Serviceplan has seen 10% YOY growth in India: Jaya Prasad, GM

Originating from its German roots in the creative agency space, Serviceplan India recently curated an entrepreneurial branding and marketing summit – Handshake 2017, an open forum for entrepreneurs to exchange views on the business processes, their challenges and how to manifest changes. 

Serviceplan has been active in India since 2012 and has had its share of crests and troughs. Sharing their thoughts about the agency’s growth in India and the road ahead are Markus Noder, MD, Serviceplan International and Jaya Prasad, GM, Serviceplan India. Excerpts: 

What is your strategy for the India market? How are you mapping Serviceplan’s growth trajectory in India?
Markus Noder: Since the time we started, India was already an important market to us, which is why we opened as a small agency in India 3-4 years ago. We are foraying into the concept of ‘House of Communications’ in India as we see it as a great medium for integrated communications of creative agencies, media, digital and other technologies coming together and this is going to be our strategy for the next three years. We really believe that this concept will be a real differentiator to other agencies. This seamless integration will bring in more opportunities and prospects to our customers in India. 

What is India’s contribution to the overall revenues of Serviceplan globally?
Markus Noder: Serviceplan Group in India is still a young story; it started only 5 years ago. The overall contribution in terms of revenue internationally has been one-third, which is a big achievement. It’s about €100 million. Though the revenue contribution from India at the moment is a bit smaller, we strongly believe in the gross potential in the Indian market considering the state of growing market economy and the talent present which we can use in establishing ‘The House of Communications’ here. After observing the great potential and the market over time, we have invested here and the learning has been positive. With a local management headed by Jaya Prasad, we are ready to grow and this makes me very excited about the upcoming months. We had good discussions about the prospects so there is an interest, not just in terms of service from the creative agency but in other disciplines as well. 

Integration is also a topic in India; we have to reduce complexities as the company seeks a simplified approach. This makes up a good toolbox for our work. 

Serviceplan has been present in India since 2012, but not much has been heard from the agency. Why is it so?
Markus Noder: It’s the character of the agency that we tend to act first and then talk about it. Although we are not one of the most well known agencies in the world, we are currently working on that. So, if we talk to media and interested audience, it’s important that we have cases in place that have made an impact in the local market and these days we are able to talk about it. 

Please tell us about your client roster in India. What are the accounts win this year?
Jaya Prasad: Right now our client roster includes Avanta Group, Thapar University, and LM School of Management. Our international pitch includes VLAM.be, a government account launching apples and pears in India, a three-year contract along with Plasser India. 

What kind of year-on-year growth has the agency seen in India? What are your growth targets for the current fiscal?
Jaya Prasad: We had a 10 per cent YOY growth and we are not on the red-mark. In every facet, we are doing well in India with a strong management team garnering business opportunities. This makes me proud and happy to be in India. I am not scared about the future. 

What is your vision for Serviceplan in India?
Markus Noder: We are not bound to a special industry; we work across cross-industries, bigger portfolios. We are happy to have a network of strong local brands as we don’t see ourselves as an adoption agency, but as a highly competitive agency in the local market. It is also about local management, knowing the market insights. The future is unknown, but we have a strong business management team fetching us clients from across the globe; which are interested in India. We recently ran a road-show in Europe about India, where we invited our clients and other interested people in ‘The House of Communications’ and we talked about the industry and Indian markets, exchanged our experiences while building a partnership. There is so much in the cooker that is there to look out for. 

What has been the most challenging time for the agency in India?
Jaya Prasad: The most difficult phase was June 2014. But the worst days are over now. 

Markus Noder: The phrasing of ‘worst days’ would be wrong because everything gives you an experience and we have to take everything in the right context. When we lost the BMW account, we still stayed in touch with the clients as we handle their accounts in other parts of the world. It’s a normal thing in the industry for the client to question the agency. Post that, we managed to make a good impact with our BMW X1 campaign thus, maintain a good relation with the client. We appreciate that press has been listening to our story and being supportive. 

How did the agency recover after losing the BMW account to O&M?
Markus Noder: It was a tough time. The recovery process was painful, but successful. We learned a lot during the process, therefore, we are more confident now. We are focussing on building ‘The House of Communications’, the direction in which moving is a process of restructuring ourselves. For the future, we have to turn from storytelling to story living. So, brands have to create an experience for the stories that brands have been telling for so many years. I am super happy that we have won our campaign all around the world- the Truth Unveiled Campaign. That brought us two Pencils recently. We are a small yet powerful team backed by global expertise. This also goes on to show the culture and the mentality of the group. 

Jaya Prasad: Recovering the business back in 2014 was very challenging because Serviceplan did not have any PR at that time and the German agency did not make any efforts to establish any business development team. Now we consistently have a business development team in place in India and we are now looking at work internationally as we recently got an account from Belgium, although we started little slow with smaller accounts of Bharti Realty and Plasser India. We also got back the BMW account, as we launched BMW X1 last year all over India and it was very successful. We have also reinvented the wheel, we became an events agency with that. But it did not happen overnight. We did the first event with Plasser India and it was a big one with the Indian Railways on their 50 years in India. Ever since, we have not looked back in India and have built a good team now. 

As you have mentioned, Serviceplan recently won a Pencil at the D&AD Awards. Could you tell us more about the winning campaign – Truth Unveiled?
Jaya Prasad: This was a standalone project for an insurance company, but it did not take off, so we thought of doing it ourselves. We met with about 15 acid attack survivors and their stories really moved us. It was an emotional decision. We had shortlisted 5 of them and the support from Serviceplan Health and Life was immense. ITV Network also supported us by giving us channel space for free, which reduced our investments. We did not anticipate any awards at that time, but this became a movement and the support from the global team was huge and unprecedented. 

How is your events vertical is shaping up in India?
Jaya Prasad: This year, we have done exhibitions for IREE and Plasser; we have also done the experiential for VLAM around many cities. It depends on what we get. We have been creating a team of right people for better communication solutions. 

Markus Noder: We are not just focussing on events, we are executing the same for our clients like our own series of events called Handshake. It is a series of events for entrepreneurs to talk to each other as Serviceplan is an entrepreneurial driven company. We are 100 per cent independent, we don’t have any debts, or any investors behind the scenes, the company is owned by the founder family and partners who own shares in the company. We like to stay close to our customers and the industry, hence, Handshake Event in various cities of the world. It’s interesting to know the challenges in the industry of branding, marketing, advertising, etc. This will be an interesting platform for the people, who build opinions to get to understand the industry. 

Are you satisfied with the way Serviceplan has shaped up in India? What more do want the agency to achieve in India?
Markus Noder: There is always space for improvement. I am happy about the group’s development in India. We are grateful to all the experiences we got in India. Our strategy is clear and I am looking at brighter times ahead.