging, specifically, must be designed for that environment with emphasis on a unified consumer story across platforms; this is something that is missed out on a lot.

In some markets, we're connecting retail media to our entire out-of-home strategy because you can't just look at retail media as the conversion funnel. We divided out-of-homes into zones, where the place you purchase is zone zero. Zone one is the immediate environment around the conversion, Zone two is the area close to the conversion area, but still at a distance and the focus is on bringing the person into the funnel. Zone three is when the consumer is not considering buying your product, and the focus is on how to be relevant to the consumer, so the brand is top-of-mind with messaging across formats. Zone four may not be required by all clients and is the large billboard where you build your brand messaging.

Marketing metrics are also evolving—from reach and impressions to attention. How are you approaching this shift?

A controversial take is that reach has died and attention is now playing a significant role. Simply put, the future lies in measuring attentive reach rather than simple reach. However, media is not just to drive attention but to also build awareness. We're working with clients using a measurement framework built around three stages: Capture, Encode and Amplify.

• Capture: Did the communication successfully capture audience attention? What metrics are you looking to capture? You need to be present at the point where the consumers are coming into the funnel
• Encode: Did consumers recall or understand the message and what are the metrics? While driving consumers towards mid-funnel you need to educate customers about the product.
• Amplify: Did consumers share or recommend the content to others? Using influencers to take the message forward.

Once you look at the above attention metrics, the way you plan media changes. Defining the metrics is a complex formula, for each of those, using indices and baselines as well, which allows us to show the client not just reach, but attentive reach as well.

How do you view consumer sentiment across APAC, especially amid global economic uncertainty?

Despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, consumer confidence across APAC has remained positive and surprisingly resilient.

Covid fundamentally changed consumer behaviour and taught both consumers and brands how to adapt during difficult periods, be resilient and be agile. The Covid playbook also shows that once confidence returns, spending rebounds strongly—as seen through revenge travel and revenge spending. Brands have also learnt that completely stopping marketing investment during downturns is counterproductive. Maintaining a consistent presence makes recovery much faster when market conditions improve.

What are your expectations from agencies and clients over the next few years?

From an agency perspective, our responsibility is to continuously evolve. That means investing in AI, training our people and restructuring our organisations to thrive in a discovery-led world rather than a search-led one. We are investing in our people and as they evolve across platforms, they will bring more to the clients’ journey.

From clients, I would like to see greater courage and a better understanding of the investments required to adopt AI effectively. While AI creates efficiencies, it also requires significant investments in technology, talent and training. We need to be accountable to clients, but clients need to also understand that changes in the industry and AI do not come at an either/or cost. The assumption is that if AI reduces workload and speeds up processes, this should impact the cost. While AI is seen as a value, clients should realise that speed comes at the cost of heavy investment and this investment helps improve efficiencies.

I would also encourage marketers to be bolder creatively. Across APAC, we're seeing a tremendous resurgence of cultural pride. Markets like India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are creating culturally rooted campaigns that are increasingly influencing global marketing rather than simply adapting Western ideas.

Finally, how important is India within the APAC growth story?

India is one of the most important growth markets in APAC today. Along with Thailand and the Philippines, it is fundamentally reshaping the region's marketing landscape.

While Australia and China have historically dominated attention, India's scale, economic momentum and marketing innovation are making it one of the biggest opportunities for agencies and brands alike. The market is no longer just growing—it is helping shape the future of marketing across the region.