AgTalk | Biggest challenge is to get the right talent: Leo Burnett's Tom Bernardin

“Creativity now commands the world’s attention — it’s our cultural connective tissue — and it can give businesses the advantages they need in the marketplace.” Tom Bernardin could not have been more correct when he said that, for definitely the world today is all about creativity and at the helm of creativity every industry thrives. His words truly speak of the three decades of experience that he has in the advertising industry.

Currently, the Chairman and CEO of Leo Burnett Worldwide, Tom in his seven year tenure has fostered a culture committed to understanding human behavior and clients’ businesses — and creating ideas that capture the intersection of both people’s and brands’ needs. He has found the right people for the right jobs, inspiring people from all 95+ Leo Burnett offices in 86 countries to realize their creative potential, working on such world-class clients as Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Philip Morris, P&G and Samsung.

He has travelled to offices around the world to build a cohesive agency, and ensure that the agency’s best ideas and practices permeate the entire network. Tom’s vision and hands-on approach have paid off for Leo Burnett and its clients. Tom has turned his ideals into action, starting with the complete restructuring of Leo Burnett Worldwide, by taking a lead role in the development of both one global creative standard and the agency’s strategic philosophy called HumanKind.

The agency has achieved year-on-year growth for the past five years, thanks to smart acquisitions, consistent  double-digit growth in emerging markets and the progressive stewardship by the agency’s Chicago  headquarters of key global clients. Leo Burnett is the second-most-awarded network in the world, with more offices contributing to the creative reputation than any other network. Leo Burnett has laid claim to many of the world’s strongest creative ideas. And Tom ensures that they never think they’ve ‘arrived,’ and keep reinventing themselves, in today’s world, as there is no time to rest.

Adgully got a unique chance to meet the man on the run at Goa Fest. And we tried to learn as much as we could about the industry and agency joining him on the run.

Below are the edited excerpts.

Adgully (AG): How has the industry evolved over the years? What are the pros and cons that you have come across during the evolution of this industry?

Tom Bernardin (TB): First of all I have to confess that I am an eternal optimist so I only and only see the good even when the times are tough. Today in the advertising industry creativity is put on a much higher value and this is a growth I have noticed in the 30 years of my long career. Technology is a gift to creativity and by that I am referring to the different means available to reach out with your creativity. Years ago we could only dream about a one on one conversation and today technology has made it possible, it has fuelled the value of creativity in the eyes of the people which was not possible some years ago. And this is getting on better and better.

I think the cons are a part of the reality but the pressure that we have today in terms of performance, growth, from our clients, is great. People constantly want more from us. It’s tough to be constantly under pressure and still continue to find ways to serve our clients better.

AG: Is the growth of the advertising industry a natural progression or an effort of the entire domain?

TB: The growth is a combination of many things; part of it is a growth of economics, part of it is fuelled by the growth of the creative agency’s clients.

AG: How would you place Leo Burnett India vis-a-vis the global market? Where is India placed in terms of priority for Leo Burnett?

TB: India is a very important market with an ever increasing market size. India has contributed a lot in terms of creativity in the world. India as a country is becoming powerful and stronger year after year so it’s an emerging market for work as well as reputation.

I would place India as a market alongside China, Brazil and Russia. This is a market of mass population and mass opportunity for growth. The market here is growing at 5 % and it is one of the emerging markets that everyone is after in order to tap the opportunity available. The growth and the pace of it is very impressive, it very appropriately fits into our scheme of growth. I would like to be the number one creative agency here.

AG: What is your priority as far as India is concerned?

TB: Gone are the days when you only had couple of priorities, in terms of the global market today I have lots of priorities because they are all a part of your success today. The number one priority for me is the focus on creativity because it is the creative success of the clients that we represent that fuels our growth. The more creative successes our clients will enjoy, the more they will come to us with work and that will help us grow.

There are other priorities in terms of management, people, success, and getting the right reputation that will fuel our growth in the major markets of the world. There are many many priorities. We want to be there in Turkey which is an emerging market in terms of population and opportunity, and then there is Mexico where we can be three times the size of what we are. So when you term priority, as a CEO I have all kinds of priorities in the world but number one is creative success because that will drive our growth.

AG: What are the future trends that will dominate the industry? How are you preparing towards it?

TB: I think its specialization and integration that is really going to drive the growth in the future and I think what we are doing is splitting are investments into both.  We have a shopper marketing expertise in the world but it can definitely be better. We are doing quite well in India in terms of it with 12 to 13% of growth. Social and mobile is very important for growth and especially for a creative agency like us. We are unique in the industry with a social AOR, we have acquired a social mobile agency in UK called Holland which is doing quite well, we will be in the near future internationally coming up with a social global health, and making sure we are investing correctly in spheres where we should on global level to drive growth.

In addition to that we value e-commerce and therefore are looking for partnerships which will allow us to really drive a better ability to do e-commerce. So all this is a part of specialization with integration of connectivity which connects all of these things.

The obvious future trend that you will see in India is the mobile market. The power of that little device is to take over all the markets. The digital industry is growing up and that has become the norm. We need to think about the communication and educational possibilities over that.  The world today is a more secure place because everything today is transparent; there is nothing as such a secret hovering around. Thus we need to focus our energies now on that small little device and how can we utilize that little thing without being intrusive of a person’s privacy.

AG: Please share your recent successful works and acquisitions that you are looking forward to in the future.

TB: We can now boast of having acquired Pfizer as our client in our portfolio. There is a huge caliber associated with it and this is something we lacked in our portfolio globally. This is a very important global move for us. We continue to do some good work on Coke in this market as well as globally. We are working on Samsung, Mc Donald in UK and are now coming to some of the South Asian countries with it. Our portfolio in terms of creativity is quite strong and with Samsung and AOR we are doing quite well.

We are not looking at something specific in the Indian market; we are always open to acquisitions and if there is anything unusual and complimentary to us we always approach that. We are bringing in counts that would help us in our ability where we lack. We have the right group to guide us in terms of acquisitions.

AG: What are your strategies to drive growth in India?

TB: The long terms strategy for India is not different from the long term strategy that we have for Leo Burnett company and there is a focus upon the idea of specialization and integration. We are also making sure that in addition to creativity in India we have shopper marketing, commerce and how we can have social and mobile offering. But we will be ensuring that we do not scare our clients off with our offering, technology has brought us where we are today and we need to embrace all the options that are available. India is the best place to be at the moment with a lot of opportunity and technology helping to connect to a lot of people.

AG: Digital will take time to pick in India but mobile has definitely hit the right chord but the monetization from it is still very slow.

TB: We are not far from those days where we will be able to monetize heavily from the mobile market.  The opportunity is too big and we need to figure that out. In the beginning of the digital era you had to think how you could be online and obviously in a country like India you had to be hard wired. With the mobile now, you can be anywhere in the world and be online. It is incredibly a powerful medium. And no wonder everybody is trying to find out how to run it in a positive way and make money from it.

AG: The economic condition of the world is not too conducive. In a situation like this how do you see yourself going forward?

TB: The disaster of 2009 saw the entire world economy under pressure and in a situation like this you need to fully understand the situation of your own company and try to protect yourself so that you are ready for the growth when it comes. I think you would see the benefit of that in our existing company and as regards to the future like all possible CEOs I would say nothing is fixed and things are prone to a rapid change. I think it is difficult in the beginning of the year and soon it ends up the way it had started.

AG: What is your advice to the team in such a situation?

TB: The advice is just don’t be complacent. All human beings go through tough times. When tough times start for whatever reason, soon after it is over everybody relaxes but one needs to remember that the tough times that one got through and the success that is awaiting them at the other side has brought in a change and you cannot stop that change. These are the best times to bring in about a change so constantly change your proposition, refresh it, and bring in all your latest digital mediums, businesses and try to chart new territories for your clients in the new side.

AG: What are the challenges that the industry is facing and what could be the solutions to it?

TB: The biggest challenge that all the creative agencies face is the competition for talent. We are all under margin pressure created by companies and also pressure from our clients. Thus the best way to meet the pressure is to have the best talent.