“We are going through a bit of a learning curve, all of us. When AI first came in, people talked about improving productivity, creating more options for content, getting sharper insights or being able to write briefs more easily,” said CVL Srinivas, Country Manager at WPP in conversation with Anna Hickey, WPP Global Client Lead, Wavemaker Global Client President.
The conversation delved into how WPP Open, their intelligent operating system, is fueling a testbed for new working models, innovation, and automation.
Speaking on how WPP is going to use technologies like AI to drive continuous improvements and to cut costs, Srinivas said, “We are going through a bit of a learning curve, all of us. When AI first came in, people talked about improving productivity, creating more options for content, getting sharper insights or being able to write briefs more easily. Those were some of the benefits that we started seeing early on, and all of these started coming into our workflows. Cut to where we are today with something like WPP Open, our intelligent operating system, it brings all of this together and really sits at the center of our offer. It brings all these different technologies together, and it’s Open Source so you can plug-and-play with any other technology that you may have.”
Srinivas said that it really helps to break down silos, get creativity and data together, connect people together, get local and global a lot more connected and so on.
He further added, “So, we are seeing wherever we deploy it an amazing amount of benefit to clients, first and foremost, and to our people.”
Answering Hickey’s question on what potential clients want or don’t want from their agency partner in 2024, Srinivas said, “Amidst interesting and engaging client discussions these days, WPP leverages a unique blend of efficiency and effectiveness. While technology and data are important, the true impact still lies in creative ideas. WPP’s strength lies in integrating creativity with technology, AI, and data to drive business and brand growth effectively.”
“And then obviously bring in all the efficiency levers that we have. For example, the GDC. Using a lot more automation and what we like to call opti-shoring, which is, how do we intelligently leverage the talent pool that we have across the globe as WPP in a more connected fashion?We spoke about WPP Open earlier and I think that’s another interesting place where it can come into play. So I think all of these put together, make it possible for us today to take to our clients an offer that is nimble, that’s creative, that’s obviously leveraging technology and AI and is fit for tomorrow,” he further added.
Speaking about the client briefs and how much of the model that the client wants is defined by them in the brief and how much is defined by the agency in the response that they proposed, Srinivas said, “There is this client, which is a leading CPG client of WPP globally, where we handle all the media from our very strong media operation in India. And this client has come to us asking us to set up a content production hub in India to service all their markets in the region, covering more than about 15 markets.”
He continued, “And that’s an interesting brief because while we have the media business, if you’re able to build a content hub and then end up joining the two, we’re able to deliver personalized content at scale, in a more automated way. And we have many such briefs where clients are saying, okay, you handle one part of my business, how can we start building adjacencies and how can you unlock value.”
Answering Hickey’s question on What is it about India that makes it so innovative and forward thinking, he said, “There are three reasons for that. I think firstly, just in terms of the kind of talent base that we have there, I think we have probably the largest number of engineering graduates, or STEM graduates, as we call them, graduating every year.”
“And I was looking at some numbers recently, even in terms of AI ready talent, we’re right up there. So I think the talent base is obviously very exciting. Secondly, I think it’s to do with the digital ecosystem that we have in India. I think there’s one of those unique markets where you have not just the big global tech players, you also have a very active and a thriving local tech ecosystem. And all of that coming together works very well for our business, especially because you end up dealing with different kinds of partners with different kinds of solutions. And thirdly, I think it’s just to do with a very innovative and entrepreneurial culture. I think all of these put together make India a dream destination, especially in a creative industry. And, you know, increasingly tech is colliding with creativity to unlock magic for clients,” Srinivas concluded.
