Jean-Marie Dru, President, TBWA Worldwide
Disruption is not dependent on or linked to channels and mediums. Sure, the strategy has to be executed differently every time, but it is the strategy that has to be fresh. There is no reason why India should prove difficult for disruption… Disruption helps to a better strategy. For instance, what we have done for Bajaj Allianz is fantastic.
A graduate of HEC business school, Jean-Marie Dru began his career in 1971 with Dupuy Compton (now Saatchi & Saatchi) as an Account Executive on the Procter & Gamble account rising to the position of Executive Creative Director. In 1977, he joined Young & Rubicam in Paris as Managing Director and became its CEO in 1979.
In 1984, he co-founded and was Chairman of the BDDP Group, which merged with TBWA Worldwide in 1998. Today, Dru is the President-International of TBWA Worldwide.
He is also the author of two books on advertising and marketing strategy. This apart, Dru is also the Vice-President of the French National Advertising Association and a member of the European Advertising Association. He has also served as President of the Outdoor Advertising Grand Prix in 1987 and 1988 and as President of the Cannes Advertising Film Festival Jury in 1983 and 1998.
exchange4media's Noor Fathima Warsia caught up with the veteran advertising professional during his recent visit to India. Dru speaks about his views on advertising, disruption and TBWA in India.
Q. But that is the case where all disciplines are in one agency. What about cases where a client is working with different agencies?
Yes, which is why I said that is a debate that would go on for a while. But I must tell you that when you have processes like disruption in your agency, sometimes all you need is a client to use one of your services as entry point and then you can offer them the rest and it falls in place.
Q. Do you see India also moving to a fee-based structure?
It is happening everywhere – how low can you go! Fees are a sure shot way to ensure that agencies are making enough to invest more for the needs of their clients. Why should India be an exception? I think it is a matter of time before the practise sets in here as well.
Q. What was the guiding factor for disruption?
I have always believed that there are different ways of doing things and it is more often than not that you are heard and understood better when you have said it differently – at least you know you are not a blind spot and that is how disruption came to play. There are a lot of problems and points that you have to be careful about, but you have to do it.
Q. On another note, mergers and acquisitions seem to be the route most are taking to grow in India now. Do you think it works?
Merger or acquisition instantly adds a dimension and gives you additional growth. I don't know India well enough to really tell you whether it is a good route in a market like this, but a rule I believe in and I think is true for India and France is that there has to be organic growth. I think someone said it wonderfully recently that an acquisition is good only if it helps to accelerate your organic growth on the rest of the business. So, M&A may be a good idea, but you have to be working together with organic growths.
Q. Everyone is talking about how big the Indian market is. However, whether it is ad revenues or even platforms like Cannes or the Gunn Report, India really doesn't appear anywhere. What is holding us back from getting into the top league?
India is in the same place as China was some years back. India is very important for marketers because of the growth potential that it holds, which is why everyone is sharpening focus on India. But to answer your question, India has a long way to go to catch up with some of the other markets in terms of evolution of the advertising business. India still isn't strong in other disciplines like direct, digital, integration by events, public relations - there is a dominance of above the line media here. In other markets, for an agency like TBWA, more than half our businesses are coming from non-conventional disciplines.
Sure, there are many advertisers in India, but there are so many more that have to still come. You hear announcements everyday of people opening shop here. So, there would be further growth that would come from there. Then there are many local businesses here that are still not in the advertising fold. There really are various such points that have to still add to revenues in India and people are expecting them to happen soon.
Q. Speaking on another industry debate at present, the situation in India is such that if a client wants a 360-degree campaign, he has to go to five different agencies – there is less collaboration between media, creative, and other agencies – and this should change. What is your view on this?
Well, this debate is there for other markets as well. But the way I see it is that no one is asking anyone to go back to the integrated structure. You have to just coordinate and collaborate better with other partners that would complete a client's marketing solution. Clients too are realising this. There are those that ensure that their agencies coordinate and then there are also those that don't want that and have their own brand managers for the role. I think this debate would continue for a while.
However, on this, I think that every agency should have capability in every discipline. We do that at TBWA – so there is the creative power in TBWA, integrated marketing services in Tequila and other such units that together give you the complete plan.
Q. How much time would you give to this?
I'm not sure it is a good idea to do that! I mean, these things take time depending on the markets. India is brilliantly unique in many aspects and has grown faster than most markets in some areas, it isn't really fair to predict a timeline for this. But I can tell you that many of us are expecting these changes to set in really, really soon.
Q. You were quoted saying ‘billings’ are old-fashioned...
Yes, I like pointing that out whenever I can that when we speak about our revenues, quote real revenues - that is fees - and not 'billings'. I think billings are, as you said, old-fashioned. Agencies have been working on commissions and it was alright to quote billings when you had 15 per cent commission, not when it gradually reduces to 8 per cent and lower. Business is growing, but agency revenues really aren't. But when it is fees, there is a lot more stabilisation.
Q. On disruption, does it prove to be difficult?
Yes, it does! Because you are continually looking at what everyone is doing just to do something that others aren't and you have to do it again and again. The strategies in a manner of speaking, changes and constantly changing that is difficult, but not once when you understand it. Then it makes sense to you and that is where we are today in some of the TBWA markets and the benefits are clearly showing.
Q. Finally, when do you see TBWA becoming bigger in India?
There is a gap here in comparison to the other markets, but we are trying. Disruption helps to a better strategy. For instance, what we have done for Bajaj Allianz is fantastic. We are looking at more training sessions and other such means to further improve our performance in India.
Q. Does India pose more challenges since the market is not too strong yet on technologies and digital mediums?
Disruption is not dependent on or linked to channels and mediums. Sure, the strategy has to be executed differently every time, but it is the strategy that has to be fresh. There is no reason why India should prove difficult for disruption.
