 And on that note, we now get on to the fireside chat for today evening with Dr. Anurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Exchange for Media and BW and CBL, Srinivas Country Manager, India WPP. Well, Mr. CBL, Srinivas has over 25 years in the media and advertising industry, health senior management positions in leading agencies including Group M, WPP, Madison and StarCom, Media West in India, Asia Specific. Member of startup team at HTA Falcrum, now Mindshare Falcrum, a part of Group M, WPP, India's first media agency of record on Unilever in 1995 helped establish Maxis for Group M, WPP in India and Asia Pacific. Worked closely with several leading advertisers, brands and helped build and scale so many agency and businesses. Well, today he will be sharing his inputs on digital transformation. We are putting a lot of focus on this. I request you to please take us through a lot of interesting conversation that should be taking place. Thank you. Mr. Srinivas does not really need an introduction to Mr. CBL, nor does he need an introduction. So please give him a big round of applause. I can say the reason we requested him to be the chief guest for the awards is because of his stellar career growth and the roles that he has played and the talent he has nurtured just to, you know, Rathnika did kind of introduce him, but let me tell you he studied in two venerable institutions. One my father went to, I got admission, but did not take that Bitspilani. You know, I played and also participated in the OASIS twice in 1992 and 1993. Won a debating competition, won a quizzing competition. So he went to Bitspilani in 1984 to 88. He did his BE honors in mechanical engineering. Then he went to XLRI Jamshedpur in 1991 and in 1993 passed out. And his, you know, some of the roles that he's played are known, but he was a CEO for Asia Pacific for Maxis in 2003. He performed that role for almost three years. Then, you know, he took a different, he went to Times of India. He went in an investment role. Times of India just started the private treaties and he was the director of private treaties. And he worked about two years there. He did one more stint, which is he went to a technology company in between. And then he came back to media planning buying. He became the chairman for India, for Starcom Media West Group, where he worked for two years. Since Jan 2013, in exchange for media broke that story in Jan 2013. I called him to congratulate him. He became the CEO South Asia for Group M. That's a role he did for almost five and a half years. And last four years plus, Mr. Seville Srinivas, and everyone calls him Srinni, is the country manager for WPP in India. WPP is the largest communication conglomerate. Almost 30 companies and 30 companies, CEOs report to Srinni. I can also say that Mr. Seville Srinivas has been a nominee of the impact person of the Earthrise. He's also the winner of the exchange for media influencer of the award. And I can talk about all his industry accolades, the evening will go away. But he runs a big ship. He deals with leaders. So there couldn't have been a better person post-pandemic to do a conversation on where are we headed in a digital connected world. So with this, please give Mr. Seville Srinivas a bigger round of applause. I think he's earned it. I just also want to say that when he became the country manager of WPP, he had big shoes to fill. Ranjan Kapoor, the late Ranjan Kapoor, he's looking down on us from heaven and what a gentleman he was. I had the good pleasure of interacting with him for almost 20 years. Me and Nawal met him multiple times in the last 20 odd years. And the one thing that I remember about Ranjan is there was Adesha and Jaipur. And in the night was the... No, it was your stream. It was your stream and I was there that your Nawal wasn't there now. And he made the mutton and he especially called me and said, you know, I made it. This is my formula. And then he went on to explain a little bit of that. But what a warm person he was. Even when we had started exchange for media was always supportive. Of course, he had a point of view on everything in the industry, but he was a gentle giant and he was a real Punjabi. So with this introduction, I'll have a conversation with Mrs. Srinivas and post that we'll take a break and we'll come back for the 40 under 40 list, which is exchange for media's digital first list. It has lots of marketers, digital heads, media agency professionals, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in the list. You'll see that it is representative of what's happening in the sector. It has companies that are known to be blue chip. It has homegrown companies. It has startups. So I heard Mr. Prashant Pithi briefly. Prashant, I had the good pleasure of meeting Nishant a couple of days back and he told me your story on how you started. So it's incredible how long you've come and I hope we get time to have an interaction. Srinia, I'm going to come there. Good question. Good question. But hopefully it's not, yeah, your award is maybe demographically defined but I guess otherwise it's just the mindset that you have, right? Yeah, that's what the minders group said. They, you know, make up these lies. 50 is the new 40, 50 is the new 30, 30 is the new 20. You know, these are good lines too much. Coming on a serious note, Srinia, we are having this conversation post pandemic. WPP clearly understands what's happening in the industry. Through your agencies, through your partners, client partners, through your media partners, you have an understanding of has the industry bounced back and support that with some data? I'm not asking for, but give us a sense, has the industry bounced back? Yes, the short answer is yes, the industry is bounced back. Actually, I think it's been a stronger bounce back than expected. Just to, I mean, give you some broad numbers. Last year, that is 2020, we look at data actually on a calendar year basis. So last year, 2020, we actually de-grew as an ad industry by between 20 and 25% versus 2019. And before this, you know, right after 2019, if you look at the Kaggle, the Indian AdEx was growing at anywhere between, I mean, around double digits, quite comfortably for the last many years. So suddenly we saw 20, 25% dip last year in 2020. This year, 2021, of course, the base is much lower because we went down, but we're going to be up by about 20 to 25%. Are we as an industry going to recoup all losses this year? Maybe not. I mean, maybe some individual companies will, but overall as an industry maybe not. But definitely by 2022, we will, I mean, we'll far exceed 2019 levels. So I think the bounce back has been extremely robust in the year 2021. And in fact, when we were going through the second wave earlier this year, most of us felt that this is also going to be a, you know, like a washout year. But because, I mean, various reasons, perhaps the lockdowns weren't as severe as last year. You know, businesses somehow continue, the advertising sentiment kind of came back. And then of course in the recent past, the big cricket tournaments, the festive season, they've all helped. So right now the numbers are telling us that we will end the year anywhere between a 20 and 25% growth. That's very heartening to know from where we started. Srinni, again, what is the reason for this bounce back? Give us the factors and the kind of companies that have contributed to this bounce back. Of course, startups is an obvious one, you know. They are funded, they are very optimistic on the future. They're investing in the future, so to say. We understand, but give us some micro trends. Yes, see, I think if you look at it at a very macro level, I think obviously the India growth story and the bullishness around India is still very, very much intact. I mean, we work with a lot of multinational clients and all of them, the headquarters, they continue to see India to be one of the key markets or perhaps the most important market from a growth perspective. So relatively speaking, India versus some of the other markets, we are still in a much, much better position because the headroom for growth is still there. And this is true across sectors. So I think that's at a very high level. If you look a little deeper and if you look across sectors, yes, there are some sectors which are obviously very, very challenged. They have been challenged for some time, but then COVID is coming. Which are these sectors? So for example, you know, let's say the traditional retail sector, or if you look at, you know, because of COVID and the aftermath, the travel hospitality kind of a sector, the airline sector, it's probably a bad deal. Prashant Pitti was there. I just wanted to tell you, I gave a statistic in the morning. I was talking to his brother Nishan and they said the best month pre-COVID, they're a listed entity, listed at about 2,000 crores, market cap to there at about almost 6,000 crores. I mean, exact numbers you can Google and find out what I'm giving you. And he said our best month was 14 crores, sales in a day. He said, I met him three days back. Four days back, possibly on Monday, they did 20 crores plus sales in one. So he believes in the next two months, travel is going to come back. It's coming back to the big bank. It's coming back to the big bank. And the business travel hasn't started yet. Yes, that's true. You know, a lot of these sectors, like I said, which were under, you know, under a cloud, so to speak, they're coming back to the very, very big bank, pent up demand, et cetera. And then there are other sectors like you mentioned, you know, the D2C brands, the tech brands, even the traditional FMCG players getting into, let's say, more premium niche categories, leveraging digital data, creating more personalized kind of consumer content. You know, we're seeing a huge uptick because of that as well. So I think if you put all of this together, in fact, the next few years looks extremely good for the market. And Srinni, now let's talk about the agency business. I know you keep saying we're not in the agency business only. We're in the business of advising our clients. And you know, comparisons to ExCenture, consulting companies are naturally made. They have become trusted advisors to brands, to business owners. Now, what are the structural shifts that are happening in our business? Yeah, so I think there are massive opportunities. And I've been saying this in many forums, including your forums for some time. The massive opportunities for agencies to move up the value chain for various reasons. I think the first big reason is the whole shift that's happening from, you know, the analog world to the digital world, which is throwing up, let's say, a lot more data, information, insights, throwing up a lot more demand for, let's say, a real-time connect with the consumer, a quicker closure on the feedback loop, et cetera. The demands, et cetera, are changing. One of the things that we feel we can do is, you know, given the relationships we have with brands, with consumers, and given the, you know, data technology stacks we've invested in over the years, we are able to actually today get in at a much earlier stage in the consumer journey as an advisor or as a partner, and also play a very important role in the whole feedback loop and the piece in between we were anyway doing. So, you know, by topping and tailing, you know, the traditional services with, let's say, strategic advisory, digital analytics, et cetera, you know, like I keep saying, you know, the word agency has to be redefined now. You know, it's like a consulting or it's a service plus delivery kind of a model. And that's the evolution that we've seen and we will continue to see. You know, of course, you're talking about the direction you are taking, WPP agencies and WPP companies. But do you think the Indian media agency ecosystem, the Indian advertising ecosystem, overall has kept pace with that? Of course, the clients are forcing. But are we leading? Are we following? Well, that's an interesting question. I think a lot of it is dependent on, yeah, to an extent the kind of clients you're handling, the brands you're working with, the categories that you're working with, et cetera. I think in many cases it's forced change. I mean, whether you like it or not, you have to move in this direction. You know, the days of, let's say, depending, I mean, even before we get into media, I mean, the days of working in silos, I think are gone. You can no longer, you know, we went through this whole era of specialization and then super specialization. Unbundling of agency. Yeah, and the whole piece got fragmented, right? I think today, that's not really working for anyone. So I think today there is an effort to kind of try and, in a way, integrate full service, integrate services, and like I said, build on that feedback loop and ensure that you, you know, you're more strategic in your contribution to the client. So I think that's like a forced change. I mean, you kind of have to go that way if you have to survive in the business. But within that, yes, I mean, it depends on various factors. You know, you could say digital maturity of that particular category or brand or client in some cases. But yeah, I think everyone's headed in the same direction. My last two professional questions and I'll ask one personal question. What is the biggest shift you're seeing in the way clients operate? When you talk to a digital 40-under-40 winner who has 40 crores as his digital budget or her digital budget, what is the biggest change that you see in clients? I mean, you know, you've grown this, some of you are very, you know what, you're not somebody who's academic, you know exactly what's happening. What's that one big shift? Of course, digital spends are growing, no question. Those are obvious. I think if you see the kind of conversations happening today with clients, I mean, maybe not one, but I'll just call out maybe two, three themes that are playing out. I think one is this whole theme around, you know, ideas, campaigns, media plans, all that is fine, but you know, help me solve my business problem. Help me solve my business challenge. So, you know, let's get the best of talent. I'm not wedded to any particular structure or any particular group or whatever. You know, just let's work in an open source mindset, get the best talent together and let's try and solve business problems. Yes, as part of that solution, you could also deliver a campaign, you could do something on digital media, social media, et cetera, but how do you join it all up and give me business value? I think that's clearly one theme and that's a big shift from some years ago. The other, I think, has been accentuated by COVID is I think there's a lot of stuff around purpose, around being a lot more meaningful, you know, for brands, for companies, so whether it's- In a deep way. In a deep way, beyond what's in your- Yeah, it's not just a tagline or whatever else, but how can you build it into your company philosophy, into your product, the way you communicate, and it's becoming extremely important for various reasons, right? I mean, if you look at any data, if you look at the millennials and the Gen Zs, I think I was reading some startling numbers. I think 82% of them would rather prefer buying a brand that actually not just stood for something, but actually does good as well. Not just talking about it, but even doing it. Yeah, I have two teenage kids, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, and brands which have an ESG which everyone talks about, but you know, hard data is there to show the brands which have a tangible ESG kind of an agenda or an offering. Yeah, Indian funds in the last one year have raised 11 billion of ESG capital. Yeah. 11 billion. Yeah. And it just started, so it's like tip of the iceberg, but you're right. Yeah. Purpose, sustainability. Yeah, so that's the other big theme of playing out, and that's also therefore important for us as partners and also the partners that we work with to kind of build that into our offering, whether it's the kind of work we do or whatever it is. That's really my last professional question. You also, you meaning WPP in the last 10, 15 years under your last boss, super boss, built India's business through mergers acquisition, through acquisition. And there were other groups without taking name, and you can figure out which one were much more aggressive in the last five years for paying for companies and paying much more than you were offering. So what is your outlook on mergers acquisition going forward and what is the change in WPP since the time you took over? Four years back. You know, country managers, right? What is that one change that has come and what is your approach in terms of acquisitions? Yeah. Okay. So I think like, I mean, every organization, we also went through a process of, you know, growing up, business evolving, et cetera. And I think we've reached a stage, or maybe in the last few years, we reached a stage where I don't think we're acquiring for scale because that's something which we have. I think what we really continue to acquire for is expertise, it's a certain technology innovation. It's something which can complement what we already have within the system to deliver more value for our clients. So I think that's, you know, it's in a way kind of a natural evolution that has happened. In fact, my taking over the country management role in a way coincided with new leadership globally. Incidentally, somebody who was the head of digital business and the head of digital became the head of agency, you know, of the conglomerate. I'm talking to Mark Reid, I'm talking about Mark Reid. Yeah. So we look at ourselves as a creative transformation company where, you know, like I said earlier, we want to be best placed to offer a strategic advisory service to our clients, bringing the obviously, you know, rooted in talent to the best people and having the right kind of data and technology. But most importantly, we still believe the biggest differentiators is creativity. I mean, you can keep talking about digital data, technology, disruption, et cetera. Which Pandey will still have his job. What really moves the needle is creativity, right? So for us, it's creative transformation, which is the space that we believe we can... You're re-hiring agnello dyes? Sorry? Are you re-hiring agnello dyes? So, yeah. So that's the... And what is the one change I asked you since you took over? You know, what is the transformation that you've done? I mean, it's difficult to talk about it as well, but talk about the organizing. I think overall as a company, we've... we're trying to simplify our structure and we're trying to get, I would say, a lot more speed and needle desks into our operations, including in markets. For example, we work in a more joined up fashion across all our key clients today, because as you know, most of our key clients are serviced by multiple operating companies. So today, we have a more joined up way of doing that. We have a much more joined up way of working with partners. Again, in the past, we had multiple operating companies working with multiple partners. Today, it's been driven in a more synergistic manner. And of course, there's a lot of synergy at the back end, a group like us can bring to the table. And yeah, things like working out of one campus. Yeah, you open a new office. I'm planning to visit. You've not invited me, but I'll come myself. Yeah, so we've got campuses now in Mumbai and Gurgaon. So all the WPP agencies under one roof. So yeah, things like that, you know, make it a lot easier to collaborate, to drive more value to clients. My last question before I get in, any questions from the audience? Now, Srinni, you've seen the communication ecosystem over two and a half decades. You had big roles. The job you have currently is the biggest job in our business. There's no bigger job than this. So what next for Srinni? Well, I think I have a lot on my plate, frankly. So I can't look beyond all the stuff that's filed up. No, but look, we are, I think, a very, very interesting phase of our evolution as a company. I think most people in the audience are hopefully aware of the agencies within WPP, but I'm sure most of them are not aware of the fact that in India, we have close to, I would think, 4,000 people who work in 12 hubs of global capability centers that we have built over the years, which is actually one of our best kept secrets. And, you know, these are in areas like smart tech, you know, content production, e-commerce, data analytics, performance marketing, et cetera. So these hubs actually work directly with global clients. Many of them work on a 24 by 7 basis. So one of the things we're looking to do is to try and see how do we, you know, so it's, like I said, that's the other world within WPP in India. So we're trying to see how do we actually get the value that exists in these hubs, the kind of talent that we have. I mean, the number of people we have on the platforms or whatever else is massive. The number is actually, it's pretty impressive if you look at it. So how do you actually get the synergy going between the work that the hubs do with what the frontline agencies do to service the clients who manage the business brands and so on and so forth? Because we believe there's a lot of exciting value that we can unlock by doing that. So I mean, that's just one example of the kind of potential that we have. So do you get time to play tabla still? Yes, I try. He's a very good tabla player. And I learned it four or five years back at the Impact University shoot. The shoot had a tabla, he playing tabla in an Indian Italian, and that's how I got to know that he's very good at playing tabla. I'm still a learned beginner. Yes, I try and, you know, weekends still go back to the tabla and enjoy trying out one or two new songs every weekend. That's a challenge I set for myself. One of them is I try and pick a more classical number and then the other is I pick a filmy number. I try and identify the tal, those of you who I'm sure many of you know music and are much better than me. So I try and see if it's Kerala tal, Rupak tal or Deen tal and then I try and fit the piece into that. And that's the challenge every weekend. Not every weekend, maybe every alternate weekend. But yeah, that's something I keep trying to do. But yeah, I'm still a beginner. Good. I do read something and want to be better. Always think of themselves as big nerds. I think Amitabh Pachan sometimes thinks he's a big nerd too. But that's another story, another day. There's a quiz question that I'll ask you and there's an iPhone 13 to be one on that. But before that, any questions for Mr. Seville Srinivas, more popularly knows as Srinivas. Mr. Patra, he's been in marketing roles, business roles. Can we get a mic to him? He's not related to me. I'm not being, you know, clubby or family oriented I can just say the second name. You'll have to keep it closer. I don't think the camera is on. The mic is on. No, you're not allowed Punjabi from Delhi. You shouldn't need a mic ideally. You're audible now. Yes. Thank you so very much for a very enlightening session. A quick question from you. How do you think that the brands and the media actually help the mom and pop stores to be able to move digitally? What do you think is the future of retail, vis-a-vis the digital e-commerce, social commerce and the new emerging commerce? Thank you. Thanks for the question. Yeah, actually we have a wonderful opportunity in India to create value especially for the like you say the mom and pop stores using digital and technology. And there are several initiatives at play. I'm sure most of you have seen what we did for categories recently. Which is not just a category ad. In fact, that was a campaign that we first launched last year without Shah Rukh Khan but with the same technology, AI etc. And it was actually done on a slightly smaller scale and looking at the impact that that had this year came out with with a much bigger plan in that sense and with the celebrity and so on and that I'm sure you've seen and seen the kind of impact that has created. I mean that's one example but there are several instances today of our large clients looking at using technology data building B2B kind of a channel or a marketplace to onboard these retailers. So one of the things I want to add to Anurag's last question also I think the most exciting thing about any of our jobs because I'm assuming we're all working in India is that I think I really think I'm serious about this because I keep going out and meeting colleagues from other markets as well. I really think we have the most exciting market here whichever field you're in I'm assuming most of you are marketing or advertising because of a very unique ecosystem that you will always have for a long time to come because in India everything goes there is high end digital there is the global biggest market places and then there are the Kirana stores so you need some local innovation there as well there will be digital, there will always be analog there will still be good spend on all the so-called non-digital channels for some more time to come in India and then of course if you bring in all the services, the multiple languages that we have look at the innovation happening in India on voice technology in fact we run a voice technology lab in WPP in India and you know my young colleague Neeraj Ruparel and I would really hope to get Neeraj into one of your sessions to share with the audience the kind of work that's happening out of our offices in India using voice technology. Again a lot of it is I would say not for the urban audiences but more let's say amongst the rural audiences small town in India etc again amazing stuff and when we are contributing a lot of this best practice to the globe so yes this is a great opportunity. Thank you so much anybody else wants to come Aditi you want to ask a question in your agency you want to tell us who you are, what you do how much money you have in your Swiss backed account if you have one I am Bhavna, I am from Cherchat and I want to ask Trini how many of your how much of your you should know all the answers right Trini so he would have asked him the same question what kind of your business is going towards multi lingual kind of advertising how many of your clients correct me Cherchat is more tier 2, tier 3 Cherchat is everywhere now I like it because if you speak Hindi you can consume content on Cherchat right I will give you a short answer thanks for asking that question please convey my best test of wishes to Ajit Varghese fabulous colleague friend and I know we exchanged messages yesterday and I am going to catch up soon well there has been a complete shift in the last few years in terms of broadly speaking how money gets allocated media budget gets allocated when I was growing up in media 200 years ago it was more top down you would first do national and then you would kind of get into regional and so on and even till quite recently even some of the biggest advertisers didn't look beyond Hindi communication and maybe sometimes they would do either one or two languages in the south and maybe in east and leave it at that so I would say in the last couple of years in most cases it comes up and that's for firstly the kind of media opportunities that we have today which have opened up secondly I mean again data shows that unless you connect with a local audience not just in the local language but build in all the local nuances it's not enough to translate a Hindi ad into the south Indian languages and assume that it will work in fact we did a very interesting study for a large client of us a couple of years ago I think it was a fantastic study it was a brand when we found that the needle wasn't moving despite massive media weights in the south versus the north and when the analysis was done it was found that despite changing the model let's say to suit the south Indian audiences the rest of the ad was the same and then we found through research etc that it wasn't enough to just change the model and change the language you had to come up with completely new insight because that particular insight wasn't working in the south so I'm saying a lot of this awareness has come in and also there's a demand in the market side as well given that a lot of these markets need this kind of communication so yes not just translation you have to completely look at the nuances cultural insights and all of that so I think there's a huge role huge role that companies like share chat and others who are in the room who are into multilingual you know media channels have to play in this in pushing this agenda forward because we are not like one country from a media angle right we have so many different languages and cultures thank you so much I'll take the last question if anyone has one question sir we like it that lady there's an extra mic here tell us who you are, what's your name, what company do you represent I'm Archana and I'm from the impact team of exchange for media I would like to know whether you have WPP India has net zero carbon goals in India as well because your UK WPP has announced net zero carbon goals have you planned to announce translated in India as well oh yes absolutely so we have not just globally but locally as well you know goals set for ourselves on all of the ESG parameters in fact we also have a community in WPP India which is the green team which actually is working on a multi pronged agenda in this space one is to ensure that we ourselves are compliant as a company so whether it's our campuses whether it's the work we do with production houses and all of that is kind of adhering to all these norms secondly we're also working with our clients the kind of work that we do for clients in this space you would have seen a lot of campaigns in the recent past where this is kind of highlighted and then we're also working with a lot of industry bodies you know here in fact one of which I'd like to mention which is it used to be called India 2022 now it's called Vikasa it's got rebranded so it's a consortium of around 10 like-minded companies so there's HUL there is SPI there is GE there is WPP and a few other companies so we're actually trying to drive the sustainability agenda across corporate India so our role in Vikasa is to be a communications and innovation partner so doing some very interesting work there call about three years back so we're doing some very interesting work with some of the companies there Unilever as you know has a very aggressive agenda on eliminating plastics we were doing a lot of interesting work in the mining space to bring in environmental guidelines that are there but I think there's a lot more we all need to do and the only way we can do it is by working together if we have to really drive the ESG agenda it's not anything that one company or one person can do so it really needs a lot more collaboration I would actually urge platforms like yours to take ESG as an important topic and have a lot of awareness you know we can share work we can learn from others but I think that's an agenda we all need to work towards I just want to say a plug for I have a dual role I spend more time in business world we are the only business media could be only not CNBC not others with two words in their name we launched India's most sustainable companies last year all the companies that CEOs called me after and we partner the world's best it's called sustainable apps Paris we're bringing out next again we'll involve you I started an ESG show I've got the world number one every fortnight I'm doing ESG show this is my business world actually I had hired a sustainability editor six years back she had to go back to Washington I really credentialed really passionate about that that's a very big area and we spotted it very early but we'll see what we can do with this I think we're standing or sitting between the awards so I'll ask the last question the apple 13 if you want Srinni if you don't like that question and even if you know the answer you don't who has more hair on their head Srinni or me they'll photoshop it and I'll be more than my wife Srinni sir since it's still resolved at 50-50 there's no phone we cancel the answer and the question and over to Priyanka for getting the award give a big round of applause thank you Srinivasa do we have a moment for Mr Srinivasa thank you so much thank you so much Anurag sir you always give us great laughs I request you to please hand over a well deserved token of appreciation to Mr CVL Srinivasa