She has built many global brands and in the process, an image of a performer for herself and her employer of past 30 years, Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) Worldwide. Her name figures in the list of 50 most powerful women across the world, compiled by Fortune magazine. The chairman of the world?s third largest advertising network, which is part of the UK-based marketing communica- tions groups WPP Plc, Shelly Lazarus was in India recently. In a free-wheeling interaction with FE?s Radhika Sachdev, she talks about the lessons learnt from the economic downturn, imminent recovery, media integration and her own future at O&M. Edited excerpts:
How did O&M manage to weather last year?s storm?
It was a tough year undoubtedly, but we did not, like the others, blast away at the costs. We also brought in more efficiency into our work.
At a time, when easy procurement prompted many clients to cut costs by 20-30%, we introduced RedWorks, Ogilvy?s specialist online production management arm established last year that operates mainly from Bangladesh and Argentina. RedWorks adapts existing material to local, country needs. As a Dove client said, the need sometimes is to reapply existing pack shots to Poland market.
Does that not take you into a dangerous territory of copy-right violations?
No, no, you have misunderstood. All this is client material, copyrighted by them. We simply adapt it to another market, adhering, of course, to the broad brand guidelines. Early on, we realised that there is a growing need for this kind of a service. A lot of our clients were doing it anyway. Nearly 20% of their advertising budget was going into regional adaptations. The world?s biggest FMCG player, Unilever, does it all the time. Unilever now spends about 20% of its $3 billion ad budget on ?production on production.? We just made the service more legitimate by offering it under Ogilvy quality stamp.
From the client?s perspective, it?s not just more cost-effective, it also gives quality control over the final output. We found people in the agency who are creatively challenged by this kind of work.
Will the need for RedWorks last beyond recession?
It will. As I mentioned, the demand for this service grew so fast during recession, that everyone thought it?s a product of recession. But, actually, its not. We figured there was a huge need for quality adaptation work, where the core idea would have to remain intact, but it had to be bending to culture-specific, local needs.
Has there been a drop in advertising demand in India as well?
There has been, but not to the extent our Indian clients anticipated. They perhaps expected a bigger drop and over a time, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There is still a huge amount of uncertainty prevailing in the market, but India is recovering now. As for the West, it may take another quarter or two, or maybe more. The good thing about these cycles is that they are cyclic in nature. The FMCG companies knew they had to keep spending during the recession and the finance/insurance and auto companies are gradually coming back to us.
Why are clients so very hung-up on integrated marketing these days?
I believe that no client is going to trade off expertise for integration. We have domain experts in every field that huddle in a room to brainstorm, but after they have discovered an idea, they move back into their respective cubicles to execute those ideas in their own manner, as experts in their respective domains. I think, there is a creativity that goes through people of all media. On a simplistic level, creative people know how the medium is consumed and execute their work, accordingly.
Certain creative outputs, however, do not lend themselves to every media format. Take Zoo zoos for instance. It may work fantastically on television, but does it really work in print or outdoors?
That may be true, but that?s exactly the creative challenge before us. In 360-degree advertising, an idea must supersede all media vehicles. Unless you have an idea, it doesn?t really matter how many places you go to. The creative challenge is to make everything work seamlessly on all media platforms and wait; very soon, you will get to see Zoozoos work on other creative platforms, as well.
You started your career on the client side with Clairo. How did that help?
It helped enormously. Even now, when I see our people getting extremely involved in their work, and the client is perceived as ?over-demanding,? I ask them not to get irritated. As managers of brands, they are under so much pressure, if the agency people don?t offer themselves as their best friends, who will? We have to be their allies and help them with all the internal selling, before we go out to the consumer. Truth is, I don?t believe in creativity for creativity sake. Our minimum requirement from any advertising job is that it moves the needle for the client. If you haven?t achieved that; you haven?t achieved anything.
Thirty years, which include 11 years in a leadership position, is a long time to serve an employer. How come, you never hit the glass ceiling?
That?s surprising, isn?t it? Especially since, when I entered this field, there were practically no women in advertising. Actually, I think, it helped me. A bulk of the products, were being sold to women. At times, I used to be the only woman in the board room and I could strongly smell the deal coming to us, when someone in the room would turn around to say,? Tell us Shelly, what would women think about this product?? I knew, even then that there were people in that room, who could never imagine a woman as a leader of a team. The thought would never cross their minds. Yet, since David Ogilvy had set a culture of true meritocracy in place, I did not face any challenge on that score. This just goes to prove that we really don?t need any extra help to get ahead; just a level playing field.
Miles Young, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Asia Pacific, has been named your successor. What role do you see for yourself from this point on?
I didn?t know I was retiring! Young takes over as CEO, while I remain the chairman. Period.
Any plans to open new offices in India?
My only justification for opening a branch anywhere in India, or any other place would be to access talent. If the local team convinces me of that outcome, I would have no objection to opening another office. In India, I have a most trusted lieutenant in Piyush Pandey and am happy with whatever decisions he takes in this regard.
Your most valuable lesson in these 30 years?
Nothing is more valuable to a company than its brand.
At O&M, you are proud of?
Our culture; that?s stronger than ever.