Will ensure Ford Figo ad fiasco doesn't happen again: JWT India CEO

The Ford Figo ad fiasco, say Tista Sen, Swati Bhattacharya and Senthil Kumar, the three National Creative Directors of JWT India, gave them a mission to do great work that resonated with their clients. "Whatever work we did had to be solid. The biggest learning was not to look back and move on," says Sen. Their mission has yielded results and the entire agency is in a party mood with wins not only at the Abbys but also at Cannes.

Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT India, is delighted and relieved as his agency has managed to erase the bad publicity it got last year with some solid, good quality creative work.

In an interview with BUSINESS TODAY, Harris talks about the learnings from the nightmarish Ford Figo campaign and his vision for JWT India. Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Last year, the Ford Figo ad campaign evoked drew flak for JWT. How was 2013 in terms of business?    

A. Let me give you a fresh perspective. It's about our industry and our profession. You have got to see it as being extremely dynamic, there is change every day. If you look at it as a kaleidoscope, every half hour something has changed. There are issues which clients face in the market. So, it can happen anywhere and on any brand, and it can happen to us as an agency as well. So, as leadership, our primary role is to manage two or three things - first is our client's brands and business, two is our talent and three, is our own company.

For all, there is a long-term perspective. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither does an agency like JWT, given the fact that it is an industry leader, will be able to do everything at the same point of time. So, if I think back about last year, first, as a company, we continue to steward the brands that we always have professionally.

That's front and centre of what we do. The visual image of that I have is of Formula One. The car comes and we surround it with skills and capabilities. In 2013, we went ahead with one acquisition, which is Hungama Digital. That was a big milestone moment.

We were able to build that relationship with Social Wavelength, which has now culminated in us acquiring them. So, what that did for us is it added two large companies on the forward space of advertising, which is digital. I think that was a sizeable achievement. Also, Contract was re-structured. Today, that is doing extremely well and they have had a spate of victories which we have seen.

When you look at JWT only, the challenges we went through is definitely something which we acknowledge and obviously we will ensure that it doesn't happen again. However, if you look at our talent story last year, we were able to hire a lot of creative people, all seniors at the Executive Director level. We changed people to add to our craft skills. For example, people who are extremely skillful, we gave them the right focus and what they must do. We re-structured into verticals, into business units, again centered around our client's businesses, but on a flatter and direct structure on that particular client. All that is showing, our client satisfaction scores has increased dramatically. The work we do and our engagement with clients has changed completely. Whilst the Indian economy went through its own challenges, I think we were able to ride that slowdown well by re-structuring and getting flatter, adding newer skills and getting people more focused. This is the time our clients actually need us. When a market is growing and economy is booming everybody is comfortable.

Q. So what was the one change that you brought into the system after last year's controversial campaign?

A. We have always been dynamically driven. We are not in a state of calmness, in a Zen Buddhist position. We are running, we are relentless, we are chasing, we are pushing, we are seeking, we are trying to do everything at the same time. There is not a day when we are not doing something different. These differences come from being motivated and getting people to engage more with the company, our client's brands and our talent story.

Now, we are fortunate that the vision of JWT is about establishing our client's brands firmly. We see that our clients continue to be at the forefront. That's what keeps us going continuously, which is why all our clients have long-term relationships. I don't want see ourselves doing something so short-term that it impacts our long-term. These are the same clients who have got us so far.

Q. What was the biggest learning from last year?

A. Last year was like any other year. If you are talking about that one incident, the learning is it shouldn't have happened.

Q. You have had a spectacular run not only at the Abbys but also at Cannes. Were you a little more cautious when you sent in your entries this time?

A. I can tell you in the last 10 years, every year that we start the awards season, we evaluate the work. I have a standard line which I send out every year, which says, "Whatever you do, don't bring disrepute to your company or to your client's businesses." Everybody knows that I will never allow anything which is not a good work or work that can harm a client's interest.

We have a standard process called Mojo, where the top team meets four times a year. We evaluate the work in two parts - the work we have done and the work we are looking at proactively for our clients, their brands and their business, which we collectively as a group evaluate. Then there is a global process called Global Creative Challenge. So we don't just evaluate our work internally or within the country, we also evaluate it at a global level and try and understand whether that work is of global standards.

So are we delighted? Earlier, I used to do cartwheels, now I am doing back-flips and somersaults. I will show it to you before you leave. You must remember there is a consistency. We are not yesterday's vanilla and today's chocolate pastry. Look at the last many years as to how JWT is doing - Who got India's first gold? Has there been anybody who has got a metal in the film category? Then look at the time and see when all we have achieved them. That's the measure... it's not yesterday or today. We are already gearing up for next year.

Q. So what's your favourite campaign? Where you disappointed about any particular campaign that you thought should have won, but didn't win a metal?

A. Let me tell you first about my disappointment. I really felt that "Poo To The Loo" campaign that we did for Unicef could have won. It is a communication which should be actually addressed to our state governments and of course to our Central government that it is a shame that we are not able to provide enough sanitation.

The one we are delighted about is the full idea about Nike. Firstly the scale of what they had to do - 225,000 images, 150 photographers shooting the images, the sheer drama around editing, the music. So, when you start piecing it together, it is many things coming together. To win in Cannes on craft is saying something, to win in all the categories is actually a fantastic achievement. We have done good work for Nike for many years and we will continue to do so. But in this case, the way the idea was conceived and developed is a hallmark for us. We are delighted and couldn't have hoped for better.

Q. How was 2013 in terms of revenue?

A. We are a very successful agency in India. We are hugely green because our numbers stand out on the factors which are important: topline (where there is scale), what we do for our people (cost of staff) and definitely there is profit which makes us a successful company and allows us to continue to sustain the proposition called JWT.

Q. So, how is the road ahead going to be?

A. We are trying to be transformative by trying to be getting our own people recognizing the opportunity of digital and what all it can do beyond just being a website or a banner or a video. So, the full piece of diagnostics, analytics, listening skills in the social area and what you can do with real-time listening. Social wavelength has a specialist tool which can manage all the chatter and in real time address conversations.

So, you are able to better engage with customers as they get either delighted or are not happy. So, these are elements in a mix, as finally it is never only about the ad.

It's about the full value chain the client goes through, right up to the golden mile, which is retail and where all we can influence it. So, JWT, is a spectrum of capabilities. So, whether it is conceptualisation, and for that we have 60 very senior planners. In fact, we are the only company that continues to invest in planning. Creativity is obviously our mainstay, we have over 300 people in that space. Then we have all the deliveries businesses of digital and innovation you can create in that media.

If you think about Encompass, which is India's finest event and activation company, whether it is the auto show, F1, in terms of their engagement with clients, there is no one better than them. So, as you see the vision or outlook of JWT, an area where we want to make greater investment is that golden mile or the shopper piece. We are thinking solutions for a client and we are thinking intervention for that client in different spaces.

Right now the clients don't have that bandwidth, I don't expect them to see the whole picture, or have the agency where there is full scale or repertoire of what is required. We are trying to build that capability. My personal belief, I have always said that many times is that only the busiest have time to spend. So, we are finding time to develop these various things simultaneously.

Q. How has the organisation evolved in the last 2-3 years?  

A. Firstly, there is stability. I always say that we must be the most attractive destination for young people and they must grow in their careers with us. The day we don't show growth, we don't engage appropriately in the finest way with them, we will cease to be the most attractive destination. So, our talent story is very robust - what we do, how we train, how we hire, attract, retain and reward. So, it is many things in the talent story that keeps us thinking long-term.

Q. Do you see your new media revenues exceeding your traditional advertising revenues?  

A. The issue in India is that we have adopted this very slowly and this is the reason technology, bandwidth and speed have been slow too. Very often I am downloading something and I do two other things quickly on the side. That's how long it takes and that will change. Two, is pricing. At some point you have got to worry about what will it cost for somebody to spend all his time on the net. There is a cost to it. Also the devices have not kept pace with the ambition of this media.