 They say nothing is more inspiring than a challenge and our creative agencies today have literally proved that right With the wonderful campaigns that they have dished out We have with us in our beating all odds segment today once such creative advertising leader Shrija Chatterjee MD Hi, Shrija MD of publicist worldwide Shrija tell us how has his lockdown affected the creative ideation that purposes Well, it's actually opened our eyes that we could ideate potentially on on on a screen like this earlier ideation was all about sitting around a Sofa or you know going out for a smoke break and discussing ideas Now it's a form of formal process and initially there there was some sort of Tension amongst our creative people But I must say it's a It's happening very well very efficiently actually Are you saying that your team is surprising you because you know there was like you mentioned there was a belief that unless you're bouncing off ideas With each other sitting in the same room. You can't really deliver Is that happening in a in a way that surprised you right now? Absolutely and nowadays what's happening is what has happened is the regular phone call has stopped It's all video call. So anything that you require you're just you know calling the person up on Microsoft Teams which is the the platform that we're using quite well and Everything is therefore just immediately discussed and closed and it's it's happening very seamlessly I must say I am surprised. I expected Some sort of pushback or some sort of you know getting over a you know because of this condition This is the reason why this was not delivered. That's not happening. They're all delivering it very very well But tell me even having said that what kind of problems are you currently troubleshooting? Well actually troubleshooting is about delivering so we cannot shoot shoot a film So it is about looking trying to find a solution within the You know allowable means which is either looking at stock photography looking at animation looking at you know a the kind of films So that's the only real constraint that we are in other and I guess creative was better with Constraints, so they are also finding creative ways of finding the solution Other than that, I don't think there is any any real issue the the only potential Think is that there are some employees from an employee perspective There are some employees who are living alone And and you know living in this time hooked up in your house can be quite harrowing if we're living alone So that's the meaning we're just taking care that you know, we are taking care of those employees There are conversations happening with them regularly. We're also instituting in our organization a mental health number So if anybody has you know any issues with mental health because you know these things can affect different people in different ways You know, there is a number that they can call and they can you know sort of get some sort of counseling You know, but unlike the other agencies, we're not releasing a lot of these work from home ads Coming from progress is worldwide yet We had a lot of farmer clients a lot of farmer work has come out We had some B2B clients a lot of work of those have come out videos video campaigns Print video. Yes. It's a combination a lot of work has already come out. We are not going out there and bring PR of that There's a and now the teams are, you know workshopping and working with the clients regularly to Plan when it opens up what happened in the short-term what will have potentially happened in the long-term and looking at different scenario buildings and Plans for that. So they're like up to here with work. So much so that nowadays, you know, this Nobody's keeping track of lunchtime and breaks and there was a whole conversation we had on that and we said that okay Let's just you know, make sure that people get that up in our 45 minutes will eat at least because it's just But you know the lockdown and literally thrown up a different kind of challenge at the brands mostly So as an agency, have you adapted? Are you also giving them different kinds of solutions? Which is not exactly an ad. What kind of other things are you coming up as an agency? Actually depends on what what the brand is what the cycle it is in and its developmental phase There are there are different solutions that are happening for example a brand like ZT Which is you know a GC and it is connected with the consumer every day The consumer needs those characters every day and now suddenly the consumer is not connected with those characters Because obviously they are unable to shoot. How do we keep those characters alive in the minds of the consumers? Because the consumers love those characters the viewers of those shows love those characters So we are giving them interesting ideas and mainly digital because that's the medium where you know You can best connect at this time and people are also now a lot more digitally active than they were earlier even the older generation So there are those kind of ideas that we're looking at. So how do you keep the brand alive in the in the mind of the consumer without super hard selling because this is not the time for super hard selling But yet in a software way yet in a kind of brand love way to stay alive in the mind Well another interesting things that some of the ad professionals have told me is you know during the lockdown They've seen a very different kind of different side to the clients. They are much more understanding So would you say that the clients that you have right now are less of dictators than what they were a month ago? I mean we don't have too many dictator clients, but But whatever little we had yeah, they're not there. I mean they clearly Everybody understands that everybody has pressures at home So they do understand it's work from home and work for home and therefore there needs to be that balance There are SMS is coming or rather what's up coming thing can we connect it so and so time versus picking up the phone So yeah clients also Need to do their share at home. So they also want that so-called me time to complete that so they are get they are They were good But tell me what are the unique problems that you are hearing from clients anything specific that is Would be nice to you know talk about here. We each category is going through its own share In fact, we had a very interesting Table that we did so our B2B business does a lot of not just B2B but a lot of talent communication So organizations connect with their consumers with their employees and therefore they need to communicate to them So we do coms on that so we had an HR round table where we called in the HR heads of a few of our clients And it was a very interesting You know talk like this like you and I are having so just imagine There are some eight night clients and there's a somebody moderating it And it was a very interesting conversation on how the HR people are coping with the employee issues Also with how they are personally, you know Developing themselves in a way because different people are going through different learning curves So those kind of things were very interesting. So I found that we're doing more of these round tables now Across categories. So we have a farmer one plan for tomorrow So these are ways we have been connected with the consumer consumer our consumer being the clients Understanding what they're going through and then we're workshopping with each and every client to figure out What should we be doing the immediate what should we be doing in the midterm and then also laying some stones for the long term Though how long is the long term? We don't know because that really depends on how this all pans out But then we have pictures happening right now. Are they on hold very much? We had a four-hour picture on Friday, which was you know 20 people on zoom that was on zoom And We are a fantastic pitch. We have one on Saturday coming up See now what's happened is because we're all working for more Saturdays are also okay to have meetings Because it doesn't matter. So we have another picture on Saturday. So pictures are very very much But would you say you know clients apart from you know slashing ad spends are they also looking at cutting agency costs right now? Yes, some some clients aren't some clients are asking us for help for partnership during these tough times some clients aren't and Wherever we can help we are helping And they also understand that we have a business to run So if they are not being you know Unfair we also understand that they have a business to run So it's a each client is a different Conversation, but there are some clients where we've offered to help out where we know that those categories are going to be far more Long-term affected than then some of them That's in such a testing in such testing times and agency becomes that much more important for the client Of course, it definitely becomes far more important because what's gonna happen is you need to do communication now Which is more as I said, you need to get the pitch right and it could be hard self, but then when things come back But it's gonna be shouting. So how do you shout best because once the market opens up everybody's gonna say So how do you shout best and that's when they need the partnership of the agency they need the partnership of the agency to develop different scenarios and Create plans for each scenario and depending on what scenario pangal because as I said Then we deploy one of those plans. So definitely they need they need the partnership That some of the businesses are under pressure and whenever we can help you Another thing is you mentioned, you know, it's uncertain and you know, once the lockdown gets I mean, it's called off How will the client react? So do you think the client will become more cautious because a lot of sectors production has been halted And they'll just resume. Oh, would you say that you know clients because they haven't got much of an airtime right now They would go out and you know, totally spend Mind you in the short term The clients are gonna take existing assets. They will spend not that much, but they will by the time they get their supply chain and The entire Um Up the stuff into the into the outlets done Distribution They will probably take their existing assets and they will redeploy those existing assets by making them, you know A little bit you are here and there Which is what our task should be and then we will start preparing and I think the big bang Around the opposite number, you know time is when we're fully things will then all Be back to normal to some extent and the clients will spend on on new communication And I was just reading after an early release of your first quarter earnings I mean your CEO chairman Arthur He spoke about a cost-cutting plan where every country could decide how to go about it So as far as India is concerned, are you looking at layoffs or major salary cuts for your income? No, now we are we are not looking at a mass layoff or any salary cut that we are going to write really not As much as we can Currently we are definitely we we're looking at of course, you know, this is the instrument cycle So we put a point to that for some time till we get As to how it's all going to pan out We're also, you know, making sure that we don't take any party help and do a lot of in-house Because we have a lot of things in our power one solution. We have content We have digital we have PR. We've got everything so Mandate is you cannot go out to any other party walk with them because the more you water But you're eating to somebody else's job So everything needs to be in house And a few replacements that we have you know replacing them for now It's all on hold so that we are once we get an act our act together Have a better visibility as to how things are happening then things So that's our kind of cost-cutting Okay, and last question. What are your learnings from the lockdown? Oh My learning for the learning number one Actually haven't stepped out of house from 19th of March. I haven't stepped out. I haven't even gone on for a walk I'm exercising indoors. So I had the fact that I can be indoors for some 33 odd days By to me is one personal Learning I didn't know I was capable of that I think From a professional perspective It's amazing how humans can you know Take over any challenge and fight that and that's something that has been demonstrated I mean, we know we keep saying Mumbai is resilient and Mumbai is that but that's really the human human Side to everything all human beings are resilient They'll find a way to break out of any issues and find a solution The fact that the teams are working so well in such a planned manner There are jobless meetings every morning. There's a review of the jobs every evening Creative people are you know doing this so well of course planning and Already and the fact that is something that you know has been in a hot sauce to everybody They have understood the situation. They're doing way more than what they should And they also know the situation that everybody isn't now and therefore they're delivering a lot more than they should And that's something that is absolutely Like you mentioned, we're all working from homes, but we are more connected than ever Virtually, so let's let's take this time to maybe recharge and come back with a bang When the minute the lockdown is actually lifted, maybe so thank you so much for speaking to Ashija Lovely speaking to you. Bye. Bye. See you. Take care