Last December, following the loss of two key accounts and some key personnel, Rediffusion Y&R also lost one its oldest hands, its Group CEO, Mahesh Chauhan. After a short break, Chauhan announced his new venture with Minakshi Achan who had also resigned from her post of chief creative officer at Rediffusion. Together, they decided to take the independent route by launching Salt Brand Solutions. From being an IIT student to being one of the youngest CEOs in advertising and now the owner of an agency, Chauhan has come a long way. In an exclusive chat with FE’s Payal Khandelwal, Chauhan talks about the transition, challenges of going independent, how clients have changed over the years and about what is closest to his heart right now, Salt. Edited excerpts.
What are the challenges of going independent?
There are no challenges actually. A lot of it is about the timing. We seem to be in an environment where independents have found a new breed of takers. Take a look at what TapRoot is doing, what Creativeland Asia is doing. This seems to be an era where clients have realised that the quasi power of a network is not good enough. Ours is a talent industry and if you have talent, you will sell it and if you don’t have it, even the networks cannot sell you. Network agencies have tom-tommed their so called ?proprietary tools?, etc. Honestly, I haven’t yet come across anything like that even though I have patented some of those too. Fundamentally, it is about talent and clients understand that.
The challenge is that of the belief ? do you have enough belief in your team, belief and resilience to scale the cost. We have been fortunate to have been deluged with work since the time we started. We are at a stage where we are not pushing any more dialogues. We want to take all that we have, build on that and build a strong foundation.
How have clients’ perspectives changed over the years?
There was a time, when I started in 1992, when the agency was an integral part of the client’s business process. Over the years, due to fragmentation, we had distanced ourselves from that process to the extent where the purchase department reflected the change that agencies no longer discussed the compensation with the marketing head or the CEO of a company but with the purchase department. However, that is changing now and it’s all coming full circle. Once again, clients are putting currency in real partnerships.
Another change is that discipline specific deliveries ? digital/public relations / mobile are decided upon by two key stakeholders — client and agency partner.
Tell us a more about your team at Salt.
Minakshi and I wanted full freedom in our own ways, which we didn’t have. In our large roles of looking after 7-8 offices, 50+ clients and 600-700 people, we missed doing things that we loved most, such as brand strategy, etc. We wanted to reinvent ourselves by going back to the basics and we did that with Salt. We don’t want to be a large agency in the next five years. We would only have about 15 clients at a time as we don’t want to lose focus. We want to put a certain value on everything that goes out of this agency.
We have a robust team. Minakshi is a phenomenal creative person with incredible stamina. She brings in stature, leadership and attracts talent. I am more of a business guy, fundamentally bringing the rigour into the place. Overall, we have a great team here including some young talent.
What are the learnings from network agencies that you would apply to Salt?
Something which I want at Salt is rigour and a certain broad process framework, whether it is in terms of financial reporting or the way we do business. Another big rigour that I have seen in networks is rehearsals. We, in India, don’t have a culture of rehearsals, and I am a big sucker for that. There should be rehearsals at least 48 hours before a pitch.
One thing which I tried earlier and failed is how to win the brand and its manifestation in the marketplace. What is missing in most marketing plans is a thought through-the-line deployment strategy. For example, we could have a plan where there could only be PR (public relations) for six months. Now, we don’t have a PR division, thus we enter into partnerships with the best in class. That is a much better strategy instead of having everything under one roof.
There were a lot of rumours when you had quit Rediffusion. It was being said that you had quit due the loss of two big accounts and differences with the management. Would you like to clarify that?
I met a few people and then got into advertising and soon figured that it was what I always wanted to do.
As Gulzar said, ‘maazi ko maazi rehne do’ (Let past be past). I won’t speculate on those rumours. People must pass their judgments- good, bad or ugly, I will leave it to them. I am happy where I am today. For 19 years, I have cherished my time at O&M, Rediffusion Y&R and my short stint at Leo Burnett. This is my rite of passage and it is because of the richness of these organisations that I have worked with.