There is still room for good creative talent to move from traditional to digital space, there is still significant room for creative and technology to marry each other and come with a solution which is really cutting edge. There is also room for brighter, younger talent to come here, because the time is right. Somewhere towards November-December-January, things have corrected themselves, so now is the time if you really want to play on this growth graph and go further.

V Ramani, Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, Ignitee Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd

V Ramani is the Co-founder and Vice Chairman of Ignitee, Indias oldest digital marketing agency. He is the man behind Surf Mashoor Mahal, Indias 1st ever branded programme. He has spearheaded all the growth initiatives of the company with sheer dedication and candid efforts. He has rich experience with offline media companies on well-known brands like Unilever, Nestle, Philips, Bajaj Auto, Intel and Dell.

Like he always says, Never a dull moment, his vision for the future has helped in diversification of business. Ramani is also the man behind Philips Top 10, Indias 1st branded programme on a satellite channel. He was adjudged as Media Person of the Year 2000 and was also the first Indian to be invited to the Cyber Jury at Cannes last year.

At Ignitee, his duties and responsibilities are manifold. He has played a leading role in extending its footprints in India. His endurance towards his work has led him to be triumphant. Ramani was also the founder of IAMAI.

His leisure pursuit includes cricket, quizzing and reading. An ardent book lover, he is a man of intellect. He likes to spend his leisure time by playing cricket in the bright sunny mornings or watch quiz shows.

In conversation with exchange4medias Robin Thomas, Ramani speaks at length about Ignitees growth graph and digital media in general.

Q. Kindly share some of the recent developments at Ignitee.

A. There have been quite a few developments in the past few months with new businesses, partnerships, new initiatives like Ignition and our book launch, which went off pretty well. We did not expect something as data and statistics driven to move the way it is moving. In fact, very soon there will be a digital motion coming out.

Q. Can you elaborate more on digital motions?

A. It makes practitioners of certain types to find it far more useful because people usually dont like to refer to books for statistics. When everyone was talking of tough times, not so good times and so on, it kind of put us all on a high alert and this needed us to gallop a bit.

Q. So did galloping help Ignitee in any way?

A. Some of the galloping did not work in our favour, and I guess its fair enough. But a lot of it turned our way; especially I am proud of launching the book and Ignition. I agree, its not short term, but we will start to see the shape and scale of it in the coming years, may be in the next year itself or year after next. However, it is shaping well. People, institutes and colleges have taken to it very well, we have also got huge support from universities and the fact that it comes from the back of high business growth is the exciting part. Besides this, we will be coming with an online version of the book, thats something which is getting ready and people can pay online and subscribe to the book. So yes, the feedback received for the print copy has been encouraging.

Q. So, is the digital industry on the recovery track?

A. The digital industry is certainly on a growth track now, we are waiting to go to the next level and quite a few people have done well. In fact, I can see that traditional agencies and media outfits are focusing more attention to online and the digital side, and I am sure that it will pay off for them very well.

Q. What about a credible measurement system necessary for the digital media?

A. Every medium needs a research, which at best gets to sample based research, and on that basis you plan for whatever you need to. ComScore has done a lot of good work. We have been using ComScore, because this is one medium where you dont have to rely on only sample based research, you also have feedback from all the live activity we had done. Its a combination of sample based research and the delivery of campaigns year on year, which helps you plan precisely, whereas in the offline space, you have no option but to go purely on sample based research like in the case of television.

Q. What are your growth targets for 2010 and the way forward?

A. We grew 84 per cent last year, when we had targeted 80 per cent growth; we are again targeting 80 per cent growth this year. The industry now looks like its doing better and is growing in mid-fifties.

Q. What processes have you introduced to unshackle creativity within the agency?

A. We always had a culture of not being very formal, but an open floor culture. We have a very active HR operation, where 75 per cent of mandate is motivation and there is hardly 25 per cent that deals with other issues. We also keep doing a lot of programmes, some of them are semi-formal to bring in fun-cum-learning and some of them are purely fun, which the HR department undertakes.

Q. How does Ignitee deal with talent crunch issues faced in the industry?

A. Till about five months ago, there was a lull in the recruitment, even when I wanted to recruit people I could not find people to the mark I needed. Fortunately for us, this period has not hurt us in any manner and like every other company we, too, had a few exits.

Q. So, what has been the percentage of the exits at Ignitee?

A. As I mentioned earlier, we did have a few exits. However, our exits have been in single digit percentages over a year. In fact, even at the single digit exit time, we have added close to 115-120 per cent in terms of people. So, there has been more inclusion of new faces.

Q. Do you think there is room for good creative talent coming into the digital space?

A. There is still room for good creative talent to move from traditional to digital space, there is still significant room for creative and technology to marry each other and come with a solution which is really cutting edge. There is also room for brighter, younger talent to come here, because the time is right. Somewhere towards November-December-January, things have corrected themselves, so now is the time if you really want to play on this growth graph and go further. One thing we need to do is find the solution to attract talent and make certain things I mentioned happen.