Revival & Survival: Kapil Arora’s 5-step strategy for speedy revival of ad industry

Prepared or not, India has to gear up for an exit strategy for the lockdown period. It is definitely a changed world that India is entering now, and we will have to learn to live with the Coronavirus in our midst.

A lot has been written, debated and discussed over how much the economy and business operations have been hit. We, at Adgully, aim to look at the revival story. What does it take to jumpstart an economy? That is the great narrative that we are following up as part of our ‘Revival and Survival’ series.

Kapil Arora, CEO and Co-Chairman, 82.5 Communications, crystal-gazes into the new normal in the post-COVID-19 world and explains why the business fraternity remains resilient and positive about the potential of the Indian market.

What does the new normal look like? How much has the COVID-19 crisis disrupted business operations?

This period has been a bit of a pause and re-set. Where first instincts were to ensure survival, then prioritisation of goals, product lines and operations, thereby arriving at a minimum viable production and distribution set-up to restart. And in parallel, re-assess plans for the future.

Different businesses and different sectors have adapted to this crisis differently. While the majority of the industry is treating this as an abnormal year, they are at the same time, backing themselves to make the most of the rest of the year. And have variously begun traffic lighting their operations in line with the Government plans already.

All of this response, however, is in the here and now. How the disruption is overcome by the industry, is hugely dependent on the time frame and the intensity of the spread of the pandemic.

What should be the blueprint for a post-COVID-19 economy?

In attempting to answer that, we need to first acknowledge with humility that the world was caught off guard and this is going to be a bit of a marathon, until a viable vaccine can be found.

And then, I’d hope that at least some of our stark realisations from this crisis, feed heavily into that blueprint for the future, such that it:

• places greater value on skills and the agricultural sector that kept us going
• works to create jobs to bridge the wide income inequality gap
• focuses on infrastructure for the well being of the people
• takes actionable measures to inspire confidence in the investor/ producer, and
• is much more environment positive

What are the 5 key measures needed to ensure a speedy business revival for the Advertising industry?

A crisis often times brings forth the best in people. And I am hopeful of this about our industry as well. The lockdown forced us to re-evaluate a number of givens about the way we do business. Hopefully, we would learn from those and emerge better, more focussed. And to aid a speedy bounce back, focus on the following:

Creativity - never has its role been more important. As an industry we need a large dollop of self belief, that we do indeed wield a powerful force that we bring to the advantage of our clients’ businesses every day.

Talent - when it is time to rebuild, top notch talent will remain the pillars of our buildings. Retaining, grooming and motivating them will make all the difference between playing catch up and leading.

Quickly align with the shifts in consumer attitudes, behaviours and consumption habits – not everything will change, but adapting to what will and how it will impact client businesses could present opportunities to be tapped into.

Upstream conversations with clients - look to add greater value to clients’ businesses and consequently, find more avenues for revenue growth.

Single view of the consumer - we’ve been talking about this as an industry and even taking staggered steps of operating in this direction. But now more than ever, we need to (in the words of an ex-boss) gang up on the problem, as a way of life.

How are you strategising for the remaining quarters of this Financial Year 2021?

As a business, our top priority is supporting our clients’ businesses get back to full steam. So, a lot of our plans are tied to theirs. And like them, we are cautiously optimistic of a 3rd quarter recovery (calendar year). Our teams have been working the trenches furiously with our clients to get plans in place for the same.

However, all plans are laid out quarter by quarter and tracked aggressively, on a monthly basis. Winning every month is critical to coming out reasonably well at the end of the year.

Naturally, investments for the year are also being prioritised basis business criticality.

How do you see businesses and the Government working together to undo the lockdown disruption and address the market uncertainties?

Like I said earlier, some amount of disruption and uncertainty will remain in the near future, warranting, perhaps, a modular, geography-wise response structure to fighting the virus. This will require Government and businesses to co-operate more than ever before, to ensure that we have the production and fulfilment capability in place, to keep the wheels of the economy running.

This is a complex task, but the good news is that we are seeing the intent from the Government and many businesses have already risen to the challenge by adapting their business models to comply with government policies. The general mood of the business fraternity also remains resilient and positive about the potential of the Indian market, so I do believe that we will be much better prepared hereon.

How do you visualise the economy and your sector a year later? How much would it have recovered by then?

It’s difficult to predict when there are so many uncontrolled variables at play. So, I would say I hope that the economy and our sector would have recovered to near pre-COVID-19 levels a year from now.

What should change is the composition of that recovery. In our industry in particular, I’d expect further consolidation amongst the mid-sized players, project assignments to rise and the share of digital advertising, commerce and consumption to increase dramatically.

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