Mumbai: Steve King is chief executive-worldwide of global media network, ZenithOptimedia (ZO), part of Publicis Groupe SA, and has almost 4,500 employees across 170 offices in 66 countries. King was in Mumbai to speak at a ZO seminar on return on investment (or RoI, in advertising and marketing) and advocacy. He spoke to Mint on the slowdown and his firms’ business plans for India, including the expected launch of VivaKi here.
Tech push: Steve King says his company’s recent initiatives will strengthen its digital capabilities in India. (Photo: Ashesh Shah / Mint)
VivaKi is a recent initiative by Publicis Groupe to help maximize RoI from new media and digital marketing, while increasing the network’s digital business. It will tap agencies within the group, including Starcom MediaVest, ZO, Digitas and Denuo, to develop new services, tools and partnerships along with the VivaKi Nerve Center and the VivaKi Talent Development Platform. Publicis will also launch a new open source on-demand network, “Nerve Center”. The platform, expected to be the largest of its kind in the advertising industry, is the result of a collaborative agreement with Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., DoubleClick and Platform A to help clients reach precisely defined global audiences better. Edited excerpts:
We have just redone our ad forecast, which shows a 6.6% growth in ad spending for 2008. We really haven’t changed that forecast. The make-up of the forecast has changed because we see greater growth from developing markets such as India—which, in a couple of years, will account for one-third of total revenue—and these markets are growing (at) double digit (rates). Russia, India and China will grow three-five times more than world markets.
We have reduced our forecast in some of the more established Western markets. Digital (globally), in which the Internet alone is 10%, is growing at 30%.
This downturn is different from the other two. We’ve covered three downturns in the advertising cycle which are an exaggeration of the economic cycle. The 2001 downturn was partly due to 9/11 and the dotcom crash. The downturn this time is different for three reasons: In the previous two downturns, the proportion of ad spend to GDP was 1.3% and 1.25%, respectively; now it’s just below 1%. Compared with previous investments, the degree of investment is much more conservative. Second, there’s very little abatement in terms of emerging markets. Finally, there’s the growth in measurable digital media.