‘The silver lining - it can only be better from here on’

At a time when we most of us are struggling to keep our minds from getting locked up during the lockdown, there are some leaders who have a bigger task at hand of keeping their things together.

We have one such leader with us in our segment called ‘Beating All Odds’ – Agnello Dias, Creative Chairman, DAN, and Co-founder & CCO of Taproot Dentsu.

Almost a month has passed since we have been confined to our homes, do you think lockdown has become the new normal?
I think it’s slowly becoming a bit of a habit because the mind is a muscle. And when you start doing a new form of exercise, like for any muscle in your body, in the beginning it complains and is very difficult, but then it starts getting used to that. And I’m quite sure that when everybody eventually starts going to work, there will be a few days when it will take time getting used to that as well. But, I think critically for large networks in India, including ours, the first job is to keep the mental spirits optimistic and motivated. Because if we don’t cross that hurdle and keep our mental spirits up then it’s going to be tough. The physical part about getting used to different formats of working, or getting used to different business models in the industry will come later.

Ashish Bhasin said ‘Adversity fuels creativity’. Do you agree?
I think it's true because whenever we've got a creative brief where there is no odds against it, no deadline, no budget constraint, then we usually end up producing not so good work, and in fact we end up not having any work to show. I feel a man is known by the size of his enemy. So, the larger the odds stacked against you, the larger the opportunity to come out victorious. And today we look at all the generation that came through World War II with the same kind of respect that I guess future generations will look at this generation that came through COVID-19 and moved on.

Which are your favourite Dentsu campaigns made in this lockdown period?
Some of the best campaigns that I've seen have not been released yet. And I can't tell you about them because I will spoil the power of the campaign in minutes. I think initially everybody lost a bit of time because of the indefiniteness as to how long the lockdown would last. If you knew from the first day that it would last for 45 days, then people would have probably started working on the fourth day. But it took maybe more than a week or 10 days to realize that it's going to be this long. And till that time it was just a case of figuring out what your lockdown deadline is.

When the lockdown started, what were your earliest fears? What did you think the agency couldn’t perhaps cope up with at that point?
It was the same for the agency and the industry. I knew it would be the trigger, or what normally people would say - the last straw that broke the camel's back. However, on the other end, I was happy that it happened in what was turning out to be a recessionary year anyway. So even before Covid we all knew that the world economy was kind of teetering on a recession. India had already entered a recession. And the advertising industry was kind of, you know getting ready for that. So it would have been relatively better if this had not happened this year. But I think it would have been much worse had we gone through an entire recessionary year and just when we were coming out of the experience, Covid happened. Whereas, now it's a bit like getting, you know jaundice and typhoid together, rather than recovering from jaundice and then getting typhoid. So, it's a silver lining. It's not definitely something one would look forward to but the positive is that you know everything could go wrong, and the worst that could possibly happen, happens together. So, it can only be better from here on.

Tell me what kind of problems are you troubleshooting right now, a month after the lockdown was announced.
I think it's a big task to realign sites, targets, models and projections, and in partnership with our clients. Everything is changing even for them and for us and basis what is changing for them, it’s then changing for us. So just setting new goals and new guardrails itself is a complicated task in this structure because changes are happening every day. If the lockdown is extended for example, your GDP is reset and everything's reset again. So, that itself is a complex task. Just dealing with that has taken some time but once it goes away and all the bad news is in place, it may be easier to fight back. Right now we are not even final or sure about whether all the bad news is in.

The uncertainty is the real villain here. So, what kind of COVID-19 or lockdown specific solutions are you providing your clients?
It is a delicate task. One wouldn’t want to look opportunistic by trying and using what is happening right now for the sake of pushing your brand. But yes, some brands have been pillars of the society during Covid - in technology and communication - they rightfully need to say that and say what they’re doing because they are holding us together. I don’t know what would have happened if or what can happen if, say the internet goes into a lockdown in the future. But, we are working daily with clients to even realign campaigns that were underproduction or were under research. Research is being done virtually and remotely; production background work, which does not need you to go out, costing and lining up is also being done so that whenever it’s possible to start working again, we don’t waste time.

In this period how has your relationship with clients changed? Have they become less demanding?
No. I think clients are understandable and agencies are even more understandable about what faces them because I don’t think they’ve become more demanding. One thing which I do find unusual is for clients to locate agency pitches during this period because if you don’t have an agency, well then it’s right to have a pitch because you need to get an agency on board and start immediately after this. But, if you have an agency on board, I’m surprised that some clients are still looking to change the agency during this period, because it’s an odd time to be initiating orienting a new agency into your brand. It is not happening much but it is happening nevertheless, and it’s quite unusual to note.

Are these big brands or smaller ones?
Medium brands. I think it’s more largely for brands that either didn’t have a permanent agency or didn’t have an agency to start with, smaller brands. But, none of the big ones are saying, ‘We will change our agency at this time’ because there are bigger things to change and bigger fish to fry than worrying about initiating a new agency and brand in this period.

We have seen agencies really rise up to the challenge and deliver ads in record time. Will that backfire post the lockdown with clients giving you even crazier deadlines?
No, I don’t think it will backfire because you pull in a lot of favors and pull out all stops and do unusual things, risky things. The price of failure is relatively low, this is not the best in the world, not even 70% of what it should be. It’s kind of accepted now because you are working under such great odds, but when you’re working in an open market, free market scenario, you want everything to be as good as it can be. So, you can’t have a situation where you say - you know well considering what we were going through, this is a good ad. Today you can say considering what was happening, at least we got an ad out. But, in a free market scenario you can’t say, you know at least it’s an ad. It has to be a good ad. So, it can’t be done every time. And clients know that because if we could, we would do it, and it could go wrong. So, it’s a bit like saying can you go out and start hitting every ball for six from the first over and win a match. You can, but if you try it every match, you may not succeed.

Clients are cutting down advertising spends. Are they really cutting down agency fees right now or is it still nascent?
There will be negotiations. I think as and when the lockdown slowly starts lifting and we will get used to talking to each other about fees. There will be renegotiation of the fees and it will be through the line, because the public is renegotiating their contracts with brands. So, brands are negotiating their contract with suppliers, and suppliers are renegotiating their contracts with employees. And therefore the employees then are buyers eventually who are not looking for any purchase but for the best bargain. So, it will be a cycle of renegotiation, and when it settles down, then you will see rise in demand, and you will see prices rise and you will see choices rise again.

So when normalcy starts returning, do you think agencies will become that much more important for clients?
I think it will be the same. I think in the past during recessions the economy got back to normalcy, faster than it was envisaged. Suddenly within 6 months you find everything is up, everything is selling. There are no stocks on the shelf. So, for some reason it just almost happens overnight. And in this case also there will be a jostling for position because the fields have slightly loosened up as to who gains in market share. But, everybody will try to get themselves into a good position to make the best of the resurgence whenever it happens, 18 months from now, 12 months from now. A few things of course will change permanently. I think we will become more conscientious purchasers. Though it may not go back to what it was but it may go to a different place. And there may be a huge thrust on health, not in the Covid sense but even what’s happening to the earth and to the planet and all that. So, no longer will it be dismissed of something that our kids will have to worry about in their life time. Somebody says a glacier is melting away. It’s not something that’s happening far away and… watch on National Geographic, because it’s melting away yesterday, it may impact you in the market probably tomorrow.

One trend that has emerged is more and more brands are moving towards digital. As a company which has had more than 50% of your revenue coming from digital, do you consider this a sliver of good news?
Yes, it is good for people who have been there and waiting for digital to become properly mainstream, so they are ready. But, I often think what is a wider choice of medium is camouflaged as a change in the way you do creative. I think once that dust settles down and digital finally has its place in the sun, the manner in which you do creative thinking may not be too different from what it was. But, right now to most of us creative people it is clearly a powerful new visible medium that’s coming your way but what you put out on digital may need a bit of tweaking in terms of how we think. But, it’s not as different from what we do as - say when film came in it was a completely different medium. But, this is not that different because eventually you are using parts of older media creative, you are just collating it or curating it in a different manner. You are still doing photography, you are still doing cinematography, so all of these are crafts, you’re just putting it in a new combination for digital.

One of your agencies (Dentsu Webchutney) has got 7 shortlists at ‘The One Show’. 2019 was a fantastic year for you at Cannes. Do you think instead of cancelling the festival, they should have held it digitally?
First of all, I think it wasn’t felt so strongly because it was expected. More than the ability to logistically pull it off, I think a lot of people felt that the fact that the award shows are positioned for so many years as a celebration of creativity. There may be a lot of people who didn’t feel that it is appropriate at this time to celebrate a certain aspect of your discipline when there are greater perils to humanity. I think they took a call to not have in spirit rather than to not have it physically or, I mean there are ways of pulling it off. So, if Cannes can’t pull off a virtual award show then who can.

And on the other side - pay cuts have become a reality now. How are you dealing with that at Dentsu?
There is a conversation about pay cuts above a certain level. I think it’s fair. I think everybody was prepared for it. And most of us I think kind of accepted it even before it was announced and that runs through the agency. It’s a fair call to take because everybody is putting their shoulder to the wheel in some manner or the other. Some people are working more for the same amount of pay. Some people are working the same for a lesser amount of pay. So, I don’t think it’s something that will worry people right now. I think the bigger worry is when it persists or continues in 2022 because then it’s symptom of far deeper problems in the corporate world. But, right now I think everybody knew that it should happen.

Today advertising has become more of a service. We are not seeing any product-led ads. They say when fishermen can’t go to sea, they repair their nets. Is that what brands are doing right now?
I think different people do it in different ways. For creative, fertilizing their mind was always easier than for most other businesses because you’re trying to absorb from the creative craft, from music, from cinema, in terms of educating yourself, you know upgrading your skills always took time. And this is one thing that has been made available to people due to the lockdown. So, a lot of us, for creative it’s may be, you know you just kind of get distracted and start watching Netflix and all that. But, it is an opportunity to log into a webinar or to go and see, they were always forums of education online. So, I think Master Class is now offering one membership free with a single membership. So, a lot of us are doing that. It’s something we used to always do, at least I used to do much more in the early part of my career, but as time went on and businesses really went through the roof, you took on more and more work and there was never time to do that. So, I think a lot of advertising people are finally watching television.

This is a good time to kind of reset and take stock of actually where you stand in your life where your life stands in context of the world, of your world at least and where your world stands in context of the wider world outside, because otherwise it’s easy for us to think that advertising is the world, actually. It’s not. As you become older you realize that a lot of people have become very old in the last 15 days.

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