The 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' campaign is testimony of what McCann Erickson firmly believes in! The agency strives hard to produce work that is rooted in a deep understanding of the consumer; work that impacts the lives of consumers. The Coca Cola campaign has resulted in a rich haul of awards - both from local and global advertising fraternity.

But, McCann Erickson India's president Santosh Desai feels this recognition wasn't expected to come so soon.

"The endeavour is to build an organisation which engages in meaningful activities. We have made substantial progress in this direction. It has helped that we have been able to demonstrate what we mean by our kind of work. The Coca Cola campaign is a great example of that," says Desai, who has been trying to work on such belief system over the last year and a half.

Desai spoke to Indiantelevision.com's Ritesh Gupta about his plans for the agency, the recent rumours of retrenchment in Delhi office and his views on the quality of work being produced of late. Excerpts:

Recently there were reports of retrenchment in McCann, Delhi. How has this agency actually performed in the recent past?
The rumours were just that - rumours! Today, it is apparent that all that was reported was false.

The agency is doing well. We did lose a significant chunk of business in Delhi 18 months ago, but we have made up for it. The last six months have been terrific.

We have won Onida, Dabur (Chyawanprash), Balsara, Fortune Lotto, Pears and much more. It's been a good year of us as far as new business is concerned. In terms of creative work, it's been a fantastic year. Not just Coke, but, today we have a healthy share of noticeable and quality creative work on television. A huge progress has been made in terms of sustaining the quality of the output.

When you took over as president, McCann had lost some major business. How have operations shaped up during your tenure?
International re-alignments on Reckitts and Gillette did hit us, but that was before my time. This year our focus has been to showcase our work; and business has followed automatically. The real challenge is to align the organisation behind a belief system - a shared desire to produce not just good work; but consistent work of a particular kind. Work that is rooted in deep understanding and impacts the lives of consumers.

To me the biggest problem is that there are no specialists in advertising. The endeavour is to build an organisation which engages in meaningful activity. We have made substantial progress in this direction.

It has helped that we have been able to demonstrate what we mean by 'our' kind of work. Coke is a great example of that. What is important is that everybody in the agency has to be excited and inspired; and work harder to make it happen. As an organisation, we aspire to produce quality naturally and one that doesn't have to work hard to reach that stage again and again. So that's the core competency that we have been trying to build upon. Yes, it is an on-going process and will continue.

So how have you communicated this philosophy within the organisation?
Internally, we have done lot of work on making sure that everyone internalises and imbibes the core philosophy. We have conducted several workshops. We have clearly defined our agenda in the following terms - the kind of work, inputs and intellectual energy that we want - and not in business terms. We have worked extensively on our recruitments because eventually it all boils down to people who share similar mindset and same set of desires. Even within the organisation, there is this sense of excitement about this kind of an approach.

The biggest inspiration is finally, the work, that we put out. I think people within and outside can clearly see the difference this approach makes. Nothing is more infectious than delivered success.

McCann has performed fairly well in India and abroad in terms of recognition gained through awards. What do you have to say on this?
It's terrific. Perhaps, a little unexpectedly early for us. A gold in Cannes is pretty rare. It happened on a piece of work that we are really proud of. And it's something which we want to reflect in our future work too. The big thing is that it is a heartland campaign and it is really comes from the core of what we want advertising to be. And therefore it is gratifying.

At the same time - while recognition is important and it certainly builds momentum - but in reality that is not the real objective. Recognition is a by-product of the objective. The objective is to produce work that connects the brand to the people in India. Work that excites them and makes an impact in their lives.

We do not define our objective in terms of salience of the advertising and also not necessarily in terms of sales. We define work in terms of the impact that the advertising has on the lives of people.