THE NEW WAVEOf Ad StartupsThis year has already seen seven ad startups in seven months.

A golden age of change in advertising or more of the same?

Brave New world is bit of an oddity of a name, but that is not the only odd thing about it. At the entrance of the agency’s spiffy office is wallpaper that screams ‘History Is Bunk’. The idea being to signal a clear departure from the past.Founder Joono Simon had an exciting

career graph with stints at Ogilvy India, Leo Burnett Colombo, DDB Mudra, JWT, Contract etc and brands like Titan, Allen

Solly, IBM, Jockey amongst others. Currently, it is a fifteen member crew braving it out – trying to create X-factor tech-enabled communication innova-tions in addition to social, mainline and on-ground media. Branching out inde-pendently was imminent since Simon believes that no one else out there is doing what they want to do: “What most old-world ‘creative-hotshops tout are dated models and comfort-zones.”The agency was recently in news when

they created Pocketman to advertise a pair of jeans with 13 pockets for online brand Myntra. Instead of traditional advertising, they got a man to wear the jeans and stuff in as much as he could (48 varied things was our count), locked him up in a room, challenging him to prove that it is possible to live out of the con-tents of Roadster Pocketman jeans for a good 48 hours. As per Simon, “this was the longest continuous livestream in the history of YouTube India.”

It seemed only yesterday that a clutch of creative people left agencies to create startups. Powered by a chip on the shoulder about the ad business, the

desire to “do something different” and perhaps the fairytale ending of being acquired, with earnouts paying them many times what they’d have made, slaving away at regular jobs.

And now we are plumb in the middle of yet another wave. Not counting the ones here, there have been at least seven high profile ad startups so far. The language these firms speak is radically different. They want to reinvent the wheel. Digital and mobile are the main event and not just the sideshow.

We are sure a few of these will, in spite of best intentions, find comfort and revenue in the famil-iar tropes of TV and print. Others will collapse. It begs the question: how many ad shops is too many? Is there enough business going around? There is, says Sandeep Goyal, founder of Tango Media if

your ambitions are small enough. He believes “Many creatives are paid about a crore a year and move either when their agencies realise they are not pulling in enough reve-nue or when they feel they can earn more.” There’s enough space for 50 `5 crore turnover agencies but very little elbow room for a ̀ 1000 crore outfit which is what he hopes Tango Media will be in three years.

As for people from the last wave, they confess it’s a struggle. Ramanuj Shastry, founder of the now two year old Infectious says, “We’ve been yoyo-ing between ecstasy and despair.” The former when the agency is called by a new prospect, the latter when it realis-es the money they intend to pay.

And yet through it all, Shastry claims he’s never been tempted to pack it in for a second go at ad-vertising, an industry that’s grap-pling with a serious shortage of se-nior talent. He says, “The money is not comparable to what you earn as NCD but you get freedom and a complete lack of levels and office politics. You sleep well.”

RAJIV SINGHThe pickings are hardly slim in the world’s third largest smartphone mar-ket, although being slender and svelte may be the way to the consumer’s pocket. Last week, Indian smartphone maker Micromax put out a full-page ad in The Times of India claiming that its Canvas Sliver 5 smart-phone is the ‘Slimmest Ever,’ in the process steal-ing that position from Chinese rival Gionee.

Arvind R Vohra, CEO of Gionee India, says not just Micromax but a clutch of Indian brands are follow-ing the trend started by Gionee last October when its S5.1 made its way to the Guinness World Records for being the slimmest phone in the world.

“An imitation of our in-novation is the best tribute a leading brand can pay to us,” grins Vohra.

For its part, Micromax has few doubts that the Canvas Sliver 5 is the slimmest phone ever, with a thickness of 5.1mm. As for the in-your-face ad, chief marketing of-ficer Shubhajit Sen asks: “If you are the best, won’t you like to talk about it?”

Brand experts point out that going ‘slim’ is fast be-coming a differentiator in a cluttered handset market. When everything inside a phone is what everyone offers, what is outside mat-ters, says brand strategist Harish Bijoor.

Bijoor adds that Gionee’s first move on the slim plat-form may not be an advan-tage. “It is not who did it first, as much as who did it most effectively,” he ex-plains, adding that by us-ing Australian superstar Hugh Jackman for the first time to his fullest potential, the second-largest handset maker has stolen the thun-der. The fat is clearly in the fire in the battle for the slimmest smartphone.rajiv.singh@timesgroup.com

P2 How Honda Jazz Finally Got its Pricing Right P3 Why Firstcry is Ready to Shout Loud with Amitabh Bachchan

Branching out indepen-

dently was imminent since Simon believes

that no one else out there is doing what

they want to do

Brave New World Founded: February 2015

It’s Indeed a Brave New World: Joono Simon (second from right) with his team

The Mob came into being because in traditional agencies ideas with digital legs remain an afterthought

DELSHAD IRANIWhen we reached out to The Mob,the month-old agency was preparing for battle. In the founder’s words “chas-ing business at breakneck speed.” And also working on designing a cool office, commissioning two National Institute of Design students to unleash creativity on its command central in Gurgaon. The mobile-first agency came into being be-cause Chraneeta Mann and Nitin Suri be-lieve that in traditional agencies, ideas with digital legs remain an afterthought. Says Mann, “We really need to break that mindset and get into a space that al-lows us to do braver, more experimental work.” While Mann left her post as NCD at Rediffusion Y&R to start The Mob, co-founder Suri, was at one point NCD at Dentsu, and till recently partner at From Here On, an independent agency set up by Dentsu India’s founding members Gullu Sen and Rajesh Aggarwal in 2011.So, what does The Mob bring to an in-

creasingly crowded table? Their focus

is on ideas that work on the ‘all-in-one’ platform. The agency has started on a few large brands including Yes Bank and Videocon. It’s also working on a corporate identity project for another ad startup, Sandeep Goyal-owned Tango Media. Says Suri, “Today with the Internet,

wearable technology, social media, app design, etc the world is converging onto what we call our ‘personal screen’. It would be quite shortsighted of us to con-tinue to view Mobile Advertising as limit-ed to sending ‘location based texts’ when the possibilities are so much larger.” On the recent burst of ad startups

Mann says, “Of course there’ll be many startups but the ones that will make a mark will be the ones that can think young, fresh and are willing to experi-ment. The good news is that clients are willing to trust good talent, even though it might not have a comfortable tradi-tional structure behind it.”

The Mob Founded: June 2015

CHRANEETA MANN & NITIN SURI

JOONO SIMON

Inside: My Fair Men

+

Who’s the slimmest may well be the clincher for consumers in a cluttered handset market

Continued on Page 4 >>

(L-R) Chraneeta Mann and

Nitin Suri of The Mob

MicromaxvsGionee

MINE’S THINNER THAN YOURS

AMIT BAPNA

THE ECONOMIC TIMES JULY 22-28, 2015

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Faircomplexion=male at-tention followed by mul-tiple marriage proposals. That was the dominant line of communication for purveyors of fairness

potions since Eliza Doolittle said, “Oh, wouldn’t it be loverly?” The problem with this picture (not ‘My Fair Lady’) is that it looks grim for all those with skin on the darker side of the shade card.

But over the past few years, women’s rights groups, NGOs and people not affiliated with either have strongly condemned brands and endorsers for reinforcing deep rooted beliefs: that fair is necessarily better. Some brands dropped the role of matchmak-er for that of success planner. That is if you wish to succeed in this big, bad world, then slap on some product and watch career and fanbase grow. Then we saw advertising that stuck to func-tional benefits. But when the likes of popular Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut turn down multi-crore fair-ness cream endorsement offers, it gives the world more ammunition to fight misplaced mores.

However, fairness cream brands are not going anywhere anytime soon. Emami alone sells 142.6 crore packs of its fairness creams for women and men annually. And we’re seeing increasing activity in the men’s category where early communication focused on “le-gitimising” use and providing an air of aspiration. Category creator Emami’s Fair And Handsome dominates the roughly `385 crore men’s fairness category. Hindustan Unilever’s Fair and Lovely Max Fairness comes in a distant second. Garnier, Vaseline and Nivea too have fairness and whitening products on offer. Lending their mugs to these brands are celebrities from Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan to Shahid Kapoor and John Abraham. Says Mohan Goenka, director, Emami, “The flak (fairness cream brands re-ceive) is regarding one aspect: dark skin being shown in bad light. FAH as a brand, over a period of time, has never taken that route or portrayed someone

as superior. None of our communica-tion talks a language that only a fairer skin person has better opportunities.” Leading brands have moved to what seem to be PC marketing planks. For instance, in a 2015 Fair & Lovely Max Fairness cream ad Saif Ali Khan and Yuvraj Singh quarrel over whose skin takes a bigger beating. Khan’s advice “face ko attention de,” Singh uses the cream, the two go to a swanky party and fangirls go nuts over Yuvi. Much

to the gora Nawab’s dismay. Now there’s a new entrant in the

men’s fairness category: UB Fair from Chandigarh-based Torque Pharma, the makers of No Scars. The brand launched last month and since then we’ve seen the TVC and a series of full page ads with the tagline ‘Ab Ladko Ki Nikal Padi’ loosely translated ‘now guys have it made’. While repeated at-tempts to contact the company went unanswered, a YouTube video of the

launch has the MD of Torque Pharma, PS Chhatwal saying; “We are a re-sponsible pharma company...We will only manufacture products that cater to the poorest and average peo-ple.” Meanwhile, UB Fair’s endorser, Pulkit Samrat , said this in response to a journalist’s query about an in-creasing number of celebrities declin-ing similar endorsement opportuni-ties: “We are making the product for people who want to be fair. Nobody is forcing you.”

The ad features a glowing Samrat who recommends the cream to his friend, with a prescription to use it once daily, at night. Which we assume he does. Because he gets the desired “chamak” and before you know it the college’s new “star” is surrounded by women who flock to him.

Says Mahuya Chaturvedi, manag-ing partner, Cogito Consulting, “As women, men and markets evolved, brands picked up on it and changed the conversation. In the case of fair-ness creams from just fair and beauty to confidence. However, men’s fair-ness cream brands’ communication need not follow the same path. It can shorten the evolutionary curve right now.” And go straight from homo erectus to sapiens perhaps.delshad.irani@timesgroup.com

CHANCHAL PAL CHAUHANThe first time Honda launched the Jazz, the price tag at almost ̀ 7 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) was way out of whack, higher than rivals in the pre-mium hatchback segment – Hyundai i20, Fiat Punto, Volkswagen Polo and Maruti Suzuki Swift. Small wonder the product flopped, with sales dip-ping from a little over 7,500 units in its debut year, to a little over 4,100 units by 2011-12. As unsold stock piled up, Honda was forced to slash its price by ̀ 1.62 lakh, but by then the brand’s eq-uity had taken a solid beating. In the four years of its life, the Jazz sold just 23,000 units.This time around, Honda’s more on the money with the model that remains its largest selling hatchback globally, having sold 5.5 million units since launch in 2001. With a tag of `5.31 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) the

Jazz, running into its third generation, is priced identically to the starting price of its biggest rival, the Hyundai Elite i20. Unlike the solitary petrol of-fering last time around, the Jazz now has a 1.5 litre iDTEC diesel stable mate, made exclusively for India and priced

competitively at between ̀ 6.49 lakh and `8.59 lakh; the 1.2 litre i-VTEC petrol engine stretches up to ̀ 7.29 lakh. “We have enhanced the range with 12 vari-ant across multiple transmissions,” says Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice presi-dent, market and sales, at Honda Car India. If the perception is that Honda got its pricing wrong six years ago, Sen prefers to believe that the Jazz was

“ahead of its time,” and it’s only now that the “market has evolved. We

need to realise that neither it is the same (domestic) market nor the same product.” If Honda has been able to bring down the price of the Jazz by roughly ̀ 1.5 lakh at the entry lev-el, it’s thanks largely to the level of localisation for this model – 95%

as against 72% in the earlier model. The timing of the launch also couldn’t be better as premium hatchback seg-ment shows double-digit growth. chanchal.chauhan@timesgroup.com

Higher localisation helps Honda Jazz get its pricing right the second time around

BAWDY COPY

Got any funny emails floating around your office or at home? Seen a scam in someone’s portfolio? Please send them to us at bawdy.copy@timesgroup.comWe’ll dish all the dirt you dish to us

Washing Their Hands OffA creative director,

formerly at Publicis, joined this illustrious agency’s Gurgaon office to handle some of its marquee clients. But as per our ad-moles, this will count among the shorter agency stints since she is already in the midst of an unceremonious exit. The reason: an ad created for a big MNC client that ran during the IPL was at the centre of a social media drub-bing. Everything came under fire: from the ad itself, its timing and the earworm of a jingle. The ire generated spread to the client and apparently resulted in the film being pulled midway. At which point, as is usu-ally the case, heads rolling was a foregone conclusion. Once the dust had settled, it was time to ‘pass the buck’, a result of which is this lady’s exit, a second stint at this agency that’s ended rather abruptly.

Jio Aur Jaane Do?There have been strong rumors about this agency – part of a global network – that believed it was a shoo-in for a massive tel-ecom account. According to our moles, the confidence stemmed from the fact that the CEO’s ties with the client ran deeper than just plain business. The rumour mills suggest he was able to leverage this personal connection for a shot at leading the agency. But accord-ing to the latest buzz doing the rounds, the notoriously mercurial client looks set to change his mind, shifting not just agencies but agency groups. The current frontrunner is supposedly from Interpublic, backed by a loose affiliation of independents.

For decades, the advertising industry has been dominated by three main players—the agency networks: WPP, Omnicom, and Publicis.However, David Jones, the former

CEO of French advertising conglomer-ate Havas (another of the big players, but outside the top three) thinks the dominance of the old guard may come to an end in as little as 10 years.He has a motive to say so. Jones re-

signed from Havas in January last year to form what he calls the “world’s first brand tech group,” You & Mr Jones.While he does not describe You &

Mr Jones as a direct rival to the likes of his former employer, the com-pany essentially will be competing with ad agencies for business from brand marketers. Jones told Business Insider he wants to eventually help brands “with every single part of the marketing process: creating, produc-ing, distributing, targeting, measuring - all better, faster, and cheaper using technology.”Jones told Business Insider that cli-

ents are “frustrated” with the service they are getting from their ad agencies. He thinks there will be a shift away from the traditional agency model.

(Source: Businessinsider.in)

In a country where dark is still a disadvantage, men’s fairness creams try to walk a fairer path by Delshad Irani

FAIR

‘Traditional Ad Agency model could be dead in 10 years’

Jnaneswar Sen, senior VP, marketing and sales, Honda Car India

Emami’s Fair And Handsome dominates the men’s fairness cate-gory. HUL’s Max Fairness is a distant second

UB Fair’s latest TV commercial

‘Why be anything else when you can be er?’ was what a beer enthusiast tweeted two weeks ago when Diageo-owned United Spirits sold its 3.21% stake in United Breweries to Heineken International. Big news for the Indian beer segment so how could digital natives not joke about it on cloud, right? With 42.1% shares of the company, the Dutch brewing giant seized majority stake in Kingfisher (beer). This should spell ‘Good News’ for two reasons: One, UB is already the largest producer of beer in India. Two, beer is the fastest growing alcoholic beverage in India by consumption and revenue share.

India - A Question Mark?India continues to be the biggest question mark for Heineken. At least that’s what Gianluca Di Tondo, their senior global brand director, told us when we caught up with him at Cannes this year. Despite a 16.94% CAGR, and a potential of becoming a $9.03 billion market by 2018, India has one of the lowest per capita beer consump-tions in the world—1.64 litre per person, to be precise.

Small is BeautifulEven within the category, “80% of the beer market in India has high alcohol content in it whereas Heineken has only 5% alco-hol,” he says. Di Tondo doesn’t believe in pushing the brand unnecessarily when the chances of it being successful are meek. “I’m more than happy to keep the brand small, beautiful, and confine it to Mumbai, Delhi and a few other key cities.”

Luxury of TimeIf you establish a beer brand in a new coun-try, Di Tondo observes, you start with a high-alcohol content product and even-tually go for Lager. “We’re in no hurry to make our mark in three months.” India is an important market, but there’s no pres-sure to become huge overnight, he asserts.

Made in China strategyDi Tondo is confident that slow and steady will win the race in India because it worked well in China. “We started with three cities, moved to 17 and now intend to capture 100 cities. But we will never be present in the older China as that market will never value a premium brand such as ours. It’s useless to be there,” he points out.

“We’re in no Hurry to Make our Mark”Heineken was clear its flagship wouldn’t be an immediate pan India success. Here’s why the Dutch beer brand believes in taking things slow

Gianluca Di Tondo, senior global brand director, Heineken

David Jones, founder of You & Mr Jones

ALL RHYTHM, NO BLUESDriver’sSeat

ZAHID

GET

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My

MenSHEPHALI BHATT

THE ECONOMIC TIMES JULY 22-28, 2015 2

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bestbekaar OUR 200-MEMBER STRONG CONSUMER PANEL GIVES US THEIR PICK OF INDIAN ADVERTISING’S BEST COMMERCIALS AND THE SPECTACULAR DUDS ON TELLY

The Best Bekaar survey is conducted by IPSOS, with ads sourced from TV Ad Indx. The survey is conducted every week across 6 cities in India covering 200 respondents

Hajmola (Best)We gave this spot our best shot, really. Watching it on loop to make some sense of it. But despite the cold, clear mountain this commercial is set in, we’re not even close to achieving any clarity. This is a tale of a cross-border snow fight between two grown men, but it could very well have been two five-year-olds, with candy playing peacemaker. While we had some trouble reaching base camp, our panel has pitched its tent and given this ad a lift to the summit. Well, perhaps altitude sickness only affects a chosen few.

Volkswagen (Bekaar)This spot ends with the line “built thoughtfully.” We only wish the brand handlers responsible for this atrocity had considered the advice. The spot opens with a man in the driver’s seat having spasms a la Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist. Upon closer inspection the viewer sees the man is simply trying to entertain a toddler strapped in the backseat. The child seems absolutely delighted. We can only find solace in the possibility that the kid has a demonic streak and is himself, or herself, inflicting this madness on the man in the front seat.

Honda (Best)This spot reminds us of the early 70s hit movie ‘Bombay To Goa’. In this ad however we have a toy train full of kooky characters sticking their heads out of windows like the family mutt trying to catch air while howling an indecipherable tune. The passengers are fascinated by a father and child riding a bike along the train track. The music gets louder. Our panel chimes in with more “wah, wah, wah’. There’s an alternative we’d like the viewer to consider. Perhaps the riders are escapees who managed to jump off the musical train from Hell.

Servo (Bekaar)One would think that heartfelt tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things like restoring fallen cable towers or driving on treacherous, impassable roads or dirt biking over the mountains of Gondor would induce awe in viewers. Especially when you throw in a rousing, anthem-like background score sung by children. Instead our consumer panel lifted their foot off the brake and let this spot descend into the pits of Bekaar. B2B advertising is not known for its creative wizardry, but hey, at least they tried to stir up some passion for a motor oil brand.

Easy to Digest

MusicalJourney

Firstcry.com has a deeply personal origin story: con-ceived when CEO Supam Maheshwari found himself returning from trips over-

seas, saddled with baby care products for his young daughter. He’d been toy-ing with retail and ecommerce and realised, “The baby business was good since there was a dearth of products, brands and varieties in India. It was a $10 billion market and there were no of-fline chains here.” According to mar-keting consultant Shripad Nadkarni of Marketgate a significant need gap existed even in big cities with a new parent hav-ing to visit several specialty stores, often located at quite a distance from each other.

If Firstcry, which began in December 2010, has taken its time to make a big splash on TV, it’s because the brand’s initial thrust was entirely different. According to Anuj Jain, senior vice president – marketing, “At our core is the experience of parenthood. Experiential marketing be-came very important.”

Deciding it needed to catch parents early, the retailer tied up with 7,800 hospitals across India to distribute the Firstcry Box. Rolled out in January 2014, it contained es-sentials that every first time parent required. Says Jain, “We contact 100,000 parents a month and a million new parents every year. 80% of the reach is unduplicated.” This distinguishes it from players like Flipkart and Amazon. Says Maheshwari, “We have 125 stores across 90 cities and are an omnichannel player.”

Along the way, Firstcry built its portfolio from 100 SKUs in 2010 to 90,000 SKUs from 900 brands today. What was lack-ing says Jain was awareness: “Once parents are aware, our ability to turn them up the pyramid is 50% more efficient than other large players.”

And so on deciding to go the mass media route, it picked Amitabh Bachchan. The Bollywood veteran made no bones about being a dot-ing grandparent. Shripad Nadkarni of MarketGate explains, “It is one thing to have a celebrity but if it’s a fit, it adds to the brand’s signifi-cance.”

Firstcry is betting on its experiential nature, assort-ment and singleminded focus

to keep young parents engaged. But are these enough of a bulwark against the Indian consumer’s instincts that gravitate towards best deals?

If the campaign meets its objectives of tripling traffic —Firstcry claims a conversion rate that’s twice the indus-try average— it places a huge target on its back. It will take a lot more than a loveably goofy sales pitch from the Big B to take on the challenge of three well-funded generalists if they decide to make this niche a priority. ravi.balakrishnan@timesgroup.com

(L-R) Anuj Jain, senior vice president, marketing, at

Firstcry; Amitabh Bachchan in the Firstcry TV commercial

What spurred this niche retailer to go the mass media route with its latest campaign? by Ravi Balakrishnan

Rock a

BUY, BABY

DrivingYou Crazy

Serves No Purpose

RATNA BHUSHANSonia Kaul spends up to ̀ 6,000 a month on food – for her pet dog. An employee with a multinational in Gurgaon, she takes the pains of buying only a specific imported brand pet food brand, Royal Canin, and she doesn’t mind driving a distance to buy the chow.

Saint Bernards, Terriers, Cocker Spaniels and Labradors never had it so good as makers and retailers of pet food, especially that for dogs, say con-sumers are happily indulging man’s best friend, slowdown or no slowdown.

Devendra Chawla, group president, food & FMCG, at Future Group, says exclusive dog biscuits are the flavour of the season. “Owners are willing to spend on expensive food, imported toys and accessories such as fancy collars

and chews,” he says.The pet care industry in India is esti-

mated at ̀ 965 crore, with dog food domi-nating the segment and growing at 30% year on year.

Vipul Parikh, co-founder at online grocery retailer BigBasket, says as much as 10% of overall grocery sales at his stores come from pet food. He says the 1-kg packs of pet food is the fastest moving at

BigBasket stores.Pet owners say the bigger dogs

consume as much as 20-22 kg of food per month on an average.

According to industry estimates, American firm Mars controls the pet food market in India with close to a 70% share, followed by various smallerplayers.

“For many owners, pets are like their kids and with an increase in purchase power, their desire to find more ways to pamper their pets is a clear identi-fied need. And growing pet accessories market is clear sign of that need,” Mars

International India director, cor-porate affairs, Nitin Kulkarni, says. Mars International is the wholly-owned subsidiary of foods giant Mars Inc, which sells chocolate brands like Mars, Galaxy and Snickers.

Mars International India sells Pedigree, Chappi and Eukanuba brands for dogs andWhiskas and Sheba for cats.

ratna.bhushan@timesgroup.com

The pet food pie is burgeoning at over three times the rate at which the impulse packaged foods market is growing at

The Dogs have their Day, & Cake too

American firm Mars controls the pet food

market in India

Kidding AroundThe shoot gave Amitabh Bachchan a chance to get in touch with his inner child, unlike many other campaigns where the veteran gives a distinct impression of phoning it in. The real superstar of the shoot was the child and the Bollywood star often had to sing, clap and put up a performance so she wouldn’t get distracted. Says Vasudha Naraynanan of Lowe Lintas, “He wanted to do a lot of kiddy things, like sitting in the pram. When we said it would be difficult he said, ‘Don’t worry; you can take my bones apart and put them back in the pram.’

THE ECONOMIC TIMES JULY 22-28, 2015 3

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Continued from Page 1 >>

WON’TGive It Back

A“And the Cannes Lions for the ‘Agency of the Year 2015’ goes to R/GA,” announced the host at the gala ceremony, a big win for the digitally driven shop. Time for an industry obsessed with Ogilvy and co, to wake up and smell the trophy? A sign that

firing up a larger set of categories meant winners radi-cally different from the usual suspects? Not quite.

R/GA’s win is more exception than rule. While creatives love whinging about how their festivals are now dominated by clients, suits, media and tech types, the tallies tell a different tale. Creative agencies still rule the roost, even in categories

you’d think they have no business being in.

Exhibit A: Between 2011 and now, the

media Grand Prix at Cannes has been bagged by a pure me-dia agency just once in 2012. The Media Grand Prix at Cannes this year was won by Y&R Istanbul with “support” from Mindshare; in 2014 by McCann Lima with support from Havas, in 2013 by O&M Amsterdam a n d i n 2 0 1 1 b y C h e i l .

Exhibit B: The Grand Prix in PR (for # L i k e AGi r l ) w a s c o - e n -tered by Publicis Groupe’s PR firm MSL Group and creative network agency Leo Burnett. Dentsu Y&R bagged the PR trophy at Spikes Asia 2014. To go a lot further back, the year the category was launched in Cannes it was won by JWT San Juan.

Exhibit C: This year, the Direct Grand Prix went to Grey New York for Volvo Interception, Cyber Grand Prix to Droga5 for Under Armour’s ‘I will what I want,’ and the Promo & Activation and Design Grand Prix to Grey London for Volvo ‘Life Paint’. It begs the question: are specialist agencies incapable of winning top honours?

Terry Savage, chairman of Cannes Lions Festival, says creative agencies are “grounded in storytell-

ing” and rests his argument by adding “the best work dominates the awards wherever it comes from.” It just happens to come more frequently from creative shops we assume.

WPP chief’s Sir Martin Sorrell has a more candid an-swer: “Media and PR agencies don’t know how to enter. There’s a technique of entering work, the Don Draper way that gets judges’ attention.” Getting the judges more broadly represented is also important he says lest “you put all the lunatics in charge of the asylum.” His views are echoed in part by Hanley King, chairman SMG India “Creative agencies figured an easy way to win is in Media: they are slicker at producing videos, better at pack-

aging.” While he admits good work sometimes loses out, he also recommends media agen-cies “play in categories like PR and outdoor instead of moaning about how creative are playing on your turf.”

Maurice Lévy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe begs to differ. “It’s normal that media agencies are working with cre-ative, digital and PR. It would be abnormal if they were in silos. Who cares who invented the idea as long as everyone is contributing to the win? It’s a ridiculous question posed by

journalists with bad jetlag.” Jon Hamm, global CCO of Geometry Global says, it’s

because specialists don’t spend too much on creativity hence the focus is more on their core job.

At the end of the day, who gets credit for what exactly? Awards are the only corporate campaign agencies have to show during client pitches. Our advice to specialised agencies, therefore, is to start their own shindig like Festival of Media whose leaderboard is currently domi-nated by media shops. And then pray that the creative types don’t get wind of another set of gongs that are up for grabs. Because except for an odd occasion where a Grand Prix is taken down by scandal, creative agencies #WontGiveItBack. shephali.bhatt@timesgroup.com

Creative agencies hog the lion’s share of trophies in all award shows irrespective of category. Why are the so-called specialists lagging behind? by Shephali Bhatt

“Media and PR agencies don’t know

how to enter. There’s a

technique of entering

work, the Don Draper way

that gets judg-es’ attention.”

Sir Martin Sorrell,CEO, WPP

It would be abnormal if media agen-cies work in silos. Who cares who invented the idea as long as everyone is contributing to the win?Maurice Lévy,CEO, Publicis Groupe

RAVI BALAKRISHNAN

What aspects of the new market reality are brand owners most con-cerned about?Control is the one that comes up most consistently. I get asked ‘how do I avoid losing control?’ I say ‘you lost control a long time ago.’ You don’t want to be in control: you want to be engaged in the con-versation. That’s why we say ‘if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.’ Also, with brand executives, there’s an expectation they can make things go viral. As a metaphor I find that regrettable. Viral media makes me sick. It’s based on an assumption that if you cre-ate a killer virus that infects the first person, they will spread it to the rest.

Who do you think does this well?

It’s maybe why AIB is so effective. People want comedy and if you can embed messages about net neutrality and against rape culture in content that people want to share, it will circulate and get peo-ple’s attention. The same is true of brands. If they create something that’s compelling, it’s suddenly something we choose to share with our friends instead of being a message we are forced to watch between programming segments.

There’s a debate about whether ad agencies

ought to be creators of content or should just find

a way of drawing attention to the product...

Certain brands have built such a strong cult fol-lowing that people express their identity through them. They are well served by building up that brand as something special. For example, Royal Enfield in India. But if you are a toilet paper or a tampon brand, I don’t want to wear that on my sleeve literally or on seat of my pants, accidentally.

Viral Media Makes Me Sick: JenkinsHenry Jenkins, author of books like Spreadable Media, has a few suggestions on what marketers ought to do to stay relevant.

The New Wave of Ad Startups

RAVI BALAKRISHNANSandeep Goyal claims to have spent his five years away from advertising, relearning the business. The result: Tango Media, Goyal’s return after the end of a five year non-compete clause with Dentsu, his last employer.You’d be hard pressed to find a startup that does not make

a few token noises about technology, but Goyal claims Tango Media is the real deal, powered by patented inventions. Its first killer app is a bespoke mechanism for a consumer to call a brand either over feature phone or smartphone. Goyal is putting the mobile and digital world front and cen-

tre, exploring associations with firms from Israel. His agency is less interested in TV commercials than figuring out how to get the exact item being advertised on a banner ad instead of just being directed to an ecommerce site. Or how to serve up ads and offers, customised to an individual. Goyal has lit-tle patience for the new wave of digital creativity. He says brusquely, “Most guys running agencies are not in synch with the changing realities. Why should the consumer pay (in terms of bandwidth) to see your six minute long commercial?”

AMIT BAPNAAnother oddball of a name, Zero:Zero is the agency co-founded by three ex-agency hands with background in advertising and digital brand solutions. Based in Mumbai, the agency’s offering is around brand communication and design. In this case, the origin of the name is from the score at the beginning of a new game. The rules of engagement have altered dramatically and

even the most seasoned of communication specialists have to re-learn and start every project with humility, know-ing that the score is, and will always be, Zero:Zero, says Subramaniam. The central team has been kept small by cre-ating a field around this centre with professionals in tech-nology, analytics, video production and activation. Not just the team-size but even the belief system has changed. “The challenge for everybody in this business today is to start with a blank page and let the solutions come from com-pletely different places and mediums,” says Subramaniam.

Tango Media Zero:ZeroFounded: June 2015 Founded: May 2015

SANDEEP AND TANYA GOYAL KUMAR SUBRAMANIAM, KAUSHIKROY AND SATISH AMBEWADIKAR

DELSHAD IRANIWhat’s Your Problem, a full-service digital agency, launched before schedule because the press began refer-ring to the startup as “Amit Akali’s unnamed agency” or “soon to be launched agency.” These mysterious mentions appeared in a series of articles about Flipkart commercials created by WYP in partnership with Chapter Five. The agency had five clients on board even before the naming ceremony or the official website. Its work for gourmet food brand Pico resulted in the company’s logistic system crashing because it couldn’t take the load of order volumes. WYP’s website, however, is still under construction, con-fess the founders Amit and Praful Akali, Huzefa Roowala and Hammad Khan, all from different backgrounds, from ad agencies to MTV. And yes, all too pre-occupied with new business wins and on-going work. (For anyone still harbor-ing theories of Amit Akali’s long-time creative partner and fellow ex-NCD at Grey, Malvika Mehra joining him in his new venture, we asked. The answer: Negative.)

What’s Your ProblemFounded: May 2015

AMIT AKALI, PRAFUL AKALI

They Love Problems: (L-R) Huzefa Roowala, Hammad Khan, Amit Akali & Praful Akali

Zero’s Heroes: (L-R)Kumar Subramaniam, Satish

Ambewadikar and Kaushik Roy

Four to Tango: (L-R) Sandeep &

Tanya Goyal

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