Early this year when Dentsu Inc. bought out the 26 per cent equity stake held by Mogae Consultants? Sandeep Goyal in Dentsu?s India operations, it marked a strategic shift in the $765.11-million (58,967.1-million yen) Tokyo based advertising company’s plans for India. Seiichiro Hayata, then acting chairman and now executive vice-chairman, Dentsu India, had said that the deal was extremely important for Dentsu?s long-term plans for India. ?To be able to develop new business operations and facilitate the necessary investment required having free discretionary powers to make and implement business judgments rapidly, so we moved to 100%. We also wanted to raise our service delivery quality for our clients. We accelerated our investment in India in order to expand our service range, and utilise our headquarter?s cutting edge marketing methods and technology to do that,? Hayata had told BrandWagon.
Dentsu India has been quietly working towards that goal. Initially, the company did seem to have hit a roadblock, when several members of the core team left for greener pastures. April saw the likes of Gullu Sen, executive vice-chairman and chief creative officer, Dentsu India, and Nitin Suri, national creative director, Dentsu Marcom and president, Dentsu India put in their papers. In December last year, Naresh Gupta, the then director, strategy and planning, Dentsu Marcom had left the agency to join Cheil Worldwide as national head, planning. Apparently there was a loss of leadership on top. But the Japanese agency has bounced back. Just a few months after going solo, the agency seems to have learnt to combat doubts about its potential to make the right moves in the country?s Rs 25,000 crore advertising and media industry. In the last few months, Dentsu Communications, one of the agencies of Dentsu India, has picked up a couple of new clients ? UIDAI and Ingersoll Rand. Around 50% of Dentsu India’s clients today are Indian brands and the Japanese agency is looking to increase that number.
?Sustainable change that is progressive for business cannot be brought about overnight. It takes strong commitment and consistent, dedicated effort. Creating the right creative approach and working environment are among our list of India priorities. Our strong focus on people and talent has been streamlined under a centralised HR function. We are currently working to make each of these functions even stronger. The initial steps to integrate India into our global network are showing signs of success,? says Yuzuru Kato, chairman, Dentsu India Group. As part of these efforts, the company announced its biggest appointment in June this year by roping in Rohit Ohri as executive chairman.
Besides Ohri, Dentsu has made a slew of senior appointments in the past few months including Sunita Prakash who has joined as vice president, account management, Dentsu Marcom; Narayan Devanathan, national planning head, Dentsu Marcom; Ashwin Parthiban, executive creative director, Dentsu Communications, Bangalore; Rajesh Bhargava, general manager – studio and production, Dentsu Marcom and Glen Ireland, CEO, Dentsu Digital. As Dentsu India became a 100% subsidiary of one of the world?s largest advertising company, top management met and informed clients about the development and implications. Chairman Kato also met with clients during his India visit in March this year to share Dentsu’s India plans about enhancing service deliveries to clients.
?We have been working with Dentsu for close to five years now and it has truly been an adventurous journey,? Manish Sharma ? director sales and marketing, Panasonic India. Dentsu has been handling the creative duties for the corporate account as well as the home appliances and business solutions such as telephone handsets and fax machines. ?The agency has been able to understand our business requirements and deliver accordingly to ensure business growth through its services. It has definitely adapted to latest trends and work styles to suit the market needs which brings in fresh approach and energy in their work,? he adds.
With clients such as Toyota, Maruti Suzuki and Panasonic among others, Dentsu India has done well in attracting consumer electronics/durables and automotive companies. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) is the next category that the agency will target seriously in India and this is where Ohri comes in the picture. It may be recalled that he was spearheading the Pepsi account during his last stint at JWT.
According to Ohri, FMCG is the acid test of any agency?s creativity as many times these products hardly have differentiators. Acecook, Calbee Foods, Hanamaruki, and Kikkoman are a few Japanese companies in the food category that have shown interest in the Indian market. Also, Japanese trade body Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) has been studying the Indian consumer’s preferences in the FMCG sector.
To understand the Indian FMCG consumer, Jetro conducts sampling of Japanese products in supermark-ets such as Big Bazaar, Hypercity and Godrej?s Nature?s Basket. Apparently, India is moving on to the next chapter of its relationship with Japan and FMCG will be the highlight this time. Dentsu wants to be a part of this and will do its best to attract both Indian and Japanese companies, especially the latter who will need its support to crack the country?s Rs 85,000 crore FMCG market dominated by the likes of Hindustan Unilever and ITC.
Dentsu India may have broken itself into three agencies, namely, Dentsu Creative Impact, Dentsu Marcom and Dentsu Communica-tions, but all of them follow a single vision. Naresh Gupta, head, brand strategy, iYogi, who was earlier with Dentsu Marcom ,observes how there has been a change in the way people perceive Dentsu after the change of guard. ?Earlier it was an agency that had Japanese accounts, and some Indian brands. It was more homegrown, and very few thought it to be a MNC brand. It is now seen as network agency that has Japanese brands. Generally people think the future of the agency will be different than what has been till now. It is now possibly a true Japanese agency.? According to him, there?s no reason to believe that foreign talent can?t be good for India. They can be useful, because they have different perspectives, experiences, problem solving ability and approach to communication.
Says Ohri, ?Dentsu is willing to rely on the local talent to come up with solutions for clients. Unlike the Western ad networks where expatriates live by the conviction that they can meddle and fix everything, the stakeholders here allow us to shape the agency?s destiny in India.?
On his first visit to the agency?s headquarters in Tokyo, Ohri was impressed at witnessing Dentsu?s grip on Japan?s advertising market. ?It was fascinating to see complete media neutrality in ideas and the right integration of creative, digital and design. The agency has also mastered the use of futuristic mediums like the mobile platform,? he adds. Discipline is key to the agency?s work culture and to make this a part of creative process will be the biggest challenge. When asked how he will strike a balance between the Japanese and Indian working styles, Ohri explains that creativity is chaos and out of this comes great ideas. ?When you are too disciplined, the output tends to appear predictable. Dentsu has been a client-led agency rather than servicing-led and we will focus on creativity with a fresh approach,? he says. As part of his visit, Ohri also addressed a gathering of 133 Japanese clients on how to crack the Indian market.
Previously Dentsu may have faced challenges in terms of getting the right talent on board but things are set to change in Ohri?s reign. Ohri believes that the agency?s brand equity remains intact post its split from Mogae. ?I have appointed many people in our top management and we will announce these early next year. Then I will focus on fostering a creative working culture and make Dentsu an idea-friendly organisation by listening to the creatives more often. All this is important because great work coming from great talent will elevate Dentsu?s status in India and worldwide,? he says. Ohri seems to be in the right place as he has all the support from Tokyo and the Japanese bosses are keeping all the promises they made.
Hayata shares how the agency will now invest more in India to reinforce its capability and expand its base. ?We will upgrade our service culture to meet client demands. Our expertise in digital and future partnership with Indian companies will go a long way in building our reputation in country?s vast advertising landscape,? he says.
For research and development, Dentsu has a strong Global Solutions Centre that works with the likes of Apple and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to create innovative communication channels for clients. The main objective of the Global Solutions Centre is to encourage independent local operation and keep all the offices within the network on the same page with regards to innovations. This is not necessarily done to come up with a solution to an existing challenge but to know what consumers may need in the future. For India, the solutions centre plans on importing tried and tested innovations on the mobile platform from Japan.
Koichi Yamamoto, general manager, Global Solutions Center, Dentsu Inc., explains how the agency has learned to make the best of every situation, especially the earthquake that had hit the east coast of Japan in March. As part of the short term effect, there was no advertising initially. But the key learning from the calamity was that Japanese consumers, till now obsessed with materialistic things (gadgets and fashion) were turning with renewed faith to family and friendship. ?This made us rethink the way we advertise for consumers post 3/11,? says Yamamoto. Social media has been instrumental in the economy?s recovery. Newspapers have regained their place to a certain extent as people wanted to know every version of the catastrophe that had happened.
There are no fixed job descriptions in Dentsu Inc. So it?s no surprise if one comes across a planner helping out his colleagues with event conceptualisation or cutting a TVC in the studio. Going forward, the agency is open to the idea of partnering with Indian technology companies. ?In today?s environment, no agency can grow in isolation. I can?t even put a number to the partnerships Dentsu already has in Japan. In India, people in advertising come from a diverse background and that?s a big advantage for us to grow as we are less headquarter driven,? he adds.
If that?s not all, the agency has a plan of action in place to bring on a lot more experienced talent on board across various functions. For existing employees, a new appraisal and talent assessment system was introduced earlier this year. Several talent recognition and development programmes are in planning stages. Additionally, in order to attract young minds towards advertising, Dentsu India will soon select students from premier Indian business schools and provide them with an opportunity to intern at its companies.