Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Team Visit w/ Neo@Ogilvy



Well we are off to a great start on this trip. First we had a spectacular tour of Larsen and Tourbo, with a great lunch, my favorite meal in India thus far actually. Second, we had a little address mishap (note to self to double check the address when we are asked to double check the address). So thanks to Google Maps, which clearly showed us moving in the wrong direction, we were able to realize that we needed to shift directions quickly. We were 30 minutes late, but our gracious host RP Singh at Neo@Ogilvy, the Digital Advertising subsidiary of the world-renowned Oglivy & Mather, made us feel like we were on time and expected.

This is where we were:



From the time we sat down, the first time I looked at my watch was when one team member hinted that we were out of time. That means two and a half hours had already elapsed. Our time flew because RP was engaging, informative, and well prepared. Though “well prepared” is perhaps an understatement. RP took the document with questions I had sent him just a few days earlier, and probably invested an unimaginable amount of time to create a power point presentation, that hit on every topic and every question in that document, with detail levels only a deep industry insider could produce.

In the 3 hours that we met with RP, we learned about his impressive background of pioneering Digital Advertising in India and China, we had a rich overview of history of advertising in India presented – one decade at a time – from the time India obtained its independence through today. One thing that we were fascinated by, in the history, was the use of Vans introduced in the 1980s, used as billboards to reach rural Indian communities. The use of vans didn’t disappear, but instead evolved to high-tech, having Bluetooth features built in, allowing anyone within range to download ring-tones and play games on their smartphones. You could call it an early form of “Mobile” Advertising, literally – on wheels.

We learned about the digital advertising landscape in India, key segments in the industry, and about how the industry is struggling – it’s amazing to see that not everyone is yet a believer in Digital Advertising. Finally, we talked in depth about mobile, not the vans, but what we know as mobile – smartphones, market breakdown, and explosive growth. For example, did you know that there are 20,000,000 mobile users added in India, PER MONTH? No doubt, Mobile Advertising is about to take off, and team IT2 will figure out how we can leverage these trends and create a venture to address some of the structural issues of this industry.

More about Neo@Ogilvy:
https://www.neoogilvy.com/
Neo@Ogilvy is Ogilvy & Mather's global media agency and performance marketing network. Neo delivers marketplace foresight to some of the world’s most innovative and respected brands, as both a “digital-first” lead agency or part of a networked 360° solution.

The team consists of more than 800 employees across 40 worldwide offices working to put innovation and accountability at the heart of every engagement. With a mandate to drive measurable results while creating the future, Neo applies a data-driven strategic approach and cutting edge technologies across all digital disciplines (including paid and organic search, display, video, mobile, social media, affiliate marketing, etc.) and traditional channels.

The Neo offering is uniquely positioned to help clients take advantage of “The New Dialogue of Performance,” with marketing dollars delivering results against both sales and branding objectives. This includes an innovative planning process to leverage “of the moment” data, the targeting precision and buying power of one of the world’s strongest digital networks, an advanced analytics offering and one of the most sophisticated data processing environments in the industry.

The company is passionate about building brands, driving business results and keeping their clients informed with the latest marketplace foresight from the confluence of media, data and technology.


More on our host, RP Singh, Vice President, Media at Neo@Ogilvy


RP Singh, who reports to Kunal Jeswani, national head, Neo@Ogilvy is a digital marketing specialist with over 11 years of digital and new media experience of working in India, China and South-East Asia. He is currently based in Mumbai as Vice President of Neo@Ogilvy, has experience working with leading Media networks like WPP’s GroupM and Starcom MediaVest Group. During his professional journey, RP has served organizations such as SITG, Trident Group, GroupM and Starcom. He has considerable experience working with various multinational brands including P&G, Nokia, Lufthansa, Pepsico, GSK, Tourism NewZealand, HSBC, Ford, Perfetti Van Melle, Akzo Nobel, Apollo Tyres, and GE Money, Hero Honda among others. RP holds an MBA in Marketing from New Delhi. He is on Trainers Panel of afaqs Campus in India. RP is also an active blogger, a digital evangelist and often lectures on digital media

RP holds an MBA in Marketing from New Delhi. He is a member of advisory council for World Brand Congress. He is a regular columnist on ClickZAsia.com and is an active blogger.

- Serge Daniel

2 comments:

RP said...

Thanks for the kind words. I wish all of you a great time ahead with your eMBA. I feel satisfied that you were able to take something from India back home.

Cheers!
RP Singh

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