Latest news with #ParitoshSrivastava
Mint
6 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Ad agencies want to do it all. But the ultimate loser is the brand
Mumbai: In Indian advertising today, there's one common pitch: We do it Media. Martech. Influencers. AI. Commerce. If there's a funnel, every agency wants to own it, end-to-end. But here's the problem: the more agencies chase dashboards and data layers, the more indistinguishable they become. And amid this convergence chaos, the oldest question in the business is being ignored: Who's thinking about the brand? 'Everyone wants to solve the full funnel, but the real moat is still in brand thinking," said Paritosh Srivastava, chief executive officer (CEO) of Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH India and Saatchi Propagate. 'Creative shops are now offering media, media agencies are hiring content teams, and consultants are peddling brand strategy. But if everyone does everything, who's standing for something?" Srivastava adds that while Publicis Groupe's Power of One model helps agencies deliver integrated solutions, the danger lies in sameness. 'At some point, clients will ask what your real superpower is. You have to be famous for something." Dheeraj Sinha, group CEO, FCB India and South Asia, 'It's no longer about just being a service provider. We're now in the business of business outcomes." Under his leadership, FCB has merged its creative, digital, and performance units into a single platform, building AI-driven content and full-funnel services. 'But amidst all this, our job remains to keep brands culturally rooted. That can't be captured by CTRs (click-through rates) alone." Sinha is also quick to point out the value of integration, when done right. 'The creative idea is still the nucleus. If media and performance are not orbiting that, we risk becoming mechanical executors rather than cultural creators." S. Subramanyeswar (Subbu), group CEO-India and chief strategy officer-APAC at MullenLowe Group, is taking a different tack: creating proprietary knowledge products like 'State of States' and pushing for what he calls "ecosystemised thinking". 'Too many agencies today speak in acronyms and tools, but where is the soul?" he asked. 'We're not just glueing services together. We're productizing ideas. And at the heart of it is cultural intelligence. Without that, you're just delivering media, not meaning." That cultural intelligence, Subbu said, is becoming a rare commodity in a hyper-programmatic world. 'Even clients are asking: Who's bringing me that human lens?" Marketers aren't blind to the shift. But they're also worried that creative ambition is being replaced by templatised efficiency. 'We deliberately pivoted from a functional, product-first pitch to emotional storytelling," said Ravi Chawla, managing director and CEO of Gulf Oil Lubricants India, in a recent interaction. 'Whether it's through cricket, retail or digital, the aim was to build resonance, not just impressions. The agencies that got us there understood grassroots insight, not just full-funnel fluency." For Inderpreet Singh, head-marketing at Birla Opus Paints, this tension is sharper. The brand is a late entrant in a commoditised category, and its IPL investment needed to punch above weight. 'We constantly debate ROI (return on investment) versus memorability. If your agency only talks numbers, they're missing the point. Our mandate is to create memory structures. That comes from insight and consistency, not algorithmic success." He added, 'We want to be a brand people remember, not just one they saw during a sale. That takes more than reach. It takes relevance." That push and pull is being felt on platforms, too. Sana Shaikh, director at Flipkart Ads, sees both sides. 'The line between brand and performance is vanishing. Today, creative storytelling has to happen inside a cart, inside a scroll, inside a second," she said. 'We're giving agencies and brands tools to build relevance at speed. But that also means traditional agencies need to unlearn a lot." But even as platforms reshape the playing field, some argue the bigger threat comes from inside the agencies themselves. 'There's a creative stagnation setting in," one independent agency founder said, speaking anonymously. 'You see the same templates, the same performance playbooks, the same KPIs (key performance indicators). If every agency looks like the other, where's the edge?" Some clients are starting to notice. A senior marketer at a consumer tech firm added, 'We're pushing our agencies to stop being reactive. Everyone's optimising. No one's imagining. It's hurting differentiation." Legacy agencies are trying. But the real challenge may not be transformation, but restraint. Not chasing every revenue stream, but knowing what to protect. 'The market is moving towards efficiency, but let's not forget the irrational power of stories," said Shubhranshu Singh, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles and a board member of the Effie Lions Foundation. 'You can measure short-term impact. But long-term brand value? That takes trust, culture and belief." Dheeraj Sinha puts it bluntly: 'If you're not building long-term IP (intellectual property), you're just renting attention." India may have had a big year at Cannes Lions 2025, with 32 awards and culturally sharp campaigns. But ask agency leaders and CMOs alike, and the unease is clear: creativity is at risk of being crowded out by commerce.
Mint
26-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Saatchi & Saatchi doubles in size in five years—but agency model under strain as ROI obsession rises
Mumbai: Creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi India has quietly doubled in overall scale and revenue size over the past five years, expanding headcount, winning marquee mandates and growing its digital arm nearly tenfold. But even as the agency rides a strong growth wave, chief executive officer (CEO) Paritosh Srivastava admits the broader industry is staring at some fundamental shifts—from broken revenue models and rising client demands to the slow erosion of creativity itself. The year 2024 has been the best in the agency's history, Srivastava told Mint. 'We've won large mandates—Diageo, Skoda, Pampers, FedEx and Leela Hotels—and we now operate with over 400 people across Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH India and digital agency Saatchi Propagate," Srivastava said. The group's digital arm, acquired in 2019, has grown from a ₹4 crore operation to ₹40 crore in projected revenues for FY25. While there is no formal industry ranking or audited revenue leaderboard for creative agencies in India, unlike media buying agencies, Saatchi competes with other top networks such as Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, McCann, DDB Mudra, FCB and Lowe Lintas. Srivastava attributes much of this momentum to Publicis Groupe's Power of One model, where integrated teams from creative, digital, CRM, media, commerce and data work together under one unified mandate. 'Close to 80% of our wins are now Power of One. Clients don't want seven different agencies interpreting their brand in different ways. We're solving end-to-end." But behind that integration lies the reality of a creative industry stretched thin. Margins are under pressure, campaign timelines are shrinking and budgets are splintered across platforms. Srivastava acknowledges that clients are more focused than ever on one thing: results. 'There's no ambiguity—measurableReturn on Investment (ROI) is the priority," he said. 'The advertising business has become serious. Clients are accountable for every rupee they spend and so are we. Awards are great, but we exist to drive business outcomes." There's no universal benchmark for ROI in advertising since it varies based on parameters such as brand, category, campaign objective, and platform. Yet firms like Ogilvy, McCann, Leo Burnett and FCB have traditionally led in both scale and awards tally. Identity rethink Srivastava believes this shift has forced agencies to rethink their very identity. 'The retainer and commission model is under stress. The only way forward is to align with clients on key performance indicators (KPIs) and take shared responsibility. If agencies want to stay relevant, they have to stop thinking in silos—creative, media, strategy—and start owning the full funnel." That shift has strategic implications. Saatchi, Srivastava said, now operates one of the largest strategy teams among Indian creative agencies. 'Strategy is no longer a support function—it's the arrowhead. It guides creative, informs effectiveness and brings the client's business reality into the room." Yet, the big question remains—what about creativity itself? In a world dominated by dashboards, performance metrics and templatized storytelling, where does the bold idea fit in? 'It's true," Srivastava admits. 'We're living in an age of sameness. There's too much noise. Brands are struggling to stand out. That's why belief systems matter—BBH's 'Zag when others Zig' or Saatchi's 'Nothing is Impossible' aren't taglines. They're creative operating systems that help us resist the pull toward mediocrity." Still, many in the industry are concerned that creativity is being overshadowed. 'There's a risk," he said. 'But creativity is no longer just about a 60-second film. It's about interpreting data in a fresh way, building loyalty and driving commerce. It has evolved, not disappeared." On talent, the cracks are deeper. The advertising industry, unlike IT or consulting, has historically underinvested in long-term pipeline building. 'We don't have a ready talent base. So we've started building our own," Srivastava said. The group has delivered over 1,600 hours of training in 2024 and now recruits actively from smaller towns and interdisciplinary backgrounds—science, statistics, anthropology. The employee fix He's candid about what's broken: 'As long as agencies keep hiring at ₹5-6 lakh, they'll keep struggling. You push that to ₹10-15 lakh, and the quality transforms overnight. But we need to convince clients to pay for the talent they expect." Srivastava also pointed to industry image problems. 'We haven't pitched advertising well to the next generation. It offers energy, challenge, impact—yet it's not considered sexy anymore. We need to fix that." The agency's certification as a 'Great Place to Work' is one step in that direction. 'We're the only large creative agency in India with that badge. That means something," he said. Attrition among fresh recruits remains around 30%, but drops sharply after three years, he added. Asked whether legacy agency brands still matter in an era dominated by startups, data, and performance-driven storytelling, Srivastava was emphatic. 'They'll matter more. As data and tech get democratized, what will set brands apart is trust, consistency and creativity. That's what legacy agencies—if they adapt—can still deliver best."
