 Good afternoon. I'm really glad to have with me Mr. Josh Gallagher chief operating officer APAC for Essence Media comm as we know Essence Media comm came into being in the end of January this year And he's here to tell us about how things have been going on since then Welcome John. Thank you so much for having me. It's really exciting to be here and can and then to be talking to you today as well Essence Media comm has been pegged as the new age media agency committed to delivering marketing big-throughs for brands In today's area of constant change and innovation. How would you define a new age media agency? So I think as a new age media agency I think what we need to do constantly is keep up with platforms I think in the past media agencies have been far away in their capability in terms of keeping up with consumers But platforms are ever-changing So if our ability to keep up with the way that consumers are using platforms in terms of the services we offer Say for example in India people love YouTube shorts How do we as an agency solve the problem of media and content working really closely together? How are we accountable for the results on those platforms that are ever-changing in Format in the ways that people use them and at the speed that they change as well So for us as a new age media agency Trying to bring all of those things together and be as close as possible to the changes in consumer behavior Is where we is where agencies should be in the future. What's different from seeing agency just five years ago Well, I think the capability that you need to deliver on that is very different than five years ago If I think about the majority of our agency five years ago It was media planning and buying and that's still a really big part of what we do That's a core part of our business But to be able to solve some of those problems that I spoke about before you need expertise in content You need platform expertise You need people that understand consumer journey in a really detailed way and you need analytics and insights That holds that all together and is accountable to business results for our clients Now two things that I take away from what you've just said consumer Centricity and omnichannel presence. We've also seen that, you know Consumers are always the first to evolve with brands and agency playing catch up So what is the challenge in that front? Well, the challenge is to play catch up as quickly as possible The challenge is to predict in some sense what's going to happen next and to be able to be flexible enough as an agency And the type of people that we have and change the shape of our business ongoing To make sure that we can answer the questions our clients have and respond to the challenges that consumers give us from what they want out of Advertising and media now post the merger of essence and media comm to form this combined entity essence media comm How much of the essence of the merged entities? Have you retained? Well, we were really lucky and we had two great agencies. I think coming into the merger We had two really strong agencies with distinct capability So bringing them together was only a benefit. So while we're always trying to create new There was sort of a huge amount of positives that sat within those those two agencies really unique cultures in terms of the way that they Operated Internally, but also with their clients that were complimentary. We've got media come on one side big CPG experience in in markets like India Big platform experience Work really well with the IPL and big sporting platforms And then you've got the digital nature of essence who lent heavily into data and analytics are Deeply involved in some of their clients, especially Google bringing those together was only a positive So we've tried to keep all of the the good things and and with our people. That's really important as well Our people are everyone is nervous about change. So making sure that is a I suppose An evolution not just a total revolution of the agency is important But we're using the best to create something new So our message to our people is always to understand our client needs Don't be afraid to create something new and be really positive in our intent while we spoke about catch up What I would also like to know is how do you ensure? consistency across platforms Well, I mean, we're really lucky in in terms of we have a really consistent planning process that we use And approach to the way that we do work. We've got a consistent tool suite that we have really advanced products in planning, but also in activation and measurement as well So we have a really consistent spine and data platforms that help us understand how to be Moving forward in the right direction that don't limit us too much in terms of our thinking So there's consistencies as a backbone that we're making sure we're using that data Making sure we're using analytics and insights at the heart of everything that we do to inform the type of work that that happens Now coming to the client. What does a client in 2020? It's free want and how are you future proof Fred? How are you making yourself future ready? I think all clients just want growth So the questions that they come at us in terms of ways that they want to grow their business are more and more diverse Than they used to be in the past I think just spending more money or adding another distribution point Definitely ways to grow but they're asking us for more than that because sometimes there's limitations So the types of questions that we're asking a growth questions and they can be really open-ended So we need to find ways to be able to solve that Sometimes that could be a new route to market. It could be a new distribution point It could be about adding on another retail platform in e-commerce or finding another way to get our consumers to buy a product in the future. We'll see people buying products through NFT and That's another route to market that we'll need to investigate. Maybe not now But maybe in the next five to seven years So there'd be ways that the marketers are gonna need to change the way that they grow their business and get advantage over You mentioned spending money, but increasingly clients are demanding more for a buck. So in this case Does it aggressive pricing with aggressive pricing and shrinking margins? Does this impact quality deliverables? I don't think it impacts quality at all. There's always going to be pressure on Efficiency that's not going to go away But what it does is it puts pressure on us to be able to think differently on how we solve problems And that's a really important part of what we do. So yes, there will be an Interest from our clients in terms of getting the most out of their their customers Which is us but making sure that we can have different solutions that we can change the shape of our business is really important as well No one's paying us more necessarily for media services and that's an agency-wide Phenomena that's happening But the types of services that we can provide that are really high value for our clients things like analytics Things like advisory around data and technology services Areas where we can advise on how media and content can work really well together Approving to be really high value for our clients and they're things that hoping that they think are high value and are worth Investing in a media agency You mentioned solutions. So let's come to the proprietary tools that the agency offers Can you tell us a little bit about that and also what is the kind of investments that you're looking to build at? Going along So in terms of the tools we've got we've really concentrated on end-to-end and a lot of the tools that we have bringing them together Are about Understanding areas that used to be siloed before so say for example our tools now help us with Understanding how brand and performance media work really well together So we've had individual tools in the past but being able to bring those together with a data platform Is where we're starting to see the ability to answer those questions better for our clients We're not siloing off KPIs We're not siloing off measurement approaches or siling off the way that you can grow but bringing those all together I think where we'll see investment in our tools and we've been investing in the last few years But moving forward is how we understand the impact of creative We've got great media tools great media optimization tools layer on top of that how we understand the effectiveness of a piece Creative and the impact that that can have in media performance or brand performance is where we're starting to invest a lot more Effectiveness is so it seems to be the buzzword now, but how do you actually measure effectiveness? Well, so we work with our clients on bigger impact goals So it's not necessarily just a media KPI We might be measuring brand KPIs that they have and and and the importance of that for growth for our clients So when we start to look at multi KPI Type of work, that's when we can start to see more effectiveness in the type of work that we do I believe you were recently in India and you did share a media 2030 PowerPoint presentations with your clients. So what are the key industry trends? You're seeing globally and are there any trends specific to India? Well, I think the things that we're starting to talk about now will show up in 2030 there's some things that don't have the scale now, but the technology might be there Where we will see them? Where we'll see them coming to the fore in seven years time I use the example in those presentations that maybe seven years ago or more we were talking a lot about QR codes They didn't have the scale Now for a lot of reasons payment, but also COVID and the habit that that created around checking into places Means that QR codes are now at at scale So I think that there's some really big things that we're doing now that maybe we're talking about but we'll see them eventuate in the next seven years I was gonna say for India. I've seen the last time I was in India Which was about four years ago before my recent trip I spoke a lot about voice and voice search and at the time a lot of people looked at me like That is never going to be something that is going to scale I think in India specifically because of the nature of people in the market The use of technology voice search did scale over those past four years For me when I start to think about how we predict the future, it's about the convergence of technology I actually see generative AI having a bigger impact on voice search because it's a natural search language That will be the bigger impact that generative AI has will actually be on voice search and not necessarily on the way that we type into a search engine or type into into a computer mainframe But our generative AI and chat TPD have been you know have Has been the top points. Is there anything else other than this that you're looking at and which could be big Well, I think there's other things as I said before that are smaller now That will start to start to scale. I think the use of there's things that we do now that we don't take advantage of I mean everyone's using biometric data to get into their phone We haven't harnessed the use of that biometric data, whether that's fingerprints or whether that's Scanning your your your face or your eyes to get into your phone But if we're able to use that in a really responsible way We're not going to use people's individual data and individual biometric data in that way But being able to understand how people are using devices the type of Technology that sits behind that I think in seven years time will be really important for us. It'll allow people to More easily pay for things to shop at home that will change the way that shopping works in in the next seven years So for me, that's where there's really interesting changes that will happen Interesting you mentioned shopping because we have seen in India A significant transformation when it comes to shopping because of UPI Right, we've really seen a significant change. So I'm really curious how this will evolve But moving on. What are your key focus areas for India as a market? Well, I think for us as a market and in India as a market. I think it's a really interesting market from us We've got great people and great talent within the market The thing for me with India and I was there a few weeks ago is I'm really surprised Not only by the great work that we do for global clients, but the rise of local clients as well So I think that's a big opportunity for us There's some great big local clients in India that we need to take advantage of the way that we work with them And we can use cross market learnings and some of our global learnings to be able to do that Can you elaborate on any of these learnings that you said? Excuse me Well, I mean, I think there's there's learnings from Big global clients like Coca-Cola for example in the way that they treat culture So being able to take that Into a local client And some of their structures that they put around understanding culture And that culture could be a sporting culture and entertainment culture Applying that to another client. I think is a really interesting approach We're seeing Coca-Cola globally taking steps into generative AI using that to use in creative And also within their product Taking those learnings into local markets like India could be really a big advantage for some of the local players What are the growth that you're foreseeing for India? Well, I mean, I think it's it's a huge consumer market That's really tapped into mobile phone. I'm not going to predict a A growth rate over the next few years But we're already seeing the scale of that market coming coming to the fore I think it is it already is one of the the big kind of powerhouses within the region It's really important for us. And I think the weight of the work In terms of the creative work that's that's here this week is really important as well Let's see single digit high single digit double digit high double digit. Where ballpark? Where do you see? I mean, I'm hoping high double digit. I mean, it's it is a really big growth market As I said, there's big local clients in in the market as well Which and they're really growing and for me, that's a really big boom You've got great distribution really good e-commerce platforms that are also entertainment platforms like a flipkart For that for me shows big growth in the market and big potential in the market Finally, you mentioned work. So any standout work from the region that you're really proud of? Well, I think everyone after can is going to talk about whisper And the work from from png. I think there's also been some great work We saw a go of there's some great work from Airtel, for example So I think there's there's great work coming out of out of India I think a little bit less so this year than the last year In can but I think India will come back with with the vengeance in the future because there's always great work Born out of really interesting local insight And the scale to back it up Thank you so much, Josh for your time. It was it was a pleasure and really enriching conversation with you. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me