Agenda for FCB Group India that includes three independent creative agencies- FCB Ulka, FCB Interface and FCB India.
By Rohit Ohri, Chairman & CEO, FCB Group India
Continued focus on our creative product
Today we are India’s number one creative agency, and we want to stay here for the longest possible time.
Transformation is sustainable only when the new vision blends into organisational culture. Consistency is the only way this can happen. The last four years have been really good for FCB Group India. We have demonstrated consistent excellence on the creative work front, which in turn, has created considerable traction in the market from a talent and a new business perspective. So, the big focus is really about making sure that creativity is at the centre of everything we do. Always.
Integration
Looking at our recent minority acquisition of Kinnect (in a very short term, we will acquire a majority stake) we are well on the road to true integration. We will be integrating a hugely talented bunch of 400 employees (digital) and offering clients a seamless, integrated offering.
As we scale up the integration, we will be able to take the agency’s growth to the next level because, in true terms, digital growth has been exponential in the last few years. As a matter of fact, in many companies, the Chief Technology Officer has been Covid! It has been a big pivot for digital transformation for brands and organizations with systems and services. Digital transformation has been accelerated in every aspect of our life. What we thought would take five years has been done within a year! So now, the emphasis is on being future-ready and using data and technology to power creative.
Powering creativity with data and technology
Our capability around data and technology will be drawn a lot from Kinnect, and that is our new vision. We have always been saying that FCB was about being Never Finished and Never Finished is truly about Timeless ideas delivered Timely to our consumers. That’s the whole proposition that we are establishing when we say creativity is powered by technology and data. Today, is really about timeless and timely, where timeless is the whole quest for creative excellence and ideas that stand the test of time. Timely is about finding the ecosystem where you can disperse this idea and connect it with consumers in a manner that reaches them at the right time, at the right moments, and in the right environment.
People and Patterns
The pandemic changed buying behaviour in many ways. We created a new way of thinking around the new consumer and introduced the tool – People and Patterns. This basically looks at the new world that consumers are in, which is no longer about touchpoints. We are not going to physical stores as often as we used to, we are buying so much stuff online, and this is the new way of consuming products and services. So, how it impacts us is an important piece here. Brands need to understand this new path to purchase and leverage it to make the right connections with consumers.
What we’re doing now is creating and working with a lot of our clients to develop case studies, which can showcase how this tool actually works. What we believe is that this is the new frontier for creativity. It is no longer going to be the time and day of typical 90-sec television commercials put on a cricket platform. It is really going to be those millions of opportunities to connect with consumers in different forms, on different screens and through different media platforms. We have to understand this new customer journey and create excellent work around it. So, the idea is to make every piece organic, native on that platform and connect in a timely, appropriate manner with the consumers. So, this gives creativity a whole new dimension, and we need to demonstrate creative excellence at every single point of connection.
Talent
Another big focus area for us in 2022 and beyond is our talent. In the last two years, a lot of culture has eroded in organizations. Culture is a living thing. It is not just the name of the agency, but it lives in its people, the interactions, and that’s when you see the culture in action. People make the culture of an organisation. FCB is in its 60th year and has systematically built a strong culture over the years. In the past two years of remote work, our culture has held us in good stead. You can say we have withdrawn from the fixed deposit of our culture. And now we need to put back equivalent effort to continuously build our culture; to pay back the deposit manifold.
What I am now seeing is this war for talent, not only in advertising but across all sectors and our clients. Especially when it comes to digital talent, it is a blood bath out there. For the past two years, many have had no increments, many were thankful for their jobs; but now the dynamic is changing. It is not only the money that is making people move. For Gen Z, it is not all work and money but the work culture, freedom, their life, new experiences, the opportunity to explore the world and their passion alongside their work. Unlike the old times when the focus was single-mindedly on work. For today’s generation, work will not fill up 200% of their life. It is entirely a new way of thinking. Covid has opened their eyes to innumerable possibilities and experiences. What was desirable and theoretical earlier is now practical and doable. People want to work for the companies that will give them flexibility and not have them tied down and chained to their office desk. A lot of values have changed and fuelled this attitude of having flexibility at the workplace, doing great work and yet enjoying personal time. And it works as well! Going forward, we would like to see and explore what we can do differently with and for our talent.
The pandemic has been a great teacher in many ways. It has taught us not to be wasteful of many things in life. Today we are into virtual a meeting (as against travelling geographically across the country) which is equally effective with the added advantage of eliminating certain challenges. We are not going to go back to the old ways, thinking that this pandemic was a bad dream! We have to learn and pick up the good things from this experience and adopt it in our work culture as we advance. As a whole, the pandemic has made us more flexible in our work, allowing us to maintain the personal space and work balance, which I am increasingly thinking is the new way to go forward.
