Stephen Li, CEO, South & South-east Asia, Mediaedge:cia
"The way the younger generation wants to interact with brands has changed. It has become increasingly a two-way process. Consumers no longer just believe everything that is said. They want a better understanding; consumers are becoming proactive. India is a prime example. The youth often ask questions such as how will it change my life?... Today, even marketers and advertisers realise that there is less finance to spend. Every dollar spent needs to be justified."
Mediedge:cia recently won the 'Media Agency of the Year' award from Advertising Age and Adweek, and ranked as the top media agency in terms of vitality. In India, the agency has been steadily adding businesses from local pitches as well as global alignments. Stephen Li, CEO, South and South-east Asia for Mediaedge:cia (MEC), was in India recently to take stock of the Indian operations.
In an interview with exchange4media's Supriya Thanawala, Li spoke about MEC's global strategies and what the future has in store for the media agency. Excerpts: Q. Would you like to elaborate more on that?
The way the younger generation wants to interact with brands has changed. It has become increasingly a two-way process. Consumers no longer just believe everything that is said. They want a better understanding; consumers are becoming proactive. India is a prime example. The youth often ask questions such as how will it change my life? The paradigms are changing, and clients are using various methods including events, sponsorships, branded concepts, and, therefore, trying to build a dialogue with the consumer. In that respect, we are at the forefront, as MEC fundamentally believes in active engagement.
It is about the areas of media that we use, and also the way we use the traditional media. TV and print have changed. If you have a 30-second TVC today, why not talk about more than just the basic information. Today it's not that only consumers want to know more, but even marketers and advertisers realise that there is less finance to spend. Every dollar spent needs to be justified.
Q. How do you think Mediaedge:cia has fared in the last few years in India?
In the last three years that we have been here, there has been a drive towards winning new businesses in India. The developments over the last 12-18 months show our desire to be all encompassing and to provide a 360-degree communication experience. We have moved from the more traditional media options like TV, radio, print and cinema to interactive and new media platforms. We are also trying to build our role as a media agency, in terms of taking up a client's budget and using it most effectively. This is our core competence and we are trying to consistently working to improve on it.
We have found over the last couple of years that clients are now looking for much more than consumers and are becoming more demanding. No longer do consumers just receive the message that the advertiser puts in front of them. Earlier it was the advertiser's job to merely send out a message, and then the consumer would read it and understand it in his or her own way. This was part of the days which we would call the 'no-interruption days', when there weren't too many distractions. Now the scenario has changed, especially with the younger generation.
Q. We have seen the agency win many businesses like Nivea in India that came through global alignments. What is the strategy behind these wins?
As a global entity, last month we won Advertising Age and Adweek's 'Media Agency of the Year'. In media ranking, RECMA marked us as No. 1 in terms of vitality, which includes winning, retaining and being able to keep businesses -- and not lose them. It is easy to win businesses and very hard to retain them. We also have a strong global position currently. We are trying to diversify our business as well.
India is an important market for us. Whenever we win a pitch on a global or regional level, it goes without saying that India should be a part and parcel of that pitch. There are hardly any clients and businesses that I can think of where this has not happened. Clients would also not give us regional business if we didn't have it in India. The strategy is to gain a global and regional balance in terms of our businesses. It is also a part of the overall strategy to get businesses back in other regions. So we have had many global clients coming back to India. Nivea was one such example, where we won it in the USA and also continued with it in India as well.
Q. You face a peculiar situation of 'The Media Edge' being present here with 'Mediaedge:cia'. Has this ever proved to be a problem of any sort?
Q. Everyone keeps talking about more collaboration between creative and media agencies. What is your view on this?
Q. Finally, what do you think is a key emerging trend in the media domain that the industry should watch out for?
I think if there is one strong trend, it is your very own question on the debate on media and creative agencies coming back together. There is some amount of speculation in terms of whether there will be a reconsolidation between the two. It may happen or it may not happen.
The other side of the debate is that separation of powers can also be an advantage sometimes - we are often able to give clients the right kind of solution in a more specific manner.
Q. Where does India stand in regards to the APAC region?
Q. How do you work between the traditional forms of media and the interactive ones?
We use both. Where traditional media is concerned, there are several that we have put to use. For instance, for Fa deodorant, we used cinema in an innovative manner. Cinema has an aspirational value, and a lifestyle product that shares the same feeling fits in well with it. We tied up with a movie studio, and through the commercial of the movie, the audience got information on the product and we got the benefit of publicity. So it was a win-win situation for us.
In terms of areas like interactive, it is no longer just about buying and having banner advertisements; it's not just the eyeballs and click-through that we are looking for. It is a deeper strategising in terms of helping the development of micro-sites, and in understanding how to shape online strategies.
