It is unfair to compare wins at Goafest with wins at Cannes: Pratap Bose

Interview with COO, DDB MUDRA GROUP

Five years ago, veteran adman Pratap Bose quit the country's largest advertising agency O&M to join Mudra Communications. After spending 17 years at O&M, Bose became its youngest CEO at the age of 44. At Mudra, Bose, designated as COO of the group, oversaw its transition from an independent Indian agency to one that is now majority-controlled by the world's second-largest advertising network Omnicom. He did this alongwith Group CEO & MD Madhukar Kamath. Bose tells Viveat Susan Pinto, the challenges of managing this transition (to DDB Mudra Group) and why India performs poorly in digital at awards shows:

You have just completed five years at DDB Mudra. How have the years been?

It's been hectic and extremely engaging. The first three years whistled by when I was mandated with rustling up Mudra Max into a large experiential and engagement agency. The last two were spent under a new regime. The focus of a large holding company is different from an independent agency. When you are independent, not too many questions asked of you. You are entrepreneurially-led and as long as you are making progress and are profitable, things are fine. When you are part of a holding company, the scenario is different. Everything is mandated from creative to operations. But the upside is that you are part of a worldwide network and hence, have access to their technologies, resources and proprietary research. There are many best practices that you can imbibe from the parent.

Many in the industry point out that DDB Mudra's creative graph has plummeted following the acquisition of a majority stake by Omnicom...

Yes, there has been a slight drop (in performance) on the creative awards front. But the intent is to go back to the glory days. Sonal (Dabral) recently completed a year at DDB Mudra (as chairman and chief creative officer). He would need some time to set things right. Bobby (Pawar) had joined the agency a year and a half before I did. By the time I came on board (in 2008), he was ready to take off with his creative output and that ensured a great partnership resulting in the agency doing well at the awards shows (read: Abbies and Cannes). Sonal is working conscientiously to ensure that we do well on the awards front. But our purpose is to not to win metals alone. Our priority is to do good work across brands.

But is it easy when rivals walk away with all the accolades at awards shows?
We were the most-awarded Indian agency at Cannes in 2011 and 2012, besides doing well at local awards shows such as Goafest. This year, we were not the biggest at Cannes. But as I pointed out, the emphasis is to do cutting-edge work across categories. It is a fine balancing act. Let me add that while our performance has dipped slightly in the traditional creative award, we continue to win in the non-advertising space such as out-of-home, events, activation, promotions, digital or media, wherever we have entered our work.

How do you explain India's poor run in new categories such as digital in international award shows such as Cannes?
That is true. As a country, we have traditionally done well in print and outdoor. While we have to up our game in other categories, it is unfair to compare what you win at Goafest to what you win at Cannes. There are so many people vying for metals there, which makes it harder to win at Cannes. Which is why even if your work bags a shortlist at Cannes, it is a big thing. You have jury members coming from different parts of the world so perspectives on creativity differ.

DDB Mudra has built its non-advertising services in-house. Will you look at acquisitions?
We are not against acquisitions. If there is a match of minds and if there is a strategic fit, then we will look at it. We are proud to have built our capabilities in-house. This has allowed us to make the transition from being just an ad agency to a marketing services company. These are businesses that also give you more margins as the pressure on advertising revenues grows.