Ad spends on TV will not contract for the next 3-5 years: Navin Khemka, EssenceMediacom

On March 22, media agency Wavemaker India won ‘The Best Media Agency of The Year’ award at the 24th edition of the Emvies, hosted by the Advertising Club. Mindshare and EssenceMediaCom grabbed the second and third spot with 460 and 325 points, respectively.

On the sidelines of the event, Storyboard18 caught up with Navin Khemka, CEO, South Asia, EssenceMediacom, who spoke about what it takes to become a ‘winning agency’, client expectations during the IPL, the elections, and much more.

Edited Excerpts

What does it take for an agency to win?

One needs to have a body of good work to be able to even think about entering these awards. I call the Emvies a great leveller because the judging process is very robust. As Punitha Arumugam (chairperson, Emvies Committee) said in the opening speech, this time, not only agency people, they also had clients who were judging, even in round one.

In round two, you have to actually make a presentation in front of all the clients. In every panel, there are at least 10 to 12 clients every day. So it’s a proper judging process, which is not biased. It depends on the work that you’ve done. It depends on whether you’re able to impress a jury of almost 10 clients in different categories.

Layoffs have rocked the tech industry and certain roles in the ad industry have become redundant. What is your advice to the budding advertisers who want to enter the industry during such a period?

Having spent more than two decades in this industry, for me there's never been a dull moment. The only way you can survive in this industry is to keep unlearning and relearning. When we joined the industry, traditional media was dominant, and there was hardly any digital. Then digital started coming in. So, we had to adapt to digital ways of working.

Earlier, it (digital media) was changing every two to three years when the platforms were taking time to develop. Now, the platforms are changing, and the scenario is changing every six months. So, we have to keep adapting, keep learning, keep experimenting.

Today, somebody with two decades of experience might not be as relevant as somebody who has two years of experience. Today, if you are a younger person in the industry, fully aware of what is happening in the media world around you, abreast of the latest technology, I would say you would be more useful.

The relationship between a client and an agency in the age of digital is said to be short-lived. What is your take on this?

I have clients for whom we manage both traditional and digital, and we've been managing that for the last 15 years—for example, Dell and P&G. So, from that point of view, we manage everything for them.

I see a lot of the new-age clients are at times very fickle. And they are the ones who are actually not able to decide on one agency or partner with one agency.

My advice to our clients would be: “Choose your agency wisely, and then stay with them for a period of time. They can’t do magic overnight. They will take some time to think and come up with new ideas, and think on your brand. And if you build a good team with your agency, then stick with them.”

The IPL has started, and next month, the elections begin. What is the mood like among clients? What are their expectations?

The IPL has started early this time. If you look North, the summer has still not set in. So, yeah, it’s a slow start to the year. So, therefore, what we are expecting right now is, starting next week when temperatures are expected to go up significantly in the North, I think many more campaigns will start and pick up steam. It’s very important for Q2 to be very good, otherwise it can impact the entire year. And this quarter, which is very important, has the IPL, elections, and the World Cup. Hence, it’s going to be a mega quarter, which we've never seen in the last four to five years.

What are the steps that your agency is taking in terms of media planning while crafting campaigns?

It's all about the client brief, understanding and going back to them with a solution that works best for the client. I would say it’s a long process. It depends on which category, which client, what stage of the brief, followed by its type.

How are ad spends on television looking in the age of digital? Is it still a lucrative medium today?

Absolutely. If you look at the GroupM TYNY report, at Rs 88,502 crore, digital will contribute to 57 per cent of all ad spends. But it’s not that TV is degrowing (contracting). It is also growing at 7-8 percent. TV has immense reach and potential to help brands. Hence, I don’t see TV going down in this country for the next 3-5 years at least.

I think TV would be about Rs 45,000 crore and growing about 7 to 8 percent. Hence, it’s healthy growth. It’s not growing exponentially, like digital is, but it is growing. It is not that television in our country is going down. It has a strong base and reaches out to unique audiences.

And there are two Indias. There is a digital India and there is still a non-digital India, right? So, television reaches out and television also helps a lot in brand building, which is so difficult in today's digital age.

Read More: IPL is a chance to showcase media creativity and not just media buying: Wavemaker leadership