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In conversation with VMLY&R’s Hari Ramanathan

The wearables market in India has picked up significantly in the last few years with homegrown brands and international companies making smart entries. Indian smartwatch brand, Fire-Boltt has gone on to become a leading player in the smartwatch category. 

In an interview with Storyboard’s editor Delshad Irani, Arnav Kishore, co-founder and CEO, Fire-Boltt shares how the company plans to tap new segments and its international expansion game plan. Fire-Boltt started selling 100 watch units on Amazon. Today, they have a run rate of more than 30,000 units a day. 

The company started its operations in 2015 when Arnav and his elder sister Aayushi Kishore co-founded the brand. It was of the first wearable tech brands in India. In the first few years of operation, the brand gained a lot of experience in hardware and software development. They learnt the art of how to make the right wearables for the Indian audience. 

In 2019, the brand was rechristened as Fire-Boltt. Speaking on the turning point of the brand, Kishore shares,  “We were lucky to enter the market at the right time.  During the pandemic, the awareness and consciousness of people really went to another level. They started taking their health much more seriously. We were the first smartwatch to launch with built-in SPO2.” 

He further adds, “While the underline usage of a smartwatch will continue to have the health and fitness, and other tracking capabilities, Fire-Boltt is coming up with a dedicated line of smartwatches targeted at women."

Highlighting the company’s plan to launch a luxury offering, Kishore says, “Fire-Boltt aims to cater to the premium watch lovers and the company is set to launch watches with stainless steel straps and leather straps. Similarly, we are working on a special range of watches with parental tracking capabilities for school-going kids, and young teens.” 

Fire-Boltt feels there is a big gap in the market globally in the budget segment and therefore the brand is looking to expand in UAE. The company has recently started operations in Vietnam and Singapore. In the next two quarters, there are plans of adding 10-12 countries including parts of Europe and the USA. 

Watch the full interview here:

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In conversation with Fire-Boltt’s CEO Arnav Kishore

Diageo India CEO Hina Nagarajan: Consumers are not necessarily drinking more, but they are drinking better

Toby Jenner, the global CEO of Wavemaker told his India team which is led by Ajay Gupte to be the “most wanted media agency” in the world. Gupte and his teams took the mandate very seriously. He shares with Storyboard18 their report card: Wavemaker India has added over $90 million in billings from new business wins in 2022 so far and has had a strong stake in global wins like Danone and Audible, as well as retaining Mondelez. “That’s the business results, and they are impressive. On top, Ajay and his team has put Wavemaker on the map globally through tangible examples of how creativity and new technology have a transformational power,” he adds. The agency’s work for Mondelez India in partnership with Ogilvy India has been putting them high on the global awards rankings too.

In an interview with Storyboard18, Jenner shares what makes his India team shine on the global growth map, how the agency is becoming future-ready, changing dynamics of the ad business, and more.

Read on. 

<strong>In April 2022, Ajay Gupte told Storyboard18 that you gave the leadership team a war cry, to be the “most wanted media agency” in the world. How far are you from that goal? What’s the performance evaluation? </strong>

Becoming the most wanted media agency is our north star. If we truly positively provoke growth for our clients and our people, we will become the world's most wanted media network. It’s what motivates and unites us to fulfil our potential. We’re well underway: according to COMvergence, the research business which ranks global media agencies’ performance, we’re in the top 6 overall. We were no. 3 in 2021 and with some positive results we will be top 3 again in the 2022 new business ranking. We’ll have earned this through a succession of new business wins including Danone, L’Oréal, Beiersdorf, Paramount plus multiple new economy wins including Audible, Riot Games, Coinbase, Square, SeatGeek and Zwift.   

<strong>How different is your India team from the rest of the world? </strong>

Ajay and his team are hugely successful. They have added over $90 million in billings from new business wins in 2022 so far and have had a strong stake in global wins like Danone and Audible, as well as retaining Mondelez. That’s the business results, and they are impressive. On top, Ajay and his team has put Wavemaker on the map globally through tangible examples of how creativity and new technology have a transformational power. The campaign for Cadbury with Shah Rukh Khan, created in partnership with Ogilvy, has not only won big at local awards shows, but is internationally renowned and awarded. At our industry’s most prestigious award show, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the case won a Titanium Lion, the only one WPP bagged this year. On top, and mainly thanks to India, Wavemaker was named International Network of the Year at this year’s M&M Global Awards. 

I’d say Ajay and his team are a little further down the road to becoming the most wanted media agency.

<strong>Looking at the work that Wavemaker India has been delivering over the last couple of years, will it be right to say you are breaking traditional media agency codes? Is it the same for rest of the markets?</strong>

Absolutely. A combination of purpose, creativity and technology is at the heart of our most successful work in India. The work coming out of India is an inspiration to the entire network, but there are pockets of excellence everywhere. I see more consistently great work as we’re leaning more into the strength of being a global network: Take what works, share and reapply to build stronger capabilities and creativity everywhere. To prove this point, our last year in Cannes was our most successful ever – on top of the already mentioned wins for the Shah Rukh Khan campaign, we won other Lions for work for Mondelez as well as for Coinbase, Netflix and more.

<strong>From a business point of view, what’s Wavemaker’s current focus? What are clients looking for from an agency like yours?</strong>

Transformative growth is what many of our clients are tasking us with. As well as our core services, it is increasingly important that we can offer clients a range of consultancy services. At Wavemaker we launched our consultancy business in early 2020 to help with this digital client transformation our clients. Since then, the consultancy community have evolved into a practice of exceptionally talented individuals who future proof our clients against their most challenging business issues, across Commerce, Precision, Content & Creativity, addressable, data, applied innovation, and analytics. As the media and advertising landscape continues to change, I believe these services are key to our future success. Consultancy services now account for 20 percent of our business and it’s growing at 25 percent per annum. 

<blockquote>A combination of purpose, creativity and technology is at the heart of our most successful work in India.</blockquote>

<strong>How has the media planning gambit changed in the recent past? What is the single-biggest change you foresee that will transform the business?</strong>

Over recent years, and also fuelled by the pandemic, ecommerce has become a significant part of a brand’s planning portfolio, and retail media is playing a vital role in delivering this growth from both a topline revenue driving perspective as well as improving bottom line profit. When ecommerce was under 5 percent of a brand’s revenue it was viewed as investing in new channels for growth, and profitability was not critical, but now, for most brands, retail media is one of the biggest sales channels, so we must work to improve bottom line sales.   

<blockquote>Consultancy services now account for 20 percent of our business and it’s growing at 25 percent per annum. </blockquote>

The challenge brands face with retail media is that it is often treated in silo compared to core media channels, and this reduces our ability to create joined up consumer journeys and optimise across channels, in part due to the lack of retail media adtech integrations with other adtech. As cookies deprecate over the next few years, retail media will become one of the few channels available for precision marketing and will play a role over and above driving near term platform sales. With GroupM’s TYNY benchmarks showing that retail media in India is at almost 4 percent in 2022 and expected to double by 2027, this mandates the closer integration of retail media into core media.  

<strong>What are the myths around the business of media planning that Wavemaker is trying to change?</strong>

I think many of the myths surrounding media planning has to do with lack of knowledge of the tools and platforms, technology and data sources that now enable us plan and execute media for our clients smarter, more creative and more effective than ten, five or even three years ago. A couple of examples. The industry has become a quagmire of disconnected silos and walled gardens across paid, owned and earned channels and the perception is that in this environment, planning across channels and audiences is impossible. However, at Wavemaker we’re overcoming this with our industry leading, AI-powered media planning products which allows us to plan against individuals rather than audience segments.

Data integration: As the first agency in the world, Wavemaker has access to Amazon’s audience data, allowing our planners insights that input directly into media plans and campaigns. This helps us create stronger and more creative data audience strategies to realise our clients’ digital maturity plans. The myth we’re breaking here is this, for example, to target dog owners you have to look at dog food buyers, right? Not necessarily. Through our collaboration with Amazon, Wavemaker planners will examine the purchase behaviours of buyers on Amazon media, allowing us to identify new target audiences that are likely to engage with our advertising (at lower cost, by exiting the category competitive environment). So, your dog owners might be better found through male grooming products than dog food.

<strong>First the pandemic, now the war, slowing growth, increasing cautious cosumption, etc. How do you think should brands navigate through challenging times?</strong>

In an economic downturn, brand budgets come under pressure from three things – declining sales, rising media costs and increased pressure to drive short-term sales via precision media. When budgets are tight, and marketers are under pressure from the boardroom to save costs, many make the mistake of focusing too narrowly on maintaining sales and forget driving brand equity and bias. However, it’s a fact that no amount of performance advertising will keep your brand on people’s carefully budgeted shopping lists. When budgets are tighter, and consumers spend less, then brands must also work to stay relevant, to provide consumers with real value and a sense of purpose. Those that succeed will keep growing, even in a downturn. 

<strong>How are you trying to make Wavemaker a future-ready company?</strong>

We’ve got a great product, a position that differentiates us in the market, we’re winning new business and are working with some of the world’s biggest and fastest growing brands. To sustain this, to make Wavemaker future-ready, we need to double down on our efforts to be an attractive workplace where smart and brave people come to do meaningful work and have great careers. 

<strong>According to you, what’s the biggest challenge in the advertising business today? How is Wavemaker trying to fix it? </strong>

I think advertisers’ biggest challenge is connecting brand and performance, especially in economic headwinds as mentioned earlier. Lots of brands split their budgets into a series of specialist agency shops, which was fine for a period of time, but most are now realising: 1) it’s incredible time consuming to navigate and manage multiple agency partners, 2) media plans are disconnected, they are duplicating reach against growth audiences and 3) measurement has become siloed and focused on short term results. At Wavemaker we are single minded in building product solutions that help brands join their investments together and realise the gains they are missing out on. We’ve launched platforms like Maximize, the world’s first AI poweredmulti-audience planning tool, to help brands plan end to end with us – and we’ve got over 2500 plus specialist in our consultancy community to support connecting brand and performance. 

Because we have models that show how brand advertising can make performance activity work harder, we’re seeing success with clients that are very good at the bottom end of the sales funnel, but need to build brand over the longer term to sustain growth. Audible, Coinbase or Doordash are examples of clients that have come to Wavemaker for help in planning for long-term growth. 

<blockquote>I think advertisers’ biggest challenge is connecting brand and performance, especially in economic headwinds.</blockquote>

<strong>From a talent lens, why do you think young people are not too keen on careers in advertising? What should agencies focus on to attract them?</strong>

I think media and advertising have had a ‘work hard, play hard’ reputation, meaning that people were expected to put in long hours to meet tight deadlines. But the generation we see come into the agency today have a different agenda; they care more about a healthy work-life balance, and they want to work at a company that see and share their values. 

I think the pandemic taught us where our priorities should be. While work can be amazingly exciting, we all also have other things in our lives, and we have loved ones that we want to focus on and spend time with. So at Wavemaker we’re doing more now to make space for all of our differences and to create a workplace where everyone feel they belong and can be themselves. Pitching can be extremely hard work, but when we win new clients, we also create new opportunities for our people. That value should come through. And then we’re fortunate to be part of GroupM and WPP, an extremely large network where new opportunities arise every day.  

<strong>What are some of your personal milestones since you took charge of the network? </strong>

Since I joined Wavemaker in 2019, we’ve completely rewired the agency. We launched a new global agency proposition – “Positively Provoking” growth for our clients and our people. We built a global operating system accessed across all our markets and housing our modular planning product, Provocative Planning. We restructured our global leadership team across clients, countries and capabilities to create a stronger sense of consistency and connectivity across our 88 markets. We also formed three regional ‘Challenger’ ExCos, appointed from rising stars across Wavemaker, to inject increased diversity into our thinking, as well as reverse mentoring our leaders. I think our recent success is testament to how well this ‘new’ Wavemaker has landed – we’re winning new business, exciting new economy brands are joining our client list, and we’ve expanded our relationship with some of the world’s biggest advertisers, as outlined earlier. 

Personally, it was my goal to reshape our global leadership team as a more diverse group of brilliant minds. Now, we finally have a gender balanced global ExCo. I know there’s much more to diversity than gender, but I nevertheless feel this is a significant milestone. Globally, regionally, locally - only diverse teams create diverse points of view and thinking, which will positively provoke growth for our clients and people. 



Wavemaker’s global CEO Toby Jenner: Media and advertising have had a ‘work hard, play hard’ reputation

The rise of marketing leaders into the ranks of CEOs continues, it seems, as an impressive list of marketing chiefs turned chief executives could see a new addition. FMCG juggernaut Unilever’s global chief marketing officer for beauty and wellbeing businesses and brands, Priya Nair is in the running for the top position at Hindustan Unilever. 

As per an Economic Times report, Hindustan Unilever has shortlisted possible chief executive candidates to take over from incumbent Sanjiv Mehta when he steps down from the role he took on in 2013. He was last reappointed for five years, until October 2023.

Earlier this year, Nair was moved into a new global role as chief marketing officer - Beauty & Wellbeing, at Unilever. She was previously Hindustan Unilever’s executive director and executive vice president of the South Asia region for the beauty and personal care category. Nair, who has 27 years of experience, started her career with the consumer goods company as a consumer insights manager. She rose through the ranks to become brand manager and general manager handling brands like Dove, Rin and Comfort.

Nair holds a degree in Bachelor of Commerce from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, and is a post graduate in MBA in Marketing from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management.

In March, Nair shared with Storyboard18 the lessons that have helped her in a steady and stunning career: “I have learnt that in corporate life if you are fortunate enough to discover your purpose, which I have in my work, you will have the strength to manage all volatility and uncertainty.” 

She added, “I have learnt that it is the power of the inner compass that gives you conviction, energy, and optimism. The second lesson I have learnt is to keep learning. This learning agility is critical in management, as we see the world change at an increasing speed. Constant learning, not just on the job but also learning from peers and industry, is critical for sharpening your skills and for personal development.”

<a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/storyboard18/brand-makers/cmo-to-ceo-companies-are-betting-on-marketers-to-lead-brands-and-business-2708.htm">Read More: CMO to CEO: Companies are betting on marketers to lead brands and business</a>

Nair also mentioned how her mother inspired her to get back to studying after 25 years of work experience. She took on a Harvard Executive Leadership Program and went back to school.

The other candidate according to the ET report is Rohit Jawa who is currently the chief of transformation for Unilever. Jawa joined HUL in 1988 and has held leadership positions at Unilever in markets such as China, Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore. He was also the executive VP - Global Marketing Operations for Unilever. Like Nair, Jawa completed an advanced leadership program at Harvard.  

<strong>From CMO to CEO</strong>

For decades, legacy companies, especially in the FMCG space, have been tapping and grooming marketing and sales talent for C-suite positions. C-level business leaders at legacy companies who have held marketing and sales-oriented roles and/or transitioned from CMO/marketing chiefs to CEO include-

Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico

Bharat Puri, MD, Pidilite

Prabha Narasimhan, MD, Colgate-Palmolive India

Mukul Deoras, President, APAC Division, Colgate Palmolive Company

Ram Raghavan, President - Enterprise Oral Care, Colgate Palmolive Company

Nitin Paranjpe, Non-exec Chairman, Hindustan Unilever, and chief transformation officer, Unilever 

Sudhir Sitapati, CEO, Godrej Consumer Products

Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & MD, Nestlé India

Sameer Satpathy, CEO - personal care division, ITC LTD

Veejay Nakra, CEO, Mahindra & Mahindra, Automotive Sector

Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail

Puneet Das, President - Packaged Beverages, India & South Asia, Tata Consumer Products

Sameer Suneja, Global CEO, Perfetti Van Melle

Earlier this year, Santosh Iyer, vice president - sales & marketing, Mercedes-Benz India, was elevated to the position of managing director of the German auto major in India. The first Indian in that position.

In October 2022, Mondelez International promoted Anil Viswanathan, a senior marketing executive to lead the firm as managing director for Vietnam, South East Asia.

These appointments affirm a strong trend where an increasing number of companies – both multinationals and startups – are relying on marketing and sales talent to lead their operations.

Nair’s possible ascendance to managing director and chief executive of Hindustan Unilever would be another inspirational journey of a marketer to the highest echelons of corporate leadership.

If Nair does become the top boss, she would also make history as HUL's first-ever female chief executive. 



From CMO to CEO: Unilever’s global CMO Priya Nair in the running for Hindustan Unilever's CEO position?

The pandemic had a huge impact on the liquor industry when out of home consumption came to a hard stop. It's been well over a year now since the world opened up and consumption levels got back up again. So how has the year fared for Diageo India, one of the biggest alco-bev companies in the world and in India? We found out from the managing director and CEO, Hina Nagarajan. In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18's editor Delshad Irani, Nagarajan talked about Diageo’s premiumisation strategy, driving sustainability, key consumer trends and more. 

Watch. 

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Diageo India's CEO Hina Nagarajan on liquor premiumisation strategies, consumer trends and more

boAt is one of the most exciting startups that has emerged in recent years. But how did boAt go from a challenger brand to one of the leading consumer goods companies in India? We find out more about the brand’s journey from Vivek Gambhir, CEO of boAt. In an interview with Delshad Irani, he also shares what lies ahead for the brand, winning growth strategies and marketing plans. 

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Watch this space for the full interview. 


From challenger to leader: boAt CEO Vivek Gambhir on the brand's journey

Five months into leading Godrej Tyson Foods’ Abhay Parnerkar has identified the growth map for the company’s ready-to-cook brand Godrej Yummiez. While a lot of research and development work was happening before he took charge, under Parnerkar’s leadership Godrej Yummiez expanded its vegetarian frozen food segment. The brand launched a potato-based snack without any added preservatives. The size of the vegetarian frozen food segment is estimated to be about two third of the total category for the company. Godrej Tyson Foods’ chief executive officer sees this as a huge opportunity not only for Godrej Yummiez but also for the Rs 3,500 crore frozen food market. Godrej Yummiez aims to become a Rs 200 crore plus brand and record growth of more than 30 percent in FY 2023. 

Earlier this year, when the brand launched a paneer-based snack, Parnerkar, decided to go on market visits, especially in the North Indian cities where the brand is seeing an uptick in demand for vegetarians snacks. Parnerkar tells Storyboard18 the biggest compliment he got from retailers was that the taste of the product was on point. That’s a relief for any food brand, he says. Having spent 18 years at Coca-Cola Company, Parnerkar knows the importance of market visits. “It is critical for brands in our category to deeply understand the consumption habits and preference up close. To see the shopper and consumer behaviour, you need to go on-ground,” he adds.

Samplings are a big part of Godrej Yummiez’s marketing plan. Parnerkar pops into some of tasting booths and talks to the consumers and takes note for his teams. “It’s important that food brands give good retail experiences to consumers,” he opines. Sampling along with digital advertising takes about 70 percent of the brand’s marketing budget. Godrej Yummiez also plans to advertise on television and OTT platforms to push its new launch. 
The snacking industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.5 percent by the financial year 2023 and is likely to reach a value of over Rs 15 billion by 2024. Given the fast rate growth of the category, Parnerkar and his teams are investing time in research for insight mining. 

As per The India Snacking Report, that the company recently released, 62 percent of Indians felt potato-based snacks is an omnipresent part of their snacking platter. It has to do with the fact that potato is versatile and blends well with Indian recipes, observes Parnerkar. Potato snacks also are a large part of restaurant menus, which consumers want to make at home too. The report also found out that 41 percent surveyed consumers consume vegetarian frozen snacks daily. 

Interestingly, the study stated that women snack more than men. 53 percent of females associate snacking with a mini meal. 83 percent of mothers who were surveyed said that frozen snacks are quick-fix hunger solutions for kids. 71 percent of mothers also believe that there is no fixed time for snacking. The brand’s core target audience remains mothers and women in the 25-45 age group, which is reflected in the brand’s advertising. Apart from convenience, the study indicated that consumers feel snacking is a mood lifter. “This research has given us enough insights for designing our portfolio more sharply in the future,” he adds.

While the brand has a national footprint and presence across all key online and offline channels, currently South and West are the highest contributors. With Godrej Yummiez’s focus on affordability, the company is expecting further growth across tier 2 and 3 cities, concludes Parnerkar.
 	



Godrej Tyson Foods’ CEO Abhay Parnerkar on the importance of market visits, sampling and consumer research

Towards the end of 2018, Meta (then Facebook) created a new hot seat for Ajit Mohan to lead their India business. The position of India MD at Facebook was lying vacant for over a year then. Mohan joined Facebook India as the managing director and vice-president in January 2019. Before Mohan, the vice-president title was never given to the past heads of the company's India business. Mohan’s hiring was in line with the California-based internet giant’s decision to bring their India business directly under the core team at Menlo Park headquarters.

In his close to four-year stint with Meta, among other things, Mohan scaled the company’s India operations, focused on growth of small and medium businesses through the platform, promoted community building programs and brought Reels to the country.

As per business intelligence platform Statista, Meta India generated nearly Rs 15 billion in revenue in financial year 2021, a significant increase from the previous year. Before Mohan took charge of the company’s business in the country, their revenue was a little over Rs5 billion. In 2019, the revenue jumped to Rs8.92 billion, followed by Rs12.77 billion in 2021 before touching new heights in 2022.

Under his close to half-decade leadership the company has also made significant investments in businesses across sectors in India. For instance, in June 2019, the company invested in social ecommerce platform Meesho. In February 2020, the company joined others like General Atlantic and Sequoia India to be a part of a funding round of $110 in ed-tech start-up Unacademy. In April 2020, they announced a $5.7 billion, investment in Jio Platforms, making Meta its largest minority shareholder.

In an interview with Storyboard18 towards the beginning of 2022, Mohan had said, “We believe that we play an enabling role in the agenda of businesses in India, especially small businesses and a lot of the success that we have seen in the last few years, is because we have managed to build a platform that adds value for small businesses. That's an agenda that is extremely important to us.”

The partnerships including the one with Jio, where they want to make it easy for people around the country to order from Kirana stores from within WhatsApp and all the programs that they have activated to skill and train entrepreneurs and small businesses, Mohan said was at the heart of the agenda that they have in India.

Mohan who was the CEO of Hotstar before taking over the controls of Meta in India, said in a social media post that when he took on this new role his objective was to build a team and a company that would be a valuable ally to India and play a useful role in fueling its economic and social transformation.

“This is exactly what we have managed to do in the last four years,” he said.

Another excerpt from his post says, “The thing that I am most proud of about my tenure at Meta (Facebook) is the team that we built in India. And helming this was an awesome group of people who I am grateful to for their passion, their commitment to the mission and, most of all, for their inspiring leadership through good and tough times.”

In his role as the India head, Mohan’s focus was always on newer areas of business. Be it India’s role in the success of Meta’s metaverse project or the launch of Reels in the country,

“In the last few years for a lot of products we built - be it Reels on Instagram or payments on WhatsApp - we have looked at India as a testbed. We learn from India. The ideas that get articulated here and the products that get shaped here solve for some of the big challenges in the world and that continues,” he had shared with Storyboard18.

Time will tell whether these big challenges will continue to be taken care of by Meta in India under its new leadership. Meanwhile, Mohan is all set to take up new challenges as the Asia Pacific head of Snap Inc. 

<strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/storyboard18/brand-makers/meta-indias-head-ajit-mohan-moves-on-3046.htm">Meta India’s head Ajit Mohan moves on </a>

Meta India chief Ajit Mohan’s sudden exit and his time at Facebook

This is the Indian decade. I would also say it's the start of the Indian age: Mark Schneider, Nestle CEO

Devika Bulchandani, the newly appointed Global CEO of Ogilvy becomes the first-ever woman of color to run a global agency network. Born in Amritsar, schooled in Dehradun before moving to Mumbai, she thinks of herself as a Mumbaikar. She says when she moved to the US to join an advertising agency, her initial days went in getting to know a ‘new culture’ better. But after these initial challenges, she became the driving force behind many noteworthy campaigns including Mastercard’s long-running “Priceless” campaign and The “Fearless Girl” that challenged Wall Street’s symbol of the charging bull with a bronze statue of a young girl which became a symbol for gender diversity and equality. 

Till recently, she served as Global President and CEO of Ogilvy North America and took the helm from Andy Main who is stepping down as Global CEO. In this Storyboard18 exclusive interview, we speak to the ‘Fearless Girl’ Devika Bulchandani.

Edited excerpts: 

<strong>You have joined the elite club of Indian-origin global CEOs and not just that, you are one of the few women CEOs in the industry. How does that feel?</strong>

It feels very good but it also feels like it is a big responsibility. I have a really nice story from the other day, I was walking in the hallway here at Ogilvy in New York and a young girl walked up to me and said ‘You are Devika right?’ and I said ‘Yes’. After this she said, ‘I just want to tell you on behalf of all the ‘Desi Girls’ this means so much to me and looking at you gives me so much hope.’ And another woman walked in and she said ‘Devika, my parents are talking about you. They are calling me and saying ‘there is an Indian woman CEO and that means so much.’ Those things made me realize how powerful it is to be in this position and give people hope. Yes, it feels good at a personal level but it also feels really good when I think of the responsibility of it. And what it says to other Indian women and women of colour and people who don’t like a majority in any community.

<strong>You once said you are the “The Fearless Girl”, which has also been one of your unique campaigns. ‘The Fearless Girl’ statue, as we know, sends a message about workplace gender diversity. You are Amritsar-born, you went to school at Welham in Dehradun, and graduated from St Xavier’s in Mumbai. So share with us your journey so far in advertising? What according to you were the key milestones of this journey?</strong>

When I started in advertising I was one of the few Indian people and I would be one of the few non ‘White American’ or English / Australian people. This whole industry is dominated by those three cultures. And if you think about what we do in advertising we create culture. We tell stories about what’s happening in the world and how people want to evolve their lives, what it is that they need. And when I came here in my first few meetings I was like ‘I don’t know anything about American culture. I didn’t know what an Oreo cookie was. And you get to know about Coke’s famous Hilltop Ad and you hear about ‘Tiger in the Tank’ and these are sort of iconic advertising slogans and I realized, I don’t know any of that. I don’t know what it means, I don’t understand it, I don’t feel it. So it took me a really long time to actually feel I belong. And the only time I started to feel I belong is when I started to accept ‘American Culture’ as my own. And I have to say as Indians we have a bit of a chip on our shoulders when we come here we think ‘Indian culture, we are very proud of it, we know better ’. But it took a little humility to say I need to actually step out of all the things I am programmed to do and actually learn and have an open mind. And that was a very pivotal moment in my career when I acknowledged to myself that I needed to learn and that I needed to be open to another culture, which I wasn’t initially. I would say the first seven years I was very guarded.


<blockquote>Call me a delusional optimist or an intense pragmatist but this is our moment again.</blockquote>


The other pivotal moment was when in one meeting when I was a strategist in the agency, my CEO at McCann called me and he asked, ‘What do you want to do in life’. I didn’t understand what he meant by this. I was thinking whether it is an existential question. I said, “I don’t understand what you are asking’. Finally he said, 'You need to run something’. So that transition from being a strategist to actually running something, running a P&L, being responsible was a very important and pivotal moment. This is something that I have actually enjoyed. Because when you have the true responsibility and accountability for a business is when you can make true change and an impact.

<strong>These are the two learnings that will play a role when you take the reins of an agency with such diverse markets?</strong>

I have to now go and learn about 80 other cultures. And that sort of learning early on to say that you need to have an open mind and not impose your culture and your pre-existing perceptions is pivotal. By the way, also for us women, growing up in India, its preordained what you are going to do. And I talk about this a lot. It was preordained that I was going to have an arranged marriage and I was possibly going to become a housewife in a business family. And I didn’t want that preordained destiny for myself. And I think it is the same thing as a leader to say don’t assume people have to pre-ordain destiny. You need to have an open mind not just to learn about cultures but also to learn about people you lead. To figure out how you lead people where they can be themselves. And not become a version of me or some other leader Because I didn’t want that.

<strong>You are a career ad woman. In an era when this industry is losing talent to other sectors and industries, what made you stick with advertising for so long?</strong>

I love our industry with a very deep passion and god bless all those people who want to go to tech but we have something in this industry that no other industry has. One is creativity and the other is client relationship and platforms that span every other category. We talk about using the power of creativity to not just move the business forward but to actually be able to move the world forward. We have thousands of clients today at Ogilvy from clients that are changing the world, for example Dove with their stop the beauty test to the work that we are doing for Cadbury in India. If you think of those things we are actually changing the future of small business. Hopefully, we are going to change the way young girls look at themselves when they look at the mirror. I tell every single person that if you want scalable impact and if you have some passion for creativity there is no better industry than advertising. And by the way we get to use tech, we get to use data and we get to use all the tools.

I am a very good cocktail party guest because I can talk about any industry. But if you make me sit next to one single industry for dinner then it gets a bit complicated.

You have taken the reins of the most reputed agency of WPP at an extraordinary time. We are stepping out of the pandemic but businesses are facing inflationary headwinds, there is global currency fluctuation, geopolitical changes with ongoing wars, regime changes in many parts of the world. What do the next few months look like?

We don’t face anything that everybody else doesn’t. The beauty of what we do is I don’t make one particular thing so that the cost of goods goes up in my category. So when the things are in flux the power of creativity becomes even more important. Because it is the only variable that you can play with in a way that it doesn’t become more expensive that doesn’t have the same headwind that supply chain faces, that inflation faces, that the cost of goods face. So I always say these moments are really pivotal for us. And I tell all our clients about it, that it is more important for us to use creativity and creative thinking at this moment to solve problems for consumers, for human beings, for society and do it in a moment in time. Call me a delusional optimist or an intense pragmatist but this is our moment again.


<blockquote>Creativity and the power of it is a key focus for us, it is a part of our DNA.</blockquote>


<strong>What excites you about the next few months?</strong>

There are more problems today, great, bring it on! Because we can use creativity to solve these problems and make products have greater preference in the market place using creativity. So when times are tough what do I need as a client is I need preference for my brand. We can do that because creativity is a force multiplier. We need consumers to have more passion and loyalty for our products and services. We can help our clients do that using the power of creativity. We need policy to change, we need planet issues to be solved, etc. Again we can take those conversations, we can take those issues forward using the power of creativity.

<strong>What are the key focus areas for Ogilvy in the coming days?</strong>

Creativity and the power of it is a key focus for us, it is a part of our DNA. The second focus area will be relaunching the digital experience business. We have incredible assets in different parts of the world. In 2023 we are going to create awareness for them in the market place with our clients and we can help them solve those problems. Then we have an incredibly strong health business, I would like to see that scale from a global perspective. Health and wellness are key areas of issues for us as humanity. And when we think about the intersection of health or technology, you think of intersection of health and communication or health and storytelling so that people can take care of themselves better. So we want to see that scale which is going to be a massive area of focus for us. And how do we make sure that the kind of work and content that we create for clients becomes more agile, becomes more cost efficient and effective in the marketplace, being true to brand ideas. You are going to see more focus on content capabilities but not just content in the traditional sense that we talk about but the intersection of content and context using our global network to make sure that we can be efficient and effective.

Read more: <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/storyboard18/watch-listen/oglivy-global-ceo-interview-devika-bulchandani-and-her-rise-to-the-global-indian-ceo-club-2302.htm">Devika Bulchandani, the new global CEO of Ogilvy, talks about how she battled her preordained destiny to become 'the fearless girl' and her rise to the top in global advertising.</a>

Read more: <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/storyboard18/brand-makers/devika-bulchandani-is-ogilvys-new-global-ceo-andy-main-steps-down-1905.htm">In this role, Bulchandani will be responsible for all aspects of the creative network’s business across 131 offices in 93 countries.</a>

CEO INTERVIEW