Akira Kagami is the global executive creative advisor at Dentsu Inc, the largest advertising agency in Japan and one of the largest single-brand agency networks in the world. Kagami is ranked amongst the top creative executives from the Asian region. Kagami spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto. Edited Excerpts:
Dentsu took complete control of its Indian operations earlier this year. Now that it is fully in charge, what are your expectations from the Indian creative team?
I expect them to produce good creative work. What I like about India is that people here have a good sense of creativity. I have been tracking the work coming out of India for long, and I find a lot of good campaigns emanating from here. Particularly noteworthy is the work for TV though the print campaigns are also good. I expect the creative team here to be able to raise the bar given that the climate is eclectic and that there are enough and more agencies around who are working hard to ensure their work stands out.
Which are the campaigns you have liked from India either from Dentsu or any other agency?
At the moment, we are charting out the creative vision for Dentsu in India, which is why I am here to meet the team and brainstorm with them. So in terms of work, I would like to keep Dentsu out for the moment. But if you are asking me about other agencies, then I am impressed with the work done by Ogilvy, Taproot and McCann. I even liked JWT's work for Times of India. I remember two campaigns - Lead India and Teach India - which they did a few years ago. That was good.
You mentioned about Taproot. It is a small agency, which has been making inroads into large accounts here. Most large agencies are worried about this. Your views.
I am aware that small agencies are making inroads into large accounts in India. This is a trend visible everywhere though in Japan it is not as pronounced. We are the leaders by miles. But I do understand that the increasing dominance of small agencies is a concern for larger networks. What is my response to this? Think out-of-the-box. If you have predictable solutions, it won’t work. Thanks to the influx of new media, clients expect a refreshing take on advertising. Gone are the days when you had merely TV, print and outdoor to put forth your message. With the convergence of media, clients are expecting their agencies to come up with innovative solutions. Which is what I have told the team here: think big and let your ideas transcend media. If possible, try and come up with integrated campaigns. It works.
What is the importance you accord to training?
Quite a bit. Whilst it may seem that creative people don’t require training, since their job is to produce ideas, it helps if they are exposed to newer ways of learning and doing things. At the network level, we are beginning to do this. People from Japan are coming here, and we are taking people from India to Japan to help them understand how advertising is done there. It opens your mind, when you expose yourself to different cultures and people.
Japan is a very evolved market when it comes to digital advertising. Are you likely to bring some of those learnings here so that the creative people in India can benefit from it?
Those possibilities are being explored. But whatever learnings we bring here will have to be relevant to the Indian market because digital advertising is still not a very large proportion of overall advertising in the country. Having said that, advertisers here are increasingly wanting more digital solutions. We have to address that.