 Welcome to exchange for media. After three months of complete lockdown, June has come as a respite for our economy. Markets have started to open, production is getting back on track, and we are hopeful that addicts will follow us soon. Hoping to leave the worst behind us. We today are launching our new series, Get Set and Grow. And a good start is half done. With me today is one of the tallest global leader of the industry, Mr. Mark Reed, CEO WPP. Welcome to the show, Mark, and thank you so much for doing this for us. It's a pleasure, Nazian. Thanks very much for having me on your program. Thank you. We're so glad that we are starting this show with the leader of your stature who can guide the industry much better on how to recover from what we all have gone through in the last three weeks, three months. So my first question is about that, that considering that most markets have started to ease restrictions, where do you see growth opportunities in the current business scenario? I think what we have to understand about what's happened in the last 12 to 14 weeks is really an acceleration of the trends that were taking place already in the economy, the rapid digitization of industries, the move online, the growth of the world outside of the United States, even some of the social movements. And I think that COVID has really brought them into start relief, and particularly the digitization of the economy, I'd say, we see statistics. I think in India, the e-commerce sales have grown four X in some parts. And so I have to think about it as an acceleration of trends. And so that's where the growth opportunities come from, it comes from shifting your business online, it comes from growing your e-commerce capability, comes from communicating, using social media. We've seen the growth of some of the platforms in India, and India's a really interesting market, but you've got both sort of the best of the West and some to set the best of the East. You know, I've seen the growth in online payments in India, this is like Paytm doing extremely well. So I think that's where you look for the growth, you look for the growth in the future. In digital. We are going through, yeah. Okay, so you're saying digital is the new main media and COVID has just expedited the process of we moving towards digital even faster than we were in 2019. So in these three months, all the whosoever in the agency have spoken to have been speaking about making recovery plans for the clients. So what according to you is a good recovery plan for a client at this moment. What all should we consider of? It talks to the acceleration of the trends, doesn't it? Because I think, you know, at one level, you say the growth is in digital, but you have to think about what's happening in the economy in the way in which we shop, the way in which we communicate, the way in which we educate our kids, the way we pay. It's hard to think of something in the economy that has not in some way moved much more rapidly online. And that's going to have an impact on jobs. It's going to have an impact on the retail sector. It's going to have an impact on office space, on universities and education, on many, many different sectors of the economy. So I think there's two things for clients to think about. You know, when they think about their sort of recovery plan, which is both sort of recovery, but also how they renew their business. And we said to clients, you know, there's three phases to this, that's going to react to what you do in the short term. There's recover, how do you get back to growth? And then there's, you know, renew. How do you renew your business to be ready for the environment in the future? And, you know, the recovery plans I think are, you know, are, you know, really, you know, more about being in the market. You know, I think there is a good reason for clients to be in market, which is in a period of great change, you have to understand what's going on with consumers and how it's behavior changing. But I think the really fundamental question is, how do we, how do they renew their businesses and how do we help them do that? And I think some of the changes we've made at WPP in terms of bringing together our sort of agencies like Wonderman and Jay Wood Thompson to form Wonderman Thompson and VML, YNR, and actually the historic strength of Ogilvy as a brand with a very integrated offer enables us to give clients a range of an integrated solution that's not sort of siloed in analog and digital, but actually enables them to, you know, really think holistically about how to transform their business and connect with consumers in new ways, which I think ultimately is what they're going to have to do. Many markets that Group M operates in, they started to open before India and you must have been observing the trends there. So what kind of predictions or what kind of suggestions can you give to Indian market? Look, I think that the recovery is, I think the recovery is gradual and I think you have to get very specific about how things recover. You know, ultimately, you know, the recovery is based on, you know, what, you know, the economist John Maynard Keynes called animal spirits, you know, or people's, you know, emotions and confidence, you know, are people comfortable going to a restaurant? Are they comfortable walking down the street? You know, are they comfortable leaving their house? And many people are not, you know, I think at the heart of this is the human tragedy and more than 400,000 people around the world have died of coronavirus to date and that number looks like it's increasing. And while the pandemic is under control in some parts of the world, there's other parts of the world where it's not having a very serious impact on people's lives. So I think that, you know, we really need to think about, you know, people's sort of emotions, if you like, or emotional state, you know, what we've seen in some markets is some, you know, automotive sales have grown strongly in China as we came out of it, up 20% the first two months in April. And actually, some of that's driven by a desire of people not to get back onto public transport but to get in their own car. We're seeing the same thing in the US, you know, speaking to an auto manufacturer earlier this week who said they've seen sales, you know, up 5% in May, year on year and some of that's pent up demand. There's other parts of the economy where you're not gonna have that level of pent up demand. And I think that it's gonna take time for industries like tourism and travel and hospitality to recover and for people in those sectors to go back to work. So I think inevitably, you know, the recovery is going to be gradual. And whilst we might feel that the second quarter this year has been the toughest quarter, you know, I think questions remain on how quickly we'll come out in the third and fourth quarter. And I'm very much, you know, people have sort of extremely complicated ways of describing this. I'm sort of in the Nike swoosh category. You know, it's gonna be a gradual recovery as confidence builds and people gradually get back to work and it's coordinated on a global fashion. And you know, that's saying that there's not a recurrence in the second half of the year in some form of second wave. Now, you know, evidence suggests that that may well happen. You know, if we don't get a vaccine and while there's talk of having a vaccine in September and October, you know, I think that that's, you know, looking on the optimistic side, given, you know, the four to five year time horizon typically taken to generate a vaccine. And I think pharmaceutical companies could be one of the heroes of the situation if they can deliver that in time. So I think people are watching nervously. And, you know, as we think about how we get people from WPP back into the office, you know, it's a struggle. You know, I think, you know, we've said to people in London and New York and I think the same would be true in Mumbai and New Delhi. You know, it's probably gonna be, you know, September, October, before we have meaningful numbers of people back in the office and it may well be delayed because at the end of the day, we can do our job remotely or from home. And I think to some extent, it's our responsibility, you know, not to put more people back on public transport, not to put people back in densely populated offices to do what we can to help to fight the spread of the virus. But to come back to your original question, look, I think it's a gradual recovery and but those clients that, you know, stay in market and look at what's happening in consumer behavior and are ready will be those that do the best. Cool, but 19 has changed the scenario by 360 degrees. You know, a lot of things have changed. We all have never worked from home for this long. So how have conversations with clients changed post pandemic? Yeah, I mean, what clients say to me is, you know, the work has got, you know, we're working in a more agile way, in a faster way. The work has got quicker. Decisions are being made faster. The creative work is just as good, if not better. And I think you hear that that repeated actually many service businesses in investment banking, in management consulting, that actually, you know, people have learned that they can work remotely like this. And they've said, you know, let's not go back to the old way of doing things when this finishes. Now, if this carries on very much longer, we'll have forgotten how to do things in the old way by the time we do go back. And I think to some extent, that's sort of going to be the progression. You know, people are going to go back to work so gradually that actually many of the ways of working that we've experienced over the last four months will just be the way in which we do things. You know, I can't imagine, you know, flying overnight to have a client meeting or to go through a review meeting. You know, we have all learned that things can be done, you know, very differently. And that's probably good for, you know, my health and my family life and the environment and saving money and number of other things. Yeah, at the same time, you know, much of that has been enabled because we've been in offices for the last hundred years. So I think there still is a role for the office. It will just change. I do think that people will work from home more in the future. It's the number one question I get asked on town. This is very specific to your conversations with clients. You know, what kind of problems are they coming with or what kind of solutions are they looking for? Where do they want to spend their money now? So what has changed for this pandemic? I think the conversations with clients are more strategic because they're asking more fundamental questions, which is like, how should I communicate with customers at the moment? Should I communicate with them? You know, what do consumers want to hear and should we be speaking? And I think that, you know, what we've said to companies is that, you know, actions speak louder than words. But if you are taking the right actions and I think many companies are, then you should communicate what you're doing to customers. And I think that that's important. That many companies, you know, have gone out of the way. You know, we did some work for Colgate in India, giving people sort of remote dental consultations. I think that's a very relevant communication. We've done a lot of work promoting the use of masks. You know, the mask force campaign from Ogilvy, then make your own mask at times in India from Wonderma Thompson. And I think those pieces of work show, you know, the role our industry can play. So I think that's one thing the clients are saying. The second thing I think is that those clients that can sell to typically sell through digital channels and therefore they're looking for, you know, digital campaigns or campaigns in digital media. And so there's a big shift in that direction to communications closer to the purchase point. And so those clients are thinking in a fortunate position that they can sell online. They're doing it and actually many clients are figuring out how they can get online much more quickly. And we had, we worked with a chain of retailers in the US and developed, you know, in two weeks a whole e-commerce platform for curbside delivery. So there's a lot of innovation taking place. And I think that's the other thing you hear from clients is let's just try things out because what's the downside? We all have suffered huge losses and we're cutting costs from wherever we can. In such a scenario, how much will agency business suffer if at all? Or do you think pandemic will make the role of agencies even more important for clients? Well, yeah, clearly in the short term, you know, our business is going to be impacted and you can see that, you know, impact in our results in the first quarter we pulled out what happened in March. And, you know, I think that that is a unfortunate reality of the situation that, you know, to some extent is beyond our control or beyond anyone's control. You know, we are in a fortunate position as WPP and in our industry that we can continue to work. But clearly budgets are impacted in a number of sectors, you know, much more in hospitality or travel and tourism or luxury than they are in, you know, package goods or technology or healthcare. That's about 50% of WPP's business globally. So, you know, I think that there's going to be an economic impact. And I think that that's going to be, you know, a temporary impact of Q2, Q3. And then the question is, how quickly do we get back to, you know, 2019 levels in our industry? And I think, you know, that's going to take a bit more time. If I can ask you a question about CanLine, I mean, the can was cancelled last year and now they're starting this can traditional thing. How should the festival change ahead of its return in 2021? Do you think it will be the same in the way it was or you suggest some changes? So I think, you know, we supported the decision by the organizers to cancel the festival this year and not to try to hold it again in October. And I think that that was the right decision. You know, we are great believers in award shows and in recognition for the award. And I know it's important for the creative community and it's important that we celebrate the impact that our industry does. Clearly, I think when Can comes back in 2021, it's going to come back in a different form. And I think everyone understands that, you know, more elements of it will be online. I don't know that as many people will travel to the South of France as used to. And we'll probably see, you know, another degree of scaling back of the festival from what we saw in the past. I mean, we've also got CES, the Consumer Electronics Show coming up in January. And if we start to plan for that, I think it's going to be difficult to see how that's going to take place really in a major way in January either. And those are sort of the two, I'd say, the two key events or become the two key events in our industry. One, sort of CES, more celebration of technology and its impact on marketing in the world and Can Lines, which is celebration of creativity. Which after all, I think is what, in a sense, WPP is about the combination of creativity and technology. So, you know, I think we'll miss Can next week. We have a special edition of WPP TV going out for the day. Yeah, we'll just talk about that. Yeah. I hope you watch WPP TV. Yeah, so I think, you know, we launched it as a way of bringing people together across WPP. It runs for about 45 minutes a day, four days a week when we feature creative people, some of the work, some of the leaders from around the world. We run one on Monday, sort of time for Asia, one on Tuesday, time for Europe, one on Wednesday, time for the United States and Thursday, time for Latin America. And, you know, it's been a great way of bringing people together. Some sort of, you know, some celebrities, some industry figures. And I think that, you know, although we're all sort of physically separated, in many ways, we sort of feel digitally more connected than ever before. And it's a sort of odd thing about the last, you know, three to four months, isn't it? So this is basically to, you know, boost the morale of the employees, you know, just to make them feel connected. Probably, I mean, boosting morale might be going too far, but I think it's about connecting people, about celebrating the work, about bringing people together. Motivating. And highlighting much of what we do, just like in a way, I guess, this series is for you. So I think, you know, it's a massive shift to video, isn't there, the last three to four months, you know? Everyone, you know, there's more webinars, you know, you can spend the whole day on a webinar, if you have nothing better to do. So... I'm hoping to do one with you soon, if you can take out some time for us. Okay. You wish to make on air. Yeah, yeah, we will love to do a live thing with you. So I spoke to Srinni during the lockdown, and he highlighted how much work WBP agencies were doing despite the lockdown, particularly creative agencies. So what were the operational challenges that most of your agencies faced during these times of lockdown? Yeah, the operational challenges were sort of, I'd say much less than we would have imagined. You know, I think, you know, historically, if you think you did an office move, you might take six months to plan it. Suddenly, we did an office move over a weekend. And, you know, we sort of sent everyone home, if that's the right word, or asked people to work from home March 16th, by which time actually many people would locally already made similar decisions, because we'd encourage people to work from home for some time, but we mandated it March 16th. And I think, you know, it's gone extremely smoothly at one level, perhaps that shouldn't surprise us, but I think that has been good. Now, I think we have to recognize it's not easy for people. And for every person, you know, typically senior people who live in houses with gardens that sort of rather enjoyed the last three to four months, there are many people who have found it very, very difficult, you know. Single parents, working parents, people living alone, you know, the least, the less advantaged in society. It's not, it's not in any way easy. And, you know, I know that many of our people really do want to come back to the office where to see their friends and to see their colleagues and to be together for that sense of community. And so I think that despite people being, you know, while some people, you know, never want to go back to work, there are many, many people that really, really do want to go back to work. And I think we're going to have to start to soon to think about how we can bring people gradually back into the offices, you know, ensuring that they're safe and they can get to the office in the safe way and they're set up in the right way and this voluntary, but I think that we can manage all of that. Mark, before we close, what would be your final word for the industry and advice or, you know, something that you want us to leave as in thinking before we wrap up? I think ours is an optimistic industry. It's an industry that's connected to people and to ideas and to the art of the possible. And I think we have to look into, you know, the current situation that we find ourselves and look for the great opportunities, look for the things we want to change, look for the good in the world and, you know, really try to, you know, help our clients get through this. You know, we're not on the frontline of the response, but I think as an industry, there's many things that we should be proud of in helping companies and health authorities and organizations communicate during the pandemic. And I think we need to look at that in the future. I think it's brought, certainly it's brought WPP together as a company in ways we wouldn't have imagined before. And I think that that will be a good thing and from collaboration, you know, we'll get better results for our clients and ultimately, you know, we exist to help our clients, you know, to help the people that work for us and help in the community case in which we live, you know, and use the power of creativity to do that. So, you know, I look to, you know, creative leaders like Piyusha and others, you know, really to, you know, come up with the ideas and innovation that can help companies succeed and prosper and provide jobs and employment on which, you know, all of our livelihoods depend. Mark, thank you so much for taking out time for us and speaking to us. There's a lot that a lot of people in India would learn from this interview and inspire. Thanks again for your time and we wish you all the best. Stay safe. Well, thanks very much for having me and, you know, I really appreciate the questions and I really appreciate the work that, you know, all of our people do in India and our clients for their support and, you know, I wish our whole industry and everyone in India the best as well. It's a fantastic country and a fantastic economic market and I'm sure we'll all get through this and come out the other side in a good place. Thank you, Mark. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thanks, Mark.