 Hello and welcome to exchangeformedia.com. With me today is the most eminent leader of media and entertainment industry, a leader who needs no introduction, Mr. Mark Reed, global CEO WPP. Welcome to India, Mark. Thank you. It is wonderful to be here again. So what brings WPP's board meeting to India this year? I think it's a really unique point in India's history. With the G20 at the weekend, India becoming the world's most populous country this year, you can really see the importance of it. Now, it's something you and we at WPP have known for some time. India today is our fifth biggest market, a real area of growth and innovation and vibrancy for the company. Really, we wanted the board to come here. We haven't been here since 2017. It felt like it was time as a board since 2017. We lost our board meeting in 2017, time to really see how the market has developed here. So you just said that India is your fifth largest market. It is also one of your fastest growing markets. What are the factors that drive WPP's growth in India? Well, it has been actually our fastest growing market for the last 10 years. It's been driven both by the domestic growth and by the international growth. We have about 10 and a half thousand people here in India, about 50% working with Indian companies and Indian clients and about half supporting our global business. And what's been amazing is both of those areas have grown substantially. Mark, according to your latest financial numbers, India grew by 0.8% in H1 compared to 37% growth last year for the same period. This represents a significant drop. Of course, we know of all the global factors that have contributed to this decline. But what, according to you, were some of the factors that led to this decline and where did you see the growth coming from? Yeah, look, I think it's really interesting. I mean, Group M expect India to grow about 12% this year overall. But there's no doubt that growth has second half waited because of the very rapid growth. I mean, India, actually one of the only markets didn't decline in 2020 during the year of COVID. It was really flat. But 21-22, we saw very strong growth. And there's no surprise against those comparisons that we should have slightly tougher first half of the year. But we expect to see strong growth maintain in the second half of the year and for many years to come. In a recent statement, you claim that 50% of WPP's tech offshoring for your global clients occurs in India. And you're looking to scale it up rapidly. Could you please share your plans, your scale of plans in India? Yeah, I think we have a really great offshore development business here. We've got some centers of excellence companies or parts of WPP that help people with their production, help people build e-commerce websites, implement Adobe or Salesforce technologies. And those skills are in great demand. What we have in India is really strong technical expertise at a price point that makes it extremely competitive. I don't see India as a low cost country. It's really about that combination of skill and expertise and price points. So we see demand for those services expanding around the world. As technology's impact to the advertising communications business actually only to become much more people intensive. Group M has been the fastest growing part of our business for a number of years and the headcount there, the number of people employed has grown. And a lot of that work can be done very efficiently in India. That's one of the areas we're seeing to expand. Our production business will expand. AI is going to drive demand for technology services. And I think it's a really important role that India can play in delivering AI services to the global WPP organization and client list as well. So would we see some announcements like after you visit here about your scale of plans? Are you stuck? The things that we need to announce really. I mean it's really a continuation of what we've been doing so far. I think a lot of it will come from organic growth, expanding the capabilities that we have. We've been bringing a lot of our IT, so people that support the company with all the resources here. We're expanding our finance capabilities here. We're expanding the technology development centers here as well. So is there any numbers like you hire these many people or is there anything concrete that I can look for a headline? I've been talking about doubling the size of WPP's business in India in the next five years. I think that's achievable. That would mean probably hiring seven or eight thousand people in a company over the next five years. There's no reason I don't think why we shouldn't be able to do that. And so I think that's the scale of the investment that we're going to make in this market. In June this year under your leadership, WPP won the prestigious title of company of the decade at prestigious Cannes 2023. How does WPP as an agency differentiate itself from the other agencies in the business? I don't know about others. Look, creativity is integral to WPP's DNA to our way of working. Why do clients come to a company like us? It's because they need the very best ideas. In some ways it's because we employ people that our clients don't employ. We employ creative people, mavericks, people that come up with fantastic ideas. We have people that have a great understanding of marketing strategy and consumers. We're able to combine those with our clients to produce groundbreaking work. The work that we did for Cadbury's using Shah Rukh Khan to promote Diwali is an idea that's been celebrated on a world stage. What does that idea contain? It contains a creative idea. What's the company's really innovative use of technology and an understanding of the media landscape and how to develop and deliver that around the world? So I think that India can play a really interesting role. In the future, our industry is about creativity and about technology or, presumably, say like imagination and intelligence as AI and artificial intelligence is a half of technology. So if we're in the business of imagination and intelligence, think of the world in a different place. It's a country that has great strengths of creativity, as well as great depths of technology equity. So I think it's a real unique market for us. So you've mentioned this before also that India has amazing creativity and technology, but what I would want to understand from you is that you deal with so many markets, what is it that India needs to learn? Where is India lacking? How can India evolve? So I think that India always needs confidence or a country lacking confidence. But I think that I don't think there's anything particularly India can learn from abroad. I mean, lots, frankly, that we could learn from India, certainly in the West. I mean, this is a young, vibrant, exciting economy. Coming back here after three years of COVID, it's great to see people back in the office collaborating and learning. It's a very young and diverse economy. It's embraced technology more than most countries. And I've seen a massive shift there since I was here last time, the explosion of digital payments, the digital infrastructure that the country is building and enabling a massive growth in the economy. So I think that India has a bright future ahead of it. And I think that it's come to fruition already. It's a country whose best days are ahead of it, but also is enjoying your Renaissance today as well. You spoke about the great work that Ogilvy and WaveMaker did together for the monthly Shahrukh Khan ad. So it's a work that was done jointly by a creative and a media agency as well. So you think that it's time for these silos to break and there should be more consolidation of media and media. Look, I think media and creative come together under WPP and I think those businesses should be able to work fluidly together. So the last thing I want to see is silos between parts of our organization. I think clients absolutely want to see media and creative work much, much more closely together. I don't think the solution that is to slam the businesses together. I think the solution is for us to have really strong expertise, but also be able to help those businesses collaborate. We have seen that was a great collaboration. There's many others within the organization. The work we're doing with the Coca-Cola company under this one WPP umbrella is producing some of the best work in the Coca-Cola system that they're seeing around the world. We've done groundbreaking campaigns around Coke Studios, Coke and the IPL. And I think that's showing the power of what we can do when we bring all of WPP together to help clients succeed. And now the World Cup. Coming up. So what is your perspective on emerging opportunities in the media industry, such as influencer marketing, real media, gaming etc? So I think the media industry is a really interesting inflection. Four or five years ago commentators would say, well, you know, the role of advertising, diminishing, people are watching digital channels, they're not watching television, they're not reading newspapers anymore. Well, it's clean, not the case, right? We've seen an explosion in advertising opportunities, streaming platforms like Netflix, taking advertising, music and audio platforms like Spotify, Audio, also taking advertising. We've seen Amazon and Flipkart and other retail media companies growing that, advertising because of delivery services like Uber Eats and local services here. So I think there's an explosion in advertising opportunities and ways for our clients to reach consumers. So I think there's never ever been a more exciting time to be in our industry. Now that plethora of opportunities makes it a much more complex landscape for clients. That's why we come in where agencies can help clients to navigate that landscape, to have creative ideas you can cut through in this channel, or also to use technology to link them together and data to understand where those ideas are having an impact. The goal of WPP is to bring that all together for clients. So in India particularly, there's been a lot of movement across agencies because there's so much, so many digital agencies that have come up and digital has become the new way of streaming. So retaining talent has become a big challenge. So how at WPP you tackle that? Well, our goal has to be to have the best talent in the industry. We've got many of the best talents and I encourage other people, great talent to come and join us. A little bit is about developing people at the beginning of their careers. We're bringing in new crates of technologists to understand this, and this is how we develop them and help them adapt. I mean half the job in WPP did not exist 20 years ago. So we're going to have to both bring people into these new roles, but also train and equip people to make transitions as their career develops. I think people look at WPP both as a great place to work and a great place to develop their career, and some people leave and go on and develop great careers as clients or in other parts of the marketing ecosystem, which is fantastic for us as well. In addition to leading WPP, you're also one of the most experienced and influential leaders in the media industry. What according to you are some of the challenges this industry is facing right now? So I think that we do have to navigate our way around privacy and how we make sure with data collection that the consumer is protected. I think the brand safety challenge is a problem for many of the platforms that they have to navigate. You have to make sure our young people are safe when they use these platforms as a parent. I feel quite strongly. In any time of change, there's also a time of uncertainty. We have to understand how we're going to use technology to connect the various platforms together and deliver ROI to our clients who don't blindly leap into the new platforms. But I think that the role of advertising is substantial. If you look at your phone and think of all the apps and functionality that's enabled by the advertising industry, mapping, email, social media, search, that we are providing or funding great services to consumers that lower the price point, that provide a service to people that couldn't ordinarily afford it. I think that's something that our industry really contributes in a positive way to society. Before we close, what would you like to say for your Indian leadership team here? Any words for them? Well, I think since I've been here last, India has had a difficult time. Particularly that second phase of COVID hit the country particularly badly. I think Trini and our other leaders really stepped up extremely well. Our whole team here in India helped each other. Many clients helped us and we helped other clients. I think we should thank them for that. I think we have a great business here and have great potential. Our job is to support them. We're here for a week to really understand what's going on in the market and see the potential for India as India, but India on a global stage. In a way, that's what we saw at the G20 as well. So that's what is on the agenda for us at this week at WPP. By when do you think India will become one of, will be in the top three markets of WPP? The global forecast is India's top three global economy in 2028, I'd say, and maybe that's possible. And what's your forecast for WPP? Well, I think in the next five years. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank you very much.