‘Agencies see ups & downs; BBH has been different’

The recent launch of the UK-based advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) in Mumbai rounds up the entry of three most celebrated creative powerhouses into India.

It began a year back with the entry of Wieden+Kennedy and BBDO, and now with BBH here, Indian advertising seems set for exciting times.  BBH’s entry is significant, since it opens up the possibility of its international clients —

Vodafone, British Airways, Heineken, Levi’s, Audi, Johnny Walker and others — to align their Indian advertising accounts with them, taking major business away from incumbent Indian agencies.

Such movements haven’t begun yet, but the agency has already begun visiting several of its global clients in India for “informal interactions” and major developments could be on the cards by January.

BBH has appointed the trio of Subhash Kamath (former CEO, Bates 141), Priti Nair (former national creative director, Grey Worldwide) and Partha Sinha (former chief strategy officer, Publicis Ambience) as the core leadership team.  All three have also been given a minority stake in the agency. John Hegarty, one of the founders of the agency, was in Mumbai recently to flag off the launch. He shared the agency’s plans with Arcopol Chaudhuri and Nirmal John. Excerpts:

Is this a good time to launch the agency, considering the slowdown in advertising?
To be honest, it was a period of downturn even when we launched, in 1982 in the UK. The dotcom bubble burst when we opened our office in New York. Singapore was in a financial crisis when we launched there… So the current downturn is nothing new.

In fact, it is a very good time to start a company because it focuses you absolutely on what things you want to do, and the value you’re offering. You also see potential clients asking for more accountability in the money they’re spending. So when you say you’re the agency of the future, it might just make the difference.

The most obvious way to kick start your business would be to get your international clients to align with you in India…
Damn, you’ve spotted our strategy! (Laughs) You’re quite right, that’ll be one way of going about it. But really, we haven’t actually begun that process yet. Our clients haven’t told us yet, “The moment you’re in India, we’ll see you there.”

We’ve never been given an account by right. We’ve always pitched ourselves again and again, whenever we’ve entered the new markets. Sometimes, it’s taken 3-6 months, sometimes it’s taken a couple of years. The good thing is that we do have an introduction to those clients. But our team here — Subhash, Partha and Priti — would really have to prove their work, to ensure that those account movements happen.

But Indian agencies are already doing good work on those accounts— particularly, O&M on Vodafone…
I agree. But that doesn’t mean that the work will always remain very good. Agencies go through ups and downs; they don’t do good work all the time. BBH has been an exception. And we might not necessarily want the whole business — maybe just a small part of it! We’re not here to be the biggest agency in say, five years. We’re not interested in size. We’re actually interested in quality.

How has BBH managed to maintain this quality?
Firstly, it’s got to do with the passions of the original founders. We’ve fundamentally believed it’s all about the work. I think our ownership structure — we’re not a public company. Publicis owns 49% in our agency, and the rest is owned by people within BBH — relieves us of any pressure to lay off people or take global decisions.

We’ve created a culture focused on the kind of creative product. If you look at our business model, it requires us to do great work. BBH has several things that could be a problem for clients, like being a young up-start company, disagreeing with the client more than other agencies and being possibly more expensive than other agencies.

It just means that we’ve got to produce great work to win them over. Somebody once said, “Brands make the biggest mistakes in the best of times.” BBH has been good at anticipating what’s going to happen in the market and creating value for the clients.

Apart from the core team of three, by how much are you increasing headcount at the Mumbai office? Will talent exchange happen with your other offices?
Of course! We do that all the time. By January, we’ll have about 12 people in Mumbai. We already have on board Paul Ward, our chief operations officer, who’ll spend at least 6 months in India to help folks here get in tune with the BBH culture.

Will your Mumbai office also produce work for the surrounding regions in Asia?
I’m sure it will. All our offices end up producing work that goes beyond geographic boundaries of their locations. But India itself is like a continent. It’s a bit like America, which actually produces very little global work.

BBH also launched an office in Second Life. How has that helped?
(Laughs) Well, we haven’t really done much with our office in Second Life, but it’s beginning to gain a bit of traction now. It’s very interesting now, our folks were a little disappointed in the start. But eventually, as the technology got better, people started using it more. I think the technology needs to get a bit more advanced.

To strengthen your expertise in digital advertising, will you hire experts or look at acquisitions?
We’re not looking at any acquisition, but we’re going to be announcing a new digital division pretty soon. It won’t be a separate unit, but we’ll integrate it into our setup. A lot of agencies make the mistake of keeping it a separate entity. But yes, we’re looking for people, and they must be more than just technology experts. They’ve got to be people with ideas.

c_arcopol@dnaindia.net
n_john@dnaindia.net