Former JWT India digital head on leaving agencies after 22 years: ‘Re-invention is taking too long’
An Indian advertising veteran has spoken of his decision to leave the creative industry after 20 years, due to agencies dragging their feet on digital transformation.
Rajeev Sharma, who recently left his role as digital head for J. Walter Thompson India, said that while the agency had made “great steps” towards digital reinvention through acquisitions, it remained bogged down by silos and processes.
Having now founded his own company Awrizon Consultancy, Sharma said he now hopes to “help demystify the whole maze” of digital strategy, analytics and user-experience across India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Speaking to Mumbrella Asia about his decision to fly solo, he said: “We were getting too siloed and this re-invention journey was taking a bit too long. I wanted to have the freedom to cut the process and make things happen. Clients were getting restless; they didn’t want too many unproductive meetings – they wanted clear articulation of what needed to be done and what needed to be achieved. In JWT, we were like a start-up stuck in a large agency despite the top management trying their best to change things around.
“It’s not just JWT, most [agencies] have realised time is running out. And they have embarked on individual journeys. Whether its acquisitions or new skills or spanning off new entities they all are doing it. From being able to look at data, insights to building solutions for different consumer experiences, its an entirely different game now. Most agencies are finding it hard to grasp this sudden change.”
Sharma, who has worked at other agencies including TBWA, Ogilvy and Tribal DDB during his 22-year career, first began consulting for American real estate firm HomeUnion in India last year, before officially launching his own company this week.
Speaking about the digital landscape in India today, Sharma added that while there is a “great appetite for good work”, much of the output is executed with a “strange, hurried and mostly tactical” approach.
He said: “The young continue to notice new developments and check winning case studies, but are not able to map it with the bigger organisational goals and revenues. On the other hand the senior guys aren’t fed the right metrics so they cant set the right priorities. So there is a big gap and when a CEO wants to know whats going on, they do not get the clear picture or know the right problem to address, even if they are measuring the right things. We can help demystify the whole maze, there is a gap to fill.”
He added: “Every step in the consumer pathway provides a unique opportunity to the brands to capitalise. India is a big growing market and largely untapped in this field.”
Eleanor Dickinson is the editor of Mumbrella Asia. Eleanor joined the Asia platform from Dubai, where she acted as senior reporter for Campaign Middle East.
Digital folks have lost the plot. At no point in time has advertising been so widely despised as it is today…and this is on them. They have systematically built an industry that relies more on jargon and buzzwords when the principles of persuasion have been with us for decades. They are more concerned with creating this mysterious aura around digital….it is a puzzle that only they have the password to unlock. This is of course bullshit but it goes on everyday.
what is a digital campaign anyway? it’s still just words and images ….but with an interactive delivery mechanism. yet they make it sound like it is some foreign language that only they can translate. gimme a break.
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