There are few others like Alok Lall in the ad-industry, who call a spade a spade; in
this interview, McCann’s Executive Director does exactly that and more…
You cofounded an agency IRIS in 2006. Tell us about the journey, the challenges and the vision behind it? I have always been drawn to entrepreneurship. Building something from scratch is what gives me a sense of purpose and watching it come alive the satisfaction. It doesn’t have to be an agency every time, it could be very well be a skill set at the agency or an opportunity in the marketing communication’s sector. The pre-requisite for any Business Leader in todays’ VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) landscape is to have entrepreneurship as part of their DNA. It’s about being ready today by anticipating what tomorrow could be. It’s about planning ahead of so that you remain competitive and relevant. Being entrepreneurial keeps one rooted in reality and it’s always good to have your eyes and ears open to any opportunity that might be out there. I am happy to be made that way. It keeps me excited, challenged, motivated and I guess relevant. Iris is very close to my heart. Bringing and launching it in India was a labour of love. I co-founded it here back in 2006 with Stewart Shanley and Ian Milner (co-founders of the global agency). At that point people told me that the Iris offering was ahead of the curve in India… But that didn’t stop me. On the contrary it fueled me. Iris was a super challenging and a life changing experience. The notion at that time to start and set up an independent agency in the Indian market which by and large was ruled by big agency networks was terrifying. Moreover, Iris was an unknown entity in both the marketing and advertising fraternity. And that in turn was exciting. We had no baggage. I had been groomed in a large agency network like JWT, leading large clients like Pepsi, and here I was trying to change conversations around what a future ready agency offering should be. Iris started from the dining table at home with a staff of three and no business. We then shifted and started operating from the DLF Golf Club lobby in Gurgaon. Talent was hard to get by… No one knew us. Numerous hours were spent over cups of coffee in trying to convince both talent and potential clients on what we wanted to achieve. I started by having conversations with Marketing Heads of potential clients and soon realised that if I had to make a dent, I would need to move North on the table and have these conversations with CEOs. I wanted to position Iris as an agency that would help meet business objectives and we all knew that marketing objectives are a subset of that. I did not want us to be only a TV solutions agency, but one that would give holistic solutions to marketing issues and help move the product 
from the shelf. I started approaching business from the other end of the marketing funnel and positioned us as an agency that was not about bringing attitudinal change – i.e. how consumers perceived a brand – but as an agency that was built around bringing in a behavioral change in consumers. In a nutshell, we positioned ourselves as a partner that was not about Awareness and Consideration but one that would and focus to deliver Brand Preference, Conversion , Usage and ultimately Advocacy. Potential clients found this perspective audacious and fresh and this shift in approach got them interested in having conversations with us. Once that happened, the entrepreneurial nature of the offering kicked in. Most of these clients had large traditional networks as their lead agencies but started adding us to their rosters. We were in and started challenging conventional thinking and picking up briefs from marketing desks. We were hungry, nimble and had nothing to lose. We flourished. Talent started calling us and we started signing up blue chip clients. In 2011, we were 85 people, 14 odd blue chip clients and clocking approximately $4 million. Year 2011 was again when I decided to sell my shares back to the global agency in search of a new challenge. And along came McCann.
What is it that motivated you to join Mc- Cann? Thanks to the technology revolution happening around us, like every other business, the world of advertising is changing too. What are the new trends that will dominate the world of advertising in the future? One of the reasons I chose to come back to a large battleship like McCann was that it was not traditional in thinking or in acting. Yes, it has a glorious 100-year history globally, but in India, it is relatively a young agency. The opportunity was of considerable scale to drive integration across various McCann World Group companies besides the day job of running the P&L and the related growth agenda as a group. As Bob Dylan said, “Times, they are a changing”. There’s a fresh wind blowing when it comes to messaging and communication. Yes, technology is and will continue to play a pivotal role and will impact the way we look at advertising and the way it will be consumed. Having said that, advertising as an art has been around and it has moved with the times. Forms and formats might face challenges but it will keep up and stay relevant. We must acknowledge that our business is still about ideas! And that doesn’t change! The delivery and the form of the same might. And that’s because the messaging consumption axis has changed. It’s not about what brands want to say but about what consumers want to hear. Storytelling will remain – the exciting challenge is about how it’s said. Beaming communication out is a narrow and a draconian definition of advertising. Today and the future is about engagement and driving conversations. It’s about finding a seat in the prevailing popular culture. Technology will help sharpen targeting through data and facilitate forms of delivery. To take it a step further, it will help brands reach out with content that’s engagement driven. We are already witnessing ad-blocker apps in our digital consumption and people are exercising their right about what content they want to receive and consume. We will have to find ways around it and that’s an exciting challenge at how communication will be created. Welcome to a future where consumption will be “On Demand”. Consumers will decide what they want to consume, when, where, at what price point. So yes interesting times ahead.
You wrote an article very interestingly titled ‘The end of advertising as we know it’. Tell us about it. Wharton was running a program on the “Future of Advertising” and invited me to contribute for the same. It was about gazing at and beyond 2020 on what advertising would be or how it would have changed. The program sought contributions from across the world. My view was that advertising would be reinvented and we would enter into a eco-system that would be hyper personalized. It would have to be real time and need based and brands would have to go forward from mere engagement to such that they are virtually “living with their audience”. Today, Google has become a platform that has the answer to almost everything; Facebook has become a place where one can live out their alter ego. Brands would probably have to have an omnipresent existence… They have to be close to their audience so that they can be accessed anytime, anywhere. You can access the full piece on the link below: http://wfoa.wharton.upenn.edu/ perspective/aloklall/ Wharton compiled contributions into a book titled “Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through All Customer Touchpoints.“ For those interested, the book is available on Amazon or Barnes & Nobles and can be ordered from there.
McCann was given the task of relaunching Maggi noodles after the ban. What was the basic idea behind the campaign and how successful was it? We are honoured and feel privileged that Nestle entrusted this task to us. Maggi is a brand that’s been around and is ingrained into the culture of this country. When fingers are pointed at such a brand, the task becomes tricky because you know that you will only get one chance to win consumers back. Careful planning is required to plot a comeback. We had a phased strategy for communication intervention that really was about bringing trust back into the brand. All interventions had to work in a cohesive manner without losing the core of the brand. We created various 360 integrated campaigns for the same – it started with a campaign called #we-miss-you-too, followed by communication that plainly stated the Maggi was safe (after of course the courts had cleared it) and then one that welcomed it back. We launched on Snapdeal before it hit the shelves and all the stock was sold in less than five minutes. So consumers were really waiting to get their favourite Maggi back. Maggi is back and is fast garnering its share of the market which it enjoyed before the ban. It was and is the leading instant noodle brand.
When punchlines become a part of the local lingo, it shows how well the advertisement has been received by the consumers. ‘Paytm Karo’ is one such campaign. Tell us more about it. It is always exciting to create work for a dynamic brand like Paytm. It’s a brand that has consistently been innovating and one that has found significance in the consumer’s life. So really, our challenge was to craft communication such that it enters into the consumer’s life and then lives and breathes there. We started by looking for a simplistic expression that captured the convenience of the app. We were looking for something that was a solution when it came to making everyday payments, given the fact that we all live truly busy lives. The expression had to feel empowering to the consumer. We first zeroed down on the expression “Paytm Karo”. Once we had a simple yet potent expression, we took everyday situations where “Paytm” could be used and converted them into meaningful benefits for our consumers by demonstrating the versatility of the app across usage occasions. The communication that has been created i.e. “Paytm Karo”, is simple and yet engaging. Its delivery and execution is about meaningful everyday situations delivered through the use of a lilting track, which has made “Paytm Karo” part of today’s popular culture. The everyday situations have been treated in a manner that’s sensitive, light and engages you. It’s a piece of work that is designed to bring a smile to the viewer every time they watch it. What’s more, the tune of the track remains in your mind and that to my mind is a big strength.
If there is one brand that is most successful in India, it’s ‘Brand Modi’ and McCann was a part of the team responsible for creating this very successful brand. How challenging was the task? If you could share some insights into the making of ‘Brand Modi’. It’s always challenging for anyone to create an election campaign. Change is not always easy to communicate. Political parties unlike products have people with voices and points of views. The campaign had to be egoless and transparent in tonality whilst communicating that Mr. Modi was the right choice for the country. We started with first creating a TV commercial (the “Saugandh” song) which had the Prime Ministerial candidate come in and take a pledge. Nothing like that had ever been done before. We then went about knitting together the various elements around the ideology of Mr. Modi and the Party to create simple thought provoking communication. The integrated and active tenor of the campaign gave it traction. We are lucky that the brief to us from the party was structured and well researched. McCann is known for making some of the most outstanding advertising campaigns; which ones are your favourites? The standout for me is the work we have created for Dettol. I like that work because it has worked in the marketplace and has helped Dettol gain share from its competitors. It’s work that is effective and delivers to the ask. Nescafe’s stuttering comic is another piece that is my favorite. Purely because it is bold, disruptive and enjoyable. It also has helped Nescafe deliver its marketing objectives. Our work on Coca Cola, Maggi, Paytm, Yatra, MasterCard is also something I am proud of. Apart from this, we have and continue to do a lot of work for the social sector that gives immense satisfaction.
