Jitender Dabas wants to lead the new world order with Cheil X

When Jitender Dabas departed McCann Worldgroup after 14 years, most recently as its chief operating and strategy officer, to become the new chief executive of Cheil X and group chief strategist of Cheil SWA, many speculated whether Omnicom’s acquisition of rival agency network IPG had influenced his decision. Too many senior leaders under one corporate roof rarely make for effective strategy.

He moved both because of it and in spite of it.

Roughly every two decades, the industry speaks of a new world order in which fresh players rise and challenge the incumbents. Social media disrupted traditional web browsing, start-ups challenged legacy firms, and now big technology firms are unsettling the foundations of classic advertising.

Dabas believes the new world order in advertising has already begun. With Cheil X, he intends not merely to witness it but to lead it. “Cheil is a leader in creativity and technology. In the new world order, I can clearly see it is far more exciting and prepared for tomorrow,” he says.

To Dabas, this new world order marks the decline of siloed creative thinking and the rise of integrated, tech-powered persuasion.

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More than ever, advertising agencies must weave technology into their creative arsenal, as performance-driven marketing continues to draw a growing share of brand budgets. According to GroupM’s This Year, Next Year 2025 report, Indian advertising is projected to exceed Rs 1.64 lakh crore, with digital channels accounting for 60% of that growth.

When Dabas refers to Cheil, he means the newly formed Cheil SWA Group. Within this structure, Cheil India continues to focus exclusively on Samsung. Cheil X, in contrast, is the group’s outward-facing arm, offering its services to Indian and global clients beyond the founding account.

The group also includes Experience Commerce for digital marketing, CYLNDR for content production, a dedicated unit for influencer marketing, and NewRx, which specialises in retail design and performance marketing.

Despite the turbulence in Indian advertising, the chief executive of Cheil X was grappling with a more personal reckoning. After 25 years in the industry, he found himself scrutinising not just client strategies but the direction of the advertising world itself.

“You should have the capabilities to impact consumers across every moment. We have the ability and the capability to do that."

Jitender Dabas

“You reach a point where you think, ‘This is how it ought to be done.’ To act on that conviction, you need full leadership. So, I decided it was time,” says Dabas. 

His decision was also driven by a desire to give back to the industry. That, he believes, becomes possible only when one has the authority to effect meaningful change. “I felt it was time to take on a role that would allow me to contribute,” he says.

Rewiring the marketing funnel

Unlike traditional agencies, which he says remain “too focused on top-funnel advertising,” Dabas argues that such an approach no longer serves marketers well. Today, he contends, the real need lies in persuasive capabilities particularly in the mid-funnel, where much of the decision-making takes place.

With Cheil X, he aims to influence every stage of the consumer journey. In an era when any moment might trigger a purchase or conversion, agencies must be equipped to act across the entire funnel. “You should have the capabilities to impact consumers across every moment. We have the ability and the capability to do that,” he says.

Dabas believes Cheil X will emerge as the leading agency equipped to serve clients in this evolving landscape, as the balance of power in the advertising world continues to shift.

“Often, the biggest campaigns go on to build billion-dollar brands. And if you evaluate what proportion of that value the agency receives, it would be less than peanuts.”

Jitender Dabas

As a group, Cheil SWA offers a broad suite of services spanning technology, strategy, and creative solutions to content production, influencer marketing, brand experiences, and more. 

For Dabas, the first step is to deploy these capabilities in an integrated manner. The second is to infuse each of them with creativity. “Because at the end of the day, it’s a marriage,” he says.

The AI conundrum

Yet amid this optimism, the rise of artificial intelligence raises uncomfortable questions. As a leader, Dabas does not view the growing use of AI with unqualified enthusiasm. He sees it as a disruptive force in knowledge industries, advertising among them.

For decades, agencies have relied on input-based pricing, where fees are calculated by the number of people required to execute a brief. In essence, the cost of production.

“If the input cost is going to crash, we should be worried about it,” he says. AI can now generate text, images, and video faster than humans. Although it still requires human direction, it no longer needs an entire team to do the job.

The answer, he argues, lies in a shift agencies have long struggled to make: moving from input-based to output-based pricing. “We will have to attach some part of our value to the output,” he says, while admitting the industry has historically been poor at doing so.

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“Often, the biggest campaigns go on to build billion-dollar brands. And if you evaluate what proportion of that value the agency receives, it would be less than peanuts.”

He identifies a second challenge running parallel to the AI threat. Marketers today are more inclined to spend on campaigns with clearly measurable outcomes than on what he calls the “irrational value” of pure creativity.

“We were never able to measure and demonstrate the value we created, and so we could not charge a fair share of it. That is the difficulty.”

Still, it is not all doom and gloom. Dabas remains hopeful about the future of the industry. Asked where he sees Cheil X a year from now, he smiles and says, “The agency which seamlessly married creativity and technology.”