Global media agency network Mindshare, which is helping marketers to take collaborative and adaptive decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing initiatives, sees India as the centre of innovation. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media buying space for WPP.

Speaking to BusinessLine , Nick Emery, Global CEO of Mindshare, said the cross-pollination of ideas across the group’s 86 markets is helping corporates with original thinking, driven by speed, teamwork and provocation. And, India is at the epicentre of all the action. “India is the fourth biggest market for Mindshare, behind the US, China and the UK. China is second despite the coronavirus,” said Emery.

“Whenever we are looking for a new idea, we always consult the team in India at the very beginning of the process. We have such a great legacy of people in India, and most of the experts, quite often, are involved in everything we develop," he added.

As for what drives the new business agenda at Mindshare, the CEO said: “Every 10 years, the industry used to change radically and start again. That is also the time most governments and most companies become bureaucratic. Now, change happens every quarter, instead of 10 years.”

Because things are changing so often, “and what clients want is so dynamic,” it is difficult to “respond unless there is a pretty fluid organisation that works as one team,” he added.

And Mindshare believes that it has what it takes to be nimble. “India, which has 29 states and 22 different languages, is pretty complicated. In one state, digital penetration varies from 6 per cent to 76 per cent. However, the 800 people who work for Mindshare India know exactly how to translate that,” Emery said.

“Nine times out of 10, the work from India is better than work done in any other market. We then share that with the UK or Germany, France, Mexico or Argentina, and say this is how it is working in India, despite the 29 states and the mass variation.”

India is the fourth biggest market and one of the biggest economies in the world, but the challenges India faces are broadly the same as what other countries face. “It all comes down to execution,” Emery said.

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