Let’s be clear, this downturn is going to end, and in India, it is a slowdown unlike in other parts of the world. Budgets are under pressure, but we see this as an opportunity and not a massive threat as now is the time to have an intense dialogue with our clients, really understand their business challenges and explore new areas to have greater interaction and dialogue with their consumers.
Mike Jackson, Managing Director - Asia Pacific, MEC Access, is responsible for integrating MEC Access services (the creation and delivery of strategic partnerships and sponsorships across nine different platforms: arts, brand-to-brand, broadcast, cause, celebrity, film, gaming, music and sport) into regional and local clients’ communications plans. Jackson joined MEC from the UK after four years as Managing Partner with Performance, MindShare’s specialist content and sponsorship division. While at Performance, he ran BP’s global sponsorship account and was responsible for Castrol’s entry into UEFA Euro 2008.
Stephen Li is CEO – South and South-East Asia, Mediaedge:cia.
Both were recently in India to take stock of MEC Access’ operations here. exchange4media’s Robin Thomas caught up with Li and Jackson and had a freewheeling conversation on the media scene in India, the effect of the slowdown on MEC’s operations, and key emerging trends.
Q. What do you think is a key emerging trend in the media domain that the industry should watch out for?
Jackson: One of the key trends is the role of content and the role of what we do. We take the area of sports, entertainment and partnership very seriously; it is not based on just gut feel. Our strategies, our associations and implementations are based on sound judgments, where we have invested significantly in the area of insights for the strategic guidelines that we give to our clients. So, our offer is not just based on coming out with creative ideas and implementing them, but is also founded on some good strategies, some good consumer insights and good planning.
Q. How has the global economic slowdown impacted MEC Access?
Jackson: We know that there is a slowdown in the market, but we also know that the consumer has not totally cut off all spendings. Thus, brands do need to keep spending on their communication. From an MEC Access perspective, now, more than ever, is the time to have a different type of relationship and a different type of dialogue with the consumer, and brands that continue to spend and continue to evolve their communication in times of a downturn, do tend to come out much stronger.
Let’s be clear, this downturn is going to end, and in India, it is a slowdown unlike in other parts of the world. Budgets are under pressure, but we see this as an opportunity and not a massive threat as now is the time to have an intense dialogue with our clients, really understand their business challenges and explore new areas to have greater interaction and dialogue with their consumers. We see MEC Access offering the opportunities to really talk about the different ways the communication landscape is changing and how being in touch with people’s passion and having a greater dialogue around this area is a way for brands to differentiate and wait for brands to continue to move forward in these challenging times.
Q. Any developments or announcements that we can expect from your India trip?
Li: We are here because India is a crucial market for MEC Access, specifically as a division, so we come to India at least once a quarter generally to keep ourselves updated on what is happening here.
Q. Everyone keeps talking about more collaboration between creative and media agencies. What is your view on this?
Li: It is a very necessary partnership. Media agencies have moved on a long way from what things were even three years ago – leave alone 10 years ago. What we do now as media agencies has expanded so far that I don’t like to call ourselves a media agency any more as we are a communication and channel planning agency, as opposed to just a media agency. However, having said that, there are also things that we don’t do, for instance, we don’t do television commercials or make print advertisements. How well media and creative agencies work together very much depends on the individuals and the clients at times. The strongest creative and media agency relationships are the ones with whom you can work with realistically, and it is not easy at times. The closer we work together, the better it is, I believe.
Q. Are you leveraging on brand associations. What steps can media agencies take going ahead?
Li: In this case, I believe that media planning plays a dual role. The first thing we could do is try and answer the critics, so we have a process that rather than coming up with a media solution, what we try and do is work right at the beginning of the planning process to see whether there is a role for content as the big idea, and if there is, then we may come up with an association. The solution might well be a piece of branded entertainment partnership, which may then require a traditional media plan and communication plan around it to bring that idea to life. That’s how we want to work. So in effect, the media planning process works very much together, and the navigator process that we have, works as part of that and we are absolutely fundamental to that process. Sometimes, we will come out with the right content solutions, at other times, we may want to go with a more traditional media plan, depending on the brand objectives.
Q. On a general note, would you agree that globally television advertising has become more effective, especially during the downturn?
Li: I would say yes and no. At the end of the day, although a lot of people are quick to bury it six feet under, television is not dead, and depending on what the client need is, the reality of television today is that the way the medium is used is very different. There are so many ways that one can use television, and how you would use television is what makes the difference.
Q. Could you share some of your India plans during this visit?
Jackson: The area of sports and entertainment partnerships in India has grown significantly over the last 12 months. The best part is that we are going to build on the successes of 2008. We have already got people in Delhi, and we are likely to have specialists in Chennai, and it is testament to what the Access offer is about within MEC. It epitomises opposition of active engagement. It is about having greater interaction and dialogue with the consumer and giving them greater experience for the brand and having a greater engagement of the audiences with that brand. We have three different verticals – sports, partnership and entertainment areas – and across all the three verticals, we have seen sizeable growth in the last 12 months and are really anticipating good things for 2009 as well.
Consumers today are more in control of what they actually want. We want brands to be more engaged with consumers through their passions, find out what they are interested in and be associated with their passions, be it sports, music, films or programmes. We have seen MEC Access grow globally – in North America, Europe – we have now launched MEC Access in five markets in the last 12 months in the Asia-Pacific and in all these markets we are seeing MEC Access really taking off. We are coming up with ways to integrate branded entertainment solution with clients’ communication plans and working with them to find the right solution for their objectives.
Q. MEC Access India also looks after sports, entertainment and partnerships. Keeping in mind the current scenario, which is the category that is seeing the highest growth?
Jackson: Things are different in different markets, for instance, in Western Europe, sports is still a very powerful platform or vehicle for clients. In fact, I would say that there is more of a strong equivalence, which is a strong thing in India. We have been working equally across sports and entertainment, and I would say that probably sports is about 30 per cent of the amount of work that we were doing. We look for the right solutions for the client based on their objectives. I believe sports as a communication vehicle remains immensely powerful, but that does not mean that we give preference to sports, the fact is that everything depends on the audience for the brand objective. So, we work in an area that is very versatile and allows us very different approaches to have an engaging interaction with consumers, therefore, sports is powerful. We know the power of cricket in India as we have done some work in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but that’s not necessarily the answer for every brand, and certainly accounts only for 30 per cent of the work that we have done.
Q. MEC Access and MEC Interaction were launched in India last year. How have they contributed to MEC’s overall operations?
Li: Both have boosted our operations in more ways than one. Having the full-fledged operations of Interaction and Access is opening new doors for us. The fact that we now have full specialist disciplined expertise in these areas allows us a lot more confidence to speak to our clients about new integrated opportunities.