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<ul><li><keyword id="13620" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tarun-Rai" source="Orion">Tarun Rai</keyword>, Chairman and Group CEO South Asia gets promoted to <keyword id="12357897" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Executive-Director-Strategic-Initiatives" source="Orion">Executive Director Strategic Initiatives</keyword>, APAC, effective January 1, 2022. </li><li>Rai will report directly to <keyword id="12357429" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ewen-Sturgeon" source="Orion">Ewen Sturgeon</keyword>, CEO, International of <keyword id="7067090" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="wunderman-thompson" source="Orion">Wunderman Thompson</keyword>.</li></ul>After an illustrious 25 years in advertising in India, Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO South Asia will become Executive Director Strategic Initiatives, APAC, effective January 1, 2022. Tarun’s vast experience will help accelerate growth across the many countries of the region. In the seven years as Chairman and CEO, Tarun has successfully steered the company through significant changes at an organizational and cultural level – most recently leading the successful and seamless transition to Wunderman Thompson. Previously with JWT, he returned to the agency in 2015 after a long stint in media, and quickly put the company back on an aggressive growth path. He diversified the organization’s capabilities to better serve clients, many of whom have been partners for a long time and remain so. He built an excellent leadership team and has fostered a culture of collaboration across the various group companies. Throughout the pandemic, he has led the organization with sensitivity and empathy without compromising on the quality of the work. Tarun Rai commented, “The last seven years have been very exciting and rewarding. The unprecedented changes in these years required nimble leadership. I also had the opportunity to lead the transition to our new company, Wunderman Thompson, which has a powerful mix of creativity and technology. I am extremely proud of our people and of our leadership team for their fantastic work through these years. We partner with some of the best clients in the industry and I value their friendship and support. I now look forward to stepping into my new role in an expanded geography.” “We would like to thank Tarun for his leadership and efforts as Group CEO of South Asia, and are pleased that Tarun will continue his strategic guidance and support for the agency as he moves on to serve as our APAC Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives” added Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, International, Wunderman Thompson. Rai will report directly to Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, International of Wunderman Thompson. Details on Rai’s successor will be announced shortly.

Wunderman Thompson South Asia’s Tarun Rai moves into a new role as Executive Director Strategic Initiatives, APAC

<ul><li>While the ad industry is slowly getting back on its feet, there are already visible signs of recovery, and <keyword id="13620" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tarun-Rai">Tarun Rai</keyword>, Chairman and Group CEO, <keyword id="7067090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wunderman-Thompson">Wunderman Thompson</keyword>, South Asia is confident that the worst is behind us.</li><li>We talk to Rai about how the agency managed to weather the storm effectively. He also tells us how the pandemic proved to him that people’s output is what matters and not their physical presence in office. </li><li>He also shared that since the pandemic led to geographical distances becoming immaterial, he will try to work on a 50-50 solution where on any given day, only 50% people will be present at the office. </li></ul> The last few months have been challenging for not just the advertising industry but the world in general. However, our recent chat with Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia has made us optimistic as he believes the worst is already behind us. “Ever since the lockdown was announced, we have observed that each month was better than the previous. And with the festive season and cricket coming back, things will keep getting better,” shared Rai. The economy is in the Unlock 5.0 phase and things are gradually opening up. With that, advertisers are getting over their wariness to advertise. With IPL and expectations of consumer sentiments improving, there is hope that the industry will slowly, but steadily get back on its feet. And the signs of recovery are already there before us. Sectors like FMCG, e-commerce, insurance and ed-tech did well even during the pandemic and most of these sectors did not hold back on advertising. However, the auto sector, which had been witnessing a slump, even before the pandemic, is seeing an uptick in demand . <keyword id="44883" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maruti-Suzuki">Maruti Suzuki</keyword> announced in August that it sold 108,000 units in July this year, an increase of 88.2% over June 2020. And therefore, the hope is, the rest of the year will bring some cheer to the industry. So as things slowly start to look up in the economy and also in the advertising industry, we spoke to Rai about what helped Wunderman Thompson weather the storm effectively. He also told us about his biggest learnings from this entire experience, and how he feels <keyword id="2421877" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="remote-working">remote working</keyword> should now be institutionalized. Excerpts: Q) The last 6-7 months have been challenging. However, things are slowly starting to move towards normalcy. How do you think Wunderman Thompson has fared as an agency in these last few difficult months? The last few months have been challenging. And ours is a derivative business, if our clients’ businesses aren’t doing well, one of the first things to get impacted is the marketing and advertising budget. However, if I were to talk about how our performance has been, I like to say that May was better than April and June was better than May, and it continues. So I feel that the worst is behind us. Cricket has started and the festival season is coming up. There is a lot of pent up demand that is still not being satiated. The economy has opened up. In Mumbai, restaurants and bars have been allowed to open with a 33% capacity (33% occupancy cap in the city and 50% in the state). So there are a lot of positive signs. I believe the worst period of this crisis is behind us. And I look forward, optimistically, at the next few months. Q) Has it been challenging for your employees to work in isolation, considering a lot of creative ideas strike during conversations and brainstorming sessions? The lockdown was announced on March 25 and the first thing that struck me was how agile an organization like ours, actually is. I was really heartened by our organization’s set up, by our IT department, by the alacrity and the agility that we showed, that within 24-48 hours, we were all seamlessly working from home, without any serious disruption of work. It’s also about the resilience and resourcefulness of our people because they adapted very quickly. I was surprised that despite all the difficulties of having to work in a very different environment, where people aren’t physically together, I actually think that creativity did not suffer. In fact, in certain respects, we found more creativity, because people found innovative, new ways of doing things. It also led to greater collaboration because suddenly geographical distance was immaterial. So we could put together the best teams to work on any particular project, and it did not matter whether the talent was in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi or Calcutta. I have always believed that there should be <keyword id="55003" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="flexibility">flexibility</keyword> in terms of how people want to work and where they want to work from. And I've been focused on output rather than anybody needing to be physically present. So, in many senses, the lockdown made for more collaboration and creative output. Q) Do you think working from home could become a norm, even once things get back to normal? I should hope so. Working from home is not always wonderful. And working from home during a lockdown is especially stressful. And we make sure that we recognize that. However, giving flexibility to people to work remotely or from home should be institutionalized. I don't, even for a moment say that there are no advantages of a physical space where people can meet, discuss ideas over a cup of coffee or a game of pool because I think you feed off each other's energy in a physical space. However, going forward, if I can help it, and I'll certainly try, I want to make it a 50-50 solution where on any given day, only 50% of the people need to be physically at work. It will mean tweaking our HR policies and our appraisals systems to make way for newer forms of assessment. It will also need our leadership to be more empathetic, so a lot of things will need to be fixed. But to me, the ideal should be that on any given day, even after this crisis is over, we can allow 50% of our staff to work from home. Q) How do you feel about your performance as an agency so far this year, in terms of winning new businesses, revenue and even awards? Our creativity did not suffer due to the pandemic. In fact, we produced some excellent work during this period. Even during the worst time of the lockdown, we found ways of producing new and original content for our clients. We were also recognized as India's most creative agency. And recently, we pretty much swept the award shows so we have got a lot of recognition in these last six months. If you were to look at our revenue in the last six months, revenue from our digital companies is growing in double digits. For the mainline agency, the last six months have been difficult, and I would say the revenue has contracted there. So at an overall level, maybe we are okay because now 35-40% of our revenues are digital revenues. But I can't say the same for the entire ad industry because a lot of the other agencies are not in the sweet spot that we are, where we can genuinely offer end-to-end solutions to our clients. And because there is almost a renewed focus on the digital side of things, on e-commerce and technology, we have been able to manage this crisis a little better in terms of the revenue performance. Q) Have brands opened up to the idea of spending or are they still being careful with their spends? With the festive season and cricket coming back, we’re encouraging our clients not to hold back but to invest more. There are enough studies to show that companies and brands that continue to invest during a recession, and especially as we come out of it, are 9 times faster to recover than those who don't. One of our strategic planners has coined a term called ‘bounce back velocity’, which basically means that, during a crisis brands in a particular category are impacted equally. But once you're coming out of a recession, how quickly you recover, or the bounce back velocity will be different for different companies depending on what they do during this period. This is the time to invest, to bounce back faster than the others, and this is the time that will separate the men from the boys. So we are encouraging our clients to spend now, even if they have been conservative in the last six months. Q) Challenging times also test relationships. Was there an evolution in the relationship you share with your clients? True partnership is tested during a crisis and I'm very happy that with almost all our clients, our partnerships have only strengthened. A crisis can destroy a relationship or can make it stronger, and I think our partnership with our clients has become stronger. Your relationships are strengthened due to two factors; One, when you are there to offer advice to your partners at the moment they need it the most and two, when you are agile and resourceful enough to meet the requirements of your clients. And I think we have succeeded on both fronts. We have passed the true test of partnership and that bodes very well for our future. Q) The pandemic has also made people work in isolation, leading to immense stress. Have you been able to address this issue at your agency? Initially with all the novelty and the excitement of working from home, most people ignored the fact that working from home comes with its own issues and problems. One of the biggest issues, which needed to be recognized upfront, was that this wasn’t work from home in normal circumstances, it was work from home during a global pandemic. So the anxiety levels were elevated. And a lot of people have to work with kids and elderly people at home, who need to be looked after. For a lot of young people living alone, situations like this becomes challenging because loneliness and the lack of social contact becomes an issue. The most important thing was that we were able to recognize these issues. We were also very transparent and made sure that people knew what the organization was doing and what the reality was. If there were challenges, we didn't brush them under the carpet. Rather, we confronted them and spoke to our people. So being transparent, honest and communicating in a crisis is very important. We also made sure that we invested in our people. The pandemic accelerated two years of technology adoption to two months and suddenly there were insecurities about whether one is capable enough to take on this new world. So, we used this time for a lot of online trainings to help people improve their skill-sets, to help them try out new things, to understand how communication and marketing is going to work in the new world which arrived sooner than we had thought it would. So during this period, we had an unbelievable 90 online training programs, which included capability building, but we also did seminars and training programs on mental health issues. Apart from that, we also formed an in-house band, called ‘<keyword id="10068702" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wunderband">Wunderband</keyword>’. This allowed us to tap into our talent from across the country. The response to the band, not just from people in South Asia, but also from Wunderman Thompson Global and <keyword id="168456" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WPP">WPP</keyword> has been fantastic. So yes, you have to do a lot of things to engage with your staff but it starts with recognizing that working from home comes with its own issues and anxieties, and then doing something about it. Q) How did you see the leadership evolve at the agency during the past few months? Our leadership has been very empathetic and trusting and I think that's really important. My belief in our people has been reinforced during this pandemic, because they have behaved really responsibly without any need of supervision and that’s been a huge revelation to me, both about our organization and our people. Q) As a leader, what have your biggest learnings from this experience been so far? Apart from what I learnt about how our organization can work really resourcefully and efficiently, this pandemic has taught us the importance of flexibility going forward. Whether it is the organizational or compensation structures, we need to be flexible enough to be able to adapt to changes around us.

Giving flexibility to people to work remotely or from home should be institutionalized: Tarun Rai, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia

New Delhi, Actors <keyword id="19896580" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ranbir-kapoor" source="keywords">Ranbir Kapoor</keyword> and Alia Bhatt walked away top acting honours at the 69th <keyword id="20182352" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="filmfare" source="keywords">Filmfare</keyword> Awards for their roles in "Animal" and "Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani" while Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "" won the Black Lady for best film and director. The 69th Hyundai Filmfare Awards 2024 with Gujarat Tourism was held in GIFT City, Gujarat. The festival concluded on Sunday with an awards ceremony that was hosted by Karan Johar, Ayushmann Khurrana and Maneish Paul. Bhatt's co-star <keyword id="19978371" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shabana-azmi" source="keywords">Shabana Azmi</keyword> in "Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani" won best supporting actress award but film's lead star Ranveer Singh lost the trophy to <keyword id="19909122" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ranbir" source="keywords">Ranbir</keyword> Kapoor. The Karan Johar-directed film also won the trophy for best dialogues as well as best choreography for "What Jhumka?". <keyword id="19895145" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vicky-kaushal" source="keywords">Vicky Kaushal</keyword>, who was also nominated in the best actor category, won a best supporting actor trophy for Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Dunki". Despite delivering three biggest hits of the year in "Pathaan", "Jawan" and "Dunki", SRK was missing from the winners list despite securing a nomination in the best actor and film categories. "Jawan", however, won Filmfare for best VFX and action. "Animal", one of the most controversial but successful films of the year, not only won Ranbir a best actor trophy but bagged trophies for best music album, background score and best playback singer to Bhupinder Babbal for "Arjan Valley". "12th Fail" star Vikrant Massey won best actor (critics) Filmfare. The film also won in the screenplay and editing categories. Best actress (critics) trophy was shared by Rani Mukerji ('Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway') and Shefali Shah ('Three of Us'). "Three of Us" director Avinash Arun Dhaware won the trophy for the film's cinematography. Manoj Bajpayee-starrer "Joram" won best film (critics) award as well as best story recognition for Amit Rai and Devashish Makhija. Amitabh Bhattacharya's "Tere Vaaste" from "Zara Hatke Zara Bachke" won best lyrics while Shilpa Rao was recognised as the best female playback singer for "Besharam Rang" from "Pathaan". Kaushal's film "Sam Bahadur" won Filmfare for best production design and costume design. Best debut director went to Tarun Dudeja for "Dhak Dhak" and best debut actor male to Aditya Rawal for Hansal Mehta-directed "Faraaz". Alizeh Agnihotri won the trophy for best female debut for "Farrey" at the awards show where filmmaker David Dhawan was honoured with the lifetime achievement award. The gala night also saw the presence of celebrities such as Kareena Kapoor, Aparshakti Khurana, Karishma Tanna, Kartik Aryan. Ranbir, Sara Ali Khan and Kareena also performed at the event.

Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt bag best actor trophies at Filmfare; 12th Fail is the best film

<ul><li>After seeing a few lean months and IPL around the corner, experts are hoping to see their businesses bounce back to normalcy and get on-track to their revenue goals.</li><li>However, due to the restriction on production and limited budgets, the storytelling will not be the same this year. </li><li>So we speak to a few <keyword id="1015861" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="advertising-agencies">advertising agencies</keyword> to figure out how they are gearing up for IPL’s season 13 this time and how brands should win consumer’s trust this time after a long-dry-spell.</li></ul>A stadium full of people, the audience cheering for the team or its captain and the theme song goes off in the background -- a standard format that was followed for <keyword id="6354831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-premier-league">Indian Premier League</keyword> ads since its inception. Over the years, we have also seen some ads that were shot remotely, to capture how IPL unites families. All these ads have tried to capture the consumer frenzy around IPL. In fact, its campaign in 2011 called ‘Bharat Bandh’ represented how the entire country shuts down just to watch the tournament. IPL has been a treat for the eyes, not just for the sport, but for the array of wonderful ads that it brings with it too. However, this year is not the same as the past 12 seasons of IPL and the storytelling will have to be tailored according to the current situation. Advertising agencies will have to shoot the ads with minimum crew or come up with creative solutions to make an IPL-benchmark ad remotely within a limited budget that entertains people as it always has. Consumers are now looking for an escape more than ever before, something that breaks the monotony of their routine. However, the campaigns will also have to be sensitive because the lockdown might be lifted, but the pandemic is not over yet. What is otherwise celebrated as a gala with a stadium full of spectators, this time, will be viewed mostly on digital platforms. At the same time, after seeing a few lean months, experts are also hoping to see their businesses bounce back to normalcy and get on-track to their revenue goals after IPL. So, there is a lot of hope resting on IPL from all sides -- brands, agency networks and consumers. We spoke to experts to see how they are going to navigate these challenges in the new normal and maintain the level of creativity of the old-normal. Production challenges <keyword id="4176392" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPL-ads">IPL ads</keyword> are known for their creativity and large-scale production. With limited budget and production scope, how different will this year be? Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia said that creativity always finds its way. Rai said, “Production is back and we have found ways of ensuring that we deliver the same quality as before the crisis. I do not, therefore, believe that there will be any compromise in the quality of the advertising. We are a creative industry and have found creative ways to execute even large-scale productions. They may have been supervised remotely but we ensured that quality didn't suffer.” During the lockdown, agencies turned to their employees or family to shoot footage for their advertisements. We are past that stage now. However, Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group said that budget restrictions affected industry’s output, not just the production limitations. He explained, “We seemed to have moved ahead from the phone camera films, as film production has started to find its feet again. But it comes with rules, regulations and anxieties that we will need to learn to work with, and not just for IPL. As for quality, we may not be at our best as an industry, this time around. And not all of it would have to do with the shooting and production limitations. Clients would be mindful of how much they spend and budgets will have a bigger say in who you work with or how elaborate your executions will be. Also, there wasn’t much prep time for this IPL. So all of this may start to show in the work.” Referring to Nike’s latest ad, Nisha Singhania- Director &amp; Co-Founder, Infectious Advertising, on the other hand, believes that ‘nothing can stop’ the industry from doing what they do best. Creativity will remain unaffected. She said, “Advertising is getting back on its feet and shoots are happening as we speak. So no reason for any compromises whatsoever, in fact, if anything one has learnt during the lockdown is that more the restrictions, more people think out of the box and innovate. Case in point the Nike ‘You Can’t Stop Us’ ad which was an editing marvel. While the quantity may go down, as brands may want to optimise, no reason for the quality to reduce.” Mitesh Kothari, Co-Founder, White Rivers Media says a few ads were shot even before COVID-19’s sword started dangling on our heads. Kothari said, “A lot of ads were shot pre-covid period and were ready. In fact, I believe it will be a welcome change, where people have been used to seeing a lot of low production ads off lately, and with IPL being rescheduled, some precovid, big budget ads would be on, on tv and digital. Also, with a lot of things on an 'unlock' mode, the production budgets are returning to mid size and quality ain’t being compromised.” While some on the other hand, are turning to animation or UGC content. “Since the pandemic, we have seen ads being shot on mobile phones and even remotely via zoom. While advertisers are looking at newer and more creative storytelling devices, there has not been a big dent in quality. However, the experience is likely to be different from what we have been used to in the past as more and more brands will lean towards animation or sourced footage either via stock or user generated content backed by stronger scripts and compelling voice overs,” said Premkumar Iyer, Vice President, National Operations, Gozoop. IPL holds the burden of shifting the first-half of the year on its head Experts are hoping that consumer sentiment will improve once IPL begins and sales will follow. It is also supposed to bring the advertising industry back on track and end the dry spell. “We’ve been starved of sport and are still starving for cricket. So I expect this IPL to be gathering some serious eyeballs. And that’s reason enough for a lot of advertisers to be there,” said Mathew. Telling us why IPL is the most important event for brands this time, Gozoop’s Iyer said, “As per a report, Star will be charging Rs 8 to 10 lakh for a 10-second ad in the upcoming IPL season, It also has to be noted that Star has previously charged brands Rs 25 lakh for 10-second slots during the India vs Pakistan ICC World Cup match and between Rs 16 to 18 lakh for other World Cup matches. In comparison, the IPL ad charges are still reasonable although the rates are among the costliest for a programme in the country. This is where the opportunity lies. For brands, the IPL is a massive event and has real potential to improve the market situation, add to it the fact that it is just before festive season means that brands are likely to take the plunge to make one last and final sales push in order to end the year on a better note.” Due to reasonable rates and desire to latch onto the first opportunity to reach consumers on a large scale, experts are hoping to see the numbers of ads also going up this time. “We might see more ads during the IPL this year. There have been few opportunities for brands to talk to their consumers for the past few months and IPL is such a huge property. Advertisers realise that they need to capture all the pent-up consumer demand and with the IPL scheduled just before the start of the festive season in India the timing is even more opportune,” said Rai. IPL is also coinciding with festive season, two big mood changers, which will bring in more money and ads from brands. “Because of certain price benefits there shall be a flurry of ads. Also, the fact that IPL is coinciding with festive, brands have all the more reasons to spend. IPL is indeed going to be a big mood-lifter and hopefully shall generate a lot of consumer sentiment upshift,” said Kothari. Guidelines to follow for ads to win consumer’s trust All experts we spoke to said that IPL will shift the consumer sentiment in brands’ favour but the macro factors haven’t changed at all. They have worsened. So, creators will have to try extra hard to win consumer’s trust and not turn a blind eye towards the status quo. Telling us what the advertisers should keep in mind while working on IPL campaigns, Kothari said, “While the fundamentals of marketing remain, one has to understand the fundamentals of marketing layered with covid effects. Brands cannot cease to be empathetic. Since IPL is the first big event lined up for Indian consumers after a silence of 6 months, brands must try every single effort to upshift the mood. The fact that a lot of consumer segments and categories of brands had gone in slumber, a lot more are going to come back with IPL. Hence, brands must take into account the festive &amp; IPL clutter in their creative campaigns and media plans.” Mathew highlighted how brands might want to talk about how the whole world is behaving in the same manner now and breaking the clutter will be a task this time. He explained, “Creativity feeds off experiences. And because people have different experiences and influences, you tend to see varied and unique expressions of creativity. But this time around a lot of us have gone through the same experiences; we’ve felt the same and behaved the same way. So it will be very tempting for brands to play off that and end in the sea of sameness. That’s going to be the biggest challenge for brands this year – to find something that’s insightful and not merely a truism from the times we live in. And, of course, be entertaining as far as possible. We could all do with as many reasons to smile.” Singhania, on the other hand, said that IPL should continue to be the mood-shifter that it is and offer a much-needed break to consumers. “IPL ads have always been extremely entertaining, and that needs to continue. Even more so in times like this, since people are bored and looking for an escape. While in many categories, people need to be sensitive about the current context, I don’t think that is needed for the IPL. The campaigns have always been light-hearted, and any change in that tonality might just dilute the fun quotient,” said Singhania.

Experts expect to see more advertisements around IPL this year than ever before

<ul><li>2020 brought a lot of hurdles in our way but the creative industry proved, time and again, that united we stand stronger and nothing can ever put a lock on creativity.</li><li>The creative industry continued social distancing in a diligent manner, thinking out of the box and launching campaigns that reminded us of things that we should be thankful for. </li><li>Keeping these nuances in mind, creative folks tell us some of the trends that they expect to see in 2021. </li></ul>When the entire country is locked down and all you can do is move from your couch to your work desk for Zoom calls or catch some fresh air on your balcony, only to exchange awkward smiles with your neighbour, does that dampen your creativity? In 2020, our Indian advertising industry proved that nothing can stop them from coming up with out of the box (or with COVID, from inside the box) ideas. They were producing ads with minimum money, trying to operate within the government guidelines of production and selling it for expensive slots on television in the second half of the lockdown period. They were also expected to create ads that stood out in a sea full of cliches. They dealt with uncertainty, brainstormed ideas over a Zoom call, pressure to overperform in a dismal atmosphere, operate with salary cuts, take care of their kids and meet deadlines. Our creative folks were there to steer through these mood swings in the market and help their clients tide over treacherous waves smoothly. The worst is behind us and now that production is back and the industry is working at its normal pace, the creative folks have a lot to talk about. They have only come out stronger and with a new perspective to offer. Experts said that the future is empathy-driven and kind. We reached out to a few creative agencies to understand how they are planning to change their process as we move forward in 2021, some of the learnings that 2020 left them with and a few trends that are going to dominate the creative output this year. Here is what they said: <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia:" text="Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia:">Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO, <keyword id="7067090" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wunderman-Thompson">Wunderman Thompson</keyword>, South Asia:</cmsannotation> Consolidation of client marketing spends: I have said that the pandemic has been more like an accelerant rather than a matchstick. I have said this since it has not necessarily lit any new fires (trends) but acted more as an accelerant, that when poured over the small fires already lit, transforms them into big raging fires. If we really look at it, this holds true for trends that were already shaping up in world economy, in politics, in global trade, reverse globalisation… Closer to us, even the use of technology, increasingly playing a role in how we work, was ‘accelerated’ by the pandemic. A case in point is Zoom that had 10 million participants a day in December 2019 and an astonishing 300 million in April 2020! One such trend, that was amply clear even before the pandemic, was the move of clients’ spends from traditional to digital media. And in this journey, clients were already finding that working with multiple partners was leading to diffused messaging because people were working in silos, and complicated coordination. The pandemic has accelerated clients’ digital transformation journey. More attention is now focussed on technology, on e-commerce, on data, on digital spends… And the pandemic has added another reason for clients to look to reduce the number of partners they work with – the need for efficiency; the need to stretch the marketing rupee. Clients will be, increasingly, looking for consolidation of their marketing spends with fewer partners – for cohesive messaging and for better efficiency. For companies like Wunderman Thompson, that have capabilities from long term brand-building and traditional advertising, to e-commerce and marketing automation, the next year will be full of opportunity. We are focussed, therefore, to work closely with our clients, partner them in their digital transformation journey and, in the process, open up many new revenue streams for ourselves. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder and Chairman of Creativeland Asia:" text="Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder and Chairman of Creativeland Asia:">Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder and Chairman of <keyword id="312631" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Creativeland-Asia">Creativeland Asia</keyword>:</cmsannotation> Even as business picks up and normalcy slowly returns to the new normal, the lessons of frugality and efficiency we have learned through this time beckon a refresh in thinking. From brands changing the way they communicate with their consumers to agencies who have manoeuvred to a different, tech-enabled way of working which is more contactless, yet connected, it has been a year of challenges and learning. Keeping these nuances in mind, one of the prominent trends I foresee in the industry is the advent of short-form videos and mobile advertising. With the constant evolution of technology and smartphones, easy-to-make, easy-to-watch, short-format video ads will definitely rule the roster in 2021. The ‘story’ format which is quite popular across all social media platforms, allows brands and users to ideate and do so much more than just rolling out a few second stories. Brands now have the opportunity to build meaningful and engaging content for their customers on these platforms. In addition, a stark rise in in-app advertising is expected. Since real-time streaming of videos are becoming popular by the day this will be yet another popular ad tendency businesses will explore. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Raj Kamble, Founder and CCO, Famous Innovations:" text="Raj Kamble, Founder and CCO, Famous Innovations:">Raj Kamble, Founder and CCO, Famous Innovations: </cmsannotation> I can summarise 2021 in one word: Accountability. Our business has changed dramatically in 2020 and clients will want partners who are accountable for their business. This means being personally invested in the client’s success – an art that advertising professionals have forgotten about. Asking the tangible question - will this sell my client's product - and not just the vague one - will this build my client's brand. That’s the way things used to be when agencies were owned by the same people that actually did the work. That’s why independent agencies are designed for accountability. Because our success depends on the client's success. Furthermore, this means the end of segregation of agencies and the start of the hybrid era. Lately, a chasm is forming in the A&amp;M industry where on the one side, there are the large traditional agencies that can only play the large campaign and long-term game but don't understand new media and the new consumer as well. While on the other side, there is a sprouting of digital agencies that play the digital medium well but don't have strong strategic and creative pillars in place. In 2021, clients will increasingly seek integrated solutions and a hybrid agency like ours that combines the best of both worlds is well poised to address this gap. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner, Enormous Brands:" text="Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner, Enormous Brands:">Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner, <keyword id="2949725" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Enormous-Brands">Enormous Brands</keyword>:</cmsannotation> Optimism is the one trend that I believe will be one of the most important in the industry in the coming days. With the way the world is slowly but surely coming around and the way the businesses are turning a corner, a certain bullishness is to be expected both from the makers and the buying publics. Brands should look at tapping into the emerging positivity and the new togetherness, generosity, kindness in these times. Brands looking at connecting with their audiences on an optimistic emotional level will do well in creating salience for the brand. The changes coronavirus has made across our society have been unpredictable, but for marketing and advertising, it is an opportunity now to change the course of the conversation from extreme caution of the year gone by to a gradual but imminent change. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Debashish Ghosh, National Creative Director, 22feet Tribal Worldwide:" text="Debashish Ghosh, National Creative Director, 22feet Tribal Worldwide:">Debashish Ghosh, National Creative Director, 22feet Tribal Worldwide:</cmsannotation> I feel it will be an empathy-driven flywheel. We talk about share economy a lot. One thing that’s shared the most is perhaps knowledge, opinions and views. People trust each other’s view and not a brand’s view. And that’s how they make decisions about who to engage with. The hyper-connected world is increasingly providing more avenues to amplify this behaviour. In this world, the consumer is not just the output but also the input. Delighting one person leads to attracting &amp; engaging another. That’s the flywheel. It’s not a finite CX journey but an on-going one. The idea is to open relationships and not close deals. Creativity will need to vitalize all the forces of this flywheel. Ideas with high dose of empathy and elasticity will easily wrap around it to attain sustainable growth. Being creative with content and stand-alone experiences will not be enough. As a norm, performance, automation, lead generation, on-boarding, CRM stack &amp; other consumer touchpoints will need to be creatively humanised. And existing tools will be creatively redeployed like podcasts being used as testimonials or self-service audio clips. All of it won’t happen in a year but it will be around the corner.”

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Wunderman Thompson South Asia’s Tarun Rai moves into a new role as Executive Director Strategic Initiatives, APAC

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