 "Value of creativity has never been higher for the client: Tom Bernardin")
Ahead of his first talk ever at a Goafest, Tom Bernardin, Chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett Worldwide spoke to Masoom Gupte and Viveat Susan Pinto about topics ranging from his plans to put the agency among the top three in the country to how he keeps himself from being jet lagged during his many global trips. Edited excerpts:
You've completed almost a decade as the global head of Leo Burnett. What have been the major milestones achieved during your tenure?
For starters, with Leo Burnett and Arc (below-the-line marketing company) coming together, we have brought into our fold the capabilities of shopper marketing. And that really is the bedrock of commerce, both online and offline today. Another major milestone for me has been our appointment by Samsung as their global agency of record (AOR) for their social media and mobile communication needs. That is a first, even globally and we are extremely happy the way Samsung’s relationship with us has grown since the time they first took us on board back in 2005 - 06. Also, there were a few open categories that had to be plugged such as pharmaceuticals. We now have Pfizer with us and we are very excited about the account.
Leo Burnett is known globally and in India as a creative hotspot. What processes have you put in place to ensure that your creative standards are maintained?
All in all this is a way of reminding us that creativity is the reason for our very being. Revenue growth will at all times follow it. Business development is giving the client the best creativity in his category that helps him grow. That to me is the winning strategy on how we are going to grow our revenue. The value of creativity has never been higher for clients.
At a time when clients are speaking about bringing local colour to advertising is the philosophy of a ‘one global creative standard’ manageable?
Actually it’s not as difficult as one thinks. In any market, anywhere in the world, for any language, for any of our offices, they know that our minimum expectation is that for any pieces of creativity that you put out, people should at least understand the brand’s purpose. From there you talk about how well it’s crafted, how it changes people’s behavior and so on. That is how it is eventually rated.
There were problems late last year on your Kellogg’s account globally, with eight people quitting the team and rumours of them taking the account with them. What’s the status on the issue?
The team has quit yes, but the account is very much with us mainly because of the relationship we share with the client which is way stronger than the few people who left. It’s a whole community involved with the brand and credit goes to the team that has stayed on. In fact we manage the entire business for Kellogg’s globally, except in South East Asia. I would love for things to change in this part of the world. But will it? That goes back to the conversation of creativity leading to revenue growth. I’ll leave that to Kellogg’s. The most important job we have is to do the absolute best we can do on the brands we currently have.
You are among the top five agencies in India. Any plans to get into the top three?
Being in the top five is good but not good enough. I would be careful, however, not to over promise Competition in India is high. That said, India is one of the top markets for us and we are doing very well here. We are open to options if anything interesting comes up, whether it is acquisitions, partnerships, whatever it would take to grow the business.
Of the new emerging areas, shopper marketing contributes about 12 – 13 per cent to our revenues at the moment. We would like to take that up. We are open to acquisitions and alliances in the e-commerce space. We did have an acquisition last year in Indigo Consulting in India. This was in the digital space. We are also taking social media and mobile very seriously. In fact, we would be naming a global social and mobile head next month, who will drive that business throughout the world including India.
You've completed almost a decade as the global head of Leo Burnett. What have been the major milestones achieved during your tenure?
For starters, with Leo Burnett and Arc (below-the-line marketing company) coming together, we have brought into our fold the capabilities of shopper marketing. And that really is the bedrock of commerce, both online and offline today. Another major milestone for me has been our appointment by Samsung as their global agency of record (AOR) for their social media and mobile communication needs. That is a first, even globally and we are extremely happy the way Samsung’s relationship with us has grown since the time they first took us on board back in 2005 - 06. Also, there were a few open categories that had to be plugged such as pharmaceuticals. We now have Pfizer with us and we are very excited about the account.
Leo Burnett is known globally and in India as a creative hotspot. What processes have you put in place to ensure that your creative standards are maintained?
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We have the global product committee (GPC), chaired by Mark Tutssel (global chief creative officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide). The committee meets four times a year at different venues. Creative teams from the region where the meeting is being held are invited to participate and share their views. At these meetings, we look at all the advertising done by our agency globally and score them on our in-house seven-point scale. We obviously rate it for how creative it is but also how impactful it is for our clients. Low scores tell us a couple of things, we need either a leadership change or possibly bring on more creative talent on board.
All in all this is a way of reminding us that creativity is the reason for our very being. Revenue growth will at all times follow it. Business development is giving the client the best creativity in his category that helps him grow. That to me is the winning strategy on how we are going to grow our revenue. The value of creativity has never been higher for clients.
At a time when clients are speaking about bringing local colour to advertising is the philosophy of a ‘one global creative standard’ manageable?
Actually it’s not as difficult as one thinks. In any market, anywhere in the world, for any language, for any of our offices, they know that our minimum expectation is that for any pieces of creativity that you put out, people should at least understand the brand’s purpose. From there you talk about how well it’s crafted, how it changes people’s behavior and so on. That is how it is eventually rated.
There were problems late last year on your Kellogg’s account globally, with eight people quitting the team and rumours of them taking the account with them. What’s the status on the issue?
The team has quit yes, but the account is very much with us mainly because of the relationship we share with the client which is way stronger than the few people who left. It’s a whole community involved with the brand and credit goes to the team that has stayed on. In fact we manage the entire business for Kellogg’s globally, except in South East Asia. I would love for things to change in this part of the world. But will it? That goes back to the conversation of creativity leading to revenue growth. I’ll leave that to Kellogg’s. The most important job we have is to do the absolute best we can do on the brands we currently have.
You are among the top five agencies in India. Any plans to get into the top three?
Being in the top five is good but not good enough. I would be careful, however, not to over promise Competition in India is high. That said, India is one of the top markets for us and we are doing very well here. We are open to options if anything interesting comes up, whether it is acquisitions, partnerships, whatever it would take to grow the business.
Of the new emerging areas, shopper marketing contributes about 12 – 13 per cent to our revenues at the moment. We would like to take that up. We are open to acquisitions and alliances in the e-commerce space. We did have an acquisition last year in Indigo Consulting in India. This was in the digital space. We are also taking social media and mobile very seriously. In fact, we would be naming a global social and mobile head next month, who will drive that business throughout the world including India.