“We are delivering work we are proud of”

As chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia, Chris Thomas is happy to be at the helm of affairs in one of the most exciting markets for BBDO Worldwide. The region as a whole, and India, China and Indonesia, in particular, has immense growth potential and offer wonderful opportunities. Even though the revenues from India are very small, the fact that BBDO started its own subsidiary here although it had a strong partnership in the form of RKSwamy BBDO, says a lot about the importance of India in BBDO?s growth matrix. On his trip to India, he spoke to FE?s Rahul Sharma, about BBDO?s India plans. Edited excerpts:

The BBDO India subsidiary has been in existence for over two years. How has it been so far?

It?s been great so far. Effectively what we have done in the market is to create, from scratch, a new BBDO. In the roughly two and a half years of its existence we have secured a number of clients.

7UP is a key client and we are very proud of the work we are doing with them, both at the national level and the number of regional programmes in particular. Nimbooz was the big launch of last year and continues this year. Then there?s PepsiCo foods brand Aliva, also P&G Gillete, Wrigley and ICICI. It?s been a very fast start. And I think the key is that we are delivering work we are proud of. That obviously comes from big communication ideas?we are able to operate beyond just advertising and that we are able to demonstrate all over the business. I am pleased with that.

Do you think you were a bit late in starting this subsidiary?

No, because we have been here for 25-30 years with RKSwamy BBDO. So it?s been a long presence. The change of relationship we have done and the way we have launched BBDO India, but maintained partnership with RKSwamy BBDO, it actually gives us two things.

It gives us a strong Indian agency with multinational depth and great infrastructure in India. And in BBDO India we have got the younger agency, which is handling some multinational clients very well.

Why do you have this subsidiary when you have a partnership?

Because it is a very rapidly growing and competitive market. And I think it gives you the opportunity to grow overall market share. And I think it gives us a different type of offer. And we have already seen evidence of that. Our overall business in India has grown significantly in the last couple of years. That was the reason?to provide a competitive differentiated positioning as a whole.

When you launched?within a year there was a global financial crisis and an economic slowdown in India. Do you think the timing could have better?

Well, no. Obviously, the slowdown did hit the communication business around the world. It hit in India, possibly not as hard as in rest of the world. I think, what that does is, it forces a discipline in terms of client need or help more creativity, smarter thinking. I wasn?t nervous about that we were doing this in an economic time that was difficult. We may not have planned it that way but it happened.

I don?t think it affected our journey or course, if anything, it means that all our businesses around the globe, have to work smarter with their clients to help them and that?s healthy for the business and for relationships.

We are hearing about green shoots across the globe. Do you think that is happening?

I don?t think you can give a blanket answer for that. It depends by market, and what sector you are operating in. I don?t see it at the moment we speak?there are specific issues in the European countries, particularly Greece.

There are certainly, in Asian markets, particularly India and China, good year-on-year growth, but in Japan it is still relatively flat. So you can?t take one picture.

Clearly the automotive sector was very badly hit last year, there?s some evidence of recovery in that sector. I think broadly we hope 2010 is better than 2009 but I personally don?t think it?s going to be worse.

How much does India contribute to BBDO?s overall revenues?

I can?t discuss specific numbers. But it is important. The truth is it is small. However, the weight of emphasis in India is considerably greater than the proportion of revenue it gives. The reason for that is its potential. We are very committed to this market for the long term. Because the clients are building big businesses here, they need the kind of creativity that BBDO will bring and we want to partner with them in their growth. The growth engines are India and China, and I think Indonesia has got a lot of potential.

What are the recent changes in the advertising world that you notice?

I think the creative model has changed in the last few years. What we have to do as businesses is to distill down to the core your brand essence. And then you have to create content around that core idea. The process is sometimes very different now. In old days, one used to make a TV commercial, now you might get into programming, into activation, really strong retail experience, sometimes you need to have very strong collaborative partners to help work together.

Accountability and ROI (return on investment) has been particularly important in the last year or so.

What are your plans for India?

We are still very young. We are building a great team of people. We want an unfair share of limited talent. Making sure that clients we work say to their friends that ?you should work with BBDO?. That?s a great indication of success.