As Manifest turns one, we asked industry leaders in our April issue: ‘If you had the power, what’s the ONE thing that you would change in adland, and why?’

Here's what Grey India's Anusha Shetty and EssenceMediacom's Navin Khemka had to say about shaking things up in the industry:

Anusha Shetty, chairperson and group CEO, Grey India

While everyone agrees digital is ‘big’ and every brand wants to be on digital, I would love to see the right brand thinking, senior leader participation, and investment behind digital campaigns. It’s okay to do fewer campaigns but we must do them well and do them with the right media investment to create results. Very often agencies and clients are stuck on ‘always on’ content without media backing wasting precious time on both sides. We should do famously effective work, good work that is effective too.

Navin Khemka, CEO, EssenceMediacom, South Asia 

Given the pressures faced by the industry due to increased fragmentation and the high complexity of work across creative, media, and production, I believe the industry should have one unified voice to attract and retain talent. This would lead to better remuneration terms and adequate time to deliver projects, ensuring consistency in quality. Additionally, it would enable investments in technology, making our offerings future-proof. 

The pre-Covid decade saw unprecedented growth in this industry. Post-Covid, the industry is struggling to grow at higher single digits. This is a concern as India is already amongst the top five economies globally, but in AdEx, we are still at number nine. This is one thing that ails the advertising industry in India today, in my opinion.

This shows that there is immense headroom to grow. The lower growth rates here can be attributed to inequalities of wealth distribution and lower purchasing power given the high inflation that we have seen in the last couple of years. 

The growth today is limited to select sectors like real estate, technology, premium goods, and startups. For the industry to get back to higher growth, it is critical for other sectors to also fire. 

This was part of a feature in the April issue of Manifest. Get your copy here.

Also read:

Pitching for change (part one - featuring Anupama Ramaswamy and Devaiah Bopanna)