Facebook Pixel Code

The global indian

The Maxus India website describes the agency as ?Indian-born, globally-raised. Right brain and left brain.

It?s a win-win situation. If Vikram Sakhuja is the face of the global Indian, India now is the global headquarters of a multinational agency

The Maxus India website describes the agency as ?Indian-born, globally-raised. Right brain and left brain. 70 countries covering 120 markets worldwide. A start-up which is now scaled-up. The best of both worlds.?

A similar write-up for Vikram Sakhuja would probably read: Indian-born, globally respected. Overseeing 70 countries covering 120 markets worldwide. A visionary man who is now the global CEO of Maxus. The best of India for the globalised world.

Vikram Sakhuja, currently CEO of GroupM India and South Asia, and global CEO designate of Maxus, has all along had the uncanny ability to look into the future and spot the big opportunities. In his 28-year career, several times has Sakhuja taken big risks and come up trumps. Way back in the early nineties, as associate manager, media and public affairs at Procter & Gamble (P&G), he introduced the concept of AOR (agency of record) for the first time in India. It was at P&G that he decided to back Doordarshan’s bold move of creating an afternoon slot, by getting the FMCG major to sponsor daily soap Shanti. From there he moved to Coca-Cola India and then to Star India. His next destination was the product of a lunch meeting with WPP India country head Ranjan Kapur and GroupM India CEO Andre Nair who invited Sakhuja to start Mindshare, a WPP media network, in India. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Along with the news of his elevation, the fact that he would continue to work out of India, thus effectively turning the Mumbai office of Maxus into its global headquarters, was seen by many as India getting its rightful place in the global world of business. The pragmatic man that he is, Sakhuja, however, takes all this in his stride. ?In a pretty networked world, you have to find a way to use technology to cut travel, and this is the challenge,? he says. According to him, it was actually just a question by Dominic Proctor, Group M’s global president, about Sakhuja’s location preference.

However, India becoming the global headquarters for the media agency does have its advantages. Sakhuja, who will take over as global CEO of Maxus later in the year, says, ?If we roll out some global initiatives for Maxus, there is a very strong possibility that we will start with India. India is anyway one of the top five markets for Maxus and thus a very important market. Therefore, right now India is getting attention for all the right reasons and, of course, Maxus in India is rocking.?

Currently, India is the only developing country where GroupM has a global headquarters for its agency. Most other headquarters are either in New York or London.

Sakhuja also says that it is not the first time that GroupM has exported Indian talent to the world. Early this year, R Gowthaman who was the chief client officer of Mindshare India was made CEO for South and South East Asia. Ashutosh Srivastava who was the CEO Asia Pacific, Mindshare, became chairman and CEO for global emerging markets. He is also Mindshare’s new global leader for products/ services and talent development. There are other people from India such as Himanshu Shekhar, Ajay Gupte, Girish Menon and Sunita Gopalakrishnan who have all moved to new roles outside India.

Coming back to Maxus, Maxus India currently accounts for 30% of GroupM India’s revenues. According to the latest RECMA ratings, in 2011 Maxus India had billings of $ 570 million growing annually at 25%. Maxus India is at number three in the agency rankings, followed by Mindshare (Group M’s star agency) and Madison Media. Maxus’s client list includes the who’s who of the brand world — Vodafone, Nokia, Titan, Tata Sky, Fiat Group, L’Or?al, Google and Hero Group. Maxus has been declared the only dominant and successful profiled agency of India for April 2012 and also as the fastest growing media agency network since the last three years by RECMA.

?We are a three-year-old global network. In several markets, we have been around for longer. But overall, it is a young network and therefore it is more malleable in terms of what it wants to stand for,? he says.

Though Maxus is much smaller than other GroupM networks ? Mindshare, MEC and Mediacom, there’s a lot of ambition, says Sakhuja.

?We have a very large critical mass and a younger and more aggressive leadership team and that makes our ability to just shape things stronger. At this stage, Maxus has a fantastic momentum and the most exciting part is to have a global canvas for an agency,? he says.

Sakhuja’s top priority in his new role will be to evaluate as to what is really making the agency tick. He says, ?The first task is to understand the complexity of the market, what is really working. If you can decode that, it is more comfortable and easy to see if you want to take it to the next level.?

Interestingly, in terms of the challenges, he says one disadvantage that he can foresee is that he will not have access to ?management by walking around?. He says, ?Typically in a space like this, you meet colleagues, go down to probably have a smoke and all this provides an opportunity for informal talks. In a global job, this becomes less. It is irreplaceable but it is also much less required in a global role.?

Another important issue playing on Sakhuja’s mind is that of digital. With clients increasingly using digital media, digital has become a core part of the media strategy. One important way to boost digital advertising is to work harder on creatives, he says. ?The three areas where digital is used in a big way include engagement, performance and audience planning. To some extent, digital advertising is still struggling and what can actually catalyse advertising growth would be the role of the creative. I don?t think true creative potential of a banner has been exploited yet. Search is easy to grow as there is clear value in that, but after a point, people are questioning the power of creative in banner advertising. With time, this will get better though.? He also thinks that the more one can combine TV GRPs with online GRPs, there will be more seamless planning.

Asked about the changes that he would like to see, Sakhuja says he would like media plans to be presented with the same creative and strategic flourish as creative plans are. ?The challenge with that is that a media plan, at the end of the day, is usually an Excel sheet with a bunch of columns such as TV schedule, ad inserts, etc. But the challenge is to sell this story better so that it becomes strategic and captivating at the same time and there is more talk and discussion about the plan,? he says. He, however, thinks that media agencies in India are slowly moving that goal, if the Emvies presentations are any indication.

Another change he would like to see is an increased focus on return on investment rather than just savings. A more ?value driven conversation? is how he puts it. Clients should see how their brands’ top line and bottom line are increasing by judicious use of media, instead of trying to save money by buying the cheapest possible media, he says.

The most interesting trend that he sees emerging is how multimedia is actually becoming a reality. ?People are actually multitasking. People are on search, then checking out something at the same time, watching TV. Even when you talk, you constantly ?google? things,? he says. Sakhuja points out that though this may seem like a normal everyday ubiquitous thing, it is actually very profound. ?This trend of multimedia consumption is going to lend itself much more to contextuality and if we can tap this kind of behaviour, the interplay between various mediums is going to get really interesting in the future,? he says.

Get live Share Market updates, Stock Market Quotes, and the latest India News and business news on Financial Express. Download the Financial Express App for the latest finance news.

First published on: 11-09-2012 at 02:07 IST
Next Story
Sunshine Cinema
Market Data
Market Data
Today’s Most Popular Stories ×