 Welcome to a segment called Beating All Odds, where we interview industry leaders for earnestly trying their best to navigate their ships through the COVID-19 storm. And we have one such industry leader here with us, Rohit Ori, CEO and Chairman of FCB India. Hi Rohit. Hi, hello. You know, we're living in unprecedented times. Tell us how has the lockdown been for you so far? So, you know, the thing is from an organization perspective, I think one of the big things that is, we were lucky and I think that worked to our advantage. We actually went into work from home mode a week before, you know, the lockdown was announced by the Prime Minister, right? So we had a whole week to actually test and experiment with, you know, how we're going to transit to work from home. So we were able to kind of help all our employees, you know, put in Wi-Fi into their houses, move the equipment, all the laptops and desktops and high-end machines. The Macs have all moved to people's homes. And, you know, we also did trainings on Microsoft meetings, team meetings, you know. So everyone figured what's the platform to be used. Of course, Zoom then came in as well. So we kind of prepared people from our resources and technology perspective to move to work from home. But, you know, work from home is a challenge for many people, right? Because, you know, few of us have, you know, we live in a large-ish apartment so it's easy to find isolated places. But for a lot of people, you know, it's difficult to find an isolated place where you can have a conversation, a meeting, a Zoom time in. So we've tried to actually help people through this. You know, one of the things I sent everybody email at the very beginning where we said that, you know, the family is part of the team. So you don't have to lock away your children or your pets into different rooms all day. So, you know, if the child walks into the meeting, peeps into the laptop, it's fine. So I'm saying it's important for us to make it as easy as possible for people to do. But, you know, the amazing thing is that I didn't think quite honestly, you know, for a long time, you know, we've been thinking about what about work from home. And people kept saying that, you know, is work from home a possibility at all? And we all felt that, you know, it's a very hard thing to do. Maybe people won't be so responsible on work from home and it's, you know, work from home is a holiday, you know, kind of a thing. I'm actually surprised on how well the organization is taken to every single person working in FCB is taken to work from home. You know, the kind of work that we're turning out for our clients. There's been a lot of requests on, you know, adapting as we say brand pivoting on to be more helpful to on the platform that the brand occupies. But to move that and really to look at how a brand can react and be sensitive and helpful at this time. So there's been a lot of work there. I think people are doing enormous amounts of work. So that's been great, very heartening. And, you know, when you talk about the new normal, one of the things we all say that maybe work from home will be part of the new normal for sure going forward. But while Rohit, while you're saying that, you know, your agency has been quite responsible, I'm sure work from home did not come with its own share of troubles. So tell me when you got into the lockdown mode, what were your fears like and how what kind of problems were you eventually troubleshooting once it happened? So, you know, obviously the big, big thing that was top of mind for all of us was really the impact that that would have on the business, right? Because this is an unprecedented Black Swan event and, you know, many of our clients have had to shut down their plants and factories and, you know, there's no production. Obviously, people can't come out of their home. So, you know, the need for advertising is also becoming less, right? Because what are you going to be advertising? I think what we've tried to do and, you know, one of the things that where we actually approaching the business with our clients, I'll give you two or three examples of what we're doing basically to look at and, you know, reduce the economic impact that this is having on the agency, right? So one of the big things that we've done, and that I believe will be an interesting part of the new normal is our collaboration with this company called XP&D and Vlife, right? So I don't know whether you were part of the launch that we did. So we did a conference and a launch of this whole, you know, technology platform which will help and enable brands to have, you know, to move offline experiences online. So you could do like a big launch online. So we've just recently worked and done the Sangit Setu, which has been a supremely successful music concert over three days. And the Prime Minister also tweeted about it, which basically had 17 celebrities who actually all came online and, you know, we had a concert over three days. So that worked out very well. I think that's been a great experience for everybody. And, you know, what that does is it helps and enables clients to think differently because, you know, in times like this, you have to be creative. You have to be, you know, resourceful. You have to think out of the box. And I think this solution is something that is great and we're looking at really now taking this to the next level. So that's one part of the thing that we've done. We've also done, you know, an initiative in FCB called Ideas Unlocked. Basically, you know, what we're saying is that our factories don't have to be locked, right, because our factories are in our heads. We're manufacturing ideas. And at this time, we are the only, you know, industry actually, which has got millions of factories all active, right? So these factories really need to actually produce new ideas and new ways of thinking which will help clients and brands actually transit into the post-COVID era. And I think that that's something that, you know, we created this whole initiative called Ideas Unlocked. And every week, you know, there is brainstorming in the agency and we go back to clients saying that what are the new things that they can do? What are the ways that they can communicate with consumers at this point in time, which is stone sensitive, which actually, you know, creates a special bond with the consumers. I think that is really, really important. You know, one of the things that I keep talking about is really about, you know, there are lots of brands and marketers and, you know, we all know that this is a long dark tunnel that we're walking through, right? So we have two options right now to wait for the light at the end of the tunnel. And there's another option, which is really about lighting up the tunnel. And I'm saying that the most important thing at this point in time is that if you wait for light at the end of the tunnel and say, okay, let this thing pass and then we will start something. It's just the wrong strategy because this tunnel is a very long and we don't know when we will see light at the end of the tunnel. What the consumer needs right now is to brands to light up the tunnel for them. Light up the tunnel with creativity, with ideas, with helpfulness, with connections that are truly special. And that whole thing of making walking this journey with the brand, walking this journey with the consumer is very, very important for brands. And that I think is our approach and we've actually brought that approach to our clients saying that, you know, let's light up this tunnel together for our consumers. So that's something that we've done. The third initiative that we are going to be launching very soon, and you're the first person I'm talking to about, is really to look at contactless connections with consumers and how do we provide that to some of our clients. So, you know, whether it is a contactless way of actually selling an automotive. Right. So, how do you actually do that entire chain from end to end from from actually, you know, searching to your test drive to actual purchase and and post purchase. How do you actually make it a completely seamless. You know, zero contact kind of, you know, program. So that's something that we're looking at for different industries and seeing how we can actually create that because zero contact will be another reality post over. Whenever the lockdown is is lifted. It's not that, you know, we will all start coming out into the streets and they'll be back to absolute 100% normal. That's not going to happen right. So there will be a phased opening out there will be the continued concern about, you know, social distancing. So that I think is something that brands will need to take into consideration, you know, for a period of time because we don't know when the vaccine is going to come in so till the vaccine comes in, there will be an imminent threat, there will be a threat of, you know, you know, sudden spikes back again and we've seen some countries where this has happened again so that whole thing of, you know, maintaining social distancing and how brands will actually then connect with consumers where there are some needs of brands to get physically connected because if I'm buying a car I will want to test drive it right so so how do you do that in a way that is totally sanitized totally works, you know, to reassure consumers that, you know, that's that's something that is is great. And finally, we have a big research, you know, which is actually looking at what are the consumer big shifts that are going to happen in my opinion actually there will be this is a line drawn in the sands of time of mankind right so if there will be a pre COVID and a post COVID era so this will mark a a whole new way in which we consume in which we connect in which we communicate about our brand so I think that is something that we really as advertising agencies we really need to understand what are those big changes what are those big triggers that will actually spark off each category or brand to talk about their benefits in in a way that is is relevant at that time right so post COVID health is going to be a very, very important part of the narrative right for every brand self and your safety is going to be very, very important will be the top concern for everybody. So how does brand and how do brands actually take that on in their communication program in their connections in their interactions Brands in the sense after once COVID amounts the lockdown is lifted, do you think the agencies will become that much more important for the brands to go back to the communication, you know, at a time when they're just getting to terms with their production it's it's back on track, do you think they will be advertising or will they go back to advertising in a very big at that point. The thing is that my sense is that, you know, every company will want to spark off the consumption again right so there are two ways to approach it you know you can't shrink yourself to greatness. The fact is that you have to aggressively tackle this. It is a huge issue right we are looking at a, you know, a huge depression, it's not a recession right so, so if we're if we're looking at that how do you kick yourself out of it really important to actually find the right ways the right mechanisms right offers the right opportunities in which you can actually restart and kickstart your brand's demand the categories demand categories growth. So they're obviously you know very very important and we've seen this historically whenever there have been big crisis is whether it's 9 11 or you know the Spanish flu that there have been many many cases of this where what happens is that brands really when they come back they come back with a very strong voice you know they come back to connect and reignite the demand right so because just retracting and going into a hole is not really going to help right so the important thing is brands need to have a voice and they need to continuously connect and reassure customers and walk with them through this journey. Advertising agency will still have relevance and creativity will be really important because you know finally at the end of the day in a crisis creativity shines right and creativity is really what comes to the rescue of people because it is and today I mean forget about advertising agencies people are being creative right so every person is being creative in the way they actually source the supplies the way they keep themselves entertain the way they're educating the kids the way they're doing physical activities everybody is thinking creatively right so there's so much of stuff happening online right and then there's so much of creativity you could do like now yesterday I was you know in the evening I was doing a safari life right this of the serengeti plane so you can actually they have a camera mounted on the Jeep and they're taking you through the the serengeti planes and they're showing you different animals and it's like virtual you know a kind of safari which you know people hadn't heard of before right but it's just been creative so you can do a pilgrimage on online as well so I think the good Friday long weekend saw the masses being done online right so these are new things consumers as you think in the face of adversity we're seeing better ideas emerge yeah I'm telling you that's that's really creativity comes alive in a crisis right creativity is sparked off by a crisis in a way that is truly inspiration when we spoke about earlier we spoke about post-covid situation now tell me right now because most brands are not in a position to you know get their purchase cycles completed or sell their products are they taking a backseat are they saying let's not advertise in the big way for now let's come back when we can you know actually start production is that how it's going or are they rising up to the occasion and saying let's engage with the consumers what is the trend that you see the thing is that you know there's the first phase of you know a shock where you go into a freeze moment right saying that oh my god what's what's going to happen if the factories are down and sales are down so what so there's that shock moment I think every brand and manufacturing and companies coming out of that shock moment saying okay this is the new reality we need to figure out now in this new reality what do we need to do so brands are that's what I was saying earlier they were pivoting on their promises right so for instance Domino's which we handle now their core has always been delivery right so Domino's delivers we know that it's something that Indians have grown up with for the last 25 odd years so Domino's decided to partner with ITC and deliver essentials right even though their their orders were coming down but they wanted to still be helpful to consumers and say that okay if delivery is what we are known for if you go to the Domino's app you can actually buy Daal, Ata, Rice, Oil also right so that can be delivered to you as well so I'm saying that and that's something we haven't really communicated but you know there's been a lot of brainstorming around how you can do that in a more effective manner also zero contact right so the whole thing of the zero contact pizza delivery so we have done work around that as well so how do you actually promote that so there's obviously work in even in a you know a time where things are not looking so good and things are you know under there's an enormous amount of challenge so each of our brands are looking at how they can be still connected with consumers obviously not at the same level that they were earlier but really maintain a dialogue even the brands which are currently advertising are they cutting down on costs I mean is the agency suffering in that way? No so you know a lot of our clients are who are doing really well like for instance Amul for instance you know is something to that effect right Amul girl that was the tagline of the Amul girl in February if I'm not wrong yeah but you know the thing is that's that's a small thing I mean advertising is it plays a very small part in this whole thing but you know how Amul is actually you know when Amul says Amul doodh pita hai India if you look at it today they are maintaining you know the milk availability in large parts of the country right wherever they were they are distributed they're working night and day to make sure that milk is available the essentials are available to all consumers right so that is something that is truly you know remarkable for an organization to bring all the resources together to make that happen so many other clients are doing this like Mahindra's manufacturing you know masks and other equipment you know for in preparation of the COVID crisis so that's something that everybody is doing thinking and I think now every all clients are thinking about what's the big comeback strategy going to be right so what do we need to do what's the what what strategy do we make to have a short the fastest recovery that possibly we can do in this under the circumstances otherwise you know 2020 will be a year which you know needs to be raised from the world you know timeline so that but at the moment you're not looking at any shop cuts or pay cuts for that matter but I was just reading publishes is just announced 3% depending on revenues organic revenue overall this global so is that going to be on the car so you're not quite honestly right now what we are doing is obviously we are preparing for you know different scenarios and different things that we are the way we are looking at it it all depends on what the recovery and how long and how big the recovery is going to be so you know luckily for us this time you know the festive season is is pretty late Diwali is in November so so there's a chance that this like you know Q3 and Q4 could have could see a good recovery you know back I mean it's not going to be back to normal but but we see a relatively improved situation there so so to that extent I think you know it's important for us to maintain our you know the resources and the people that we have because if you want to come out of this hole then we have to have the talent and capability to do that right it can't be that you have a weekend organization or a weekend creative agency and then hope to deliver extraordinary results because it will be extraordinary time when we come out of this people will need to be really smart and clever and resourceful and effective you know and conscious of the fact that there will be limited resources but how do you maximize impact and and you know positivity with that so that is really really important so you know depending on what the scenario is obviously right now we are only restricting cuts to discretionary expenditure so we have always you know I mean without saying it obviously travel and all discretionary expenses have been cut but any case maybe we can travel so that's that works out quite well this one last question Rohit you know FCB was a surprise element as far as cans 2019 was concerned and you brought home India's only gold so when they decided to cancel the festival altogether this year you know what was your reaction though it was just for the larger good yes but I'm sure you had a lot of amazing campaigns lined up I think out and proud was supposed to go this year right yeah yeah out and proud was supposed to go this year we had punishing signal if you remember fantastic again yeah the campaign that we did and so we had many you know big bets for this year but I think the decision that can lines took was the right decision I think it made sense from this perspective also you know the thing is that like what we said was we are looking at constrict completely containing a discretionary expenditure so I'd rather not have can lines but I'd rather have you know no you know job cuts and salary cuts for people right so if I had to make a choice then I would stay away from because that's glory but we stand behind that's the most important that's the right approach thank you so much for speaking to us Rohit and I hope like you mentioned we bounce back in the second half of the year so all the best to you and all the best to all of us thank you so much, lovely talking to you Neeta, bye