It has been 3 months since Shams Jasani took over as the CEO; his vision for the agency is to bring tech and commerce agenda along with the brand and creative agenda. Shamsuddin (Shams) is a veteran of the industry, having launched Isobar in India in 2008, growing it from a two-person team to over 300-strong across South Asia.
Shams Jasani, CEO, Wunderman Thompson South Asiain conversation with Medianews4U…
As CEO Wunderman Thompson SA what will be your vision and strategy?
The biggest advantage Wunderman Thompson has is the legacy of the past 9 decades, the wonderful legacy of creativity, great brand experiences, great storytelling, and working with clients on creating some amazing brands. That is the most important part of our business which has been doing so well for so many years and being a leading light in India for 9 decades and that continues. What we are building on top of that as a foundation and where we want the agency to go towards is the whole experience of working with brands and understanding the consumer as well, with the brand experience using creativity and communications. The natural evolution for us is how we can now use the understanding of consumers to help brands find solutions across the consumer journey. This is what brands and businesses are looking forward to. They want solutions across the entire consumer experience chain including the post-purchase experience.
Secondly, as we are doing this we want to layer that with technology and commerce. We have 2 great agencies as part of the group, Mirum is a brilliant digital marketing agency that has been around for 5 years, dipping into them for their market and technological ability; we will be closely integrating with them. The second company is Wunderman Thompson Commerce which is a global agency based out of Delhi which we will integrate with as they offer solutions for the largest clients across the world on commerce. The basic idea is that the future for us is the culmination of Creative, technology and commerce, and will be partnering with our clients on their entire consumer journey.
Coming from a pure digital agency Isobar to a traditional creative agency WT what are the challenges? What would be your vision for WT South Asia?
My understanding as I have been in this business for nearly 20 years out of which 13 years was with Isobar and when I took over running of traditional agencies, media agencies, and consulting agencies as part of my tenure there, that is where the understanding dawned to me there was that creative agencies have always placed a major role and have been there for the brand from the beginning of their journey and where a digital agency comes in slightly later in that journey. Over the last 3 years, a lot of that has changed and the lines are blurred as to what a digital agency should do and what a creative agency should do. In Wunderman Thompson as we have all the departments under one roof, be it creative or digital I feel we have a greater chance to give our clients an end-to-end solution right at the beginning. I see that as a great opportunity and that is the reason why I took on this role as I can build something where everything is in place and needs to be brought together and we are going to give our clients end-to-end solutions for all their communication.
Secondly, when you are looking at this, the question is how you are providing solutions with the right kind of technology. That is the opportunity we have and the great legacy the brand Wunderman Thompson has, a large business, great people and I think it is a great honor to be here, but at the same time as the saying goes, ‘With great power comes great responsibility. It is a great responsibility; my vision is to be able to take the business forward in the next 2 years.
The past 2 years has seen a surge in Digital, what would be your strategy now for brands who still prefer traditional mediums to the digital medium?
The last two years what really happened are twothings; there are many brands which are looking at digital from a perspective of saying that this is not going to happen. The last two years changed everyone, not only marketing, but people and how they are consuming content, how they interact with people around them, how they buy online all that has changed. I understand that there is more weightage given to the traditional mediums but it is more about going to the clients and educating and evangelising them. There are enough and more examples of how we can bring this alive. It is up to us as to how closely we work with our brands and a lot of brandsare already there and we are having conversations. People have moved forward quite a bit and some of us are making sure that we are taking the businesses and brands forward. That is why I feel that when we are moving the conversation from brand experience to customer experience that plays a major role in convincing businesses that you need digital as part of your strategy. It is not one or the other but how this medium actually plays the role that is really important for the businesses and the brand.
How has the business been and are you seeing a V shaped recovery not only for the agency but the economy as a whole in 2022?
I do, I am an eternal optimist, I really hope that the worst is behind us and I see that people are much more open in 2022 than they were in the last two years. I do see businesses and brands doing better and the economy is also doing better. Yes there will always be challenges, whether it is global or local but I see us doing much better in 2022. Of course the country but especially the industry, except that while the recovery is going to be V shaped and I think the challenge will be as to which mediums and what solutions are going to move for our clients and we need to be prepared for working with clients in a very customised way rather than having a one size fits all policy. That is going to be the way forward.
The budget has been presented, your thoughts?
The corporate taxes have been reduced and this from a business perspective is good. On an overall basis the expectations, as I had said earlier, there should be more money in people’s hands which has not happened. The flip side is the increased spends on infrastructure will create a lot more jobs, on the digital infrastructure side there will be more opportunities on the digital space for the economy and job perspective. People are consuming content and digital platforms are now in the heartland of India and smaller towns and cities. This gives a huge fillip to this medium. There are a lot of initiatives especially when it comes to digital which will push both jobs and content creation in this space. I believe that overall it is a good budget which will put more and more people in jobs, which in turn is money in the hands of the people. It is good for the industry.
Secondly on Crypto Currency, the government is giving it recognition. So now both Crypto Currency and NFT will be now respected by the people.
We have more or less survived a pandemic and many stories to tell our future generations! The year 2022 is a new beginning for all of us and for you in a new organisation, what would be some learning’s you would want to talk about both from a business perspective and personal perspective?
Very honestly from a personal perspective I want to get back to work. I am a very people’s person and in the past two years every industry has really worked very hard to deliver everything that was put before us from a WFH environment. But I truly believe now that it is time for us to come back to office in a hybrid world. WFH has its own advantages but from an agency point of view, working for more than 2 decades in an agency structure the whole idea of people coming together, creating great ideas out of nothing. For me the idea of an agency is we create gems out of chaos. That is the fun part of working in an agency, the culture, the enjoyment every day, when you win an award and trying to appreciate each other that has been lost in the last 2 years. I believe that lot of working has become transactional than what it used to be, work was part of your life. I have been in office from the first day I joined, I have met the people in our Bengaluru and Delhi office and it was a great feeling. That is one of the most important thing for me both personally and professionally to get people to start interacting much more with each other.
Secondly, how increasingly we are using technology in our lives, there are lot of positives from what has happened in the last 2 years, professionally from a business environment there are so many solutions that have come up which earlier we never were used to. The whole remote working, work from anywhere which also means that you can hire talent across India without any borders. This allows us to have the best talent working for us and not necessarily restricting. The workplace will become hybrid, some will come and work from office and meet each other and others remotely, I am working on this and trying to get the best talent for the company.
The whole digital revolution and how ecommerce has especially changed peoples life’s, we are talking about 10 million deliveries of groceries which was non-existent a few years ago. From a media perspective a lot of changes due to the ramp up in digital as people are consuming more and more content.
Taking a cue on what you said about talent, there has always been an issue with retaining talent, the pandemic and WFH how has this impacted in retaining employees and hiring fresh talent?
Retaining talent today is not about remuneration but connection, the whole idea of belonging, having a connection with the work place has been broken in the past 2 years. This is not restricted only to our industry but generally across the industries not only in India but also globally. We have always said people work for people especially in the service industry like ours, it is not transactional, human interaction is extremely important that went missing. We are working very hard to bring it back, and in the online space how do we celebrate each other, make people feel appreciated. When you are in a physical environment and meeting people it is very seamless and easy but in the digital space one has to try harder, you make sure you celebrate the small things, find moments to get people connected, and beyond that. Earlier the office culture was to have extracurricular activities and this bonded people and that was very essential and now we are finding ways to celebrate and make sure that they are part of the journey. The initiative of Farmhouse is to make sure that every person in the organization participates and has a sense of belonging. This is to make them feel that they have contributed to the organization. These are the things which are critical to show that they are part of the company and I hope this prevents a lot of people from leaving.\
The latest buzz is around Metaverse, how are you taking it forward?
Wunderman Thompson globally is going full hog on the metaverse and we are one of the leaders as far as working on the metaverse and we have done a lot of things out there, I think metaverse is something which clients and brands and businesses for that matter should start evaluating and working on it right now. When it really explodes in the future, we need to be ready in front and center of it. We are looking at the new generation, and they want to have a digital world and digital presence in their life. There will be virtual avatar’s, people hanging out in the virtual space, consuming virtual content, deal in Crypto and other virtual commerce.
How are brands gearing up for creating experiences in that world is going to be critical for the brands to be relevant to that section of consumers who are now going to be predominantly there on the metaverse. I think it is important to start building those right now, it will take time but eventually, when it happens the people who are the first movers will have an advantage. We are already working with a few brands who understand how they can utilise this medium and start preparing for it right now.
New organization, New Year what are the challenges and what are you most excited about?
I am most excited about the amazing talent that we have, excited about the brand we have in the business, a lot of people may have forgotten about the legacy of Wunderman Thompson and what it has been for the entire industry. We have been in this business and category for so long and I am excited that I am going to take it forward into the new world and of course this is my vision for the company.
Secondly to bring in the integration and really take forward the commerce and tech agenda along with the brand and creative agenda that we already have.
Finally it is about doing some great work for our clients and the only challenge I feel is in some point of time we have a slump in the economy or the covid coming back. I don’t think this year is going to be challenging, it is going to be a great year and I am really excited about it, excited about the people and our clients.
