Dominic Proctor assumed the role of president, GroupM Global, last January, prior to which he spent 15 years as CEO of Mindshare Worldwide, an agency he helped found in 1997. Before launching Mindshare, Proctor spent over a decade at JWT UK, where his last role was that of CEO.
On his current trip to Mumbai, 18 months after his previous one, we spoke to him on the sidelines of FICCI Frames 2013 about GroupM, its component agencies and the media business in the Indian as well as global context.
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Edited Excerpts
As president of GroupM Global, what pre-occupies you most?
Broadly speaking, that would be growth. Not so much growth in markets like India, which certainly are 'growth markets', but rather, in some of the markets in Western Europe where the economy is going backwards. We need to maintain a strong position there. Investing in declining markets and aggressively investing in emerging markets is tricky; decisions like these are tough, so I'd say the global economy is a concern.
My real concern about GroupM's agencies is that we've got to have the strategies to change in order to reflect modern requirements like digital. In a business that is constantly changing, keeping pace with that change is a challenge.
A lot of my time is spent internally, making sure all of GroupM's agencies are properly connected when it comes to trading, IT or back office work, but are culturally distinct. I make sure each agency is individually healthy but also ensure that together, GroupM is stronger than the sum of its parts.
And how different are these parts?
Each agency within GroupM has its own culture. Globally, Maxus is the smallest, youngest one, born in the digital age into a secure family; Mindshare is more multinational with a corporate, global feel; MEC is somewhere in the middle; Mediacom has an entrepreneurial, spirited and independent feel.
Today, do creative and media agencies understand each other well enough?
I think they understand each other pretty well. This was the kind of question I got asked a lot until a few years ago but hardly ever now. At the time of splitting up the media part into a separate agency, there were tensions, misunderstandings and grey areas; people were stepping on each other's toes. But I think the market has more or less settled now. Definitely, there are areas where there is a role overlap between the two but the key lies in not squabbling over the client's dollar.
There's unanimity among creative agencies when it comes to defining 'creativity' but less so among media agencies. How do you define 'creativity' in the media agency context?
You can have creativity in analytics, i.e. the way you use data to analyse market place issues. I encourage all aspects of our business to be creative -- you can be a creative buyer, planner or researcher. Creativity is a broader aspiration than simply 'the output of creative work'.
You've spoken about GroupM's need to grow sideways by getting into the content business. What kind of content are we talking about?
Oh, all sorts of content. For example, we are currently jointly managing the production and distribution of video messages on the web with Optimystix, a TV production company, in India. That's a content play. It could also mean getting involved in advertiser funded programming in some countries or product placement in others, depending on the culture and legislation in that market.
In India, we need to get a deeper involvement into the film industry, whether it's film production, funding and co-creation, or the placement of brands in films. Bollywood is such a big business; I don't feel its scale is properly exploited by brands.
Today, media networks are on an acquisition spree as far as specialist shops go. Where do you see this trend going?
When it comes to media agencies, I think this trend will continue because the profession of media investment management requires scale. It's very difficult to be a small or local, non-scaled media agency and be good. Any of us can start an advertising agency but you can't start a media agency. You can start a specialist boutique that focusses on one part of the process (say, a planning boutique) but it's impossible to start a full service media agency today.
In a public address last year you were scathing about conservatism and a procurement culture in Asia. Anything you'd like to say specifically about India?
Yes, well, this is not being rude or pejorative but given the way the internet is predominantly used via mobile devices, I do feel that India should have been in a much more aggressive leadership role as far as the development of mobile marketing strategies go.
Speaking of content, in the long term, for the Indian business to continue to develop, it needs to look beyond the Indian community. For example, in Hindi films, today, the content is a celebration of Indian culture but if it wants to become a part of the worldwide business, it has to become more global in its outlook, else, the content that we today know as Indian is going to be less relevant in the world.
Notice any specific differences between India and China in this regard?
As a market, China is more transactional, more of a trading market. Special services are more developed in India. There are similarities too: the way there is more than one India due to different regions, languages and religions, there is more than one China.
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