AgTalk | "Focus' is the key to our success: CVL Srinivas, MD & Chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group
Adgully caught up with CVL Srinivas, MD (Liquid Thread APAC) & Chairman of Starcom MediaVest Group to know about how was 2011 for him at Starcom MediaVest and about their growth plan.
Adgully (AG) : How would you rate your tenure as Chairman and MD of the company?
CVL Srinivas (CS): It has been one year since I joined as MD and I am very satisfied with the work. We set out to do good work and to give best back up to our media department. Introduce/induce best quality talent across levels and trying to build some momentum to growth. So, I think what we achieved is more or else aligns with these goals. We manage to create a pretty unique and differentiated media product by focusing on our three pillars - focusing on Insights & Analytics, Digital and Content. We have brought in best of minds into our organisation over the last one year across the levels, so in terms of talent it was the good year. Mainly, in terms of building momentum for the business it has been actually good year that we had in last three years. Since, this year we picked up 18 businesses and infact our pitch conversion record is of 90% and it has been satisfying. So, all in all it has been good year for us and we built fair bit of momentum for 2012.
AG: What are the core competencies of Starcom and MediaVest?
CS: Firstly, Starcom and MediaVest each have their own pedigree and both have its own media space. In other countries MediaVest is as big agency as Starcom. In India, we started MediaVest about 3 years ago with one office in Mumbai and all the accounts used to be managed from here for MediaVest. Last year, we won the yahoo business globally taken as MediaVest. Since, yahoo is based in Delhi we opened MediaVest office in Delhi as well. We are now expanding our client base in MediaVest as last year was good for MediaVest as well. May be, couple of years from now each of these brands will really have a distinct product, identity etc. of their own linking back to what they stand for globally.
AG: 2011 was a little sluggish year. So, what is the mantra that you employed and followed?
CS: In our business, it's very easy and tempting to get distracted and trying to do too many things because of loads of competitions in the market. Lots of agencies try to do loads of things and try to be everything to the client, and there is so much happening in our market. India is one of the markets where one hand people are adapting to I pad, Smart TV's but on the other hand there is rural market then there are small town planning where you have to look at different languages. So, in a market like India you get confused as there are so many things to do. So, the single biggest mantra or the thing which contributed towards our success is focus. We identified what are the areas where we have not focused yet and as a team we all bought in to that whole vision and just went on to it, which is to really focus on to the product.
AG: Your area of focus as a team?
CS: Here, at Starcom MediaVest we focus on - our products, digital strategies and our clients and marketers.
AG: Last year we saw you hiring some of the best talents in your agency. Where do you see the team heading?
CS: Mallikarjuna CR joined us as CEO from Madison, Arnab Mitra joined as our Digital lead from Havas, Rajendra Dwivedi from Maxus joined us as VP of Starcom Mumbai branch, all of them have added a great strength to our agency and last year was good for us. We are working on strategies and plans as a team for the coming years.
AG: Any special initiatives in nurturing fresh talent?
CS: They should have right set of mind in terms of thinking out of the box, best knowledge about digital world, should have quality to take it to the next level with best effort and the most important they should be self 'driven.
AG: Are you looking at any acquisition to strengthen your position in the market?
CS: This year will be the year of consolidation, lot of aligning will happen in the media sector. We also do not want to stay behind and with our vision for hastening the growth we are looking at acquisition. We will be focus sing on the digital space as of now, and its a little early on in the year to talk about other areas.
AG: Considering that the economic conditions Worldwide are not encouraging what would be your word of advice or caution for marketers and agencies for this year.
CS: A word of caution can be think hard before you select a media agency, to ensure that you get maximum return for your media investments. On more serious note I think we have reached that stage where its more than the scale or the size, I think it's the power of idea, it's the robustness of the strategy and how relevant your choice and media going to be which is going to be determine their success. This is something which marketers and agencies probably need to utilise if they have to remain successful. | By Ranjana Gupta [ranjana(at)adgully.com]
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