I've nothing against the Abbies but it does not hold my vote: Joseph George

Interview with CEO, Mullen Lowe Lintas India

Mullen Lowe Lintas emerged winners at the just-concluded Effies Awards after a gap of a year. This is the only awards show that the IPG group agency participates in India, a trend Joseph George, Mullen Lowe Lintas's India chief executive officer (CEO), who recently took over as the agency's regional president South & South East Asia, says will not change. In an interview to Viveat Susan Pinto, George clarifies his position on this and other issues. Edited Excerpts:

The Goafest Committee, which organises the Abbies, had mentioned it was willing to start afresh to get non-participating agencies on board including Mullen Lowe. Your views on this.
 
If any award function does not take into account why a piece of work was done and how impactful it was in the marketplace, it holds no meaning for us. I've nothing against the Abbies or creative awards in general, but it does not hold my vote, if it does not fulfil the above criteria. I say this because the needle is shifting. The emphasis today is about return on investment, which is best judged by an advertising effectiveness award than a creative award.

While you won for quite a few brands at the Effies this year, Idea was a notable miss. Are you disappointed with this?
I would be lying if I said I wasn't. I am disappointed at not having won for Idea. There is no denying the importance of this account and the manner in which we've built it over the years. Coming up with clutter-breaking ideas year after year is not easy. But we've been doing it. Some years you win, some years you don't. We have to take it in our stride.

How easy is it to be Hindustan Unilever's leading agency. You handle almost 22-23 brands of the total of 32 brands that the company advertises. Is retaining this kind of a hold on the business easy in a competitive market?

It certainly isn't. You have new agencies emerging every now and then and old agencies who are constantly re-inventing themselves. But, the good thing about HUL is that they understand what their agency partners bring to the table and how best to tap them. If you give them an idea, they get it. As an advertiser, they are informed and understand the value of marketing communications, which is a boon for their agencies. Yes, they are demanding and they keep us on our toes. But that ensures that we don't take this relationship for granted.

You lost Maruti last year to Dentsu. What are you doing to fill the four-wheeler gap in your portfolio?

It is a loss we are still coming to terms with. Our association with Maruti goes back twenty years. We've done some great work on that account. But we lost it due to global re-alignments, nothing else. Yes, there is a gap left vacant due to the exit of Maruti. We are talking to other advertisers. It is a category we will not like to leave blank for too long.

There was a re-organisation at Mullen Lowe last year. How has it shaped up?

It has shaped up well. Globally, Mullen, which is a known IPG agency in the US was merged with Lowe & Partners. This created Mullen Lowe, which is positioned as a challenger, boutique brand. Thanks to this merger, the Indian operation was re-organised to create the Mullen Lowe Lintas Group with two agencies under it - Mullen Lintas and Lowe Lintas. We bring the same mindset to our work that the global entity (Mullen Lowe) does. So there is homogeneity across markets as far as Mullen Lowe is concerned.