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| Interview with Madison
Media chief operating officer (North and South), C. V. L. Srinivas |
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"Most
clients and media professionals fear to take the 'innovative'
route. There is hardly any risk taking"
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| Posted
on 21 June 2003 |
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The
presence of the Indian tricolor in the office of Madison Media's
chief operating officer (North and South), CVL Srinivas epitomises
the fact that it is the only Indian media specialist which is competently
battling against a clutch of globally affiliated players in the
segment.
Madison,
an agency that entirely depends on indigenous tools and processes,
labels transparency and honesty as the cornerstones of its work
ethic. Managing business worth Rs 5500 million from 16 clients,
Madison claims to never enter into a "pooled deal" and
has never "hidden discounts".
Srinivas,
an integral part of the Madison team, spoke to indiantelevision.com's
Ritesh
Gupta
on why Madison has performed well in the recent past, the agency's
growth in Delhi, work ethics and his career. Excerpts:
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Why
do you think Madison, which seems to be a thorn in flesh of MindShare,
has performed so well in the recent past?
Firstly, Madison has been in the 'media' business longer than anybody
else in India. Procter&Gamble has been Madison's AOR client
since 1994, making it the longest uninterrupted run in an AOR-client
relationship in India. Over the years we have perfected the art
of media management.
Secondly,
we have remained very focused - Rs 5.5 billion billing from just
16 clients. This has ensured high quality and involvement. Thirdly
we attract good talent - Madison is a very aspirational place for
young, fresh creative minds in media.
Another
reason is our unique structure, we have two COOs ensuring clients
across the country have adequate top-management input. The fact
that we are a purely Indian agency also has its benefit - we believe
we understand the Indian media market better than most, since we
don't get clouded by foreign tools and practices.
And
most importantly - Sam Balsara. He makes a big, big difference.
Sam understands media better than anybody else I know, and his leadership
makes Madison Media an outstanding place.
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The
whole agency must be proud of the fact that Madison has no foreign
affiliation and all tools are indigenous.
That's very true. Tools made abroad look good in pitch presentations,
and might even fool a client or two initially. But in the long run,
it's the agency's ground strengths, their understanding of the Indian
media market, which makes a big difference. We cannot depend on
a London or Hong Kong or New York to send us a media package or
a media tool. We have to develop tools and frameworks on our own.
Madison
invests time and money to understand the intricacies of the media
market. The Madison Media Research Center was set up to help the
front end teams offer better quality media inputs to clients. Madison
was the first agency to develop a TV Program rating predictor tool.
Several other tools like Mcube and Town&Country framework have
made our media product more holistic.
MNC
clients, like P&G, Coke, Perfetti and ABN Amro, have the option
to work with globally aligned media agencies but they chose Madison,
and are continuing with Madison. This proves beyond doubt that Madison
is more than adequately equipped to handle any media business.
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How
much has Delhi contributed to Madison's share and how is the market
here shaping up?
Madison opened a Delhi branch in 1998, when Coke shifted from Mumbai
to Delhi. Those days we were a four client-agency, with the other
three clients being handled from Mumbai. I joined Madison in mid-1998,
and after six months in Mumbai, moved to Delhi in early 1999. That's
when Madison Media split into two operating units, I was given charge
of the non-Mumbai clients, and Punitha Arumugam took charge of the
Mumbai based clients.
Over
the past five years we have grown our client base to 16, with seven
clients in Delhi, six in Mumbai and three in Bangalore. Delhi has
contributed significantly to Madison media's growth over the years.
We
do see a lot of growth potential in Delhi. But it would be a mix
of big, medium and small advertisers who will contribute to this
growth.
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| "Tools
made abroad look good in pitch presentations, and might even
fool a client or two initially. But in the long run, it's the
agency's ground strengths, their understanding of the Indian
media market which makes a big difference" |
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Can
you take us through growth in Delhi?
The first big achievement was winning a larger share of the Coke
media pie 1999. Coke was the first big advertiser who looked to
combine media planning with buying. Madison was Coke's buying AOR
since '96, and each 'creative agency' did their own strategic planning.
In 1999 March we pitched against McCann, Carat and Leo Burnett Media
(now called Starcom). We won the pitch and became Coke's single
media partner, handling both strategic media planning and buying
for all brands. This was a big win…not only did we get to handle
the entire media chain for Coke, it helped Madison transform from
a buying agency into a buying cum planning agency. Madison soon
converted most 'buying only' accounts into 'planning cum buying'
accounts. We focused the early years in Delhi on establishing the
system for Coke.
We
began actively looking to expand our client base from mid-2000.
We picked up the TV implementation and buying business of Maruti
in 2000, the planning and buying accounts of Perfetti in 2000, Domino's
in 2001, ABN Amro Bank in 2002, Somany group in 2002 and Ozone Ayurvedics
in 2002. During the same period we picked up BPL, Nissin Foods and
IFB appliances in our Bangalore branch.
Coke
meanwhile, shifted it's marketing department to Mumbai. So today
my team on Coke is Mumbai-based. We have retained the two divisions
as before, with Coke, Delhi clients and Bangalore clients forming
one division which I look after and the Mumbai based clients forming
the other division.
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And
how much two divisions billings would be?
The total Madison billing of approximately Rs 5.5 billion with the
western division probably a bit ahead in terms of billing.
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Has
Madison's strike rate increased vis-à-vis big media shops
such as MindShare and others?
If you mean strike rate in terms of winning new accounts - yes.
We've been having a good run of late. Punitha and team in Mumbai
have done a fantastic job winning blue chip accounts against stiff
competition.
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What
about work ethics at Madison?
Transparency
and honesty are the cornerstones of Madison's work ethic. Right
from the start, Madison has provided supporting supplier bills when
it bills clients, so that our clients know what they are getting
charged for. In fact, we won a business in Delhi on just this one
practice of ours! Madison never enters into a "pooled deal"
which has "hidden discounts" which the clients don't get
to see.
Work
ethics in any organisation are shaped by the founder…the leader.
In Sam Balsara we not only have a visionary and a great leader,
but also the gold standard when it comes to work ethics.
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| "Due
to the phased introduction of CAS,the pace of developments,
initially, will outstrip the pace of information availability,
so planners will have to cope with ambiguity. So it's not just
scientific planning, but the ability to work with limited information
that will be the key" |
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And
Madison never gets into pooled deals?
No. It is against our work ethic. All deals are done with the full
knowledge of our clients.
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As
you say, Madison has very transparent operations. How would you
position Madison in short?
I would say Madison may not be the biggest media agency in India
but is definitely the best. There is no doubt about it.
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Coming
to CAS, how are you going about it?
We have worked out various strategies, but with so many variables
controlling CAS, the exact plan of action will have to be rolled
out closer to 14 July.
Due
to the phased introduction, CAS will not change things for media
planners all in one go. Initially, the pace of developments will
outstrip the pace of information availability, so planners will
have to cope with ambiguity. So it's not just scientific planning,
but the ability to work with limited information that will be the
key. We are preparing our teams for this.
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What
you do have to say on functioning of media and secondly on criticism
of media independent houses?
My answer to both is that we are not in the age of specialisation
but in the age of `super-specialisation'. Looking back at all the
developments in the last 10 years… media was bound to become
a super-speciality job.
Media
Independent houses were born out of this need for super-specialists.
Before
answering the criticism bit, let me first say that the term 'Media
Independent' is quite misleading… most such agencies in India
are just 'rebranded' media departments of large advertising agencies,
and most of their clients are their creative clients. Madison is
truly 'Media Independent' since all our 16 big clients are media
standalone businesses.
There
are at least four strong reasons for having Media Agencies (or 'Media
Independents'):
1) Media is too specialised a job today. So many complexities, changes,
…it needs time, energy, effort and investment …and therefore
focus
2) Media Agencies give rational, dispassionate advice to clients
as they more often than not are guided by logic, rationale and research.
Without a media agency, clients can at times get carried away…
3)With so much of proliferation in media, many advertising ideas
today can be "media-led"
4)Media Agencies with clear cut deliverables bring in a lot of accountability
to the biggest expense head.
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| "We
are not in the age of specialisation but in the age of `super-specialisation'.
Media Independent houses were born out of this need for super-specialists" |
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How
would you rate work done by fellow media professionals? Is there
enough innovation?
Media is still evolving, although there is much more interest in
the function today than when I started. Overall, we have made great
strides in media measurement, research and planning.
Innovative
use of media however is still quite limited. It's a pity, but most
clients and media professionals fear to take the "innovative"
route. There is hardly any risk taking.
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What's
most satisfying moment in your career?
It
was when we won the Coke planning cum buying account in 1999. I
was new to Madison, to Delhi and to Coke, and we were up against
the global media agencies of Coke - McCann, Carat and Leo Burnett.
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Which
is your most memorable campaign?
Working out the media strategy for the recent 'Thanda Matlab…'
campaign gave my team and myself a real high. The big challenge
was to use the creative strengths of the campaign in media planning.
We did some breakthrough work.
Another
memorable experience was developing the first 'Pond's Women's day'
media property while at Fulcrum. It won us a White-pea -
JWT's international media innovation award.
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Lastly,
on personal front, how has your career shaped up?
After my Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani, I got a job with
the TVS group in Bangalore. I worked for a couple of years and then
pursued my MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. I got into 'media' purely
by accident - my summer project while at XLRI, was at Lintas Bangalore
on the Brooke Bond account. Lintas offered me a job after the project,
so I came back from XLRI and started my media career with them.
After working for a year, I moved to HTA. Here I got an opportunity
to be a part of Fulcrum - the dedicated AOR for HLL. It was a great
experience to be a part of a startup AOR on India's biggest advertiser.
The Madison break came to me at a time when I was wanting to shift
gears and move ahead. Madison gave me an opportunity to manage media
as a business, nurture client relationships and build on the basics.
Working with Sam was the biggest bonus - it has added a lot to me,
both as a professional and as an individual. All in all it has been
great fun.
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