Mumbai : After having spent over 13 years at Isobar, heading the group in South Asia and launching its India division in 2008, Shamsuddin Jasani moved to Wunderman Thompson as CEO South Asia business in November last year. He has also worked with agencies such as Hungama, Mediaturf, and Apnaloan in the past. In his new role as CEO of a creative agency, Jasani is all set to carry forward Wunderman Thompson’s legacy, while integrating it with Digital, Commerce, and Technology.

In an in-depth conversation with IndianTelevision, the industry veteran talks about the shift from a new-age agency to a traditional agency as he completes three months in office. Jasani also shares his thoughts on steering the agency through a post-pandemic world and on the key innovations adopted by the company in the new year, and the trends that might dominate the advertising and marketing industry in 2022 and beyond...

Edited excerpts…

On his priority since taking over as CEO in 2021 and vision for the agency

My first priority is just making sure that people understand and feel proud of the beautiful legacy that we have, and continue that as we go forward. Number two is how can I add a digital flavour to what's already there? We’ve been at the forefront of advertising for nine decades. My objective is to get an add-on to that with a lot more digital in there. And number three is really making sure that we are working with clients on some great creative, brave, and innovative work, and making sure that we deliver to them. And of course, powered by technology and creativity. By technology I mean marketing technologies, and from our Commerce perspective.

On the evolving landscape of the workplace and in the new post-pandemic normal

I think people have had to work harder towards creativity during the pandemic. For a lot of people, the pandemic has not taken a physical toll but a mental toll. So it's important to make sure that if any such point comes, one speaks out and seeks help.

I believe going forward the future of the workplace is going to be a hybrid model of working because we have understood the advantages of working from home and remote working. But at the same time, the advantage of coming back to the office and making sure that we're creating a great piece of work, the whole idea of an advertising community, people coming together and creating some good content, and solving things working together cannot be discounted. The human element is one of the most attractive parts of our industry, working together is such a big part of our industry. So even though digital has driven that a lot, I do feel the ideal is a mix of the two working environments. It also helps build the office culture & work culture of the organisation. It is slightly more difficult to build culture when we are not meeting people. And that’s where I think the hybrid model will work better.

On new client wins or brand association or any major campaigns in 2021

Tata Pravesh is one of the campaigns we did that need to be mentioned, especially because it was very relevant in 2021 due to the pandemic. The second one that we are really proud of is our PepsiCo India campaign, again because of the circumstances then. And then there was Tata steel. There are a lot more coming out in the next few months. Last year Vedanta was a big win for us that happened, Sun Pharma is another big one. There’s also Dell, Shell India, TataSky, L&T Realty, so the list goes on- all clients are important to us and it's been a great year in 2021. And we continue that as we go into 2022, with a lot more focus on digital.

On major trends that the advertising and media industry witnessed.

Clearly the pickup in terms of digital and commerce during the pandemic has changed things like never before. A fundamental shift has happened in the way that people are transacting and communicating, using their devices more than ever before. What has primarily changed over the last two years, was the adoption of technology. Adoption of digital has happened across the board, across consumer demographics that were missing earlier. Also, the lines between what is physical and what is digital consumption is getting blurred. So the strategy for us is that we are going to be ‘media agnostic’. So digital is not going to be an afterthought- we need to think what’s the best strategy for the client and adapt it to the right kind of medium.

And, commerce has driven a lot of that change. How can we help clients make sure that they are leveraging their communication? So every brand experience that I'm creating for clients’ needs to also have some element on getting them to buy, whether it’s in the physical environment or in the digital environment. That's the other thing that's very important for us.

On digital vs TV ad spend in 2022

The whole idea of ‘what is digital’ needs rethinking, because a lot of content consumption is happening through the digital pipe. Even TV consumption is happening through apps and not necessarily through Linear TV, and that's increasing. The whole idea of linear TV and appointment viewership is going to change. When you consume television through a digital pipe, do you call that television or do you call that digital?

And that is where a different approach needs to come in where you need to be agnostic about it and say, this is how I need to reach my customer. My consumers have already moved. Having said that, yes, digital has come of age. The overall pie of digital is going up and the speed at which digital is growing, will go further up and I think the biggest numbers will come when the IPL rights for digital come out. We are expecting a huge jump in digital rights, in terms of the money that’s going to come in. And that will clearly show how much digital has moved.

And again, in the last two years, the OTT adoption has been phenomenal, with new-age players like Netflix coming out with India-specific packages, where they are reducing the rates. And then the other big driver is that over the last two years, the amount of original content that's available on OTTs has spiked, not just English content, Hindi and regional content has really driven a lot of that too.

But also I think content consumption is at that inflection point where I think TV is still growing in India today. And I still am coming back to the point that it will be very difficult to segregate between what is digital spend and what’s television spend. I think we need to aggregate it and say, this is “video spend” - what I'm going to spend on video. And I think that's where the change needs to happen.

On the rise of influencer marketing

It’s taking the age-old KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and putting them online. What has changed is the medium, how can I use the KOLs to really talk about it and how can I use those influencers to take my content strategy, make the center of the strategy, and make sure that I am talking to as many people and influencing as many people as possible. So influencer marketing and content strategy need to be there in all clients and all agencies- big, small and medium- It’s a big part of what we are driving forward. A lot of brands are clearly wanting to do it. And we are working with brands to be able to bring that to life. So, yes, it's very important.

On the emergence of new brand categories during the pandemic

Most of the new brand categories belong to the digital-first category. Whether you're talking about food tech, or whether you're talking about e-commerce or the FinTech and crypto brands – all of these are something that belongs to the newer generation of technology. I think in the last two years, and especially coming to what happened in the last IPL- 80 per cent of the advertising was pretty much cryptocurrencies that I could see. So although they are digital-first, from a reach and a brand-building perspective, they are still spending a lot on television, a lot on video and want to work with agencies like us because at the end of the day brands matter the most.

Another shift that has happened is that Bangalore is coming up as a new place of “advertising destination”. The huge startup revolution that’s happened there is fuelling the growth. Because of the new-age companies sprouting there, a lot of brands are also coming from Bangalore, as opposed to Mumbai & Delhi which were always dominating the advertising space. So it’s not just the shift in categories, but it's also a shift of where it’s coming from.

On venturing into NFTs and the metaverse, and what opportunities it holds for brands and marketers

NFT is growing, no doubt, but I think the real opportunity for brands lies in the Metaverse. That's about creating an entire existence, a way of life, which is going to exist a lot more on digital.  There are a lot of transactions that are going to be only happening in that space without anything happening in the physical space. How are we going to drive digital commerce, which means how are we going to drive assets that are being only sold on digital and consumed on digital in the Metaverse? Also, how we connect it back to the physical space is going to be important, how does that relate to creating brands in people’s heads.

It's an opportunity for brands, and it's going to be a first-mover basis - whoever goes in there first might be able to create a great experience. So, we are extremely gung-ho about it, we have been thought leaders globally in the metaverse, have got a lot of published articles, and have been doing a lot in that space. In India as well we are working very hard with how to bring it alive. It's a new space and we are trying to work with brands. It'll take a little time to take off, but once it does, I think the sky's the limit.

On the way forward for the agency and any key announcements in the new year

A. From a growth perspective, we've clearly said in the next three years we are going to double our size (in terms of revenue). Now to fuel that objective, of course, parts of the business are going to play a bigger role. But at the end of the day, at the center of it, we are a creative agency. How do we make sure that when we are working with our clients, whether it’s in the digital space or traditional when you talk about creating great customer experiences, creativity is always going to be at the core of what we offer? So that's never going to go away.

Two parts of our business that are going to grow are the MarTech business and the commerce business. Something that's coming up is an announcement in the healthcare space. Health is going to be a very critical and very important part of our growth ambitions in 2022 and 2023. You will hear about it hopefully in the next two to three weeks, in terms of our foray into that. So I think that's going to be critical as well. At the end of the day, I think the big drivers are going to be Health, Technology, Commerce along with the Creative business, which is already its core part.

And finally, to fuel the growth, we would also be looking at acquisitions, by scaling acquisitions in data, MarTech technology, UI UX and consumer experience, and in Commerce- these are the main areas of acquisitions that we're looking at to fuel our growth ambitions that are going to come from both organic as well as from acquisitions.