From January this year, leading advertising and media agency network Publicis Group restructured operations and among the four units established was Publicis Media. Last month, there were more changes announced and last week, it was announced that ZenithOptimedia Group CEO Anupriya Acharya would be India CEO of Publicis Media. Heads of other regions were also announced by Gerry Boyle, regional CEO of the network. Boyle is in India currently responded to questions from Pradyuman Maheshwari on how Publicis Media is doing in India, plans for the country and how Publicis Media entities compare with GroupM and IPG agencies.
Someone who has been part of the group, what are the specific changes that you hope to effect post the formation of Publicis Media?
The whole idea behind Publicis Media is to unleash the Power of One and to line up our end-to-end capabilities for our clients, in a model that is simple, flexible and efficient. The purpose is to put client satisfaction first, and it is essential to have a structure that eliminates complexity and silos. The focus will be to make the business leaner, simpler and more scaled up, in line with our objective of getting to the future first. Publicis Media is a fresh opportunity to simplify our organisation, invent more modern approaches to gain efficiency, introduce structures for greater collaboration and effectiveness, and drive new levels of scale and client value. Such a structure will not only bring more value to our clients but will also further accelerate our growth.
And this specifically for India?
It will pan out in India pretty much in line with our global thinking and framework, albeit taking into account the India market dynamics and current life-stage and strengths of our brands here. Anupriya Acharya has been announced the market lead for India a few days back and takes over the role with immediate effect. She and I have already started putting together the key strategies and, along with the agency brand teams, we should see them come alive in the coming weeks and months.
It's not as easy to work out synergies given each organisation has its own culture, P&L and targets? How easy is the task ahead?
Sure, the task ahead is not easy, but we see more opportunities here than challenges. Client delight and satisfaction will be at the heart of everything we do. We are removing some individual P&Ls to make the business more fluid and add to the speed of business and delivery. We are creating practices which will allow the best of our specialist talents to work across our agency brands. These more effective approaches will help us invest into areas like Tech, Data and Analytics, areas that are complex, fast-changing and require high investments. Bringing in scale and efficiencies to these will enable us to provide better service and results for our clients.
In India specifically, the Publicis Media group entities have had a mixed presence if you compare them vis-a-vis a GroupM and even an IPG?
Not sure I would agree with you… Granted our media brands are relatively young in this market and perhaps do not enjoy a so-called 'legacy advantage'. Despite this, we have achieved much in a short space of time – we are amongst the top three media groups in India. We have grown through acquisition, and organically. The addition of the great talents and clients of Convonix and Resultrix have worked phenomenally for the Group. As we speak today, around 50% of our business comes from digital - and more importantly, our best-in-class digital, data and tech capabilities give us an overall competitive advantage. The advantage of not having a legacy is that we could move fast towards the future areas. Legacy can slow one down.
What are your targets for India? What do you hope to achieve here?
We expect India to be a market that will set the example on transformation for us globally. It is a fast-growing market and now has all the right conditions for success. We have a strong presence in all the futuristic practices and expertise across some very important and fast growing sectors like Telco, Travel, Entertainment, E-comm, BFSI etc. India will be an engine of our APAC and global growth in business, talent and product.
Any inorganic growth moves planned? Acquisitions?
Of course! We are always on the lookout for anything which delivers against our strategy and can help solve our clients marketing challenges.
In arrangement with MxMIndia.com
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Boyle")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}