Simon Sherwood, Group CEO, BBH Worldwide

There are too many scam ads! John Hegarty, who had visited India recently for the GoaFest and was also at the AdFest in Thailand, was appalled at the extensive scam work that was entered and what’s more, those entries were being awarded. So, I think that’s a real problem in Asia generally. Because when creative people don’t care about doing real work well, then the real work is never going to be done well enough. If you want to do scam, it is fine, but when you enter in a creative show, the show should have a separate category for it, called ‘Scam’. So, let’s not pretend.

Simon Sherwood began his advertising career in 1979 as a graduate trainee at DDB. At the beginning of 1982, he joined TBWA, but left soon after to join the new start-up, BBH, as the agency’s first Account Manager. He was appointed to the agency’s Board in January 1986, and took over the responsibility of running New Business as Business Development Director in early 1988.

Sherwood was appointed Joint Managing Director at the beginning of 1989, and became Managing Director in 1991. After several years of running the London agency and with a Campaign Agency of the Year award under his belt, Sherwood relocated to Singapore to start BBH’s first overseas office in 1996. In September 1998, he moved back to the UK as Chief Operating Officer responsible for BBH around the globe. In January, he became the Group Chief Executive Officer.

In conversation with exchange4media’s Tasneem Limbdiwala, Sherwood speaks about BBH’s plans and journey in India, ways to counter the global slowdown, and some very candid observations on scam ads.

Q. On a personal note, in 1982, you joined TBWA, but left soon after to join BBH in its start-up days. How would you describe the journey with BBH since then?

Feels like my whole lifetime, and it has been a fantastic journey, thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating. I have loved every minute. I can’t believe that our company is 27 years old. I joined BBH as a boy and I like to think of myself still as a boy. But every time I get up and look at myself in the mirror, I see an old man and realise I am not young. But the journey has been great for me as well as BBH.

Q. What is your take on where the economic environment is leading us? To elaborate my question, the industry – clients and agencies – are undertaking some steps to brave the recession and in light of the cash crunch. When we get out of this and things are back to normal, how would have some of these steps that the industry is taking today shape the business say in 2010 or 2011?

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I don’t think it is right to think that we are going to be back to how things were. We are going to a new place. The stock markets will recover, consumer competitiveness will return and economies will recover. But I don’t think that means its going to be 2007 again. It is a very interesting approach to recession, which is; ‘let’s not waste the opportunity at the recession’, and recession does give an opportunity to look at the business and change the business going forward. And what we are trying to do is to use the next year or two to drive greater efficiency in our business proposition. Yes, there is a lot of inefficiency in the advertising business and we need to eliminate that. So, the question is not going back, but is of going to new and different types of models.

Q. In the last one month, BBH India has bagged two businesses – Marico and Rediff.com. Would you say that the agency has been on track in terms of what your targets may have been of growing the business here?

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However, we are a little bit behind where I thought we would be, but that’s not to say that we are not on target. When we start a business from start it’s very hard to precisely forecast where you will be five or 12 months on. I think we are roughly on target, perhaps a little bit behind, but nothing to be concerned about.

Q. Though India is not in a recession, we are in a slowdown and businesses are being impacted everywhere. Probably the advantage that BBH has is that you are growing from a zero base. So, does that mean that the slowdown has impacted you lesser than other players, or has it, in fact, slowed your targets just a bit?

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Our business can’t get backward. We can only increase by big multiples. I believe the growth has slowed from 8 per cent to 6.1 per cent, and that still sounds positive to me, as compared to Europe and America, where the growth had slipped into the negative. Obviously there is a global recession and we are in a global business; so what happens to our clients happens to us. Yes, so it is impacting us and thus we are feeling the pressure around the world, particularly in Europe and North America. However, markets like India, China, Brazil, and other parts South East Asia are doing well. So, we are in the right markets, which are showing growth. I am not worried that the economic downturn would have an adverse or negative effect. And I have mentioned it several times, that it is a good thing to start a business in difficult economic times. Companies tend to make mistakes in good times, but you learn not to make mistakes during tough times.

As for India, we have not revised our targets, and we have some very ambitious targets for the next 2-3 years. I have just done the business planning meeting. There is a lot of confidence, ambition and positive energy. We have set some tough, but deliverable targets for ourselves; so I think we need to challenge them.

Q. You have been very clear that businesses would not move to you in India just because you are handling them in other markets. That said, there are examples like the World Gold Council that BBH handles in other markets, and Priti Nair worked on it even before the agency had taken off. Are there other such examples where India can benefit from your global client relations?

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There are a number of brands that we have globally. Many of those brands are here in India. In almost all the cases, we would like to think that we work in these markets with those companies, but we take nothing for granted and very rarely the clients just give you the business. We are in conversations with a number of clients that are aligned globally, but I can’t talk specifics since they are all working with incumbent agencies at the moment. But we are doing some things along the lines that you have described that I hope will lead to us being appointed within the next few months on a number of different BBH aligned brands.

Q. Having seen Indian creatives, what do you think we lack and what is also unique to our creatives as compared to other countries?

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There are too many scam ads! John Hegarty, who had visited India recently for the GoaFest and was also at the AdFest in Thailand, was appalled at the extensive scam work that was entered and what’s more, those entries were being awarded. So, I think that’s a real problem in Asia generally. Because when creative people don’t care about doing real work well, then the real work is never going to be done well enough. However, there are good, smart, mature and crazy people in the market, who are very responsible and do good work for the clients. But there are also a lot of creative people who seem to be interested in doing scam work. I know it’s not an easy thing to say, but this is something that will take the industry backward.

If you want to do scam, it is fine, but when you enter in a creative show, the show should have a separate category for it, called ‘Scam’. So, let’s not pretend.

Q. Any memory of the last so many years with BBH that get you all nostalgic?

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I’ve got hundreds of them. But I’m not a very nostalgic person. I don’t go back and say it was great then. I think everything possesses its challenges and excitements. I’ve had a fantastic time working with BBH and there have been millions of moments which have been brilliant. So, moments like all the successes we’ve had are the ones like opening our offices, winning Agency of the Year awards or winning pitches. On such pitch that we recently won was for Sprite, where we bagged the business globally. So, the thrill of winning businesses or awards never diminishes.

Q. If you were to define BBH India and differentiate the agency from the rest already exist in India, what would it be?

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We came to the market, whereby we have the equality of the core disciplines. So, we have the integrated and equal approach to the role of creative, strategic planning and relationship management, and that has reflected in the way that we have set the company up. I think we are trying very hard to avoid the traditional way in which agencies work. People tell me that the agencies here are sort of being either a creative agency or strategically integrated, so we are trying to be and have all of these.

Q. Please take us through some of the steps that you have taken in other markets in these recessionary times. We had heard from Sir John Hegarty that there are clients who are renegotiating fees already. How are you approaching this situation? In the sense, now is the time when clients really need support, but how long can you go on if the remuneration is not right. How are you approaching that?

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This is one question that all our clients have attended to, and in most cases succeeded to negotiate our compensation down with this year. There are very few clients that are showing growth, and that’s understandable under these circumstances because as I say the trading conditions are very difficult. So, how we have responded to that? Well, in these times, we need to demonstrate to our clients the real partnership. I think you need to demonstrate that you are prepared to work harder in these difficult times, because we need our clients to be successful since we are clients-based business and what happens to our clients, happens to us. So, if they are successful, that works very positively for us, and if they are not successful, it has a negative effect. So, it’s in our interest that we partner with our clients.

Therefore, we are trying to do more for them in some ways and also trying very hard as a company to avoid in making anyone feel redundant. I definitely don’t want to get in the kind of fire and harsh side like how some other companies do. So, we are having to push through some cost saving measures that are at least for now, instead of making redundancies. I think employees feel good about a company that is very clear about its priorities, that is, people and the quality of work. In these times, creativity has become even more important. Good creativity does not cost any more than bad creativity. But with good creativity, you can make all the difference when it comes to brand success. Creativity is a business tool that we need to apply with a huge amount of enthusiasm.

Q. Any crazy client experience that you would like to share with our readers? Any anecdotes?

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All clients drive me crazy and are challenging. However, I have worked with some mad clients, I can’t name them. But here’s an example, there was this Hungarian guy with one of our founding clients, Audi, in London heading marketing there. He was mad as a box of frogs. He was pretty inspired with creative work and I remember being with him at a meeting describing him a piece of ad just verbally. He got so excited by the idea that he approved the idea without even seeing the actual creative work. So, that’s an extraordinary moment when somebody has so much faith and trust in the agency in such a way that it is overwhelming.

Q. It’s been five months now since BBH commenced its operations in India. How has the journey been so far?

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I am pretty pleased with our progress. I think we have a fantastic team in place. We have got a very good start in developing local business like Marico and Rediff.com and are making good progress. However, what we have not converted as quickly as I would have liked or expected are some our internationally aligned businesses. But that is in the pipeline and it is a question of strategic timing rather than non-appointments.

Q. Since the agency’s inception, you have already made a couple of trips to India already. Any specific reason for your current trip to India? Would we see any special announcements from BBH India with this visit?

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There is no specific reason like the one you have described. I am here to meet some clients like Marico and Unilever. One of the important things for us is that we need to make our people feel a part of BBH, and so we need to spend time with them. For instance, Sir John Hegarty was down here for GoaFest and I am here this week, so that kind of makes them feel that they are in touch and engaged with the company as a whole.

Q. Also, what are some of the steps that you are taking internally – as in we understand that you’ve had to resort to paycuts in some offices, but that was to avoid layoffs and you offered an extra day off in return of the paycuts… What are some of the other similar steps you are taking internally?

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We are doing all the things that a lot of companies are doing – pay freeze, cutting down expenses, etc. However, we have done some unusual things in London, and the most unusual thing is that we have asked the company to accept to take an additional day off in a month as unpaid holiday. So, that has had an effect of saving about 3.5-4 per cent on our payroll. So, that gives everyone another 10 days holiday in a year. Thus, what we are trying to do is that we take and give at the same time.