Despite all the buzz about digital media in recent years, it is not the solution to everything — it is just one part of the marketing mix. So says Universal McCann CEO Prashant Kumar.

“Back in 2000 during the digital explosion, people were talking about digital convergence. Goldman Sachs predicted a doomsday for those who did not embrace it but that hasn’t happened — there still are companies that have yet to adopt digital... so digital is only a part of the marketing solution,” he said in an interview last month.

Prashant said that digital spending should start from the clients’ marketing objectives, with agencies explaining how digital makes sense to the client’s brand journey.

“Clients spend most of their money on traditional media like TV, press and outdoor so to suddenly ask them to put 10% to 20% of their budget into digital is scary because their KPIs (key performance indicators) and targets are attached to their performance,” he explained.

Therefore it was media agencies’ responsibility to “hand-hold clients along that journey so that clients feel confident with the medium’s ability to add value to its business”.

That said, Universal McCann is heading towards “100% digitisation”, where digital is no longer a niche medium.

Explaining the move to dissolve the agency’s digital department last year, Prashant said that digital departments stunt the growth of digital awareness among media planners by confining the function to one department. “Everyone has to understand the role of digital in a marketing campaign and be able to execute a basic campaign.

“Today, digital may comprise 5% of total ad spend but who knows, in 10 years’ time, it may be 50%. And media planners without digital exposure may lose their jobs. The 100% digitalisation is about empowering people with the right skills to be prepared for their future career,” he said.

To equip staff in digital skills, the agency’s Asia-Pacific digital specialists provide training via its “Greenhouse” talent development programme, which comprises critical skills training, overseas training, mentorship programme, workshops and experiential trips.

“We experienced an excellent growth period over the last three months, specifically two big accounts — winning the RM100 million TM two-year contract and Dutch Lady, who according to Nielsen figures, spends around RM22 million every year,” said Prashant. Other media account wins last year included BASF and Sony Pictures.

“While many in the industry are facing tough times, we  hope to hire 20 employees this year and have a total of 55 staff by mid-year. The agency’s biggest challenge will be managing the company’s growth, the talent crunch in particular,” he said. To date, the agency has hired seven staff, with seven more coming in over the next two months.

As a precautionary measure to deal with the economic downturn, Prashant said the company is trying to pace hiring to better prepare itself for clients’ budget cuts. “If you go out on a hiring binge and clients have sudden budget cuts, that leaves you in a dangerous situation,” he said.

With the bleak economic outlook, media agencies must understand what clients want to meet their growing expectations. “While media agencies have always been about numbers, it’s different numbers now — not just GRP (gross rating point that represents the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement); but clients want to know about brand preference, brand awareness and sales leads too,” said Prashant.

This article appeared on the Media & Advertising page, The Edge Financial Daily, March 17,2009.