"There is a challenge when it comes to TV spends, but it is not drastic": Prasanth Kumar, Mindshare

Mindshare, media agency from the house of WPP's GroupM, has had a good run at the awards this year, local and international. Before the applause for the agency's Glass Grand Prix - for its 6-Pack Band campaign for HUL's Brooke Bond Red Label - could die down, the Advertising Club's much sought after 'Media Agency of the Year' title - one the agency is all too familiar with - came waltzing in at the recently concluded Emvies.

At the helm of affairs is the affable Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare, South Asia, who was elevated to this position last March, before which he led GroupM's Central Trading Group.

'PK', as he is fondly known in the industry, spoke to afaqs! over a cup of Earl Grey at his office in suburban Mumbai. Turns out he has been able to evade the pressure that comes with having to defend flattering titles and annual accolades. PK insists that awards only motivate his teams to "get it right" over and over again.

He also commented on the importance of adopting technology and data-led media planning, the unexpected dip in TV ad spends and the overall mood of the festival-sensitive Indian advertiser.

Edited Excerpts.

Edited Excerpts

Getting medals is delightful. The route to it is great performance. It is still true that awards are not the end goal. Winning awards gives us motivation, it assures us that the work we're doing for our clients is working.

We have to understand that all these awards have a very powerful jury. These are people who're part of the industry, in the marketing, creativity and content space. They are assessing us. Our work gets evaluated against a lot of other work, and when ours is found to be better, it's very motivating. Being able to do this continuously, gives us a feeling of pride, not pressure.

The objective is clear: Do great, provocative work that drives growth for brands. If we do that with an edge, awards will follow. Being a leader is not about pressure; it is a responsibility. We don't want to take rest. We want to do more and more. Nothing is going to be easy. There will be many challenges while trying to get it right again and again, but that's the fun part.

There's a lot of exchange of great thoughts and ideas that happens. That creates some healthy competitiveness within teams. Again, there's no pressure on the teams; it's a job. We want to walk tall.

It does.

While I wouldn't say getting recognition does not impact business, it's not the awards but the motivation that awards bring that helps more. That leads to more innovative, bolder marketing moves, which help attract more clients. It's one comprehensive package.

Unilever has evolved. Mindshare Fulcrum has evolved. What they used to do five years back is very different from what they do now. When we see the ecosystem evolve, being the lead team in the country, we have a sense of shaping the market, shaping practices. Our clients push us to do our best. We have healthy debates with them, today.

We don't believe we are only a media buyer. Not a single client tells us to do just media buying. If you don't evolve, you're extinct. The need of the hour is customising one's inputs while working on brand solutions. Over the last couple of years we've noticed a growing focus on deep consumer understanding and intense consumer-centricity. Even data is focused on consumer insights. If you get into a data room without a clear objective, you can just get lost in there. And all insights may not necessarily lead to media buying. The biggest change in the last two years is the convergence of data, technology and creativity. Insights are the engine; the deployment part is done through ideas and content.

Clients are getting interested. There's curiosity. From our end, we want to get in deeper. For that, we have assets and tools. It is essential for us to craft our solutions using these data points. There are healthy conversations that happen around this, with marketers and clients. I'd say it's a good exchange. Demand and supply applies to inventory. Since this is not a packaged product being sold in a shop, I'd say these are ideas that are there at both ends.

I'll try to simplify it: Better understanding helps reduce wastage. That is a powerful way of improving efficiency. If you're able to get both together, you'll get more returns. That's a model we want to work with and that's the conversation we're having with our clients.

Each market has its own challenges and opportunities. Globally, for any industry, India is a very critical market. That puts us in a good position to come up with great solutions for our brands. The relevance of data is a journey; it is shaping up. From a digital standpoint, there's a lot more India can do. But we're on the right track and the momentum is good.

A lot depends on the infrastructure of the market as well. There's a lot to learn from China, the US, Australia, Indonesia... similarly, some of our work inspires them.

Can we do more on mobile? Of course we can. In our country, everything is on mobile. From a consumer standpoint, usage on mobile is far, far higher here. Brands have also realised that. Consumption of the web is happening on mobile. Online video consumption is happening on mobile. This consumer behaviour itself is the solution. If we take note of this, the issue pain will not arise.

The momentum is there. From last year to this year, there's been huge growth. For example, look at some of the trends today - like vertical ads. They're more convenient for the mobile platform.

One of the largest categories that we estimated to have some great spends is e-commerce. And that has actually gone down. So the largest stress point has been in the e-commerce segment. That's probably due to some business pressures of the category that are reflected in the TV ad spends of the segment. However, festive times are coming up. We're sure the spends, especially in FMCG, will go up again. These things should be looked at in the context of the entire year.

Yes, there is a challenge when it comes to TV spends, but it is not drastic. What is more interesting to notice is - there is a large play on part of all product categories to look at integrated solutions. But I wouldn't say the money is coming out of TV completely.

We consistently say we are outcome focused. But for us, outcome is not only about media plan efficiency. Outcome is about brand performance. There are different matrices for that. We understand that advertising is not 100 per cent of it but it is an important element.

As for compensation, there are different hybrid models - when the outcome is good, clients do talk to us about share of success. Yes, it will be myopic of brands to say otherwise, but I am sensing that clients are genuinely able to understand this.

(This interview was first published in our magazine afaqs! Reporter on September 15, 2016)