Cheil's Digital Spin On Business

Digital has reigned supreme for the past couple of years and is now no longer a vertical but has moved onto becoming horizontal. Digital is, in fact, woven into everything that a communications business does. 

The rise of mobile penetration, growth of wearables & IoT, along with the explosion of the OTT platforms, have been a few of the factors for this growth. The pandemic has further acted as a juggernaut and fast-tracked adoption by both consumers and brands for many years. The GenZ is literally born into the digital world and is not intimidated by it making digital a way of life for us all. And as a natural consequence, consumer journeys and consumer experiences have been redefined.

Watchful of the paradigm shifts in the ecosystem, Cheil is one agency that stood out with its digital-first approach, especially during this unwonted time. Its mantra to stay rooted to the 3C’s strategy (Communication, Content & Commerce) and keeping consumer experience at the core, helped it sail smooth. For Sanjeev Jasani, COO – Cheil India, these 3C’s form the focal point of the agency today. “It needs to be far more persuasive and contextual today as we have less and less attention of the consumer. This affects the role of content. It needs to be far more snackable and thumb-stopping. And of course, high in quantum. So, you need machinery to constantly churn out this content in a cost-effective manner. And eventually, the role of all this content is to nudge you towards a sale. Hence, commerce is important. The blending of Retail and eCommerce is inevitable, thereby affecting consumer journeys,” he says. 

Cheil India has invested extensively in all these three areas, where digital is prime to their everyday operations. In fact, they let go of the Chief Digital Officer role completely as it is no longer seems relevant. Moreover, it acquired a martech agency called Experience Commerce, so as to come across as a business partner, more than just a communications agency.

The agency is also amongst the handful to pivot to digital before others, having cemented itself at a sweet spot today. Jasani believes, “It is not just about acquiring digital agencies to fulfil a need and tick a box that we too can do ‘Digital’. It is about transforming the core of the agency. The mindset that exists. Breaking it all down and rebuilding it up again. And all this at lightning speed. Agencies need to actually go through a digital transformation themselves before they start trying to sell it to clients. The ones who manage to do this smoothly and fast are the ones to survive and grow and will be in a better position.”

Check Off The Challenges

As uncertainty continues to prevail, it is bound to produce obstacles for the agency business. The ones who carefully synergise with the disruptions will come out winners. For Jasani, he observes ‘people’ to be the chief challenge for any agency going into the future. He suggests agency heads to find ways of blending talent with the old mindset and the new mindset. “It is a journey and you will need people with both this mindset. You can not replace one with the other. So, the task is hard. Remember, behind all the digital stuff are people who make that magic happen. Advertising still is very much a people’s business.”

He also alerts on our greater reliance on technology, which could perhaps be intimidating for brands. “It’s not natural to look towards an agency for technology help. This is where the value starts eroding. As agencies, our roles are to solve business problems. And today, digital technology is the tool to do so. So, embracing and mastering technology is crucial for agencies. We have to constantly educate clients we can build tech-based solutions to solve your business problems,” he adds. 

Creativity, Content & Tech: All Strings Attached

With the proliferation of digital technologies, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of ways individuals can tell their stories and express their creativity. Whether it is through AI/VR or social media, or 3D modelling and printing or blogs and vlogs, these have become the new norms of contemporary storytelling and personal expression. 

Defining how he sees creativity in a digitally-run world, Emmanuel Upputuru, CCO – Cheil India asserts that creativity in this industry is about telling the story of a brand, that has not changed and never will. However, to understand how it has evolved, we need to see in the olden days, also called ATL age, the story was usually told in one 30 seconds, a print ad, an outdoor. “It was one-way talk, like a preacher on stage. Now in the digital age, the preacher, the evangelist has stepped down from the pulpit and can be seen having a conversation with the audience. The story itself carries across platforms. It could start from Instagram and take you to an ecommerce site. The conversation continues by email. When we get a brief, we don’t start with ‘film opens’.”  

The agency's recent pieces of work such as Samsung Good Vibes, M12 “Outrun” and TCS Building on Belief, are proof that the agency effortlessly converted mundane to marvellous. Samsung Good Vibes went on to win over 100 International and national accolades over the past months.

As the digital space broadens and matures, there has been a huge focus on content building. Making sure that the consumers get the most compelling and personalised content, Upputuru agrees that content plays a huge role in taking users through the funnel of creating a desire to aiding decisions. “Personalised content works with both media finding the right audience and content striking the right note for that audience. We are among the few - I may even go to the extent of saying only - who work as one to deliver and build on each other’s strengths. And compelling isn’t just an issue of crafting it right, but also knowing what’s the flavour of the season. Knowing what works at an intersection of culture and time. Which is another area we work with. Analytics and feedback loop are critical to our creative outputs and time and again we have shown how it strengthens our product,” he shares. 

Both Jasani and Upputuru are happy to see Cheil’s trajectory over the years. They hope to keep the momentum going and focus on adding new capabilities that will help the agency, as well as their partners, succeed. “Five years ago, no one spoke of Cheil India. Today, I’m glad we are recognised as one of the most awarded agencies in the country and a digital powerhouse,” mentions Jasani.