9/19/2018 Can consulting firms replace ad agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...

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Can consulting firms replace ad

agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...
By Abid Hussain Barlaskar , afaqs!, New Delhi | In Advertising
Stay Updated with Us
Last updated : September 19, 2018 09:05 AM
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  

The brand's latest advertising outing has no involvement of a creative

agency. Is this a one-off or a new model more advertisers will follow?

Where do ads come from? A brand of course! And who makes them? Why, an ad agency,
of course. Or so it would seem as status quo.

Apart from all the buzz about the shortage of talent, creative folks having diverse options
etc. the ad business might be undergoing another shift, but discreetly. We could spot
plenty of ad campaigns, over the last few weeks, which did not have an 'ad agency' setup
involved. Brands did it all in-house or got it done by individual freelancers and then
roped in a production house to put it on film.

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Cars24's latest commercial featuring Mandira Bedi Last Week Last Month Last Year

Among the latest examples is the full-fledged ad campaign - Car bechni ho, toh Cars24 -
for brand Cars24, a platform that facilitates a market for used cars, initiate payments and Airtel and Hotstar
announce strategic
has a hassle-free transaction-cum-transfer in one day system. partnership
Digital

The ads do not look like they lack heart or were done by a shaky hand. We still had to ask
the question though - 'which is the ad agency?' The truth is, the campaign lacks the
involvement of a mainstream ad agency and has been rolled out in collaboration with CID: 20 years and counting...
Media Publish ing

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9/19/2018 Can consulting firms replace ad agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...

Big Magic unveils new

logo as part of brand
revamp
Media Publish ing

RIP Nitish Tipnis:

Straight from the heart
Marketing

UberEats recycles
Cars24's latest commercial featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui Cadbury, Dhara, Nirma
ads from '...
Hypersonic Advisory, a growth-focused consulting company. Advertising

5 / 10 ❬ ❭

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Source : We Ar e So cial Singapore

Cars24's latest commercial featuring Mr Chibber View All

The brand has rolled out four ad films over multiple mediums with Nawazuddin Siddiqui
and Mandira Bedi on board. Aimed at positioning the brand as the one-stop shop for the Current Issue
sale of used cars, the ads take on four different troublesome scenarios which a used car
buyer/seller can get into. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays the emotional owner who wants a
Sep 1-15 2018
fair deal before breaking the emotional bond. Mandira Bedi plays the hassled seller who
posted about a car sale online and included her contact number. This is followed by
Sharmaji who got into a mess due to a complex RC transfer and finally, there's Mr
Chibber, who's tired of haggling with middlemen.

Cars24's latest commercial featuring Sharma Ji

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9/19/2018 Can consulting firms replace ad agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...

We spoke to Vani Gupta from Hypersonic Advisory, the brains behind the
campaign, to find out more.

So why this campaign?

"Cars24 approached Hypersonic with a

growth problem. We started gathering
insights for understanding the brand
perception. We found that the original
proposition of selling a car at its best price
was not tenable for the long term as the
idea of price is subjective. Our interactions
revealed that consumers were happy not
only because of the price but other things
as well like ease of use, branch experiences
etc. and these needed to be highlighted.
Another part was that the brand was a
Vani Gupta
leader in the used car market. We weaved
both of these into a full campaign," Gupta View all jobs ❭
says.

"We worked on what could be the alternate proposition. This was followed by workshops
within the company. We crafted a proposition and tested it with consumers. We then
prepared a creative brief and approached freelancers for an ad campaign," Gupta adds.

Why freelancers and not traditional ad agencies?

"I am a supporter of individual talent. Even in an agency, it's never the agency, per se,
that delivers. It is an individual that one relies on. An agency is nothing more than a
collection of quality talent. That talent may or may not always be in an agency. An
agency, as an organisation, does bring in process and control, but creativity is
fundamentally individual talent," Gupta replies.

ALSO READ: UberEats recycles Cadbury, Dhara, Nirma ads from '90s

However, this is the first time Hypersonic has done a campaign of this size. In Gupta's
words, it includes everything, 'end to end'.

The people who were brought on board for the campaign are folks Gupta had worked
with previously or were recommended by her own marketing community.

So, is the 'agency' setup getting broken down?

"Agencies need to reinvent themselves. Before the internet, there were limited options in
mass media and one-way communication was in play. Old-world agencies made sense
then. It would be only one agency team that would be the custodian of the brand. During
my time in Leo Burnett, when it was the agency-on-record for Coca-Cola, we were truly
the custodians of the brand, in every sense. But now, communication is two ways and
divided across platforms. In this scenario, although mass media is still a big chunk, we
are seeing the emergence of specialist agencies which are probably bringing in more
value. Today, even an outdoor agency (previously more of a vendor) can be briefed by a
brand team to bring in creative solutions," Gupta states.

Vikram Chopra, CEO, Cars24, says in a press release, "The entire campaign - from
insights to execution - was led by Vani Gupta of Hypersonic. We worked with several
service providers on the recommendations from Hypersonic - media experts, digital,
creative, influencer marketing and others."

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9/19/2018 Can consulting firms replace ad agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...

What the expert think:-

S Yesudas, co-founder and managing director, Y&A Transformation, considers the

current scenario a wake-up call for agencies. He maintains that failing to transform in
time will disrupt the business model.

"I have been quite vocal about the reducing

relevance of traditional 'agencies'. While clients
are struggling to align with the dynamism in
customer mobility, the agencies, based on their
legacy team/remuneration structures and mostly
used to the campaign planning/thinking linked to
the legendary 4Ps of marketing, have failed to
make provisions for the digital necessities of speed
and the willingness to test multiple ideas. Even
recognising some may fail," Yesudas says.

"We will witness more of these in the future with

the growth in the importance of content. But the S Yesudas

story is not any different for the media agencies.

Since most media-agency thinking gravitated from traditional to digital, the focus is still
on millions of 'impressions', even if it means 80 per cent plus bounce rates. Out of the US
$4 billion predicted in digital investments by 2020, I feel 25 per cent of this could be
invested in channels like Google, FB etc. even directly by clients, based on real data.
Another 30-40 per cent could be moving towards digital transformation, essentially
cutting the layers between the brands and consumers into the hands of meaningful
transformation partners. Transactional 'advertising' will then be left with around US $1
billion, which is the current benchmark, but with at least another 100 more 'digital
specialist agency' competitors."

Rahul Jauhari, joint president and chief creative

officer, Rediffusion India and Everest Brand
Solutions, maintains that the threat is real and
agencies should venture out of the traditional line
of work.

"Yes, agencies are facing threats, temporary at

times, from clients directly commissioning work
or giving it to a 'not so traditional agency'. Quite
often, this can be a decision based on cost, not on
deep strategic value. A smart client judges or
values his or her agency basis the value the agency
adds to the brand, not just basis a film or two. Rahul Jauhari

Agencies need to continue to focus on being

closest to the brand and responsive to the marketing challenges the client may face. You
can take a film away, but taking a brand away is not as simple a task. Over and above,
agencies need to think smarter and be more experimental to counter the challenge of
non-traditional competition," Jauhari says.

Follow Abid Hussain Barlaskar

For feedback/comments, please write to newsteam@afaqs.com

First Published : September 19, 2018 05:29 AM

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Vikram Sakhuja re-elected as president

of The Advertising Club for the second
term
By afaqs! news bureau , afaqs!, New Delhi | In Advertising
Stay Updated with Us
Last updated : September 19, 2018 05:29 AM
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  

In the past year, the Ad Club has taken considerable measures to ensure
actionable impact in its four identified areas.

The Advertising Club, an industry body for the advertising, marketing, research and
communication fraternity, has recently announced the list of its managing committee
members for the year 2018-19.

Vikram Sakhuja, group chief executive officer, Media and OOH, Madison
Communications was re-elected as the president of the Ad Club. The other leadership
positions remained unchanged from the previous year with Ajay Kakar, CMO-financial
services, Aditya Birla Group as vice president; Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Media Brands as

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9/19/2018 Can consulting firms replace ad agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...

secretary; Mitrajit Bhattacharya, founder

and president, The Horologists, former
president and publisher, Chitralekha Group
as jt. secretary and Bhaskar Das, executive
president, Dainik Bhaskar Group as
treasurer.

Vikram Sakhuja
excellence, driving thought leadership, being a repository for marketing and advertising
and attracting young talent into the industry."
AGENDA 2018
Speaking on his re-election as the president
of The Advertising Club, Vikram Sakhuja IS AD FRAUD COMING
says in a press note, "Leading an industry UNDER CONTROL?
body with such rich legacy as that of the Ad
Club has been an enriching experience.
Over the past one year, we have focused all
our initiatives towards recognising

In the past year, the Ad Club has taken considerable measures to ensure actionable
impact in its four identified areas. Elaborating further Sakhuja adds, "In the area of PANELIST
excellence, we have ensured gold standards in effectiveness with Effies, creativity with Shubhodip Pal
Micromax Informa cs
Abbys, media with EMVIES and marketing with Marquees. Driving the agenda of
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are about to unfold a communication focused Hackathon, and encourage knowledge
repository though case study sharing and Knowledge Series events. I am thankful to the
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excellent member committee who have consistently supported every initiative of the Ad
Club and helped us drive the narrative of excellence for the industry."
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This year's list of managing committee members include leaders from the media and
marketing industry. The elaborate list is mentioned as below:

Sep 1-15 2018

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Grapes Digital bags the nationwide

strategic communication mandate for
Realme
By afaqs! news bureau , afaqs!, New Delhi | In Advertising
Stay Updated with Us
Last updated : September 19, 2018 05:29 AM
Go

  

The account was won post a multi-agency pitch.

Grapes Digital, the full-fledged marketing agency has bagged the strategic
communication mandate for Realme,an emerging smartphone brand following a
successful multi agency pitch.

The agency has been entrusted with the task to activate and manage the entire
communication strategy of Realme and elevate the brands presence to greater heights.

The team from Grapes Digital will work in tandem with Realme to get a grasp of the
brand philosophy and deliver in alignment with their business goals.

Speaking on the win, Himanshu Arya, founder, Grapes Digital, says, "We are excited and
geared up to manage the brand communication for Realme. The brand has established
itself as a serious player in the budget smartphone market and has won recognition for its
'Power' and 'Style' product proposition. We are looking forward to create unique media
positioning and drive the brand forward with cutting-edge communication solutions."

Speaking on the association from Realme, Francis Wong, brand director, Realme India
says, "We have Grapes Digital as our communication partner on board and we're hopeful
that they will be able to refine our positioning across all channels. The agency showed a
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9/19/2018 Can consulting firms replace ad agencies? Cars24 seems to think so...

lot of potential and we believe that they will

deliver seamless communication
efficiencies."

AGENDA 2018

CHANGING AD FORMATS

Himanshu Arya

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First Published : September 18, 2018 04:36 PM

PANELIST
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