BBH was launched in India in the later half of 2008 with the sole aim of not becoming “yet another advertising agency”, has come up with a new planning strategy; engagement planning. They claim to be the first one to introduce this concept globally about three years ago. The agency’s London, New York and Singapore offices already have this function running. To head this function in India, BBH has roped in Chandrashekhar L from Walt Disney, as brand partner, engagement planning.
Engagement planning becoming one of the hot topics of discussion for communication companies globally, it brings in strategic inputs from the world over, about how people engage with a brand. After media and creative agencies got separated, this area of strategy is believed to have suffered, and creative agencies have been losing out on this opportunity. However now, with new media, a balanced mix of engagement strategy and content strategy is needed.
Partha Sinha, MD, BBH India, said, “Every strategic solution has two parts to it – content and context. So far, the creative agencies have focussed only on content and left the context out. We believe that’s only part of the solution. Engagement planning bridges this gap – the way you engage with your audience can and should influence your creative content. It’s kind of obvious in hindsight. It’s no longer about what the brand should say, but about what the brand should do.”
Sinha adds, “As of now, the creative agency in India is only about “what to say”, but with the new function, it will also be about how the brand should engage with the audience.”
So, in a way, will it take a leaf out of the books of media planning and buying agencies?
Refutes Sinha, “We will not do any media planning or distribution; neither will we compete with media planning agencies. What we would be suggesting is the medium, whether interactive or TV or anything else. Unlike media planning, which delivers on the basis of creative campaigns and suggests where best to expose them, engagement planning would step in at the initial phases and will deliver key inputs for the creative campaign.”
New media will utilise this function all the more, especially because, unlike traditional media, it is very audience-specific. As a result, when it comes to this medium, the need to engage the audience in an appropriate manner becomes essential.
Chandrashekhar elaborates, “While the strategic planner in an agency would think from the brand point of view, the engagement planner would consider the consumer point of view. For example, if we take Axe as a brand, the strategic planner would talk about seduction, while the engagement planner would suggest the best medium to engage in, may it be mobile, virals, etc. With advertising moving away from being a passive to an actively engaging function, the need for engagement planning is all the more pressing, he feels. Globally, Johnnie Walker and Axe are some excellent examples of brands built through this function.”
Though Chandrashekhar is the lone member of this division as of now, the agency plans to hire half a dozen more people by the end of 2009. When asked about the profile of an engagement planner, Chandrashekhar maintains that the person has to be media savvy, with experience in both broadcast and digital media, as well as in brand management.
Chandrashekhar, who will work closely with the London office of BBH, completed his post-graduation from MICA in 2004 and started his career with TAM, where he worked with the broadcast strategy and consulting wing, S-Group. He headed key accounts such as Viacom, Sony Networks, NDTV, Sahara, ETV and Disney, for around three years. During this tenure, two of his media research papers got presented at the ESOMAR and Worldwide Audience Measurement (WAM) Conference at Dublin in 2007.
His last assignment was with Walt Disney Television, where he spent over two years and was responsible for on-air and off-air marketing for two network channels – Hungama TV and Jetix, and digital marketing for the network. He also had a short stint with ITC Foods in the media planning and buying division.