Adgully Exclusive | Creating a climate of engagement: Group M Dialect's Deepak Jayaram

FMCG, automobile and financial brands have been some of the biggest clients for Dialect. But a lot of new category of clients are opening upto the unit's expertise in the space of BTL activities. Retail, travel portals and education as categories have started approaching Dialect for solutions on engaging their customers better. The strategic business unit (SBU) since its inception has churned out some great award winning work and built value partnerships with many clients.

To find out more about the increasing professionalism and planning that Dialect has brought into the BTL and retail space, Adgully caught up with Deepak Jayaram, National Director, Dialect, Group M.

When asked to define Dialect in his own words, Jayaram says, "I guess it will be a little difficult to define what Dialect exactly stands for. I would say we are the team which creates, facilitates and manages integrated solutions. We work seamlessly with the planning teams in the media agencies to create solutions and then also become project managers to ensure deliveries.The activation practice is really about aggregating various elements and orchestrating solutions. Our seven year journey has seen different phases - initially we focused on micro-marketing and local marketing solutions in media dark areas, gradually moving into providing integrated marketing solutions and finally now to exploring and organizing new opportunities."

Dialect started in its own league as it was one of the forerunners in the concerned space. Talking about the unit's journey over the years and that start which got the team going, Jayaram says, "Before joining Group M I was with Coke, as a client I was exposed to the gaps that the agency system had in partnering a client and the opportunity to be able to raise the bar was what drew me into Group M .The first three years were a huge roller-coaster ride but from then on there has been no looking back for us. I guess challenges are a part of this space, the team that we have managed to get together has been the biggest enabler in managing these challenges and building more meaningful partnerships with our clients."

Remembering some of the milestones that Dialect has achieved over the years, Jayaram, points out, "We started off with a team of three people, we are now an in-house team of around 36 people and we have built some very robust partnerships to deliver solutions. We have consciously focused on 2 pillars as being the key enablers - knowledge and people."

So in that sense of building the unit's strength from scratch, he feels that one of first of achievement for Dialect was when it hit a million dollars in revenues in just 3 years. Another important milestone was the first EMVIES that the unit was rewarded in the year 2006. From that point to until today, Dialect has at a national stage and at an international stage got close to 40 awards.

However Jayarm points out, "Personally for me that major change happened with an interesting project we took up for an automobile client wherein the solution was dependant on some evolved engineering inputs. We managed to rope in design engineers,architects and a large enginnering company to be a part of this endeavor. But we had to unfortunately shelve the same due to some technical reasons. The learning that came out of that one project and the kind of attitude that it got into the team I think was very significant because there was no looking back for us from then on. The support that we got from the entire ecosystem within the company just added eons to the sense of belief that has propelled our journey over the years."

Dialect has executed projects that have been matched up on scale and excellent thought, it was the first one to plan and execute India's first branded-train-The Kurkure Express. The more recent one was when Dialect managed to win a bronze at Cannes for an activation the team did for Nokia 5800 in partnership with Radio. A few weeks back the unit just completed the Skoda YETI Right of Way activation which spanned across 5 national parks across the country.

"The work that has gone into building some of these ideas and the challenges faced while mounting them have been a phenomenal learning experience for us as a group. It has been a privilege to work with a phenomenal bunch of people to deliver over 1500 projects and winning over 40 awards in the last 5 years . We are a 100 crore practice today. What makes it special is that we all still pad up like we are going out to play our first match," Jayaram adds.

When asked what is the roadmap that he has chalked out for his team, he says, "From a practice point of view we see Rural as focus area . We have brushed up and restarted the rural part of our business which was the largest part of business earlier.The market is not conventionally rural today, a lot of the markets are really moving into what I call the real India. In major metros the quality of engagement will depend upon the largeness of the activity, the use of technology etc. However, the next 70+ towns other than the 6-8 metros have taken precedence in a new way."

Jayaram further points out that a lot of activities earlier were planned across 6-8 towns, but today on ground activities reach out to over 40-50 towns. These markets are growing because of technological penetration, disposable incomes growing etc. Dialect as a unit foresees major investments for activities in the rural markets in the future.

"In a metro kind of market with the amount of stuff that is happening, the life of any activity is bound to be low. However when one goes to smaller markets the situation is slightly better. One of the clients who we have worked with very closely was a retail chain whose offering was in rural India and we were working on a consultancy project. We were looking at how these stores can be used as engagement zones; it is unbelievable the way people are interacting over there, maybe the average bill size is low but the kind of product mix we have seen is interesting," he adds.

Moreover Jayarm points out - 'Integrated solutions that seamlessly integrate mass media, experiences and digital is the road ahead'. However he says this practice comes with it's fair share of challenges like metrics and ROI. "Moreover content and controls are the key focus areas for us . From a team point of view - keeping the team excited through different kinds of projects, customized training for their development and managing their growth expectations are focus areas for the management," Jayaram explains.

While talking about the speedy evolution that modern retail has gone through over the years, Jayaram, says, "From purely an activation and engagement point of view the biggest opportunity one has is that modern retail is more of a controlled space ' it allows one to focus on the quality of engagement. Moreover this is also where the difference between an event and activation comes in because when you are doing an event it is so much easier because you are only concentrating on the concept and you are getting everybody to a certain place. However when you are doing an activation you are actually going and engaging with consumers in his space ' catching him at the moment of truth."

Dialect right now has a separate vertical called Destinations that focuses on malls, multiplexes, modern trade, coffee shops and experiential zones. "We have seen this vertical grow over 3 times in the last few years and is now the second largest vertical in our mix. The organization on the supply side is huge benefit as it is easier to aggregate scaled up solutions. Companies in this space also have started to see a benefit of this being an alternative revenue model which is integral to their core offering. I think how one ends up using these spaces and how is one able to access the consumers' state of mind to get communication going right would be the real key challenges," Jayaram says.

He further adds, "This part of the business has really grown. We are also liking the supply side of the business becoming more proactive, we are more importantly liking the kind of people who are currently functioning in this sector. The space is seeing positive growth given the mutual understanding between us and the client."

When asked what are some of the key trends that he foresees in the days to come, Jayaram says, "Technology is increasingly becoming a part of the concept and a part of the deliveries on a solution. It is also helping in mounting larger projects, scaled up solutions on the back of better ability to control and oversee activities in multiple towns. I think radio has also been a key enabler as it creates the opportunity to create localized amplification and involvement."

While signing off Jayaram adds, "The philosophy of content being the king is now becoming a focus point in this space too. I also hope to see people taking the quality of delivery very seriously. So while this space in growing, client's expectations are increasing and as content takes center stage I really hope to see the solution delivery system improving." | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]