Articulate and charismatic, Arvind Wable, executive director and CEO-Delhi, FCB-Ulka, does not believe in mincing his words. In fact, he is a treat to listen to with his deep knowledge of the advertising industry. An alumnus of such prestigious educational institutions as St Stephen’s College, the Delhi School of Economics and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Wable lives up to his heritage with his innate leadership skills.

Wable began his career in advertising in 1977 with JWT (then HTA) as a management trainee. He later moved to a start-up, Network, to set up the marketing department there and launch the first electronic typewriter in the country. He went on to spearhead yet another pioneering marketing effort to introduce the first ‘Yellow Pages’ in India. In 1989, he returned to advertising at FCB-Ulka (then Ulka), where he was associated with the brand-building efforts of numerous companies such as Whirlpool, LML, Frito Lay’s, Tropicana and Compaq. Passionate about imparting his knowledge, Wable is a regular guest faculty at various management schools. Tuhina Anand of agencyfaqs! caught up with Wable to find out more about his media-shy agency...

Q. FCB-Ulka is seen by many in the industry as a ‘ghost agency’. The reason for this can be attributed in part to FCB’s reluctance to interact with the media. We hardly get to know what is happening at FCB. Is this a conscious decision?

A. I don’t think there is any strategy as such to not profile FCB-Ulka in the media. Having said that, every organisation has its own values, its own sets of priorities and its own beliefs system.

For us, the best promotion happens when we do good work and our clients do the talking. That’s what we are paid to do. Probably, this stand sends out the signal to the industry that we are reluctant to talk to the media.

Yes, I agree that we do not go out of our way to promote ourselves as an agency. But we also believe that we are not in the business to promote ourselves.

Ultimately, our clients are pleased with our work. This is probably why we have a history of retaining clients. And that’s our attitude towards our business, and that answers all questions.

Q. Agreed! But somewhere, people want to keep track of what agencies are doing...

A. Yes, that is why we are extremely active on industry fora, be it the AAAI or our association with the ASCI, ABC or IBF. In fact, the senior managers at FCB-Ulka are members of all the industry bodies and they give their opinion on the industry at these fora.

Q. Then why is it that only Ambi (MG Parmeswaran) is the face of the agency? No one else talks to the media except him.

A. We have chosen Ambi to represent the organisation. And this happens with every organisation. One person is nominated to represent the company. I think it’s also easier for the media to be in touch with one person, rather than have each one talking independently.

Informally, it has been decided that Ambi will speak on most occasions, but Shashi Sinha, who heads our media agency, talks actively on special issues such as the media.

Q. What about creative – most agencies have their creative heads as their face?

A. We have not projected any individual as the creative face of the agency. But then, we also haven’t projected anybody as the business face of FCB-Ulka.

We have a conservative approach, where we believe that an advertising agency is the result of teamwork. What happens at times is that one starts creating prima donnas and stars within the agency, which, in my view, becomes counter-productive. There is no individual who could become the face of FCB-Ulka. FCB-Ulka stands for the whole team.

Q. Is it the beginning of the end if an agency becomes individual centric?

A. It all depends on each agency’s policy and culture, whether or not it wants to be individual centric or a team organisation. There are no rights and wrongs to this. David Ogilvy created one of the finest agencies in the world, which is even named after him.

In our case, we are very strong believers in teamwork. In the long run, an organisation is larger than the individuals that constitute it. Being individual centric makes an organisation vulnerable to the presence or absence or active or passive role of that one person.

I think it’s the role of all individuals to create an organisation that will last after them. I would be a failure as a senior manager if FCB-Ulka were to be successful only while I am around.

At FCB-Ulka, we have a captain and his team aproach, rather than a boss and his division. Why I say that is because a captain is someone who coordinates a team of equally competent people.

At FCB-Ulka, the philosophy that we believe in teamwork is best proved by the fact that the board has played together for the last 16 years.

Q. What are the few tenets to which FCB-Ulka adheres?

A. There is a huge belief in partnership with clients, but that can happen only when you have strong bonding within the organisation.

It’s a huge high to be a part of a team in which people are supportive of each other. We are certainly an organisation that strives hard to nurture young talent and it’s the senior members of the team who take on this responsibility.

We believe that advertising is run by senior professionals, but the best ideas come from youngsters.

Q. How far do you meet with success using this approach?

A. I would say we are pretty successful. If you look at organisations over the last decade and a half, we are probably one of the few that have grown steadily. This is unlike many others, who have seen extreme highs and lows.

What I mean is that we have been significantly ahead of the industry average. But that’s one part of it. I think that the greatest measure that we are doing good work and also growing is that we have grown with our existing clients, be it Hero Honda, Tata, Whirlpool, Zodiac or Amul.

Q. So, FCB-Ulka doesn’t believe in pitching for every second new business?

A. Yes, we don’t do indiscriminate pitches. We are very clear that we will pitch for businesses which we believe are worthwhile. We prefer working with clients who see advertising as a business and are into brand building.

At the end, we also evaluate whether we are financially secure with the client. We are very conservative and we don’t take businesses which we believe will not be financially viable in the long run. It’s just hype to say I have got this business, but nobody asks later what happened to those businesses.

I don’t think indiscriminate pitching leads to growth. Pressure is there in today’s day and world to grow. It’s like saying that you have to run and stand still simultaneously. Also, we do not want a new business at the cost of an existing one. One has to have a long-term perspective.

We believe that if we offer something good and are good to people, be it employees or clients, business will come.

Q. The client-agency relationship has become very fragile today. Add to this the fear of losing business. What, according to you, should be done to improve this aspect of advertising?

A. We have been successful in this regard. We believe that we are in the creative solutions business and not just creating a campaign or piece of advertisement.

One thing I have learnt in B-School is that if you haven’t defined the problem right, you will not get the solution right. There are various other marketing issues that cannot be solved by just creating a campaign. One has to have a holistic view of the client’s market, consumers and the client organisation and culture, before one creates a positioning for the client.

We do get together with clients sometimes even for things like the product, product design and distribution, or we at least try to get a feel of those things before taking the first step towards creating a piece of advertising.

This fetches results in two ways. One, it gives tremendous confidence to our clients that we are going beyond just being the supplier of the creative. Second, we come across as an agency which is truly an extension of their marketing department.

The advantage here is that I am an outsider who is an insider. If I ever become only an insider and deeply steeped in the client’s organisation, I lose my objectivity and effectiveness as a good partner. So, I have to be someone who knows enough about the client’s organisation, and yet can look at it from a distance.

Agencies need to play quite a few roles, and one of these is to become a conscience keeper.

Q. FCB conceived of the ‘Sarva Guna Sampann’ corporate ad for Hero Honda Splendor, which was believed to be a huge success for the company. Then, all of a sudden, the business moved to JWT. What went wrong?

A. Hero Honda has a panel of three agencies, each of which is invited for each new model.

We were working on the Super Splendor, but then, we were also working on scooters (Pleasure), so all three agencies were invited for the new campaign for the Super Splendor. I presume the client must have thought that JWT did a better job as far as the campaign was concerned. It’s totally the client’s prerogative to choose an agency and we respect his decision. At the end of the day, we are still the Hero Honda agency.

To again go back, our perspective on Hero Honda is a long-term one. In my opinion, it’s not an issue if one does one campaign and doesn’t get the next one. What is important is that we are still associated with the group and doing good work for them.

Q. You have worked on Hero Honda’s new 100cc scooter brand, Pleasure. It seems that a lot of work has gone into differentiating it from Scooty, which is again targeted at women. Can you elaborate on the work done and the response you’ve received?

A. It’s not just the campaign. In fact, it’s a wholesome programme directed at women and providing a holistic solution to the brand. It’s sharp positioning and has had a good response.

The campaign is based on the insight that there is a huge market for plus 100cc scooters, which have a big metal body. This gives power, but may not be the most appropriate thing for women. On the contrary, today, women want a scooter that is 100cc and, till recently, the only option they had was the Activa or the older Chetak or LML, all of which are metal bodied scooters.

We identified women from large and small towns as our potential buyers. These women go to work and college, but don’t have a means of transport that suits their requirements. And, above all, these women can afford a vehicle of their own.

The creative aspect of it came through when in our interactions, we realised that there were many small town girls in big cities. They felt that, unlike for their brothers, their parents had laid down some dos and don’ts for them. Among these was riding a scooter. The challenge was to change this age-old conception.

Q. Last year, FCB-Ulka won a gold at the Abbys, but this year, it was a complete letdown, especially when you were banking heavily on the ‘Hari Sadu’ campaign. How disappointed are you?

A. I am not disappointed because I think that the ad did a great job for the client. The client feels that it has done a good job for the brand. In my mind, that is extremely satisfying. In addition, we have won two Effies for naukri.com in the last two years.

Wherever I go, this is one spontaneous thing that I get to hear about ‘Hari Sadu’, without any prompting. It would have been nice to win an award, but it certainly doesn’t disappoint me.

Q. Is the controversy around ‘Hari Sadu’ over?

A. It’s a typical case of something becoming extremely successful and people trying to gain mileage out of it. I think it’s totally malicious for someone to cash in on the opportunity with something that has worked. It has no basis. There was a letter written to us and we have responded to it. We have gone ahead with the media plan. There is no intention of disparaging a name and there is no basis to the grievance.

Q. FCB is still considered to be low in terms of creativity? Don’t you think FCB needs to work seriously on its image and enhance itself as a brand?

A. Creativity has to produce results, we are not in the business of creativity for the sake of it. If you talk about creativity which yields results, then I think we have a better track record than any other agency in this country. Beyond that, if creativity is judged only by creative awards, then I think that’s a very narrow view of creativity.

The question that is being raised is that 60 per cent of awards go to work that never did anything for the brand. You have to give a context to creativity.

What MF Husain creates is also creativity, but we are not doing that. We are in the business of brand building. Our context is that creativity is something that communicates our clients’ brand values in an interesting and entertaining manner in order to achieve a certain specified objective. If those objectives are met, we are extremely creative.

Q. How far are tools helpful in advertising? Recently, The FCB Group unveiled its tool for building brand relationships, loyalties and profitability, called the Brand Relationship Style Monitor (BRSM). How will this help in the running of the agency? Why bring it to India at this point of time?

A. For us, the creation of tools has been a continuous process. We launched the BRSM in Mumbai recently and will do so soon in Delhi. From the agency’s perspective, there is a lot of focus on consumer insights, on finding holistic solutions for clients, understanding markets and competition; we spend a lot of time on this. Tools just help you do this in a more formatted manner. We have spent a lot of time, effort and money to make those tools sensitive to the Indian situation. Tools are a part of an ongoing exercise for us. We have got proprietary tools such as the BRSM, Chess, VIP, Icon – a number of them are quantitative and we use them on a regular basis. The BRSM is just one of the newer ones that we have launched. ‘Mind and Mood’ is a tool that we have been using for the past eight years – all our people are trained on it and we practise on it on a regular basis.

Q. What is more important – stability or aggressiveness? Can the two go together?

A. I don’t know if aggressive is the right term, but let me use the word assertive, which is a more positive way of aggression. Aggression has a raw edge to it. I think if you are stable and then assertive, you will stand on your feet, but if you are unstable and then start getting aggressive, you are likely to fall on your face. We are certainly stable and assertive. We are forward looking and have a long-term perspective to our business and our relationship with our clients. I think that the best example is that we have grown faster than the industry. We have the lowest turnover of people and clients. Being stable and being growth oriented or assertive, I think we are a phenomenal case study of all that. These are not just words – our track record proves all of it.

April 17, 2006
New Delhi
You can write to Arvind Wable at
awable@fcbulka.com