We are staring at a wire-free communication era: Sandeep Goyal

Interview with adman

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Sandeep Goyal, ex-chairman & joint venture partner of Dentsu in India, is preparing to make a  comeback after a hiatus of four years. His non-compete clause with Dentsu, which bought his entire stake in early 2011, ends in January next year. He discusses his plans, where the ad sector stands and the way forward for it,  with Viveat Susan Pinto. Edited excerpts:

There has been speculation about you re-joining Rediffusion, an agency you worked with earlier.  Are you looking to go back there?

No, for sure. While I am looking at a comeback that (going back to Rediffusion) is not something I am exploring. There is no truth to it.

What is on your mind then, now that you are clear you want to get back in the  sector?

There are seven to eight months for my non-compete clause to end. Various options are emerging. I’ve  had conversations with boutique creative agencies, who want me to associate with them.  Some of the large (ad) networks have also approached me. The conversations with the latter I find interesting.  These people who know of my successful stint at Dentsu. They are telling me that they have India plans and whether I would be interested in partnering with them. In the last month, I’ve had visitors from these networks. So let’s see where it goes.

You set up a mobile marketing and advertising agency in 2012. Will this agency be central to your comeback plans next year?

Mogae Media, the agency you are referring to, handles all Airtel properties across mobile, direct-to-home and broadband.  We have the exclusive rights to do the entire m-advertising, m-couponing and m-commerce for Airtel. We have some 200 campaigns running for different brands on the Airtel network. That is a lot of work we do.

We also raised Rs 100 crore of private equity capital a year after we launched to fund our expansion plans. We have a large in-house team of developers and technology and analytics professionals. Six of them sit at Airtel’s office to manage their business intelligence. So yes, when I do go back to advertising I will create a new-age agency. That's all I can say at this point. Already at Mogae Media, I am in advanced talks with people to invest in technology start-ups.

So, there are a number of options I am exploring.

Will you partner with a large network to expand Mogae Media?

I cannot give you precise details at the moment.

Having been outside the ad industry for this long, what is your view of it now?

How we understand creativity or media or even consumer connect is going to dramatically change in a few years.

We are staring at a wire-free communication era. Advertising and media consumption will therefore change. The shift has already begun and it will only accelerate in the next few years. So what many agencies are now doing may no longer be relevant. I think people in the ad sector need to realise this and work in this direction if they wish to be ahead of the curve.