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Brands shouldn’t be mindlessly global or needlessly local: Subhash Kamath, BBH

Published

8 years ago

July 9, 2018

MUMBAI: Born British but adapted to India. That’s the way full service global creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) functions. You may not know the name but you’ve definitely caught sight of the latest ads of Tinder or Behrouz Biryani.

The agency’s first ad was for Levi’s and it showed a black sheep going against the herd. It became the agency icon and coined the phrase, “When the world zigs, zag”. It was a challenge to get this ad out, because all jeans ads of the time had people and here you had Levi’s showing off a sheep! But the bet paid off.

Founded in 1982 by British ad men John Bartle, Nigel Bogle, and John Hegarty, BBH today has offices in London, New York City, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, Stockholm and Los Angeles and employs more than 1000 staff worldwide.

When BBH took the mandate for Johnnie Walker, the campaign “Keep Walking” boosted brand sales from 13 per cent of the global market when the campaign broke in 2000, to over 20 per cent at the end of 2013 according to IWSR.

When BBH decided to open its India office in 2008, one of the first hires for the agency was former Bates group CEO Subhash Kamath. He joined the agency with a vision to get rid of hierarchies and corporate silos. Kamath juggles between being an advertising professional and entertaining audiences with his guitar playing skills. BBH recently completed 10 years in the Indian market. In a free flowing conversation with Indiantelevision.com, BBH India CEO and managing partner Subhash Kamath talks about the agency’s journey, his views on creativity in advertising, his passion and much more.

You’ve been with BBH for a decade now. Do these ten years seem like a lifetime or the beginning of the journey?

When BBH started its India business in 2008, India was the only country where BBH didn’t bring the expat management and rather wanted a local management. You can’t treat the Indian audience the same way you would treat any other country as there is so much cultural influence here. All of us here have come from bigger agencies and networks and we had the opportunity to work in a different organisation here. We all knew the good and bad about larger networks and would always complain about too much structure and hierarchy. We at BBH wanted to create an organisation without any of that. Despite being a decade old, I still think of BBH as a startup. We like to think of ourselves as a small-big agency where we have big agency thinking in a small agency of nimble size. I honestly don’t ever want to change that and I hope we never grow far too much that we have to change this structure.

How do you choose your clients?

We are very choosy about whom we want to work with. While we want to grow, we are very clear that we don’t want to work with every kind of client. We do a lot of soul searching before we decide on a client. It is not out of arrogance but just out of humility because if you decide to work with a wrong client, it may spoil the agency culture.

So what is great creativity for you?

Traditional pure creative awards are more about the craft. BBH has been known for the impact that the creative has on business. For me, great creative comes when a client is genuinely interested in building a brand and not just looking out for tactical outcome in the short term.

Is that why BBH stays away from awards?

It is not that we stay away from awards but, yes, if you look at the creative awards in India, 90 per cent of the print and OOH work is scam. As a culture, we don’t do scam. We do not believe in putting out work only for awards.

What’s your ratio between project base v/s retainer clients?

In recent times, we have seen more work coming in on project basis. But we still have 80 per cent of the business coming in from retainers. We have also diversified our business into design, agile production, content and animation in the recent years and these businesses have more project-based work.

What’s your male to female ratio in the agency?

When we started off BBH in India, the male to female ratio was 90:10 but it has come up to a 50:50 ratio now. Our biggest client today is Marico which has over five types of hair oil. We need a female creative person in such a team and can’t have only men making ads for a beauty care product.

Do you think your clients have changed or evolved over the years?

I don’t think that clients have changed a lot but there is one disturbing trend at client’s end is that there are too many structural changes in companies on the marketing end. The CMOs, brand managers keep changing every two to three years. These brand managers and CMOs then want to change the agency or campaign thinking that, “We must do something new”. I find this a little disturbing as at the end of it, the brand gets affected because everyone questions what the past person has done. That’s why in India, we don’t see a lot of long running campaigns.

How do you ensure BBH always comes up with out-of-the-box creatives?

It is a constant pressure that we take upon us as to how we come up with new innovative campaign ideas and question everything.

Looking at a larger picture, what do you think about the advertising scenario in India right now? Everyone is always talking about how international concepts and campaigns don’t work here.

It’s not that international campaigns don’t work here. We launched the international Lee jeans campaign in India, the jeans that built America, and it worked because the consumer wanted to buy American products. When it comes to international brands, I think the globalism of the brands works well in India. Do you buy an Audi or a BMW because of its Indian connection? No! But there are categories when you can’t just borrow an international campaign. McDonald’s and Amazon are great examples for that where they have had to Indianise their brands. Brands need to Indianise the creative whenever necessary but they should neither be mindlessly global nor needlessly local. Brands need to find the right balance.

How would you explain digital advertising in one sentence?

An ex-colleague of mine once told me that, “You don’t need digital ideas, you only need ideas for a digital world”.

You are credited to be one of the few CEOs who are passionate about advertising. So what keeps Subhash Kamath going every day?

I realised fairly early in life that work isn’t everything. In the initial years of my career, I was too focused on climbing the corporate ladder but realised later that there are other things in life which are equally important. My family is extremely important to me. I am very interested in movies, books, music, travel and food and I make sure I create enough time for these things. You shouldn’t take yourself so seriously in life. People have made it a virtue to work till late in the evening, which is so not right. I used to stay back in the office till late, but not anymore. I encourage people not to come to office on weekends unless there’s an important pitch. I believe if you have other interests in life, it helps you to write better and be a better creative person.

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Innocean renews global media partnership with Havas

Published

1 week ago

February 6, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Innocean has renewed its global media partnership with Havas Media Network following an internal review across Hyundai Motor Group brands.
The renewed mandate spans Hyundai, Kia and Genesis across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The work will be coordinated with Innocean’s international teams in Seoul, Frankfurt, Dubai, New Delhi and Jakarta.

The refreshed alliance is designed with a sharper focus on data and technology, aiming to connect the dots across customer acquisition, conversion and retention as the Group’s global audience continues to diversify.

Innocean head of global business Steve Jun, said the extension reflects a shared push for stronger, data-led media performance across key markets. He added that the partnership would focus on creating more connected and effective customer experiences for Hyundai Motor Group brands.

Havas Media Network global CEO Peter Mears, described the relationship as one built on innovation and global scale. He said the next phase would lean on the network’s Converged.AI platform to deliver seamless, data-driven media experiences and drive business outcomes for the automotive brands.

The renewed partnership officially commenced in January 2026.

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Dentsu ad report 2026 flags digital dominance as retail media soars

Published

1 week ago

February 4, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

INDIA: India’s advertising industry is entering a new phase of structural transformation, with digital media now the central growth engine, according to the Dentsu digital advertising report 2026.

Total advertising spends closed 2025 at Rs 1.21 lakh crore, up 8.3 per cent year on year, and are projected to reach Rs 1.40 lakh crore by 2027, implying a compound annual growth rate of over 7 per cent.

Digital advertising accounted for Rs 71,621 crore in 2025, representing 59 per cent of total spends. By 2027, digital’s share is expected to rise to around 70 per cent, with spends nearing Rs 98,034 crore.

The report stresses that this is no longer a temporary shift but a permanent rebalancing of advertising priorities, driven by mobile-first consumption, short-form video, creator ecosystems, embedded commerce and AI-led optimisation.

Retail media has emerged as the fastest-growing segment, with ad spends on e-retail platforms reaching Rs 17,601 crore in 2025: a surge of nearly 56 per cent year on year. Retail platforms are evolving into full-funnel media ecosystems, linking storytelling directly with purchase outcomes through first-party data.

Within digital formats, social media leads with a 29 per cent share, closely followed by online video at 28 per cent, while paid search contributes 23 per cent. Online video is expected to overtake social as the largest digital format over the next two years.

Programmatic buying now accounts for 42 per cent of digital spends, exceeding Rs 30,000 crore, and is increasingly becoming the default media operating layer across video, connected TV and retail platforms.

FMCG remains the largest advertising category at 30 per cent of total spends, followed by e-commerce at 18 per cent, which also recorded the fastest growth.

Dentsu South Asia chief executive Harsha Razdan said the most meaningful industry shift has been in how consumers consciously allocate attention.

Dentsu South Asia president and chief strategy officer Narayan Devanathan, added that the next growth phase will belong to organisations that successfully integrate creativity, data, media and technology.

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Publicis Groupe posts strong revenue as AI drives demand

Published

1 week ago

February 3, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

PARIS: Publicis Groupe is laughing all the way to the bank whilst its rivals scramble to catch up. The French advertising colossus reported full-year 2025 net revenue of €14.5bn, marking its sixth consecutive year of outperforming the industry. Organic growth hit 5.6 per cent, accelerating past its five-year compound annual growth rate of 5.0 per cent.

The secret sauce? Artificial intelligence-powered products and services, which contributed roughly 300 basis points to growth. Arthur Sadoun, chairman and chief executive, has staked Publicis’s future on becoming clients’ “most valuable partner” for what the firm calls “agentic business transformation”—essentially helping companies build enterprise-grade AI solutions that actually make money.

The fourth quarter proved particularly robust, with organic growth of 5.9 per cent despite tougher comparisons. Connected media, which accounts for 60 per cent of the business, surged with high-single-digit growth. Creative and production services delivered mid-single-digit expansion. Only the technology consulting arm stumbled, finishing nearly flat for the year as clients adopted a “wait-and-see” attitude—a malaise afflicting all IT consulting firms.

Geography tells a tale of American dominance. The United States, representing 57 per cent of group revenue, grew 5.2 per cent organically for the year, cementing Publicis’s position as the market leader. Europe managed 4.2 per cent growth, whilst Asia-Pacific posted 5.8 per cent, with China impressing at 6.0 per cent. The most dramatic expansions came from emerging markets: Latin America roared ahead at 18.7 per cent, whilst Middle East and Africa surged 10.8 per cent.

Operating margin improved to 18.2 per cent from 18.0 per cent, delivering 50 basis points of operating leverage. Crucially, Publicis reinvested 30 basis points—totalling 230 basis points overall—into AI capabilities, talent upgrades and new business development. The remaining 20 basis points flowed straight to the bottom line. Michel-Alain Proch, chief financial officer, called it “the highest operating margin in the industry”.

Free cash flow before working capital changes reached €2.03bn, up 10.6 per cent from an already-record 2024. The firm deployed roughly €1bn on bolt-on acquisitions targeting identity resolution, pharmaceuticals, influencer marketing and sports marketing. Client retention remained stellar at 98 per cent for top-100 clients, whilst new business wins exceeded $8bn.

Headline earnings per share climbed 6.6 per cent at constant currency to €7.48. In dollar terms—increasingly relevant given Publicis’s American dominance—EPS rose 7.0 per cent to $8.45. The board proposed a dividend of €3.75 per share, up 4.2 per cent, representing a payout ratio of 50.1 per cent, which Publicis claims is the highest in the industry.

The financial fortress looks impregnable. Net debt turned into net cash of €548m by year-end, down from net cash of €775m the previous year after funding acquisitions. The firm maintains €2bn in undrawn committed credit facilities and €4bn in cash and marketable securities. Average net debt to EBITDA stood at a negligible 1.0 times.

Industry sectors showed divergent fortunes. Consumer goods clients increased spending by 20 per cent, whilst automotive rose 14 per cent and financial services climbed 11 per cent. Technology clients, however, cut budgets by 7 per cent, and telecommunications spending dropped 2 per cent.

Publicis’s AI strategy extends beyond client services to internal transformation. The firm is “agentifying” processes using AI agents, equipping all 100,000-plus employees with AI tools through its Marcel learning platform. The goal: make everyone “AI-fluent” whilst boosting productivity and results. The company reckons AI-powered capabilities grew 20 per cent organically in 2025.

Looking ahead, Publicis guided for 2026 organic growth of 4.0 to 5.0 per cent—marking a potential seventh consecutive year of industry outperformance. Operating margin should tick “slightly” higher from the already-elevated 18.2 per cent whilst maintaining “high levels” of investment. Free cash flow is targeted at roughly €2.1bn, based on an exchange rate assumption of €1.20 to the dollar, earmarked for dividends, maintaining a stable share count and more bolt-on acquisitions.

The firm’s longer-term ambitions border on audaciousness. Management projects annual net revenue growth of 6.0 to 7.0 per cent and earnings-per-share expansion of 7.0 to 9.0 per cent, both at constant currency. The logic: AI is fragmenting the marketing landscape, with no top client spending more than 4.0 per cent of budget on any single platform. Publicis reckons its “unique connective tissue” positions it perfectly to orchestrate this complexity.

The advertising world has witnessed a decade-long reshaping. Since 2017, when Publicis began its data and technology pivot, the firm has invested €14bn integrating capabilities whilst rivals dithered. That first-mover advantage in AI has compounded. Publicis now claims the number-one position in global media billings, including in the crucial American and Chinese markets. Its market capitalisation exceeds the combined value of its next two competitors.

Yet competition is heating up as everyone piles into AI. Omnicom’s proposed merger with IPG would create a formidable rival. Technology giants are muscling into advertising with their own AI platforms. And clients are becoming more sophisticated, building in-house capabilities and squeezing agency margins.

Publicis is betting the farm that complexity favours the orchestrator. As marketing technology proliferates and AI agents multiply, companies will need partners who can connect the dots. Whether that vision proves prescient or hubris will determine if Sadoun’s transformation becomes a case study in strategic brilliance or just another expensive pivot that failed to justify its price tag. For now, though, the numbers suggest Publicis is winning the AI arms race in adland—and widening the gap with every quarter.