Bobby (Pawar) and Partha (Sinha) will be key: Nakul Chopra

Interview with Chief executive (South Asia), Publicis

Nakul Chopra, CEO, Publicis, South Asia, has effected a coup of sorts by roping in ex-JWT-hand Bobby Pawar as the director & chief creative officer of the agency, who alongwith Partha Sinha, director and chief strategy officer-designate and Ambika Srivastava, director, marketing & new business, India, will comprise the new high-powered team that will lead operations at Publicis Worldwide, the flagship agency network of the Paris-based Publicis Groupe. Chopra in this interview with Viveat Susan Pinto explains the rationale behind these high-level appointments and the ultimate goal of the agency. Edited Excerpts:

What is the brief you have given to the new management team you have put in place?

They are group-level resources who will provide their expertise to the Publicis Worldwide network in India. Bobby and Partha will be the key people when it comes to creative and strategy, two very important pillars for us. Ambika will, of course, prospect clients and also brings her years of experience in identifying new media & other areas that are evolving in marketing communications. Her role will be to help Publicis Worldwide in India to be future-ready.

Where do you see Publicis Worldwide in a few years from now?

I am very clear that I would like to see Publicis Worldwide amongst the top three agency networks in India. The Publicis Groupe, as you would know, were late entrants in India. As the flagship network of the group we have attempted to play catch-up by doing a number of things. This includes re-aligning our ad agencies following acquisition of Capital Advertising in Delhi a few years ago. Capital was merged with Publicis India to become Publicis Capital. We also have another ad agency in Publicis Ambience. Besides we have the design agency called Red Lion, the digital agency we acquired last year called iStrat and the strategic marketing consultancy called Marketgate. Going forward, I see Publicis Worldwide growing both organically and inorganically. We are looking at both levers for growth.

Now that Ashish Khazanchi has moved on from Publicis Ambience (he was vice-chairman & natonal creative director at the agency), who will take over from him?
We are in the process of identifying people. But we should most probably have a system similar to what we put in place at Publicis Capital. In the latter, there are three to four executive creative directors who manage a clutch of accounts. It is something that has worked well for us. We may look to trying this out at Publicis Ambience too.

Which are the areas that need filling up within the Publicis Worldwide network in India?

I am not in a position to tell you which areas we would be targeting because that would entail sharing my corporate strategy with you and for competitive reasons I cannot do that. But suffice to say that acquisitions would be used both to increase scale as well as to fill skill-set gaps. We are open to both.

Are you happy that the buzz around Publicis Worldwide is back?
We've always had a good set of clients here (such as Nestle, L'Oreal, Jyothy Laboratories, Apollo Tyres, Sanofi, Escorts etc). We needed senior-level resources. We have managed to get that talent in place as well. A combination of factors including good people and clients should help us move up the ladder. The COO of Publicis Groupe Jean-Yves Naouri has articulated that India is central to the group's success as it moves forward. The steps taken are in keeping with that objective.