Carat has ambitious targets for India

Q&A/KIM WALKER

, the chief operating officer of Carat Asia Pacific, who oversees the Indian operations as well, was recently in the country to take stock of the business opportunities in India.

With clients such as Bharti Telecom, Max New York Life, Dabur and Adidas, Walker expects Carat India to grow at about 80 per cent this year. He says the Indian company is more robust, transparent and professional than it was a year ago.

"Besides, at an operational level, we are providing assistance to the management team here in training people and in sharing resources."

Walker spoke to Business Standard about his growth strategies for Carat India.

What are the immediate expansion plans for Carat India?

Carat India already has a minority stake in sports and celebrity marketing company Percept D'Mark. We are in the process of developing a new, out-of-home business in the country.

Outdoor that goes beyond just hoardings, is what we call out-of-home media. Our international out-of-home brand is called Posterscope.

That will be introduced in India through a joint venture. We are in the process of acquiring a majority stake in a small start-up to launch Posterscope.

Are you looking at launching some other services as well?

The other new areas we are looking at are interactive space, customer relationship management and field activation.

The latter includes carrying out sampling exercises, taking the brands to remote areas and creating events and activities around them.

Does Carat have existing global brands in these areas?

No. Not in all of them. But at some stage, we will have one in each one of these.

Besides, we want to grow in our core area "" media. For this we are exploring different options "" joint ventures and acquisitions. We have very ambitious growth targets for India this year.

We would like to see this company grow by 80 per cent. This would be partly through organic growth and partly through new business.

Are media agencies going beyond media buying and planning?

Media buying was followed by the strategic planning revolution about five years ago. However, now media agencies of the future will be triangular.

Today, for instance, media agencies focus on the consumer and the media. On the other hand, for the creative agencies the touch points are brands and the consumers.

What we want to look at now is brands, consumers and media. That process is called communications planning, and that's the next big wave, certainly at Carat.

At the global level, we have produced processes and tools to support that thinking. We will roll these out throughout our operations.

What do you include in communications planning?

It goes beyond pure media "" on how a brand could best interact with the life of a consumer in every way "" above-the-line, below-the-line, through-the-line.

The idea is to go all over the place to touch the consumer at the most appropriate time and place to influence his decision on brands. Communications planning does not prefer one media or channel over another.

Has communications planning evolved in developed markets?

It exists, yes. But it hasn't evolved. There are just one or two agencies in the UK that I can think of. One of them called Naked has succeeded in this area.

Will communications planning be a branded service for Carat?

Yes. But I can't announce the brand just yet. We will offer everything that a full-service agency used to offer earlier with the exception of creatives. But by the end of it, we might outsource even that.

So will Carat become a full-service agency instead of being a media independent?

I would say this is an issue that has been tossed about in the boardroom. It is not a simple yes and no answer. But we do believe in the benefits of being a media independent as we are.