Richard Hartell is the Chief Strategy Officer at Starcom Mediavest, responsible for the Europe, Middle East and African (EMEA) region. Hartell was in Mumbai recently as chairperson of the agency’s global product committee (GPC). He spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto about the performance of emerging markets such as India. Excerpts:
How would you rate the performance of work coming out of India?
It is improving. I have been the chairperson of the agency’s GPC for the last two years. I do see signs of improvement in the work coming out of India. More importantly, India is catching up with other markets in the network in terms of quality of work. However, the most interesting part is that there is a consistency in work across regions. It reflects the ethos of the agency you work for. It doesn’t mean that you miss out on the local flavour. But broadly your work must adhere to certain parameters laid out by the group.
What are these parameters?
Of bringing the human angle into your work. Both as a chief strategy officer and as chairperson of the GPC, my task is to make sure the human angle is not lost out in our quest to improve reach. I'm very clear about that.
Do you see the role of a media agency and creative agency increasingly getting morphed with the emphasis on the human side when it comes to work?
Number crunching is something that a media agency will always do. But that number crunching has a useful output: of understanding people. Over the last few years, media agencies have been doing this quite well. Advertising agencies were losing this ability. But the trend is getting reversed with both media and advertising agencies now coming together in their shared understanding of people. The morphing, as you describe it, has begun with the strategy department in media and the account planning department in an advertising or creative agency. They are both coming together.
Is the concept of GPCs catching on with media agencies now? Creative agencies are known to be rigorous when judging their creative product.
You are right. Most media agencies are doing GPCs quite regularly now. It gives you an idea of who is doing well, and who is not. Above all, what is the way forward as far as the media product goes for the agency as a whole. The trend did start with the advertising agencies. That is because they have to review their creative product off and on. It defines them as an agency. Media agencies have been slower to adopt this trend, but they are catching up fast. At Starcom Mediavest, for instance, GPCs have been on for over six years now.
Also, the concept of paid, earned and owned media is catching on. What is this all about?
When you say paid, it implies the traditional paid ads in any medium. Earned is what you do to generate a conversation. This could be in the form of editorial write-ups, blogs, social networking etc. Owned is what you send out through media that you control such as company or brand websites. The success of a media campaign depends on how well you are able to use the three.
