Meet L&K Saatchi & Saatchi's Kartik Smetacek and Rohit Malkani: Find out what the mandate for CCO's is today

A couple of months ago, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, a part of Publicis Groupe India, elevated Kartik Smetacek and Rohit Malkani, its joint national creative directors, to the roles of chief creative officers (CCOs). Have you ever wondered what the mandate for CCOs is today? How are they supposed to navigate this every evolving agency ecosystem? Storyboard18 caught up with the duo to not only understand this but also get a fair idea of how much conversations with marketers have changed these days.

Edited excerpts.

What is the mandate for your new roles? How is it different from your previous roles?

Rohit Malkani: The mandate is crystal clear. The role involves elevating the creative product, vision and thinking even further, operationally and directionally. It also involves championing a robust agenda on creative work and fostering a culture that equally attracts and retains talent. At L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, we often use a word called ‘Ownership’, which means, owning the client’s business as if it were our own. To me, this serves as the foundation upon which we can create truly distinctive work. When you present exceptional ideas in an environment where the client views you as a genuine and very strategic partner, that’s when magic begins to happen.

Kartik Smetacek: We’ve been the creative leads for the past 5 years so that part of the role remains unchanged. Now, it’s about expanding the ambit to agency leadership. Creating a distinctive culture, moulding talent across functions and championing our collective goal of building an enduring legacy for L&K Saatchi and Saatchi.

What is on your to-do list for 2024?

Rohit Malkani: We often find ourselves caught up in the daily work schedule and complain about new talent. The truth is, we rarely spend time grooming them ourselves. This is going to be a personal and professional agenda for me. I love teaching and grooming young talent, so I have planned a lot of small, internal workshops across cities.

Kartik Smetacek: It’s a long list, but the key to-do is pushing the agency and our clients towards non-traditional solutions. We want to make the most of the Groupe’s capabilities in tech, particularly Gen AI, to create new age, differentiated work for our clients.

Competition today is different. Creative agencies today are competing with influencers, digital agencies and even the creative side of media agencies. How has the creative landscape evolved and how do creative folks like yourselves up-skill to stay relevant and at the top of the game?

Rohit Malkani: It can be quite overwhelming at times to be honest. Yet paradoxically, I find immense excitement and potential in this ever-evolving landscape. There is joy in anticipation, in embracing the unknown, and in constantly seeking what’s next. At Publicis, we have an internal online platform called Marcel that offers a plethora of courses, both internal and external, all of which are available for free! Currently, I am registered for an AI course in Midjourney and Runway. Additionally, we have a super strong L&D programme, that caters to every employee across the board.

I continue to invest time in reading, watching and absorbing every aspect of culture, thus building my personal reservoir! I am a voracious viewer and reader, constantly binging on content from literally anywhere.

What are your views on talent? What are the kind of folks that the industry is unable to attract and where are the gaps? Subsequently, what are the efforts that you plan to undertake to tackle this?

Rohit Malkani: Talent is indeed a genuine concern! Being an industry that thrives on people and the power of ideas, rising talent costs constitute a significant portion of our expenses. Talent in our industry needs to be multi-disciplinary, understanding the entire funnel. This means higher-quality and more capable talent, isn’t easy to come by. With numerous exciting creative options open to people today, we have a fight on our hands. We’re actively exploring and discussing different models of collaboration for great creative work. Additionally, we believe in investing in talented individuals and honing their skills to a Ninja level.

As young chief creative officers, where do you see the creative agency ecosystem going? How is it going to evolve?

Kartik Smetacek: I think ecosystem is the operative word. Creative agencies today can’t stop at being good scriptwriters, they need to offer clients solutions across the funnel. Brands today are looking for agency partners with access to data and tech to power their ideas. That’s where being part of a capable, functioning ecosystem becomes a huge advantage.

How will creative agencies like L&K Saatchi and Saatchi have to reinvent themselves to stay relevant?

Kartik Smetacek: L&K Saatchi and Saatchi is part of Publicis Groupe India with access to all the Groupe’s capabilities through our proven Power of One model. As an agency, we are geared to think of integrated ideas that can travel across the funnel, making the most of the Groupe’s expertise in tech, data, content and production.

From your creative portfolio, which is the piece of work that’s close to your hearts and stands out?

Kartik Smetacek: Like all creatives, I have many favourite babies. But the campaign that stands out as a career highlight thus far is Zepto’s Indian Stretchable Time campaign that won over 40 awards and nominations across shows last year.

Rohit Malkani: Zepto will always be a piece that we are extremely proud of. It’s a piece of work that’s built on a strong cultural insight and did wonders for the brand. It’s the kind of stuff we want to keep doing. In addition, the Vicks Anthem and Greenpanel films last year were superb pieces, which we are very proud to put in our showcase.

Traditionally, CCO’s used to only manage the creative side of agencies. How has a CCO’s role in the business side of agencies evolved? How much time do you spend on getting business?

Rohit Malkani: I find this a slightly odd question. Because it implies that advertising mad men and CCOs had little to no accountability for P&L and new business in the past. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. All great work became great because it resonated with the people and made cash registers ring. People in our industry have always worked hard to maintain this balance.

Today, there are two vast oceans one must navigate smartly to succeed: the internal domain of agency operations and the external realm of client businesses. At L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, creative honchos sit in on every business meeting and P&L discussion, for a very crucial reason. Creativity is at the heart of our business, and every decision we make impacts our offerings. Therefore, involving creative leaders in key conversation leads to better-informed decisions.

Today, creative leaders play a far bigger role in holding the client relationship. Clients demand for a creative honcho to be in the room for important discussions. Businesses actually move because of a creative leader! Leveraging these strong relationships to win organic and new business opportunities has become standard practice. New business accounts for a huge amount of our time and mind space.

What do you think about pitches? Does the current format of the way it works need no change? How should it evolve?

Rohit Malkani: This is a sore topic with me, to be honest. I could write a whole book on this! The system of pitching in our industry is in dire need of re-evaluation. From the extensive time and effort devoted to a pitch, to the excessive resources and money spent without any guarantee, to the very structure of pitching itself — where 7-10 agencies are invited to provide free ideas that are truly invaluable! As an industry, we have failed to stand firm and demand a ‘pitch fee’ that would streamline the process and prevent it from being reduced to a circus.

The pitch fee is just one aspect of the process that requires change. Does one impressive campaign presented in a pitch give you the confidence that this is the agency you want to partner with? Or should you invest time in shortlisting just three agencies that align with your size and appetite and vision? Then spend quality time assessing the culture and capability of each agency to manage your business on a day-to-day basis. Unfortunately, very few clients follow this approach.

What are the conversations that you have with marketers these days in terms of choice of media, spends on digital, etc and how much have these conversations changed over the years?

Kartik Smetacek: The conversations have only gotten more complex over time. While it changes category to category, for most brands TV is a luxury reserved only for the really big launches. Digital video seems to be the dominant medium currently, with campaigns playing out across platforms in 6 to 60-second instalments.

What’s the best piece of advice that you got before you took the lead?

Rohit Malkani: Kartik and I are currently doing intensive leadership training sessions and I credit Vijay Bhat with this insight. He told us, ‘Never change who you are, because that’s just not possible. Instead, work smartly to be what is needed.’

Kartik Smetacek: The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten is that in this business, resilience counts for more than brilliance.