AgTalk | Indian market is much more diverse: MEC's Pele Cortizo-Burgess

MEC is one of the largest media agency network in the world with national and international clients in their kitty. The network operates from their regional headquarters in London, New York, Singapore, Dubai and Miami. They have around 5,000 employees worldwide working for them. One of the founding partners in GroupM, is a part of the WPP Group. Its core business is media buying and media planning but as the media landscape has become more complex it has diversified its capabilities.

Adgully caught up with one of the key global members of their team, Pele Cortizo-Burgess. He is the Global Director, Integrated Planning, at MEC. He joined MEC in 2012, before that he was with Grey, where he was the chief strategy officer. He spoke out his journey, his move from Grey to MEC and why the Indian market scenario amazes him.

AG: What attracted you to MEC.

PCB: MEC is one of the agencies within GroupM, which is a global network media company that I joined  2 years ago, so its new for me, it’s my first time in media, I’m an account planner by trade and i have recently switched into media. So it’s a new discipline for the company, as well as  it’s an exciting time to be a part of this.

AG: Why the move from creative (Grey) to media (MEC).

PCB: Yes, I’ve moved to MEC from Grey. So at Grey, I was the Chief Strategy Officer, based in New York, in North America. I joined Grey during an amazing time when it was reinventing itself, making it relevant to client’s part of the business and what they’ve achieved is phenomenal. It was an amazing chapter and now I’ve moved into media which is an amazing chapter as well.

AG: How’re you keeping up with change of profiles?

PCB: So I started pretty much when it was Television, print, outdoor and radio, and now if you can imagine, it’s so fragmented, there are these days when I find it confusing, increasingly and unnecessarily complex, but that’s a part of my job to crystallise what’s relevant and important for our client’s business. Because for the media it’s not just about the buy or the planning but what more can media contribute to the creative process, to the strategic process that clients undertake. So for an account planner, research was an amazing piece of currency, understanding what the consumers were doing, what they were going through. Media companies hold much more information about the consumers than any number of qualitative focused groups can do. So when you use that, it allows the media to move forward more in the problem solving opportunity and in the creative process.

AG: What are the services offered to clients by MEC?

PCB: A variety of services ranging from planning and buying to content, development, ideas, strategies, and it’s a package in the way we work.

AG: How will you use your expertise in a media agency?

PCB: It’s not my forte because it’s not my background, having been an account planner; all I would say is that it’s a critical part of media, respectfully though I would say it’s not the be all and end all. All of the knowledge that goes into the planning, as you’re seeing now, when democratised other areas of the creative process makes for an amazing idea.

AG: Have you been involved in the Indian part of MEC, in the decision making process?

PCB: So my remit predominantly is global. This is my third trip to India; the other two times have been specifically for a client. What I love about coming to somewhere like this is that this is experimental, not saying that other regions and markets aren’t experimental, but you’re relationship with mobile for example is different to other markets. So where we’re struggling to understand mobile first, when you look here, the behaviour of mobile, I just think that it’s a huge learning opportunity.

AG: How do you see India as a market?

PCB: I find it much more diverse, it’s quicker, it’s faster, its dynamic, it’s scary but I mean that in a good way right because I think it could be wrong. Practitioners think that we know the answer, I know that Indian officer’s for the MEC had a theme recently of ‘Fail harder, fail faster’ and it was about encouraging them to take the risk but also take the learnings that come from them because sometimes if you just do the learnings from the successes , you think you have a formula and then you end up doing what you only you this way meanwhile consumer’s life, they change so quickly, and the formula that you got no longer works so that kind of them I just think is brilliant, encourages you to be experimental.

AG: If you could tell us one interesting campaign that you’ve been a part of recently?

PCB: I wish I had done it hands on, of course it’s a company example, the work that we’d done for Netflix, which could’ve been seen as a launch of a second series for one of the most successful series in the US, Orange is the new Black, but the way they launched it, the second series and all the different partnerships they created with the New York Times, it’s a show about female prison inmates and when they launched the second series they had to go beyond niche, so their partnership with New York Times started talking about the penal system, how they’re geared more for men and not really understanding the needs of women and from there you know it allowed Netflix to talk about documentaries and other topics that really mattered and that then led to an initiative of changing faces of television and it’s just hailed as an amazing example of native advertising and different way of approaching media so I’m incredibly proud of being a part of the company. Was I LIVE on it, no but I wish I was. I love the work from GE, I love collaborating with GE because I get to do that with them directly because they are a company that believes a brand in motion stays in motion so they never want to be still. Now, for some people, they’re like why are you changing all the time, but for that kind of company, it means that the things they’re going to experiment, try different things.

AG: One campaign that you’ve not been a part of, but has been really influential and inspiring?

PCB: ‘Run like a girl’ and it just gets people to re-evaluate what that line means and it’s better and stronger. And I love the Dove work on ‘Being beautiful’. But if you look at ‘Run like a girl campaign’, it’s just heart moving.

AG: Some of the major highlights of your career

PCB: PlayStation is one of my highlight. Every time I get to work with L’Oréal, I love that because it’s a company which has traditionally launched products constantly being the prime focus but it’s such an important brand in women’s life, in the concept of beauty. I love working with the people of L’Oréal.

AG: Have you worked on any Indian clients?

PCB: Only via city but not directly

AG: Some of the major clients you’ve worked with?

PCB: GE, L’Oréal, IDC, Paramount, AT&T, Vodafone, they’re just wonderful.

AG: Some clients that you want to work with?

PCB: I’m always inclined towards cars so I’d love to work with something like a BMW not for the car itself but what does a brand like theirs stands for, I think it’s amazing.

AG: Any of the Indian campaigns that you’ve followed?

PCB: I loved the concept of missed calls campaign. The one campaign in particular, where a Bollywood star is able to create change for women. I don’t really remember the name of the campaign but I thought that it was a topic which will be hailed and people would place miss calls, you know in terms of what topic would be put in front of the government.

AG: Are you looking at any Indian clients to work with?

PCB: I think the Indian office is probably looking at making those decisions.

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