What advantage does an ad agency-owned unit like BroadMind have over independent event management units?
Marketing spends are increasing, rather growing at double digits; but there is a certain sluggishness in the market. If media independents don't go to clients with complete end-to-end integrated solutions, clients will find someone else to do the job. It is not necessary that the people chosen will have the requisite understanding of the brand or the TG or the market.

Media agencies are best equipped or qualified to deliver these solutions. We need to shift this entire business from "deliveries to consumer meetings". The future is all about setting, managing, implementing, monitoring consumer meetings. The market is shifting from "see 'n' hear" to "touch 'n' feel".

Did you seek inspiration from any established model within the WPP fold while forming BroadMind?
BroadMind India could seek inspiration from any existing singular model anywhere within the WPP fold. BroadMind has been in existence in the UK for nearly a decade. However, in the UK the main function of the division is skewed towards sports marketing; sports sponsorship management. In the Far East, BroadMind in Thailand has adopted the TV syndication market. Here, in India, we have a holistic 360 degree approach. We didn't want to be a derivation. In retrospection, I feel that the model we have chosen is best suited for a market like India.

What are the current divisions within BroadMind? Which are its clients?
BroadMind has three broad divisions - entertainment, micro marketing and sports. There are several areas that have been explored in the entertainment arena. For instance, we have developed in film placements; explored avenues in which the latest films could be shown on the national broadcaster amongst others. Other areas will be explored in the near future -for instance, on television, everything from product placement to tie ups to consolidation of sponsorships is a big opportunity. We have bagged 10-12 clients who regularly seek solutions - Hindustan Levers, Castrol, ICICI Bank amongst others.

The micro marketing division looks at developing local area solutions. Here, we work with clients such as HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation), Smithkline Beecham, Onida and Castrol. In fact, we are doing a very big project on the national highways - NH-21 - where some of these clients will be participating. We work with clients in the automotive or tyres or batteries business and they too have expressed a desire to work with us on this project. The project entails reaching millions of truck drivers. We work with several non-government organizations (NGOs) and we have delivered solutions in specific regions. We have bagged properties such as Koregaon Bullock Cart race in Maharashtra, Nehru Boat Race in Kerala.

The sports division has already tied up with Procam Sports to conceptualise what would be Asia largest marathon in association with Standard Chartered Bank. The Bank is celebrating its 150 years anniversary and the marathon will be a unique way to thank the Indian customers and clients. We see a lot of opportunities in golf, hockey, chess, motor racing amongst others.

How do you maintain proper interaction between the traditional media divisions and BroadMind?
We work with the traditional media and servicing teams. However, care is taken to ensure that there is a single window approach and accountability. Here, we score over the purely event management entities because our overall teams bring more to the table in terms of brand experience and knowledge. There have been instances when the traditional media arms identified a need; invited us to present a solution; and we implemented the same. There is no conflict as the various WPP divisions see BroadMind as a specialized arm. The key is to ensure that there is synergy of approach across media solutions.

The ATG and MCI divisions of WPP Media have a great tool - call it proprietary research or syndicated study - namely 3D. The planning process starts with 3D and the client team sits together and ideates. For local area marketing or micro marketing, we have something called DIALECT - which fuses the National Readership Survey software with local area business solutions. It is a social, cultural, regional planning tool that covers more than 91 areas. It doesn't treat markets in isolation - for instance, the same principle cannot be applied to the whole of Maharashtra or Tamil Nadu. In fact, television and print planning have constraints because the entire state is treated as one unit in the planning software. Dialect helps us to segregate the market.

How has media planning changed since the days when you started decades back?
While watching media planners at work today, I feel that it has really become rocket science. Our good old days of diary-based ratings or readership surveys that released once in two years seem to be like a bullock cart as compared to this rocket science.

Younger planners have an air of sophistication around them as the precision has increased 100-fold. However, I must say that buying hasn't progressed much. However, media planners cannot be confined to the online - have to move beyond being restricted to screen-based mastery.

They have to develop offline relationships. The future will belong to those who venture beyond - into the offline world and forge good relationships in the external environment. India is an emotional market and is strong on relationships. The external environment is non-linear, uncertain and change-prone. Everyone in the chain has realised that the need of the hour is to manage relationships and accountability. The pace of work is scorching and accountability has increased several times over. Innovation will be linked to guaranteed pickups.