Q&A: Rishad Tobaccowala, VivaKi

'India is the petri dish for future tech'

In 2008, the Publicis Groupe chose to bring its media and digital agencies under one brand, VivaKi. But, little did it anticipate the downturn later in the year. However, VivaKi emerged from the crisis with more brands under its wings and is now making inroads into India. Rishad Tobaccowala, the chief strategy and innovation officer, discussed with Sayantani Kar designs for India. Edited excerpts:

What is your team like in India? Why is India important to you?
VivaKi in India can tap 750 people from all our different agencies, apart from a light core team. India is important for us because of the middle class demographics. Then, 10 of the next 50 brands in the next 10 years will come from India, either global brands or brands created by Indian companies. India also leapfrogged to become the world’s second-largest market for mobile (after China) and social media (after the US). In importance, it over-indexes relative to its financial impact for us. It is the petri dish for future technology and ideal for us. Fifty two per cent of our global revenue comes from digital, with half of the 17,000 employees in digital arms. So, we are geared up for a future driven by such leapfrogging.

Everyone wants India on their map. What will be the challenges for you?
We don’t have a fair share of our global clients in India because we can’t claim that much traction. So, the challenge is how do you make this model work, when you may not have the usual clients. We will also need more of our world-class processes such as ‘audience on demand’. We will invest in our brands and people. We are not among the top two players in India. We tend to be among the top two around the world. So, we have to fix that.

How do you plan to fix it?
There will be a combination of three things. We will convince clients of our differentiating strategy, with our brands working together. We will also scale up and launch additional capabilities. Third, we will buy stuff. No, I can’t say if there is anything in the offing yet.

What about the mindset of your employees to accept this idea of collaborating with other agencies?
We are training them across all our brands, building expertise in different areas, sharing information on common portals. We will not have a separate strategy for India, so everybody better get on board. The teams also know we need to do something different in India because we are not a major player here. They will be sharing anything that is not client-confidential. Zenith, for example, will bank on Performix, which is their performance marketing company, while Starcom will emphasise on planning.

How open are the clients in India to such ideas of collaboration?
This is a client need that is the same all over the world. Clients don’t believe one company, including one media agency, can do it all. Just that the emphasis changes depending on their markets. In India, the emphasis is still on traditional media. So, it is more about discovery. Hence, the interest in social media is more about discovering what it could do for them, whereas in markets abroad, the emphasis is on how can they get additional leverage of their social media presence.