People always matter: Archetype's Lee Nugent

Lee Nugent, regional director APAC at Archetype, speaks to exchange4media about the growth of the agency in India, the innovative initiatives that the agency is putting in place to strengthen the talent pool and how the rise of integrated communications has changed the role of consultancies. On his recent visit to the country, Lee, shared details of the agency’s new opportunities in India and elaborated on the growth-drivers.

Excerpts from the interview:

How has Archetype’s growth been in the region and what has been India's role in it?

Archetype India has existed in the region for about 27 years and started agency operations with the first office in Delhi. I have been in the company for seven years. We were called Text100 for 23 of the 27 years. Owned by the Next 15 group, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Archetype was born out of the merger of Text 100 and a sister company, Byte Communications,  four years ago. So, as a region, we have been expanding for 20 odd years, but it feels like we were born again 4 years ago into this new brand. And since then, it’s been terrifically successful for us. The fundamentals of the two businesses coming together enabled us to power growth beyond expectations.

Our growth was slightly impacted because of Covid, wherein our revenues declined by four percent, however, since then we have recorded our earnings in double digits for two consecutive years post the pandemic. Also, we have grown in strength i.e., from about 320 people in the region to 400 now, majority of which are in India.

Archetype India has grown hugely in size in terms of both people as well as clients and is the largest revenue contributor to the APAC business in the region. With a strong 70+ client base, we are well recognized for building long standing partnerships, because of which we have witnessed roughly 25 percent growth last year. Despite the challenges, we were named APAC regional consultancy of the year in 2020 and 2022. But most importantly, we were named Best Large Agency to Work For in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

In your opinion, what are the new opportunities in India?

The opportunities in India are the same as we see in the region with some nuanced tweaks. In terms of market opportunity, it’s important to ascertain where the client growth is coming from and in which sectors.   Historically as a communications agency we were focused principally on technology and while technology currently forms about 65 per cent of our revenues, we have also cultivated clients in automotive, travel and tourism, FMCG, health, and BFSI – a full spread of sectors.

Due to our core tech focus, years ago, we would have said technology was a vertical market like healthcare and FMCG but now we feel that technology is a horizontal market, not a vertical anymore because every industry has firms within them who want to be recognized as technologically advanced firms.

As one of the early believers/ practitioners of the craft of tech storytelling, there are inherent advantages. We have extensive experience of decoding hardware stories, read router/ modems and antennae to make it palatable to the universal audience as well as targeted outreach to customers.

l think that there is plenty of growth to be experienced in helping new businesses grow in those sectors, or older, slower-moving, old-school businesses transform themselves. We work for major banks and insurance companies, and they do not move at the same pace as most, but they are transforming, and they are doing amazing things in terms of using technology to engage with stakeholders and customers. So, we see lots of growth opportunities there.

 Another important aspect is the kind of services clients are buying, - that is another growth opportunity. One of our goals is to meet client's varied creative requirements. What this means is offering the client beyond traditional PR. So, overtime, in the last 4-5 years, we have built a significant capability in what we call creative services. And specifically in India, that's evolved to become a creative and content division which has really empowered our ability to meet the creative needs in more than one way! So, while we might be doing PR work for a client, helping them communicate their brand’s story, now we are also equipped to help them build websites, make films, and take that story to their employees. So, we work with creative and content teams to develop that kind of stuff.

On top of that we have built significant digital communications capabilities, through our content/ creative partnership with LinkedIn, which enables us to better support clients in India. We currently support over 10 LinkedIn clients and have upskilled our teams, with 16+ LI certified professionals in our India team. We have also recently been awarded - Best New Partner - by LinkedIn. This has helped us serve our clients better by partnering them in their journey to drive integrated and compelling storytelling across media/ channels.

How do you think the role of consultancies have changed, especially with the rise of integrated communications?

I think for a long time, communication consultancies saw their role in solving communication challenges. Actually, the role of the consultant has transformed to solve business challenges, the answer to some of which might be communications and the other answer might not be. And I think over time, through an ability to offer integrated solutions, those communication agencies that have evolved are closer than ever to the C-Suite and trusted more. We have clients who have asked us to do things that you might not, otherwise, ask a PR agency. The reason is, there is trust between the client and the agency, and there is a proven amount of success in that relationship, and a deep knowledge of the client's business problem. And that also makes the work we do even more interesting, impactful, and more fun.

Integrated communication hinges on a single, pivotal creative proposition/platform which is then applied to a spectrum of ‘marketing drivers’ that ensure engagement with the consumer on every possible level. We developed an approach to individual executive thought leadership that brings to life the brand story in a more authentic and compelling fashion.

To what would you attribute the growth-drivers for Archetype?

Some of the growth drivers that define us include our deliberate and strategic diversification of client portfolio for greater revenue stability and good risk management. The new revenue growth is coming from multi-channel integrated communications services – we have developed a series of products, including Archetype audio (a podcasting service), Magnetic IQ, which is a data and analytics suite where clients can get real-time access to how their campaigns are performing, which allows them to change and tweak campaign content.

In fact, both during and post Covid period, there was very strong growth in traditional PR as well. And if I look at markets, India has been growing across the board on all kinds of service offerings. There was a moment in time, which is still around, where clients realise –the importance of PR in the times of crisis. So, we have seen immense growth in what you might call traditional internal and external communications in the last couple of years.  However, there is a growing importance for integrating and developing new solutions. We should not forget that at our core, the thing that makes us different is the fact that we are very good PR people.

How are you building the talent pipeline and people capabilities?

At Archetype, we try not to hire people who look, walk, smell, and talk like we do. The industry does this but at archetype we try not to. We encourage and enable our people to be unalike. So, we have put people strategies to help us be more diverse.

We overhauled our whole People First approach by creating a series of new initiatives and programs and enhancing existing ones, be it the launch of the Archetype Academy, strengthening our regular culture activities or adding on to existing employee flexibility with Archetype Anywhere etc. We have consistently over the last three years been recognized as the Best Large Agency to work for in APAC by Provoke.

In the old days in PR, everybody was a journalist – everybody did a little bit of everything. And people who can do that, I think, have superpowers. But as we evolve, we recognize that we need hyper-specialists. The chances of someone you hire who is a motion graphics specialist, could also do some communications and traditional PR on the side is unlikely, right? So, then we would bring special talent in. And one of the most interesting experiences I have had over the last few months is we have been hiring...we have had an open role for a very senior creative professional. If I go back, five years ago, when I hired the first creative director for the region, one of the challenges we had then was convincing talent – creative directors who were working in advertising agencies or digital or media agencies – that a move into a PR agency was a positive career step. Five years later, I have been presented with candidates for senior roles that I would not have believed would have wanted jobs in PR agencies. People who have worked for the big advertising agencies that we are all familiar with at senior levels want to hop into our sector now. Their desires have changed, I think we are in a very privileged position now as a communication agency.