After nearly 15 years of leading his independent agency Kinnect, Rohan Mehta has now taken on the role of chief transformation officer at Omnicom Advertising India post its merger with Interpublic Group. He talks to Christina Moniz about what makes the job of team integration in a volatile market so challenging and how the network plans to navigate market disruptions. Edited excerpts:
What are the conversations you’re having with clients during this post-merger phase?
Whenever there is a merger or a structural change, the first question clients ask is, “What changes for me?” And the answer, in most cases, is not a lot. We’re leveraging what we call the PLUS model, which is about making integration the default way of working rather than the exception.
Clients continue to work with the same account management, strategy, and creative teams leading the relationship. What changes is the ability to seamlessly bring in specialist expertise whenever it’s needed.
Most of the conversations we’re having with our clients are less about change and more about opportunity. The model is designed so that collaboration is encouraged rather than competed against.
Both the agency leading the client relationship and the teams providing specialist expertise are aligned and incentivised on the P&L to deliver the best possible outcome for the client. The agency name may evolve. The commitment to our clients remains exactly the same.
How is Omnicom Advertising navigating challenges such as shrinking ad budgets and the rise of tech tools such as Gen AI?
I’ve always believed the industry is resilient because our core function remains valuable. Today, clients expect partners who can solve across multiple touchpoints. So, the focus is not on replacing traditional strengths but on expanding them. AI is obviously a major area of focus.
I’m particularly excited about the investment Omnicom has made through Omni AI. It effectively creates a connected ecosystem where data, strategy, creativity, production and account management can learn from each other in real time. The opportunity isn’t simply automation. It’s making smarter decisions faster.
Beyond AI, we’re continuing to strengthen capabilities across customer experience, commerce, CRM, content, influencer marketing and data-driven creativity. Perhaps the most important capability, though, is talent. Future-ready organisations aren’t defined by the tools they possess.
They’re defined by how quickly their people can adapt. That’s why a huge amount of effort is going into capability building, training and knowledge sharing across the network.
According to some experts, current market conditions seem to favour independent agencies over large networks. Would you agree?
This might come from bias, because I’ve actually had the privilege of seeing both sides of the equation. For the longest time, Kinnect was an independent agency. We built it from the ground up without the backing of a large network. At the same time, having experienced life inside a global network, I’ve also seen the advantages that scale can bring.
The biggest difference is the breadth of capability and continuity. Networks have the ability to bring together specialists from multiple disciplines and make those capabilities available at scale. That effectively is my mandate.
Moreover, when major shifts happen, whether it’s AI, data or emerging technologies, networks have the ability to invest early, and create safe, scalable environments for clients to adopt those technologies. That said, I don’t think the future belongs exclusively to either independents or networks.
Ultimately, clients don’t care whether an idea comes from a small agency or a large network. They care whether it solves their problem, grows their business and creates meaningful impact. And that’s a goal both independents and networks can rally around.
How are you creating a unified organisational culture with talent from diverse teams and legacy agencies such as BBDO, TBWA\Lintas and McCann?
One of the most exciting parts of this role is the chance to work with people from different backgrounds, disciplines, and agency cultures. The mistake organisations sometimes make is trying to create uniformity. I don’t think the goal should be for everyone to think the same way.
The goal is to create enough alignment around purpose while preserving the diversity of thought that makes great work possible. Throughout my career, I’ve found that collaboration becomes much easier when people are united around outcomes rather than organisational structures.
I’ve always believed that talent is one of the greatest assets in our industry. Moving from leading a team of 600 people at Kinnect to engaging with over 3,000 professionals across the Omnicom Advertising network is incredibly energising. Once teams start seeing better outcomes for clients, stronger work and greater learning through collaboration, culture begins to build itself.
How difficult is it to negotiate this challenges when the global market is in a state of flux?
Brands today live across a much larger ecosystem that includes data, CRM, commerce, influencer marketing, content, media, technology, AI, and customer experience. My role is to ensure that the creative and strategic thinking that has always been the foundation of great agencies can seamlessly extend into all these newer areas.
So, my priorities are fairly straightforward. The first is mapping the strengths that already exist across the network. The second is scaling capabilities that are already proving successful, whether that’s around data, AI, CRM, influencer marketing or emerging technologies.
The third is helping create a more integrated operating model. Clients increasingly bring business problems and expect solutions that draw from multiple disciplines. Our job is to make that collaboration seamless.