If an idea has merit, any small or big agency can sell it: Dentsu's Amit Wadhwa

With 52 account wins in the first nine months of the year, Dentsu Creative CEO Amit Wadhwa—munching on a grilled sandwich and fries and washing it down with a glass of orange juice—appeared nearly satiated; there's always room for a bit more in a CEO, after all.

He was in Mumbai a couple of weekends ago for a report launch, and we (afaqs!) caught up with him for brunch. The report was on India's gaming sector, which is far removed from the traditional advertising jazz Dentsu and other ad networks used to dole out. 

And it shows in the diversity of accounts Dentsu Creative has notched up this year. "We have won accounts where the mandate is digital, plus influencer marketing, plus content creation," remarks Wadhwa. Then there are accounts that need PR and creative, media and creative, and mainline and content creation; it's always a mix rather than a straightforward ask.

"If an idea has merit, any small or big agency can sell it."

Such a potpourri of client wins is by design and not accident; Dentsu India, as well as Dentsu Creative, pushes themselves as an integrated offering during account pitches. "Just being creative will take you nowhere; you need to integrate it with media and martech," states Wadhwa, adding that Dentsu India, despite adland's rocky relationship with integration, "walks the talk."

Many agencies and networks have failed to present a sustainable integrated offering despite multiple attempts. "I don't think it's been done in the right way in most places," Wadhwa agrees. He accepts Dentsu India is not a perfectly integrated setup but is "much better than most." 

A different advertising festival 

Brands in India up their advertising and marketing spending twice a year; during the Indian Premier League (IPL) between March and May, and during Diwali, which typically happens in October or November, marking the end of the Indian festival season, which many ad folks say begins after Raksha Bandhan that falls in August. 

2024 was an outlier because there were too many events that allowed brands to advertise through the year than just these two periods: Lok Sabha elections, Paris Olympics, T20 Cricket World Cup, Euro 2024, and the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy. Add to them a dip in urban demand as observed by many marketers.

Wadhwa, whose clients spent their money during the time, opines the festival season saw a "tapered spending" because brands had so many events to choose from when it came to parking their media and marketing money. Auto and e-commerce, he feels, had a good run while FMCG "was slightly flattish." 

Conversations over conversions? 

A waning urban demand wasn't the only observable trend during this festival; brands, especially young ones, focused their spending on virality and banter with each other, rather than communication aimed at spreading awareness about themselves or sales. 

"There is influencer, there is content creation, there is creative tech. There are these great bunch of people sitting in all corners. Now it is not just one person who has written a great copy."

The Dentsu Creative CEO acknowledges the power social media conversations offer brands but will not bow to it. "Can it replace brand building? Not really," he says and adds that people will not remember a brand for a joke or two it has cracked; people remember the brand for what it is built on. 

Adding to this trend are outrageous ideas being brought to life in ads. For example, Bold Care, an intimate grooming brand, cast porn actor Johnny Sins in an ad next to Ranveer Singh that's more than liberal with innuendo. That's alright; what's more interesting is the agency that made this ad is Moonshot, a young upstart with not too many employees. 

We're increasingly seeing a lot of such ideas being accepted and made, but from young agencies, not so much or at all from established giants. "If an idea has merit, any small or big agency can sell it," notes Wadhwa.

Agencies need to stand out, and one way to grab attention is to do something outrageous, he says, adding, "There is always a thin line between being crazy and being stupid, and brands need to be careful to not cross it."

His idea of an outlandish work comes from Dentsu Creative's Deep Connect campaign for Motorola—a client it won in February 2024. Deep Connect uses miners' existing communication technology, i.e., walkie-talkies, and converts radio signals into voice calls, enabling the miners to call their families back home on their smartphones. This campaign was a few months after 49 Indian miners were rescued in India after a tunnel collapsed on them in November 2023. 

"It is very difficult to change yourself after you have worked for 24-25 years. But once you start experimenting and understanding the changing world and meeting these people… I am like a kid right now who wants to do newer things."

Where are the ad personalities?  

Technology-led creative campaigns are becoming the new normal, and so are founders and CEOs turning into brands themselves. Look at Zomato's Deepinder Goyal, whose tweets bring more attention to the food-delivery app than its ads many times.

Now, such a trend won't affect ad spending anytime soon, but what's odd is the lack of adland personalities whose words would become the talk at tea stalls and coffee machines. "I think ideas and the company should be the celebrities," suggests Wadhwa.  

He points to technology's role in democratising celebrityhood and how instead of 20 or 50 stars, there are lakhs of creators and influencers. "There is influencer, there is content creation, there is creative tech. There are these great bunch of people sitting in all corners. Now it is not just one person who has written a great copy."

From winning all these accounts and seeing creative advertising take a new route this festival season to the rise and rise of personality brands, it was quite a complex year. A word Wadhwa feels will come to represent 2025. 

He sees a world rapidly changing in all aspects, and "how you adapt to this complexity is the biggest challenge." 

Is it hard for someone who's spent over two decades in the business to adapt to such a world? "It is very difficult to change yourself after you have worked for 24-25 years. But once you start experimenting and understanding the new changing world and meeting these people… I am like a kid right now who wants to do newer things."

Before signing off, the CEO, in a classic CEOish way, says, "Brands. Are they paying more money for the same thing that we have been doing? No. But are they willing to pay more for different things that they think could be great? Yes."