Publicis Groupe's Drugstore to bridge gap between large Cos & tech start-ups

Over the last 90 years, Publicis Groupe has worked closely with its clients to build some of the most iconic brands around the world. Today as we enter the era of the fourth industrial revolution, wherein the lines between physical, digital and biological spheres are narrowing, it is imperative for large companies to avoid the ‘Kodak moment’. In order to help clients brace for this change by helping them innovate and stay ahead of disruption, Publicis Groupe is bringing together some of the sharpest minds from within the tech start-up ecosystem in India and its brand builders to ‘hack’ solutions  on the various brands across the Groupe.

In the late 50s, Publicis Groupe Founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet started the Drugstore near Arc de Triomphe in Paris to bring multiple brands physically under one roof, with the express idea of getting ‘consumers to experience brands and for brands to get to experiment with them in return’. Today, the Groupe invokes the founder’s vision to bring this concept of disruptive innovation thinking and prototyping to its clients and help them ‘thrive at scale’.

Drugstore India is an innovation facility that fosters relationships between large companies and early stage start-ups for mutual benefit. This innovation thinking will be mentored by the best of minds across Publicis Groupe companies such as L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis India, Leo-Burnett, MSLGroup and Razorfish. True to the spirit of today’s start-up ecosystem, where collaboration matters more than competition, the idea for a platform such as Drugstore is just right and timely.

The Drugstore India team will be led by Anil K Nair (CEO, Digital L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi), along with a core team comprising Sreeraman Thiagarajan (Publicis), Parth Nagar and Aarti Samant (L&K Saatchi & Saatchi), Sanju Menon (Leo-Burnett), Suryasen Kundu (MSL Group),  and Swapnil Puranik (Razorfish), and under the overall  mentorship of Praveen Kenneth, Chairman & Managing Director, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi.

The idea of the Drugstore is fundamentally based on the spirit of identifying and harnessing these innovations and innovators and bridging the gap between needs and resources.

Drugstore India will collaborate with leading players in the Indian start-up ecosystem like Zone Startups, amongst others, to bring some of the proven and agile innovation programs such as Minibar, Meet the Makers, Demo Days, Supper Club, Rapid Prototyping & Incubator Accelerator to capitalise on inventions and have radical outcomes in the process, products and services.

Besides helping client brands stay successful, Drugstore will add strategic marketing value to the emerging start-up fraternity through both physical and cloud-based access to brand building resources across the Publicis Groupe and by collaborating with them to help them acquire scale expertise and by mentoring and immersing them on turning any business into a successful brand.

Publicis Groupe has successfully launched the Drugstore in London, Sydney, Johannesburg and Zurich and the first Drugstore edition in Asia is now officially starting in India and will be based in Mumbai.