 Hello and welcome to exchange for media. As the market begins to open, we at E4M are speaking to leaders who are redrawing the growth map for COVID-19 affected 2020. Today with me is one such senior leader, Mr. Nick Embry, global CEO, mind share. Welcome to the show, sir. Thank you, thank you for having me. Sir, we know we have very limited time of yours, so we like to do as many questions as we can in 20 minutes. I want to first understand from you that considering that we have left the worst behind us and most markets have started to ease restrictions, where do you see growth opportunities in the current business climate? Yeah, hopefully we've left the worst behind us. I mean, it depends, doesn't it? Depends where you look. I mean, where I am in London, you kind of start the day with Asia and you move across the world and finish on the West Coast. So you see a lots of different situations as you go around the world. So I think there's a lot more optimism than there was. Yes, a lot of people are coming back, but you just need to look at certain countries or certain states to realise that we're certainly not out of the woods and there is still some concern about a second wave and how different policies in different countries manage that. But having said that, it has been a personal tragedy for lots of people and it's been a real challenge for businesses and a lot of people have been through a lot of hardship and our most important job is to look after our people. At the same time, it's been quite a intellectually stimulating time and I think people know the platitude about change and crisis forms transformation and out of a deep challenge, we begin to come up with new and different ways of working. So one thing that is clear, if ever there was a time to pitch a crazy idea to your company or to the business, now is the time to do it because you're more likely to get accepted now than another time. So I think it's an opportunity for business. I'm not sure I like the term new normal or returning to growth, but I think the idea of a renewal is interesting and a chance to pause and think about what companies do stand for and what your aspirations are and what your relationship is with your consumers and if you think that many companies now are bigger than a lot of countries or bigger than a lot of governments, what is the responsibility to their consumers and vice versa and how do you reset that? I think that's an interesting opportunity. Nick, the conversations have changed by 360 degrees ever since COVID-19 and the lockdown came in. If you can speak to us, you know what kind of demands or solutions are clients looking for now post-COVID? Well, you've seen, I think you've probably done a few of these interviews now, so you've probably got the same speech from everybody about the rise of the e-commerce and we've seen that quadruple certainly in India and in a lot of other markets. So I think you've seen the move to digitisation, the acceleration of what we already knew, all those kind of things. I think what's kind of interesting is that there are also things on the margin that you can look at, both in terms of new things or opportunities, but also a doubling down on skills that you need to have. So in terms of doubling down on skills, people are obviously spending a lot more time online, a lot more time on your customer website. So if your analytics, your on-site analytics are not the best they possibly can be, in terms of conversion, in terms of tracking your consumers, then you're missing out on a huge opportunity. At the same time, if your creative is not dynamic, is not flexible, is not reflecting what your consumers are doing on-site, then you're missing an opportunity to communicate with them. So there's a rigorous element in terms of analytics, understanding, optimisation, on-site conversion that you need to look at. There's also the loss of other kind of, not necessarily tangential opportunities, but interesting kind of approaches. If you think now that, certainly for the last few months, the world has been a world where everything is takeaway. So what does that mean for your brand? You know, you don't go to a car dealership, but maybe the car comes to you. So what could you have that delivers to you? What other opportunities? What's your brand mean in a world where everything is takeaway? Also, what's your brand mean in a world where essentially everyone's a digital native now? Everyone's been forced to be a digital native. So people weren't comfortable with that, and now I'm much more comfortable ordering online, much more comfortable in that world. You're also in a temporary world, probably. A temporary world where desktops are as important as mobile. That probably won't last, but what does that mean now? So I think there are lots of, within the kind of platitude of e-commerce is growing and everyone's going online, and it's the digitalisation of the world. There are areas to explore within that, and I think are quite interesting. All the shoulders about that perhaps. So Nick, every company is suffering losses. I mean, most companies have suffered losses. There are cost cuttings happening all across. Do you think agency business will suffer because of all of this? Will this entire pandemic have a change in the sense that how clients look at agencies as their partners, or they may try to do some of the business on their own? Has it made agencies' role even more important? What am I going to say to that? So yeah, of course I think it has, but only if agencies reflect that change. So yes, numerically, of course it's challenged us because a business, a community, an advertising world that was going to grow, depending on pick your forecast, it's now going to go down between 5% and 12%. So that wipes off 85 billion of potential revenue that was going to be around. So clearly it's not the same world numerically. So it's how you respond to that. And I think it's about, a lot of it is about flexibility, about working in different ways. I mean, we at Mindshade, before this even happened, we looked at three core themes that were happening in the world, and I think they've just accelerated. And they are, one, a client's desire for change, for digital transformation. Sometimes they're not completely sure what digital transformation means. They're probably a lot clearer on it now, since the beginning of the year than they were before. So help and guidance on that, in terms of what their data strategy might be, their go-to-market strategy might be, but what that means. At the other end of digital transformation is, is kind of mercilessly efficient activation in a programmatic world, and what does that mean. And in the middle, it's about a fusion of both brand and demand. So understanding real big and femic brand activity that clients are very good at, but also minute by minute, day by day, iterative dynamic messaging to clients in a kind of e-commerce world. So how do you blend the two? It's not either or. And I think that the nirvana of an agency relationship lies in the mixture of those three. And then you overlay on top of that a real increase now in direct-to-consumer, a question mark over what is the retail environment and need for people to understand that world and navigate that. Then yeah, I think the role of agencies is more important than it's ever been. But I think the nature of those agencies changes. So we look at Mindshare as a global talent agency, not so much a company. And the talent that we assemble for a client now, based on where they are and what their challenges are, might be quite different to the skill set and the team that you assemble in a two-month time or three-month time. So that flexibility, that desire to work as a team is important. And I think implicit within that as well, if you are sharing data, if you're working increasingly now around outcomes, not around fees or commissions, but paid by results, if you're working in that way, then that involves a heightened degree of trust, the confidentiality of working together. So the lines between agency and clients, I think blur much more than they've ever done before. Because I don't think you can really achieve digital transformation if you are still working with 10 different agencies in different ways across the world. And also as a client themselves, five different people dealing with Amazon or five different people dealing with the only go-to-market strategy, it just doesn't work. So the idea of working together as one team is the kind of sweet spot. Mark, my next question is about, most of the agency people are busy making recovery plans for their clients because of all the losses or all the plans that they had made in the beginning of their, everything has changed. So as somebody who's so senior and has spent so many years in the industry, what should be a good recovery plan you like? Well, I think defining what you mean by recovery first, is recovery getting back to where you thought you were going to be or is recovery resetting and renewing and going in a different way? And we're seeing an arc of clients. And in any ways, our clients are going through our 12 stage recovery program, anger acceptance, denial, moving on. And certainly in the early days, it was crisis management. But now it's not crisis management. Now it's about the opportunities that that business and that the world now provides. How, if you're fast-tracked your digital transformation strategy, if your plans you had put in place to have over five years, you now have to do over 12 months, then it changes the relationship and changes the way you work. So I think recovery is probably not the right word. I think it's renewal is the word. In terms of how do you fast-track your strategy? Because many clients already have this strategy in place. They knew what was coming. It's just come a bit quicker. And if you see the agility in which we've responded to working from home or working in different ways and working across the world, then I'm very hopeful that that new relationship will bear a lot of fruit for a lot of our clients. Nick, most markets where MindShare operates started to open before India. India has just in the last one month started to open. What kind of suggestions are you giving to your India team about going forward and handling the situation which is noble for most of us? Well, it's unusual for me to give suggestions to maps or what is Shrini or PK in that they're usually telling me what to do. And India is our fourth largest market. So a lot of innovation comes out of India rather than the other way round. So I have every faith in the guys and obviously part of the recovery for India is many India's because it's different in different places, isn't it? And so this sort of micro targeting, the understanding of what's happening in the urban senses versus the rural areas will be critical to that which is slightly different to other areas. So you obviously have your own unique challenges as well as other things that are consistent. What is consistent I think is that an understanding of consumed behavior, understanding when confidence is coming back to the marketplace. I think we're all hopeful that every market would follow a kind of China V shaped recovery. I don't think it will be V shaped everywhere, but certainly it's coming back in a lot of places quicker than people thought it would. So it's about from our point of view, the critical thing is always to be there when and where our clients need us to be there. So to spot the recovery, to spot the opportunity to be talking to our clients about that and to be taking every possible chance that we can to stimulate growth and to look for new avenues and new ways of growing. And I have every confidence in the team in India that they'll be looking around the world. Since March the 16th, since this kind of lockdown officially kind of happened, not in China obviously, China went through this first and now had the harsh experience of being the first people to go through this without the world supporting them. So our sympathy and understanding for our team in China is immense. But when that began to hit the rest of the world sort of February and March, then we'd be having daily calls with the team. We've been working in different ways. So the whole idea of sharing best practice around the world has escalated. And now we talk every day about what's happening in the world, what's happening with our clients and what those opportunities might be. And India is central to that. So talking in terms of numbers, how far do you see things getting back to, if not normal, comparatively better? In India, how much hopes are you pinning on the festive season which starts from next month? What kind of conversations are you having with your India team if you can give me some more insight on that? Because we don't really get too much from India. We won't get it from me either then. So, well, clearly we're looking at quite a downturn in terms of the projections. But at the same time, it's a rash person to make an immediate projection about a return. But I think we'll return relatively soon as soon as that consumer confidence returns. And if you look at the growth for next year, look at 2021, then India is projected to be one of the biggest markets to rebound in the best way. So I think we'll see you're in the middle of it now in many ways. And I think therefore it's difficult to make those projections because a lot depends on how the urban centers particularly react and how consumer confidence comes back. Every faith in our team that they will continue to grow and invest and be there at the right time at the right place. Nick, I am almost out of time. Thank you so much for speaking to us. Anything I am left with one minute, anything more that you would want to tell your team here, the Mindshare team in India, or your global team, what anything that you would like to add. I love the Mindshare team in India. They're the best. They're brilliant. It was the last place I visited before we were sort of locked down. It's a fantastic place. It's always an inspiration. I think the guys know how much I love and respect them. So I have every faith in our team in India. I have every faith in our team around the world. I think we live work in a fantastic business and we're going to use our ingenuity to make things even better. Nick, thank you so much for speaking to us. And I finished exactly on the time that I was not it. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Nick. We wish you all the best. Thank you. Take care.