Industry responds to Santosh Desai’s hypothesis on Indian advertising

A few days ago, advertising lost one of its star planners when Santosh Desai, McCann-Erickson’s president and CEO, decided to join the Future Group. But the man – known to speak his heart out – left the field after 20 years with some profound, power-packed words, which may have led many admen to question existing norms and practices. Desai stated in so many words that advertising can be frustrating and self-obsessed and is grappling with problems such as shortsightedness (with respect to results), talent crunch, recycled concepts and meagre margins. In an explorative piece, agencyfaqs! tries to uncover what ad veterans have to say about Desai’s inferences.

Arvind Sharma, managing director, Leo Burnett

I’m not sure if it’s wisdom or exhaustion – advertising is a very demanding industry.

The increasing importance, but declining power of specialists, time-compressed business cycles, and the need to be very sharp in identifying the talent that can cope with the industry’s needs today, are universal challenges that all kinds of leaders and managers across all walks of life face.

Firstly, Santosh raised the point that agencies don’t enjoy the respect they used to. The truth is that the ex-president of the United States of America does not enjoy the respect he used to either. Bill Clinton had to pay dearly for what Warren Harding did without any public murmur. Today’s patients know much more about medicine and ask their doctors questions they never did a few decades ago.

I am citing these examples because the truth is that changing times bring changing contexts, new challenges and the need to find new answers. It is an inevitable consequence of democratisation of all forms of information and knowledge. Nobody can command respect simply because he is in a role and because, as a result, he is privy to some knowledge that others are not.

The other point I got was that there is no long-term thinking in the ad business, and things which require detailing are being made unnecessarily simple. I will give a simple example. Due to the increasing media costs, the industry has moved from 60 second films to 20 second TVCs. This proves that it is important to simplify complex things.

Thirdly, Desai says that the quality of people entering the industry is not what it used to be. I agree with him on that count. Talent – at the cost of physical assets – has become the bigger driver of competitive advantage and, therefore, the frustration becomes greater when we don’t have the kind of talent we require.

On each one of these counts, the industry is less than perfect, but it is doing a much better job today than it did a decade ago. To the disbelievers I would say, choose the commercials you would like to see on air. Let’s see how many of them choose commercials they see today or those they saw a decade and a half ago.

It is a fundamental fact of our business that advertising agencies have always worked for clients’ brands and the final decision has always rested with the clients. This was a fact a hundred years ago and it’s the same today. Some of us are more comfortable working through influence, while others prefer power. Speaking for myself, this facet of the industry has never de-motivated me. I have not always succeeded in persuading clients to my viewpoint, but the truth is, I have not always been right. I have succeeded often enough for this not to ever become an issue. The upside of the advertising business is that one gets to work with so many outstanding marketing minds.

All of us go though periods of frustration in any job and I fully empathise with Santosh. He is a good adman and it might be good to have him back in advertising at some point of time.

Pranesh Misra, president and COO, Lowe India

I have a lot of respect for Santosh and am sorry that the ad industry is (temporarily) losing him. He has personally made tremendous intellectual contribution to our industry through his eclectic thought leadership, through which he has contributed to so much of change already.

I can also understand his frustration – when you have tried so hard and the goal seems so near but elusive, it is normal to feel disappointed.

But I take Santosh’s criticism as nothing more than a natural outburst. All of us in advertising have asked these questions at some point of time or the other, usually after a couple of drinks at the bar. But we have forgotten our woes the following morning because life is so damn exciting in advertising. There is never a dull moment to navel gaze.

We do try to change things. Change is possible, but slow. Two steps forward and one step back. But we stay with this business because it stops one from growing old! It is a fantastic business, where your product and your assumptions can change every day. You are always under pressure – and always, you are only as good as your last campaign. It is impossible to let the grass grow under your feet.

Advertising is not in the news for the money the business is making. It is in the news for the impact it is making for its clients and the visibility it gets amongst consumers. Money is only one way to measure success. But it is not the end of life. Spiritually, using money as a measure of success could be like chasing a mirage.

When Santosh starts in the Future Group, I am very sure he will rely heavily on advertising and communication to create and build the brands of the group. He will use advertising as a primary weapon. And I hope – knowing the business – that he will pay his agency well enough to get a fair share of their time. Because he knows that this is what could make the difference between his success and failure.

Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT India

I must say that the issues Santosh has raised are quite true. For one, talent is indeed an issue. In advertising, we’re pretty much operating with the same pool. We need to invest in hiring and, more importantly, nurturing great talent, particularly on the managerial side. Other industries – retail, financial, automobile and telecom – are just waiting to lap them up with attractive packages. But on the flip side, if you’re good at what you do in the ad industry, you are well looked after. Committed, passionate people find their place here. However, if admen don’t get recognition for their efforts, they leave.

On the topic of margins allotted to agencies, I will say this depends largely on the client-agency relationship. Our industry has matured over the years and the flux that had agencies all keyed up about margins three years ago has died down. Largely, clients understand the value of an agency; if they don’t pay well, they won’t get talented teams working for them.

Santosh obviously feels strongly about what he has said… catch me on a bad day and I’ll say the same things!

MG Parameswaran, executive director, FCB-Ulka

For one, I agree that advertising needs to move to a high ground in order to build brands and ‘become more ambitious’, in Santosh’s words. Further, I feel that providing solely creative ads is a dangerous trend. Creativity is just one aspect of our business. Our bigger job is to represent the consumer in client boardrooms. This leads me to the next point – the awards and self-obsession charges are probably true.

Santosh also said that we don’t think long term… I’ll disagree violently with that. In the history of Indian advertising, we have built long-term brands. In FCB’s experience alone, Amul’s ‘The Taste of India’ and Santoor’s ‘Soap for a Younger Skin’ are two premises that have lasted over time and still work.

Furthermore, the talent crunch prevails in virtually every industry today; as other sectors don’t possess the requisite pool of talent, advertising is becoming a soft ground for poachers. I think strong HR practices are the only way forward if we are to retail these people.

To sum up, it really comes across as a surprise that someone feels this way after 20 years in the business. I know of people who left advertising for a marketing job and came back a few years later. I am one of them. I quit the ad world to join Boots Pharmaceuticals. Six years later, I was back where I belonged.

I have a lot of respect for Santosh and his thinking and writing ability. But I really feel some of the things he said were spoken on the spot, in the heat of the moment. This is why he has contradicted himself in some places; despite the ruthlessness of advertising, he leaves the door for his comeback open, all said and done.

Ashutosh Khanna, COO, Grey Worldwide

That advertising makes one feel ‘young’ is a fabulous insight. One will rarely find people above the age of 45 in advertising because they can’t think young. You have to find a way to be a 25 year old in your head; Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi have found that magical mantra.

But I don’t think that agencies have lost the respect they once had, as Santosh points out. And meagre margins are a function of competition. As the cost of entry is very low in the ad business (anyone can start an agency with some funds), competition is high. Take the case of Alok Nanda Communications, started by veteran Alok Nanda, or Shop, an agency started by Freddy-Naved. Frankly, competition in the ad agency environment is purely the result of a demand-supply equation. These developments are fuelled when people like Santosh leave.

Further, I differ on the self-obsession point. A client’s requirement matters at the end of the day and, if that was not being serviced, then we would all have been out of business a long time ago. If we were solely awards led, the industry wouldn’t exist. Even Subhash Kamath (Bates Enterprise) once said that the creative product is what matters. I had disagreed with him even then.

Saying things like this is a big disservice to advertising, and particularly to the person who invests time in researching and writing the client brief. A brilliant creative product with the wrong strategy always bombs. We need to ask ourselves why O&M lost the Close Up business. And we’ll come up with the same answer.

It’s sad to see Santosh go; there’s a dearth of brilliant planners in the country. So much so that the day is not far away when the quality of planners will determine the worth of agencies. Losing Santosh is as bad for the industry as losing Alyque Padamsee. But I think Santosh jumped the boat too soon. He has given a lot to the industry and I wish he had stuck around. There’s this ancient Chinese proverb that goes, ‘If you wait by the riverside with unlimited patience, you’ll see the bodies of your enemies float by’. I’m sure Santosh knows what I mean.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!