His career spans 18 years in online advertising and his work includes campaigns for brands like Nike, Apple, Volvo, BMW, Land Rover and Oakleys, to name a few. He has worked for creative power houses like Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, StrawberryFrog in New York, Initiative+ in Los Angeles, Euro RSCG in Irvine (California), and Energy BBDO in Chicago. Max Hegerman, president of Tribal DDB India, Mudra’s interactive and new media unit, talks to Sapna Agarwal on his latest assignment. Edited excerpts:
In a country of 1.2 billion people, the reach of the internet is limited to 60 million users and hence has a limited appeal to marketers. What did you find attractive?
The online medium also encompasses the mobile space. The opportunity in India is mobile. I would like to establish Tribal DDB as one of the best creative workshops for the interactive medium and lead from the front. With the introduction of 3G, mobile will give us a platform to communicate with consumers on the mobile space as users will use the mobile for every need from downloading case studies to uploading pictures, visiting social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and for search.
What can we expect from Tribal DDB?
We will follow a two-pronged approach — work with our global clients which include Volkswagen and our Indian clients which include Reliance and Idea, to name a few. Secondly, establish strategic alliances and working partnerships with people in the medium. We will look for alliances with key people who can help us in mobility, community influencers (people who have blogs — can be part of social networking platforms and feed thoughts into a conversation) and social networking.
What would your immediate priorities be?
To understand the Indian consumer and build relationships. He is different from the Western or even the Chinese consumers. We have 60 people across five offices, I would like to develop a team and build skillsets to become one of the most sought after and knowledgeable agencies in India. I would like the agency to be nimble, aggressive and pursuant of new ideas.
The medium accounts for a meagre 2 to 5 per cent of the overall advertising spends of marketers. How do you plan to work with such limited budgets?
We see some real demand with our clients here and have been challenged to get more energy to the online medium. Social media campaigns create a buzz and that is what we as advertisers need to do. As internet penetration is increasing at 25-30 per cent, budgets will increase incrementally. And then there is mobility, the mobile platform which will grow exponentially. However, our growth will be a measure of how agencies take the money from the television commercials and put it in below-the-line media.
