Some might say that he has subconsciously turned an agency which is known for its most colourful logo, into one that is perhaps increasingly identifying with ‘black’ hues. When the FCB leaders from India, during the formation of their new ‘Creative Council’ showed up wearing all black, one wondered if it is simply Leo Burnettisation (Sinha’s past agency) of FCB. To which Dheeraj Sinha responds with sparkling logic, “While there is no compulsion to wear black, everyone wearing black means there are no hierarchies in the room, no CEO or VP hats, it has the same effect as a football jersey,” terming black as the grand equaliser. He goes on to add, “What we’re building here is completely different, it’s not a replica of what I have done before, because that would not succeed. We are building on the basis of what FCB’s roots and missions are.”
As Sinha completes a year as the captain of FCB in India and South Asia, bringing a new vision to the network here, he takes Neeta Nair through his one-year report card, of leading 1200 people, four operating agencies and handling a host of big clients like Amul, Tata Motors, ITC Brands, ICICI Bank, Uber, Google etc.
Q] You’ve been a big proponent of young talent. When you joined FCB, it was more senior heavy, leaders who had spent years at the agency. Was it easier to work with them than with youngsters like at your previous agency?
One of the tenets of Arvind Wable’s book - The Ulka way, is that advertising is senior people’s business. And I agree with that. For e.g., you always want the senior-most doctor to operate on you, not the assistant doctor. We are a blue-collar agency with all of us rolling up our sleeves to get to work, our senior talent is always in the room solving clients’ business problems on a daily basis. So, in a sense it was similar culture. We’ve obviously, put a lot of focus on growing the young talent at FCB. Our ‘Star One’ programme is the longest running campus hiring program that any agency has ever had, Kulwinder Ahluwalia, the CEO of FCB Ulka and Rakesh Menon, CCO of FCB Interface are products of that. So, we’ve had a culture of hiring young talent and nurturing them so they can attain the peak of their career. So, a lot of what I have believed in personally was already in place at FCB, it’s just a matter of amplifying it further.
Q] Gradually, you brought in several first-time commanders to your army and not experienced generals, most of your agency CEOs and CCOs are in the role for the first time? How has that worked out?
Almost everybody we’ve hired, has gone through a rigorous process. They have had some leadership experience, even if not specifically in the top role. They’ve led teams, but more importantly have a track record of delivery. The idea always is to catch them just before they are beginning to bloom and in the process take the agency forward too.
Q] You have created a FCB Creative Council in India, similar to Publicis Groupe Creative Council, what is its most significant achievement so far?
We have a GCC (Global Creative Council), at FCB led by Andrés Ordóñez which inspired this. About two weeks ago, we did an India GCC review and there were at least 20 great ideas on our current client businesses. We had clients join the India Global Creative Council meeting too where they had access to several top creative leaders in one go. Obviously, that’s the biggest achievement right now because they’re coming together to create work. Our belief always has been that two is better than one, we rather than I. More people coming together, and more ideas colliding together, works very well for our clients and for our agency.
Q] What have been the significant account wins of FCB in India, in 2024?
We’ve won about 54 new businesses as a group of four companies, e.g., Philips Home Appliances, SBI, KFC etc -- and it amounts to upwards of 3 million dollars in revenue. I would say that we’ve won the most significant pitches in the country this year, which is very heartening.
Q] You were touted as this agent of ‘digital change’ at FCB. How many of these were digital accounts, which may have been out of reach for FCB earlier because of traditional heavy thinking?
Actually, a lot of digital businesses were always accessible to us. For e.g., FCB Kinnect was digitally led. Interestingly the reverse has also started happening, where Kinnect is getting mainline mandates. Those barriers are vanishing because we have invested in talent which can do both. Interface too always had digital prowess and some of the accounts, even before I joined, were integrated accounts. So, we’ve just amplified that. Now there are many businesses which we are signing across the board, integrated mandates rather than saying digital or mainline only. The difference between digital and mainline account is going to vanish very soon, we’re seeing that pattern across the board with clients.
Q] How much has the agency grown in the past year and what is the target for the coming year?
We have had very healthy high double-digit growth which is in fact, scary to some extent because that becomes the base for the next year. But we are very bullish on India and on the fact that we’ve got the whole talent stack ready. Our clients are doing well. This year has been a good year for the economy as well. And our client portfolio has been reflective of the growth of the economy, like FMCG, auto, BFSI etc. So, if the country is growing, we are growing. It has been a good year and we’ll have an equally good one next year.
Q] So, now that you have a team in place, is the next thing on agenda to start more specialized verticals, considering we haven’t seen much on the latter, in the past year?
The reason for that is a lot of newer services are already there- data practice, CRM practice, digital media practice and influencer practice. We launched FCB now, which is our tie up with platforms such as Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Jio, Meta, and ShareChat. That was missing earlier. We are also pushing production in a big way. So, to be honest, what Rohit handed over to me already had all of these practices in place. So, there was no need to reinvent that wheel. Our job is to make sure that those practices scale up.
Q] Cannes Lions 2024, hit the brakes on FCB India’s and yours previous winning streak, with just a Silver Lion. Is there a gun to the heads of your new CCOs like Neville and Mayuresh for winning at Cannes Lions 2025?
No guns to anybody’s heads, be it revenue target or Cannes target, the way FCB works globally is very refreshing in that sense. Having said that, the pressure is internal, because we’ve got talent who’ve won in the past, and want to win in the future as well. Is Cannes Lions important, yes, it is. I am allowing myself and my leaders, a window of 12 to 36 months to get to where we want to as an agency. We have sown the seeds which is bearing fruit already, the quality of work, be it the recent Uber or Google campaign has made me very happy and we will catch up on the Cannes game as well. We are here to build a long term, sustainable, highly creative company on real business, not do quick fixes. We will do great work, focus on winning too and won’t panic if that doesn’t happen in the next three months.
