Broadway's my beat, from Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway's my beat with Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. The carnival scream rises high on Broadway, carried high on plumes of neon light, and its shape is of many things, the metallic anguish of a trumpet shriek, the futile beating against closed doors, the laughter bargained for, bought, paid for under the winking girl on the spectacular. Broadway's scream rises, shatters into fragments of glitter, prowls through the city, and finally touches you.  For me, it was a phone call. A girl dying, it said, from a jackknife in a dime at Dance Palace on Broadway. Come to it, Danny. Maybe you can grab yourself a free dance. The welcome committee is out. The pale girls with the scarlet streaked across their mouths, and the restless scarlet tipped hands playing in the spinning lights, reaching out for you. Someone called said a girl was hurt. Where is she? Me, I called. Sure you don't want to dance with one of those girls first? Where is she? She's square.  Come on, I'll take you to her. Roger's the neat type.  That's why she picked the lonesome lounge to die in.  You should. You really should. The lounge with the beaded curtains. With Georgia.  You? You, Georgia? Me, Danny. Fran can stay. She's my good friend. Okay if she watches me die, isn't it? Who did it, Georgia? A dancer. A king dancer. You should have been here for his mambo dancing. It was a show. Oh, he stabbed you, Georgia. That makes it all right to tell me. Who was it? He bought five dollars worth of tickets. A man like that, you feel you know. Don't ask his name. It spoils it. With this knife? Yeah. Wild dancing. I'm keeping it for a souvenir. Make sure it's with me in the coffin, huh Danny? Promise. You're a long way from home, Georgia. What brought you here? I like it here. Come here a lot. It's peaceful. The man blows the bugle so peaceful. The crowd, Georgia?  How can you talk when he's... Listen to it, Danny. Listen. A girl feels young again with music like that. After that, the police got cluttered up. People started to come into the lounge. Policemen with notebooks. A woman in a tweed suit with a press card in her hat band. A couple of men with a stretcher. The only thing the doctor picked up on his stethoscope was a trumpet. Blowing what is called the blues. Because there was no heartbeat from Georgia Gray. Because she was dead. Find out why. Go now to Mott Street where it intersects an alley whose name no one remembers. Climb four flights of stairs and wonder briefly why the quality of sound and light in a tenement is like nothing else in the world. Walk a corridor where mice and men live together in perfect tolerance. And stop at a door. Stand in the light a little bit more so I'll know who's... Is Danny Clover, Benny? You coming to check? I'm okay, I'm okay. Sure, sure. Yeah, I'm okay, Danny, I'm okay. Except for the stomach. It hurts when I press it. You've been behaving yourself, Benny? Well, since I got out of the hospital, sure, sure. I'm, I'm, I'm beading now. You taught me to make things out of beads when I was wrestling a ward. Belfacles and ladies' accessories. You know why I came here, don't you? I ain't a stool pigeon no more, Danny. I got cured of that, too. I'm, I'm a beading now. Who killed Georgia Gray? How long since you checked in with your parole officer, Benny? Oh, Danny. What about Georgia? You know as much as me. Georgia was close to Nick again, and you know that. I bought a shirts from Rand down the drugstore for him. What's the word on Nicky? The crowd ain't happy with him, Danny. Oh, Danny, leave me alone. I got an order from a lady down the hall for a love bracelet. I got a delivery today, and I'll be breaking my contract. Nothing else, huh? Say something, Danny. Nothing. Of course, Nick again. I'm a beading now.   Inside, Nicky. Don't strong arm, Danny. I was going to invite you in anyway. Georgia Gray, Nicky. She's dead. Word came to me how you closed her eyes. I wish it had been me. Maybe you got there ahead of me, Nicky. Maybe you went dancing, saw Georgia in a place you never thought she'd be. Killed her because she was getting away from you. Oh, you're tired, Danny. Awful tired. No one gets away from me, not even a dead. Come on into the den.  If she'll be hurt, I don't show her my friends. All right, Nicky. I wouldn't want her to be hurt. You'll wish yours had been like her. Just wait. Mother, look what I brought you, Danny Clover. Sit down, Danny. Have a mint. Nicky hasn't made up special for me. Thanks. Well, special, huh? Nothing too good for my mother. It's always been like that with my son. Up to now. Nicky hasn't been good? He let his girl die in a cheap place. Dancing with another man for pay, for dimes. That cheap was his name. You could have stopped it, Nicky. How could I have known, mother? I told you... Don't snap at me, Nicky boy.  I never understood why. She tried to explain it to me about the music, about dancing. Crazy for dancing. Who understands these things in a girl? She had everything a girl could... Everything you gave her. Everything you worked hard for. You're getting your share, huh, mother? The funeral too, Nicky. Will you buy me one like the one you're buying for Georgia? Let me show you the invoices, Danny. I never knew Diane came so high. Inflation, huh? Maybe it'll wipe out the taste of what happened to her. Where it happened to her. It's just a maybe, son. Don't build a monument on it. Wanna know why they killed her, Danny? You know, Mrs. Gannon? They think my son is finished. Done. Used up. They killed a girl to frighten my Nicky boy. And you know what? My boy's frightened. Who does that to your Nicky? Your friends? Your boys? You know when you see their bodies on a slab. They'll be in all the papers. You'll save the clippings for me, huh, Nicky? Oh, isn't your dream, Danny? I told you. Wonderful girl, my mother. When I got back to headquarters, there was a file on my desk. The neatly centered sticker on its front cover was typed Georgia Gray. Open it, read it, digest it. Georgia Gray, aged between 25 and 29, computed from data gathered from arrests. Hometown, Salina, Kansas. Followed a soldier to New York Port of Embarkation in 1943, but never caught up with him. So she stayed. Counter-girl in a 5 and 10. Then model for ladies' garments. A nightclub hostess. And two years ago in night court, after losing a race with a squad car, she said she'd retired. Because I don't have to work anymore, she said. No better reason, she asked. Name linked with Nicky Gannon from here on in. Address Park Avenue, expenses shared by Fran Holland, who said now she'll have to look around. First thing I'm gonna do is get another roommate. Did you get along well with Georgia? She had her ideas. I had mine. You know what I mean? Tell me. No, this and that. Georgia was wild, a pretty girl. I'd say she was beautiful. Yeah, I guess she was very beautiful. Very. Ah, but she was ruining it. Ran around dance, but she didn't enjoy herself. I know she didn't. She only enjoyed herself relaxing here with me. Something I haven't made up my mind about. Well, you better make up your mind about it, Danny. Sure. She had all that dough and she lived with her dance hall hostess with me. You know why? She needed someone like me. To run home to her. Right. She could have soft hands rub in the back of her neck to bring her cold tomatoes when she needed it. She run often, Fran? Look, Danny, she was dance happy. That's why she hung around the place I worked. A little bit of music and a guy in a high waistband with two strong feet could make her smile like she was happy. Did Nicky Gannon mind that she stepped out on him? Why did Nicky care? He used it for a front for his business. He didn't care about her dancing. Who killed her, Fran? A man. What else but a man? What man? Who? You know what you ought to do, Danny? You know Tommy Chandler? Nicky's hood? The padded shoulder that stands me and Nicky with his hand in his pocket. Ask Tommy. See how he reacts when you ask him. You know where Tommy is? I know where he'll be in the morning. You know where the ducks are in that pond in Central Park? Eight o'clock he throws him bread. Stale bread. So what did ducks know? That one over there likes Papa Nickle, Danny. Yeah, even a piece. You're making impression. We got none of these advantages at City Jail, Tommy.  No. Ducks will miss me.  Sure you do. You see how harm looked at me, Danny? Sad. Like he already knows about the arrest. What are you taking me down for? We'll think of something. Feeding the pentails in Central Park? I won't be able to hold up the head for the shame of it. Let's go, kid. That's your squad car over there. You got a blush when I say suspicion of murder? That's been done to me too. Hm, you didn't come out for a long time. Georgia. You got me case for that. Georgia was murdered. Maybe Nicky Gannon goes too. The whole crowd will miss him. I'll tell you something else.  The crowd will see to that, huh? I didn't say that. I just said a prediction, I saw. Who takes over if Nicky is rubbed, Tommy? You? Take over what? A backroom poker game for matchsticks? What are you talking about?  It makes harm nervous. Hey, Herm. Hey, uh, boy. Herm looked sad when I took Tommy away from him. All the ducks looked sad for a minute. Then they found a new love were to stay aloof and bred, swam away, screaming for it. Tommy looked back over his shoulder, stopped to call him a name, got shoved into the squad car. But on the way down a code call, a woman's voice in the police radio, man dead, she announced with a quiet number, then she said it plain, in an alley, fourth street, off sixth. Get there, car 62. We got there. Mind if I tag along? Danny, man dead, I recognize from the number. We gotta share these things. Hold your gun on him, Muggerman. He wiggles a toe, break it for him. Pleasure, Danny. Let me through. Let me through. They can't scare you anymore, can they, Nicky? Not anymore. He was propped up against the wall, his head thrown back, his mouth open. Like he was trying to tell someone about it. The furtive dog scrubbing for food in the trash, not listening. The small crowd he'd assemble because the blood sighed across his shirt front, but not listening. Watching an alley wind gather soot at his feet. Watching me lean over him. Watching Nicky Gannon. Dead Nicky Gannon. You are listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, and starring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. You'll find Jack Benny in the desert this Sunday night on CBS. Jack and his gang are making a safari to entertain the boys at an air base in Nevada. And for more laughs, there'll be another session with Eve Arden as the gay, romantic, fun-loving schoolteacher, or Miss Brooks on most of these same CBS stations. Broadway is wide enough for everybody. Generals in open touring cars, wands in taxis, and sailors against lampposts. It's the place to come to, for one reason or another, to be a tourist, or get stared at by the tourists to make a pitch, buy a bargain, get cheated, insulted, or have your picture taken, and end the day with a memory depending upon what you wanted, what you got, and what you gave for it. In part of the day's memento of Broadway will be the news item Nicky Gannon shot down in an alley, hoodlum, slain, and new outbreak of mob violence, where we seek clues in killing, especially me, and another man, the Sergeant Geno Tertaglia, who had once passed a civil service examination. And the medical examiner Dr. Sinski reveals that death was caused by hemorrhage and the pleura, parentheses, lungs, closed parentheses. And that is why Nicky Gannon was done in. Thanks, Geno. Oh, you're quite welcome, I'm sure. Anything else? May I? Yes, you may. Thank you. You know, Danny, this shooting up an alley brings to mind a case which was solved by Lady Jane Pugh, the ne'er-do-well girl to take her from London Town. Do we have to, Geno? Lady Jane looked at the deceased and flipped her shiny tuppence. Flipped her what? Her shiny tuppence. Lady Jane has a lucky tuppence, which she flips before she undertakes a case. Uh, that Lady Jane. May I interrupt? Oh, you're the boss. Do you have anything else to tell me about Georgia Grey or Nicky Gannon, please? Oh, indeed I do, Danny. Indeed I do. In the murder of Nicky Gannon, Tommy Chandler, our prime suspect, has been released. And without a nickel's worth of bail. I have said it. So help me if you're kidding, Geno. Why was he released? Oh, because another fellow has confessed to the deed. You remember Cosy Barrett? Even at this moment, he is with Sergeant Muggevin, confessing all over the place. And that, Danny, is all the news I have for the day. Case is solved, huh, Danny? Isn't that ain't all of it, Sergeant? George ain't all of it. Lots of people met with me, then ended up under a sheet in the house.  Oh, hi, Danny. Come on in. Join the fun. This is a new kick, isn't it, Cosy, for you confessing to a murder? What's the matter? You don't trust me? Read me, Tom, Sergeant. I'll brief it for you, Danny. Cosy says he took a pocket full of dimes to the dime of dance joint where Georgia Grey was. To celebrate the end of a perfect day, he tells me. You danced with her, Cosy? Sure I danced. How else I get close enough to kill? You didn't like the way she danced, huh? Crazy for her. Dream about it. Who else I danced away my heart and dawn? That buys you her dying, too, huh? Ah, she gives his insults. And from a foot away, that. But I got close. Eventually I got close. Yeah, yeah. Get on the phone, Muggevin. Have a policewoman sent up here with a portable radio. Danny, you all right? You've been working so hard. You got a thing against telephones, Muggevin? Okay. Okay, I'll do it. What you gonna do, Danny? Tricks with batteries and portable radios to make people talk? I'm talking. Why you need electricity? Should be right up, Danny.  To the sound of music, huh?  Killing. A lot of your line, isn't it, Cosy? I always figured you as more of the purse snatcher type, the jack-roll kid. The friend a drunk finds in an alley. I got a right to come up in the world, ain't I? This gives me class, a repetition of things a fella needs so he can admire himself in the night. Sure, I understand. Man has to get ahead. You sent for me, Lieutenant? You want this? Yes, come in, please. Turn on the radio. Go on, turn it on to dance music. That'll be all right. Dance with the lady, Cosy. Huh? Go on, dance with her. You're crazy, Danny.  There are people like me, honestly. Dance with her like you did with Georgia. Show me how it was with Georgia. You know, I can't dance, Danny. You know, I wouldn't go nearer to dance with her.  You were never near Georgia, Gray, were you? Not even close enough to... They promised me they'd get me off, Danny. They said confess, and then when I got off, they'd give me the big dough. Who promised you all that? Friends, Danny. I got good friends. They promised me things. And promised me things. You got to lock me up, Danny, so I don't disappoint them.  Make it come true for them, and lock them up. Now the afternoon was two hours old, and the gray had turned into a wetness, and drizzle had hung, scurling in the air before it touched the pavement. The citizens didn't mind getting wet. It was a sight to see. The funeral procession wasn't very long. Not like the good old days when a gangster's death took a mile of Broadway. Not like the good old days at all. None of the mourners walked. They all rode. And the wreaths were wrapped in cellophane, which not only protected the snap-dragons from the rain, but it was more sanitary. I went along because I'd known Nicky Gannon for a long time. The rain let up a little, and they lowered him into his grave. And none of the mourners stayed, not even his mother. And I wanted to talk to his mother. Mrs. Gannon? Hello, Danny. You want a ride back to town? I'll tell you how sorry I... You talk like that. You don't ride with me. Come on. My son was a hoodlum. Why should you be sorry for him? We've talked together. I've had a beer together. That's the reason. You cry. Not me. Whatever you want. He was your son. My son got scared. A man gets scared. A man don't live anymore. And that's all his dying does to you, Mrs. Gannon? Look what I've got, Danny. A thug's funeral on a rainy day. He was your son. Danny, I'm not. I'll think about him. Some things will come up in my mind from time to time, but I've forgotten about it right now. And I'll smile. And I'll think nice about Nicky then. Do you know who killed him? I know. Who? I said I know. The same person who killed Georgia?   I'm sure of it, Danny. Sure of what? He's gonna rain all day. Funny ain't it. The paper said it was. Hey, Danny Clover. Yeah, I am. Bother you, mister? Mm-hmm. But it bothers me more your unhappiness. Let's have a good cry over at my office, huh? You're in the hallway suits me. Used to draft the hallways, spend my life in them, waiting to do things for unhappy people. Spreader of good cheer. That's your business at police headquarters, mister. What name do you spread it under? Forbes, consulate law, my card. Forbes, consulate law. Someone came to you and said I was unhappy. You took the case. Almost precisely how it happened.  Kindly, people. They grieve when a policeman throws away a confessed killer. Cozy Barrett? It seems to them almost ungrateful. However, they respect your analytical prowess. You got something I can hang on my wall that says that? Something much better. Silver Cup made me with an inscription. Better? An envelope, manila with money. It could take you hours to count. No, Silver Cup. Better? A bonus, the killer. The real true killer of George and Nicky.  Where do I find it? Where else? An envelope and killer. The Dime of Dance Palace. Where Georgia danced upstairs, one o'clock. That's this morning. Be there in a smile and grow on your face. You've brought me true happiness, counselor. Thank you. Then he walked away. At the end of the hall, he stopped and looked back over his shoulder. He grinned at me. Then he turned up his collar and walked out into the street. This was at 7 p.m. Then I walked down Broadway and dinner and a double feature in 42nd Street. Then it was time to go. The Dime of Dance Hall was blaring against its time of closing. I walked through it, pushed my way across the floor into a doorway. No one stopped me. Then up a flight of stairs and into a loft littered with old telephone books, a grubbutz, a neatly stacked bundle of your old newspapers. The only light, the light from the spectacular's down the street, spelling out the evening's pleasure. 40 girls, 40, no cover charge. Up front with William Joe's continuous performance. Chinese food, fried rice and dancing. I waited. I didn't wait long. You here, Danny? Come on in, Tommy. Thanks. I brought you something. It's all yours, Danny. Who is he? The killer that got promised to him. Dead? Uh-huh. You bring the envelope, Tommy? You bring it? Sure. Sure I brought it. Yeah. Count it at your leisure. 15,000. I don't know, Tommy. A dead killer. How am I going to explain a dead killer? I thought of that, too. What'd you come up with? Danny, I found a guy in Skid Row. He wasn't doing anybody any good. So I figured he could do us some good. So you shot him?  Here's the gun. You track this killer down. He tried to escape. You shot him, makes you a hero. That's right. And how many heroes have 15,000 dollars? We're going to get along fine. You've taken over for Ganon? I deserved, don't I? Yeah, yeah, you do. Killing Georgia and Nicky Ganon, sure you deserve it. The courage. You don't know how much. Had me sweating there for a while that she didn't die right away. Only Georgia was a girl with character. Live and let live. Die and let live. Great girl. Well, I'll call you from time to time, Danny. Wait a minute, Tommy. Get used to it, Danny. I said I'd call you. Don't go away. You're under arrest for murder.  Don't be a copper on me. You forgot something, Tommy. I can't be anything else. Let's go. Because you're pointing the police positive. That troubles... Let it step away all over. Give it. Don't let me fall. I got your coat. Don't. Don't let me fall. I don't want to die that way. Hold me. Yeah. Danny. Danny, won't. His fingers clawed against the sheer stone. Danny. Body twisting, face torturing. Pleading for a return to life. His body hung there below me. Out of reach. Then the fabric that held his life together gave way. And the noise of the street came up to meet him. Killed his scream. I got outside and walked through the gathering crowd. I remembered something in my hand. Tommy Chandler's torn coat. It's the gathering place of all the sleepless nights this broadly. And all the unwept tears. The place to come to erase what's happened. Start all over. Make a memory. And try to forget it. If you can. It's Broadway. The Godiest. The most violent. The lonesomeest mile in the world. Broadway. My Beat. His My Beat stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Krushen as Muggevin. The program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with musical score composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. In tonight's cast, Anthony Barrett was heard as Tommy Chandler, Francis Chaney as Fran Holland, Martha Wentworth as Mrs. Gannon, Larry Dotkin as Nikki Gannon, Joy Terry as Georgia Gray, Leo Cleary as Benny Fane and Junius Matthews as Cozy. Every Saturday night on CBS, Jan Murray gets on that coast-to-coast phone and gives away a thousand dollars at a crack if you can identify the Phantom Boys. Be listening for Sing It Again, which follows immediately on most of these same CDS stations. Joe Walter speaking. This is CDS, where you laugh at Jack Benny every Sunday night, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


So, ladies and gentlemen, the stage is all set for the panel discussion and I'm sure this is going to be a grueling session and to begin with our panel discussion, may I call upon our panelists, may I call upon Mr. Vikram Sakuja, Group CEO, Medicine Media and OOH. May I also welcome on stage Mr. Shashi Sinha, CEO IPG Media Brands. I'd love to call upon Ms. Kavita Nair, Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited. I'd also like to welcome Ms. Anupriya Acharya, Chief Executive Officer, Publicist Media India and last but not the least, may I call upon Mr. Amin Lakhani, COO, South Asia Mindshare. Esteemed panelists here on the stage, it's time to call upon without whom this panel would not be complete. So, may I please call upon Mr. Nawal Ahuja, Co-Founder and Director, Exchange for Media Group to be the session chair for today's panel discussion. Thank you so much sir and I hope I call the panel open. Thank you for staying back for this panel. Well, you know, what I thought was before we discuss what's happening with the agency's ecosystem and what the future of agencies is as the topic says, unlocking potential. By the way, Nazia was supposed to moderate this panel and she told me to do it two days back. So I thought what we'll do is we'll contextualize what's happening in the larger ecosystem, brands, agencies and media and then figure out, then talk about, you know, what's the future looking like, what agencies need to do. So quick ones, you know, we know what's happening this year. There's been so much disruption. There's, you know, economic challenges.   Video, OTT, digital online, video consumption pulling through. So that's putting a lot of pressure on lots of parts of the advertising and the media ecosystem. I remember on 12th of February this year, we unveiled the Pitch Medicine Report and Mr. Balsara went on stage and said, happy days are here again. We are sitting in September now, 24th to be precise. In six months, the mood has drastically changed, right? Last month, we also, you know, revised the numbers downwards. NTO, of course, was one big factor. It created a lot of disruptions. What I want to know from the panelists, I'll start with Vikram, which I'm sure a lot of people sitting in this room want to know, are things going to get worse or you think things will get better? Okay. First, let me just put in perspective the downgrading. I don't want to only spell doom and gloom out here. Interestingly, when we downgraded the entire growth for the year in the Pitch Medicine Report, the only one that we really dropped was TV by about six, seven points. And the reason was because nobody saw the NTO and, well, we saw the NTO happening, but we didn't see the implications of that. And that really led to a whole lot of advertisers actually developing cold feet, understandably so, and therefore reducing the spends on TV. The rest of the mediums actually moved quite as per plan. Second quarter also grew on the back of increased IPL, on the back of a new World Cup, and on the back of elections. That also grew reasonably well. It's the third quarter with all the doom and gloom, which is threatening to look a little soft. We had only put 7% growth on the third quarter. It probably won't reach there. Fourth quarter, now with FM's latest announcements, I have a, I'm pretty sanguine. I'm an eternal optimist. I actually think the last quarter is going to bounce back a little bit. So it will not be as bad. I think we're going to have a growth this year versus last year, for sure not. I know we're going to have a growth and how much the growth is remains to be seen. Will it be 13 or will it be 10, 11 or 9? That remains to be seen, but it will be a growth. So there's a possibility of the number being... Yes, the calendar re-revised again. Shashi, what's your take? The last report said 13% for the year, down from 16. No idea on the numbers, because I'm not, as you know, a numbers person like my friend here, you know. So I was, one day I must tell you a small story before this. My friend was in Bangalore, put out a report, they called the Magna report. So I was very interested by what they put out. Then I said, one day I wanted a deep dive. So how do you do it? So they said, if you pick up group M, Madison, publicity, dance, you want to do an average of that. So that's how it is. So I have no clue on what the numbers are, but I think the larger point. So if you ask me, I'm not a... My larger point is it was looking tough this quarter and I think the latter part of the year November December will be tough. But what's happened on Friday, the sentiment has probably changed. And as you know, the economy is a bit of a trouble for two reasons. One, there's some structural issues, especially in finance. And we work with a lot of auto clients and as a result, we are seeing the heat. So there is some structural issues, which are not going to go away. It's going to be slightly long term. But there is a sentiment also and the sentiment will turn around with what's happened on Friday. So net net, I don't know whether it will be better than last year or not, but what we were predicting in the next two months probably will be better than that. Kavita, will your ilk spend more after the government's announcement? So I think telecom industries of course has a different problem than what the media industry is. But for me, I think it's not about spending more, but how do you really spend that money and where are the consumers? So my view will be sometimes a little bit contrarian to the rest of the panel as to what is spending more means and where do you spend more? So tell me, since you seek ROI of course on what you spend, where do you think agencies can do better, especially in today's environment? Do you think there is something lacking in terms of skill, expertise, data analytics? What more can they do to give you better ROI? I just, is that the world is evolving? The world is evolving. So I don't see it from the lens of lacking. Remember I have digital transformation as a hat including brands. So the way customers react and the consumers are reacting with how media was consumed, how advertising was consumed five years ago to today is very, very different. And in that, how are we able to evolve business models and operating models is the key question for all of us to really reach to that segment of one. And to reach to that segment of one, you need a lot of enablers. And in that, I think there are the big two enablers are people and technology with data being at the core of it. And all of us have to work harder to reach to that segment of one. You're being diplomatic. So tell us granularity. What specifically can an agency do? Your agency or other agencies working for many other brands? What exactly can they do to bring more knowledge, more insights to the table? So I think the first is challenge existing models, their own challenge status quo. I think we are all seeped in the world that we saw and the world that we grew up in. So we see the world as ATL, BTL, TV, print, outdoor. I don't think the consumer processes it that way anymore. I don't know how many people look at outdoor when they are moving. Are they on their smartphones or are they looking there? What is compelling content? Is monologue working? Is it dialogue? What is working for the customer? So all of these are questions and these questions are there because there are 460 million people who are on their phones and the way they are consuming their from whether it's phones or screens. And how do we really change that? And I think for me, the agency ecosystem, whether it is creative agency, media agency, digital agency, all of them have to really question that to get to problem solving. Rather than worry about my business, my PNL or how it will be solved. Because if you solve for this, you will get more money. Let me assure So Anupriya, you think we have made some headway into getting there? Are we able to make a crack at this? I know there are a lot of things agencies have tried in the last few years from acquiring digital agencies to acquiring data analytics companies to changing the way we are thinking, executing. But are we able to get somewhere close to where the client's expectations are? I think surely so. Like Kavita said that this is an evolving place. So there is no such thing as this is the transformation which has happened in the market and have we reached there and addressed that or not. It's continuously evolving and there are newer challenges coming, newer opportunities coming in the market. And the whole thing for all service providers, including agencies, essentially is to ensure that they evolve at that pace or faster than the market. And towards that we've seen all the, I mean we can talk of our group, but all the key agency groups we've seen enough and more conversation around investment, around data, technology, data science, analytics, commerce, and areas which had never been in the past been say core competencies for agencies. And the conversations that we have today in terms of data and technology and all of that are very very different from what were happening, forget 10 years back, but were happening even three years back. The kind of solutions that are being provided to the client. Now one can argue that they are absolutely solving for everything or possibly are lagging in some areas and definitely advance in other areas. One can argue that, but has there been a shift in the needle at an overall level across agency groups? I think most certainly so. Tell me are large agency groups well equipped to compete with startups, young, upstart, kids who have a data analytics company. I know a lot of the agencies have acquired these young startups, but it's just so diffused. You acquire three and another three come up tomorrow. Are large groups, how do large groups, let me rephrase it, how do large groups equip themselves to compete with this young 25 year old startups like Kavita said, we are living our own sort of youth or our younger self when we were consuming media. What do the large agencies do? How do you compete in an ecosystem where you know competitions coming from all over the place? So I can give example from my own experience of course. So acquisition definitely is one area and I've seen increasing the acquire groups across group. There has been a lot of acquisitions. I can give you an example of performance marketing. For example, this was something which is up and coming five, seven, eight years back and we acquired two companies in that space and just like you said, they were just startups and just shops of 50, 80 people. Today combined they are more than 700 people and that is essentially the one is the market dynamics because suddenly that whole area became extremely hot and extremely important for the clients. So here you have a specialist expertise which is totally focused on that one aspect and as a network you provide everything else around that so they don't have to waste the time on possibly hunting, on possibly connections with clients, on possibly figuring out how does that really solve for a larger client problem and providing them the infrastructure and any sort of funding that is very, very important to grow these services at scale and the same thing can be spoken about commerce today, the same thing can be talked about data and tech. So that is one way which is acquisition route and I have seen it work very, very well across quite a few agency groups. The second of course is you can always also hone that skill so far. Some of the solutions, for example, we have searched in the market and have not found there and we've developed in-house solutions for that and which have worked very well not for us only in India but we've also exported to outside, outside to our network as well. So both manners, it can work in both the manners and I think nobody is speaking. You run an Indian company so I wanted to come to you. No, to your question on these wonder kids at 25 versus old war horses, I think old war horses also have a role to play. What the younger, the wonder kids bring is fantastic technical capability, great curiosity, they're a devil may care kind of attitude which is fantastic, very bold guys and they're very good in terms of being able to manage the digital ecosystem, navigate the way through it and come out with answers. What they sorely lack is strategic maturity and any knowledge of the brand and anything, any knowledge outside of a digital domain. So actually the Jughal Bandi works very well. So just surround yourself with these young guys, you have enough to offer them and they have of course a lot to bring to the party. So it's not us or them. I mean you, Rekhma says you run one of the largest agencies in India, largest one actually. So the largest one that's what I corrected myself. So tell me, of course when you are that big in size, volume and the muscle you command in the market does play a very big role in how you perform. But what about the other elements, delivering better ROI, data analytics, working, are you as open to working with smaller upstarts? What does mindshare do? What does group M do to sort of make sure that the clients stay engaged? I think we've been in the country for now over 20, 25 years, close to 25 years in many ways. And some of the relationships of the clients that we have are spanning over 10 years, 12 years, 15 years. So I think you cannot sustain a relationship with clients on an ongoing basis unless and until you keep reinventing yourself at every juncture. And if you look at the trajectory of our industry over the last 15, 18 years, I think today the world that I am seeing is very different from the way I used to see it 18 months ago. So that's the kind of multiplier that we are talking about. And that's the kind of chaos that we're dealing with. I think the answer is, are we being very, very complicit in our past and our past glory? Like Kavita mentioned, do we have the mindset of challenging status quo? And I think, is there a mindset of inviting or learning and unlearning that we are building on an ongoing basis? It's very important to have a start-up mindset, even in a large organization wherein you have 800,000 people who work with you. It doesn't come easily, but I think that's the need of the art. If you don't know that, then perhaps you'll collapse and you'll deserve it. So what pushes agencies out of their comfort zones?  If business is good, you're riding the tide, you know, you continue to do the same thing. What is it that pushes agencies, is it a threat of, you know, younger upstarts, taking your business away? Is it, you know, clients calling for pitches for price discovery? I think it's hunger to do better than what you did yesterday, if you ask me. And if there's no hunger, whether clients call you for pitches or don't call you, I think pitches is not a new norm. Pitches has been there in an industry for, as long as I was born in the industry. So the first day when I came, I thought there was a pitch and then yesterday we attended a pitch and all of that. So I think that doesn't change, right? We can crib in the side room and we can all crib and laugh over it. But I think that's a norm and that will continue to happen. As agencies, are we geared up to improving on efficiencies and, you know, improving effectiveness? The answer is right. So I don't think there are any complaints over there. We know that this is the size and this is the method and this is the characteristic. But where does it stop? In the 20 years?  But what makes you... In fact, last year... My only question is that what makes you think that if there are no pitches, there are no efficiency conversations, you know? So I don't think there's a client and I'm saying clients are asking not only to their agency partners, but also within themselves, that is there an efficient way of doing things, you know? If I am doing things in, say, 100 rupees, can I do it in less than 100? Can I do 200 and stuff like that? I think they're asking the questions themselves and within their own processes and their own functionalities. So I don't think that's a question only for agency partners. And I think as agency partners, we are asking the same questions for our clients and we're asking the same questions internally to ourselves that can we do this better? If there are 10 people required, can we do it in nine people? If we charge 100 rupees, can we do it in 95? Or, you know, what? And so on and so forth. Let me ask you... Let me ask, actually, Shashi a question on, you know, since we are talking about pricing efficiency. Last three, four years, as I mentioned, a lot of the pitches have been about pricing efficiency, media pricing. I don't know whether, you know, we've reached bottom yet because last year, the triple A's of I had to, and INS and IBM got involved, everybody had to issue a so-called, you know, dictat. And it's still kind of a lot of pitches continue in the same vein. And this coming in an environment when business already is tough because of, you know, multiple issues that have happened, demonetization and then GST and then, you know, economic challenges this year, NTU and so on and so forth.  Is there a solution or the market will find its own bottom? Two answers. One answer is the ecosystem is reacting without getting into details of what is happening. As you've seen, the various associations are saying this is untenable. So I think efficiency, as I mean said, is desirable. The better you get over a period of time, the more it is. But this whole pitching thing, which you alluded to, has got a lot of side effects, which may not be real. And you've seen the ecosystem reacting. It's just eight, nine months, 10 months as this happened. And I think it's a good sign. It will only improve. I mean, for an industry which is working in a particular way over the last 10, 12 years, maybe more to make so much progress in the last eight, nine months, I think David, this will go away. The larger point I want to, and sorry, I want to react to something which Vikram said and which, you know, this whole thing of brand custodian and stewardship versus low funnel action in terms of, you know, performance, which is alluded to. I want to narrate a story and two stories, in fact. Many years back, Mr. Valsara, who's here in the audience, was being felicitated for his lifetime achievement and said something which he has stayed with me for so many years. He said, I got into the business, and if I remember rightly, this is what he said, that I got into this business because there's a power of communication. Communication is something to achieve and deliver and bring consumers and add value to brands as a result of which we are there. We are seen as adding value, whatever you call them, consultants, whatever value you call them. Cut to. Yes, I'm giving in snapshot what he said. So have I got it right, broadly? So I cut to last evening. So there's a large FMC advertiser, he and me were driving together, and he was saying, you have so much auto and what has gone wrong? So I said, what's your prognosis? He said, two things have happened, and I will not quote him loose because he was very lucid in what he said. He said, one, that all the advertising is on launches, they've forgotten this thought of doing theme communication, building brands, all they're doing is doing the launch, then they get out, it's all pricing, and then it's all low-funnel action on digital, and he was taking the big boy's name, saying these guys are to blame, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if you connect what Mr. Balsara said about, and what Vikram said today, about brand stewardship and communication, and then tying it up with local financial action, I think that's the crux. So a phase will come when advertisers and the ecosystem will realize, this is not enough, we have to move towards delivery. And finally, we'll build men back up in the sun, whether that happens in six months, one year, I don't know, it's already happening with certain clients. So are agencies somewhere lacking in being able to convince clients that in even times like these, more advertising is the way, or at least that much advertising is the way and not lesser? I'm not sure. So if I may take the liberty from outside to give Kavita's example, I think some of the best stewardship in terms of brand, which you see in the communication, comes from the company which is part of, I'm also sure what I've heard of low-funnel action in terms of performance comes from there. So they've got the ecosystem right, and I'm sure there are many such clients there. I don't want to get into price discovery and efficiency, that's a separate discussion that every client demands is due, but beyond a point, that's not, they're not looking for the bottom of the barrel. And I know many such clients, and I'm sure all of us have there. So I think mature clients realize this, that what Mr. Balsara said, many moons back, that finally we're in the business of delivering value. And value is not necessarily low-funnel action. Value starts from the top. Am I right, sir? Vikram, what's your take? How do we convince clients to spend more in this environment? Okay, short answer to that is with ideas and analytics. If you give them great ideas, they'll buy them. If you give them reasons to spend, they'll spend. Very simply put that way. Bottom line, effectiveness at one day has to become more important than efficiency. Efficiency story is easier to tell. Effectiveness story is a little bit more difficult to understand. There have been times when you actually told a client with these analytics, you spend and you'll get your, I remember the numbers also, we said you will get your awareness point, awareness from 34 to 45. And we took it to 46. Same plan. My God, that's got to be something. I mean, there was proper science modeling, it actually happened. So now, is that valued? No, you take it for granted or analytics did it. But somewhere along the line, over time, we may be, I think we have to, we have to probably sell our effectiveness stories better. I think we are doing a lot of them. Maybe we are underselling them. All good, but the procurement guy says, you know, I have 30% lesser money this year. How do you bound to that? We can't wish them away much as we'd like to. So the contra conversation has to be much louder and much more resonant than the procurement guys. So for every time, for example, procurement guy comes and says, don't take producer XYZ to make this film because he's so expensive and go for one, some fall to guy who's actually charging very little. The marketing guy definitely puts his cloud and say, sorry, I want the best because this film depends on it. Why are they being able to trump the procurement guy there? Somewhere, the conversation is that those guys are worth their money. So probably they're not feeling the same thing way with us. And that's a conversation we have to improve. Amin, what's your take? I just wanted to add to that. I think the whole conversation is not as linear as it used to be earlier that how do we get the clients to spend more? The conversation has sometimes back shifted to how do we get the clients to be successful because all the companies we can see are under tremendous margin pressure. They themselves are reinventing their ways of working to ensure that they are relevant in this day and age. And I think across the board, it has changed from how do we get them to spend more to how can we get them successful, which means how can we possibly help them to sell more. And the two not necessarily are directly correlated. There are solutions outside of only spending more also, which can help clients and definitely those are also added beyond just increasing the budget. So, I mean, data analytics and everything, of course, makes it work harder. And the whole conversation around procurement and negotiation makes it work harder. But the conversations are no longer limited only to how we can get them to spend more. I think it's extremely important to be playing ball with the client in terms of how can we make them successful? Yes. Amin, you wanted to say something. I think Anupri has rightly articulated and before that Vikram as well. I think we are here to drive business for our clients. I think as long as we stick to that narrative, whether it is driving it through upper funnel or activating the lower funnel, or by better consumer understanding, or by decoding the data and the consumer footprint much better. I think whatever we do, whichever part of the consumer journey we activate, if you are being able to make a case that this will drive your business better than yesterday, I think there is a case and I'm 110% sure the client will walk with you. So, I think it's more of that than just thinking that, you know, how do I make him spend more or, you know, spend more on TV versus, you know, digital. I think those are how-to's and we can deal with them later on. But I think the core focus is that how does all your actions try and drive business? That brings me to another point since you mentioned TV. You know, we've seen what's happened last few years, especially one, the growth of digital and second, this year, the disruption caused by NTO. What we've all noticed is that the stronger, larger networks have become stronger. Most of the growth has gone to the larger ones and the mid-size and the smaller ones have got squeezed out. How does that impact the agency business? Is the larger, stronger players getting even more stronger? Is that good or bad for the advertising business?  And how do you kind of deal with that next two, three years? Because consolidation, like it has partly happened on the agency side of the ecosystem, it is also happening on the television media side. I think the macro environment, and if I were to just use this analogy and see it outside of television, then you see that happening in digital as well. And you see it in many of the sectors as well, that, you know, and the same kind of trend that we are seeing. However, my principle or our principle is very, very clear that we will invest in places which deliver eyeballs. So if there are eyeballs, money will flow automatically. If there are no eyeballs, then the money dries up. So I think if there is a case for a platform or a partner, whether it's a TV channel, whether it's a digital platform, whether it's radio, whether it's anybody, if there are eyeballs, money will flow in. If there are nothing, if there is none, then you don't just kind of start feeding into it. I think all other conversations then are subsequent and, you know, you could do that. Can you move away? Yeah, we can. 10 to agree with the mean and disagree with you. I don't think the strong networks on TV, especially TV, unlike a Google Facebook on digital, in TV, the dominant networks don't necessarily mean make the other guys redundant or useless. I think wherever there are, in fact, in today's environment, you need more channels to get reach because, I mean, even your best GEC channel in a week is not getting more than 35-36% reach. Gone are the days when the top channel would get 75-80% reach. So you need more channels to typically build your reach, even small guys. The guys who have to worry about are, in today's environment, are the people who are bought not on ratings, but on effective rate. Those guys are getting being put under the most scrutiny because you don't even know whether the damn channel is being put into the package or not there.  Unfortunate part is, and I say it is unfortunate part for many reasons, which country in the world where you have one, two, three, four networks buying 85% on television? So that answers your question. So there is consolidation. That's what I've mentioned. There's consolidation on one side. It's gradually happening on the other side. Kavita, have you been part of Vodafone for a long time? So as the media, especially the television, because you've been a heavy user of television, first, IPL was sponsored by Vodafone. Have you seen the kind of aggregation of good quality content on TV, on one side impacting what's happening at your end, in terms of how you are approaching plans and buying media? Yes, I think, so I must confess that I came back to marketing about after 10 years of doing various other things in the same company. And for me, I was surprised by two things. One is there are things that have remained the same, and there are things that have changed. And the things that have remained the same is what I think Shashi alluded to, to saying that how do we reach out to the consumer? It doesn't start with what are the mediums that we reach or that we need to do, to do advertising as much as how do we really get the share of mind and share of heart, which is what we will be said. So how do we really have great storytelling? And that storytelling can be in different forms. It used to be three minutes to now 30 seconds. So I think that has remained the same. The things that have changed are how do we really approach some of this, which includes media? So this year, IPL, we were not on television and we were only on digital. So we experiment and we do these things and it's got nothing to do with whether television is working or not. But what is really helping us from what is it that we would want to do with our consumers and in this case it was a whole load of activation rather than just doing awareness stuff. So if that really works and then when I've come back to marketing and I mean unfortunately, unfortunately has been part of these discussions as to how do these mediums really stack up and how do we really use them wisely for the overall brand agenda that you need to really follow and that brand agenda is to reach the share of heart of the consumer, which is changing. So they don't really want this monologue. They don't want us to really topo advertising it. How is it, why are they buying subscription-led stuff because they can see content without advertisers coming in. That is a challenge, but I see that as an opportunity saying that it really makes you think more on how do you really become better storytellers because anybody and everybody loves a good story. What about digital, television of course. Digital already has significant consolidation at one end. If you look at Google, Facebook, they pretty much have 85% 80-85% of the market globally and also in India. I was told without taking names one of the large networks, agency networks grew on the back of digital advertising last few years and two of their key markets in the Asia pack region billing has collapsed because these companies are now directly going to clients. So Martin Sorrell famously called them frenemies few years back. One, is that a threat to the agency ecosystem? One, a lot of client money shifting there and then being sort of bypassed. Two, how do you deal with that? So I think, so my view on digital, that insourcing is going to happen and we are in the middle of that. And when that happens, how do you really look at your agency partner? Do they really do strategic consulting work with you to help you drive that better or do you really go back to what was the efficiency world that we were talking about? If you get into the efficiency world and if you then say that my top line, my this thing, you will just go down. But if you really say that this is a reality, this is going to happen and how do I really change the value equation? Because I know my partner really well and I think both of them really set valid points that how do I really make my client successful and in that if this is the way they're moving, how do I really partner to shift the conversation from whether it should be insourced or not insourced or you know, so that is how I look at it. And for Vodafone, it has really helped us and both it is not just that means insourcing has helped as well as our equation with our agency partners has really moved further not just ahead because Shashi said right, otherwise everything goes down to the bottom of the funnel, top of the funnel, so how do you really forget all of this and say that what is the overall agenda and how do you really, the cohort of partners that you have, how do you really drive that?  It's been kind of the story of the last few years but it's kind of reaching an inflection point now. I think many things threaten us on a daily basis. So yeah, and Google Facebook are great friends but I think if you step back and if you start looking at it, you know, the critical point is that world over and the markets, especially now in India, if you look at last two, three years after GEO, post GEO and all of that, I think there is enough publishing networks, you know, platforms which are emerging and they're achieving critical mass of audiences on themselves and slowly that trajectory is only going to move and take shape for that. So it's a matter of another year or year or two that, you know, the shift in the balance and the shift in the equation will happen very soon. We are already seeing the early signs. I think most of the big agency partners are working towards making sure that, you know, that ecosystem also thrives going forward. I think our biggest enabler that is missing in the industry today and this is more of a question to the industry and as a job to be done right now is how do we land effective measurement in this ecosystem and once measurement starts getting landed, you know, we will then have the same principles that we really want to be and we want to be agnostic with the platform. How do you get measurement when there are only two guys who bring their own data? I mean, I was actually talking to somebody like Star TV going to a planner every week saying, this is my ratings. So that's how it's been. I mean, how do you change it? I mean, it's an entirely different conversation. But how do you change it? Is there anything that can be done? I'll tell you what's going to, let's, you were talking about what is it going to take to get the next big growth thing, right? The one area which is growing today is digital. If they don't fix it, the equivalent of the cola, pesticides, care, or the chocolate worm, it'll require one of these to totally blow up in your face and take out all trust, credibility in digital and the 18,000 crore pie can come crashing like a house of cards. And I'm not being sensationalistic. The entire viewability and fraud piece has to be addressed in brand safety. I haven't even gotten to because brand safety is something which at least in this market is not, I mean, we don't feel it at an individual level. But the other two is becoming a joke. And just for anybody to come back and say that because I can bully you and I'll only give you my data and therefore you have to go by that, I think it's a horrible travesty. It just requires advertisers to come up and some of them have taken up bold stance. More of them should and say, if you don't give us a standardized viewability and anti-fraud mechanism, we are out. And tools exist. Only thing is everybody is using their own set of tools. None of the ones, what does it take for the, there are five agencies, right? What does it take for you to get together and say this is what we want? Do it or, you know, the client ecosystem is much more fragmented. At this point in time, the conversation has been, you tried to attempt it through industry bodies and it's failed. And we've been very patient about it. And I'll hand it over to somebody who's been at the thick of it. He'll be able to tell you much more. So unfortunately, I understand about the ecosystem of measurement in this country. And I think it's a larger point being made with Vikram just made that finally publishers have to realize that's for their growth, long-term growth. Short-term, there may be a bit of a pain. So if some numbers come down, some numbers go up, that's a minor thing. And solution is the industry body. So just now while digital measurement has been slow, TVs, we have a robust mechanism going, print, we have a robust mechanism going with my friend on the left. But I think somewhere digital, because they're such strong dominant players, there is a bit of a resistance. And I think I mean, touched on of there. So if all the advertiser fraternity gets together and says, listen, we need third-party industry bodies, I believe, finally, industry measurement is the right way to go. This is a crying need. And if this happens, and they have to realize in their head that this has got to do not with one ODD platform versus Google or whatever. It's got to do, and I'm saying a lot in what I'm not saying, that it's got to do for the larger cause because finally it'll catch up with you. So till that happens, what happened to television? Finally, eight people sat around the table and said, this has to be done. The government got into it. Finally, it'll happen. So like he said, some of the context is eternal optimist. I'm an optimist on measurement. There's pain just now, but it'll happen. And till that doesn't happen, there's going to be chaos. And this industry will only mature then. And otherwise, if it doesn't happen, then you have the risk of to use the strong words that things can explode. Just to add to that, also when you're talking about these two large platforms really going direct and all of that, this has been a whole evolution. There was a time that they thought that it was direct, was good because they were platforms and they were self-enabled. You can land advertising yourself. They were not designed for agencies. And of course, over a period of time, as they grew fast and grew big, they realized that there was a role, that very critical role that the agencies played. And almost like 10 years back is when this whole movement started, when they started engaging with agencies and they realized how much value agencies brought onto the table. So when we talk about some of these cases here and there, that these cases like these have existed in the broadcasting system, in all these systems in the past as well. But those are more like here and there, and it doesn't sort of define how the industry is moving. And more importantly, it's not only two world gardens that are the present. There are other world gardens also, which have come up in the meantime. So you have a whole commerce segment. You have the whole OTT segment. Everything is becoming a world garden. It is very tough for a client to keep dealing with multiple world gardens without a neutral advisor in the center. And hence, to my mind, the role of the agencies will always continue as long as they are clear. What is the value that they're bringing onto the table? Okay. Any last thoughts, Amin? I see the clock clock is running out, so we'll do some audience questions after this. Just that, Ache din ane wale. We are living in the middle of that. Yeah, but I'm very hopeful and inspired by the seniors in the industry that, yeah, we are on to, you know, I mean, if you look at the advertising spends in the country itself, despite the lower growth, we're still beating world averages and that's not going away. So this is still one of the highest or the fastest growing markets in the world and let's not forget about it. So there is traction. Yeah, there are pockets of challenges, but there are also offshoots and green shoots which are coming out. And hopefully with the clients being with us and all the agency partners together, we will find the right answer to measurement ways soon. Two more things. You know, before we wrap up and then move to the audience questions, there's a global trend which has been, you know, catching on last few years, all the big four consultancies getting significantly into, you know, at least the digital part of the business. You know, curating content, doing data analytics and significant overlap with what the agencies are doing today. It's not really, you know, that bigger deal in India yet, but there's no reason why an IBM or an Accenture, you know, come to India and do what they're doing globally and they're pretty aggressive. You know, I was reading an ad week report. The top 10 agency networks, four of them were, you know, Global Consultancy, Deloitte, PwC, Accenture and IBM. And a lot of that growth has come through acquisitions, money for which agencies also are competing.  One, these global, you know, players becoming more aggressive in India. Second part is, you know, the growth of digital, especially Google Facebook as we've discussed. We don't know whether measurement will be solved by then. We don't know whether, you know, the, you know, other issues will be addressed by then. So if you look at a, I'm not looking into long term, nobody knows what's going to happen then, but say a three, four year horizon, where will agencies stand given all of these, you know, because you're getting squeezed from multiple sides? So actually, I think that's a great question because you were talking about Google and Facebook and my, my view was that it's not, and Shashi means, I don't know whether it's an industry, ROI world or because the, the, the business models are changing. Bioconsulting companies are moving to this because they know that the, their core role of just being a consultant is no more valuable in this digital native era because people have some of that knowledge that and what to drive, right? So, and then e-commerce or OTT, so the, the way the business models are of agencies have to change. They have to change because if you do not really evolve your business model in this new digital era, you will have to face with competition, not only of these insourcing or digital platforms, newer companies which will come in and they may be able to do it better because data analytics technology comes fairly naturally to them and why are they doing forward or backward integration? How creative, because that's not what something that comes easily to them. So the agency business model has to evolve. It's something to think of whether when we broke the creative media world and we broke into agencies, is this now time back to, you know, do some consolidation there to really solve for what our customer problems and consumer problems? So that is that stuff that we should really think about. Quite a simple. I'd be delighted if they come in because if clients get used to paying them what they pay them and find that we are delivering something equivalent or close by, we'd be happy. We can get the same talent, we can hire the talent. Conversely, what we get paid if they can work on those prices, I'd be delighted. They'll screw up the entire global business model there. And I'll just add my two bits on consultants. I think they bring in superior strategic consulting. They really have a very refined thinking. That's great. I think they are building in fantastic strengths and the data and tech, which even we as agencies, that's a business model change, which is an imperative. So we're also embracing that. But the part which we have light years of experience more than them is operational expertise. Every time some of these consultants, so to speak, come in as a media auditor to a pitch, man, we have them going around in hoops when they have to find out a simple implementation plan, they're not being able to see through it what even a five-year-old in our agency would be able to see. So they are woefully, woefully inadequate in actually understanding the rigors of TV, even print, even radio kind of planning. So is it easier for us to acquire data and tech skills and arguably consultancy versus them trying to get into the integrities of operational planning? I'll give ourselves more chances. Right. I mean, you want to get in? No, I think there's a lot to learn from new players coming out of the market and competition is a welcome and I think there is enough in the market and more are pretty much welcome in that space. And hopefully we will learn a thing or two from them. My concern is not there.  So you don't come and check things as far as the other people's processes and ways of working and all of those things are there. And then go to the client and say, you know what, after checking him, I can tell you that I can do this better for you. So you decide you want to be in the business of what we are doing, please welcome. We will have one more chair, maybe two more chairs over here and we will have that conversation and we will compete very nicely with you. But decide on which role you want to do. Fantastic, but that's the direction the world is moving in. I'm sure what you're saying will come through maybe next year or the year after, we'll have to consultancy rep sitting here. Any questions from the audience before we wrap up? Okay, fantastic. That gives me a chance for one final one. Before we end, there are five, six points I'd sent you. So I want to ask you if you look at the next 12 months, what are the things that as agency, brand heads that concern you, especially this for agencies, there are seven points here. First and foremost is clients moving some services in house, competition for talent, budget cuts by clients, creating capability for managing data and analytics, keeping up with the automation, marketing tech adoption by clients, or lower media pricing by competition, but by your own ilk. What are these things, if you were to tell me top two or three things that you would bother about over the next 12 months? I want to add one more line, all of the above. For me, it's one. Well, you have to choose.   Talent is critical because our business models are not allowing us to hire quality talent or quality talent not being attracted to our industry for a variety of reasons. You know, so I think if that to me that if you fix that, everything else we just said will get fixed. Will that also fix lower pricing by competition? So I'm saying if you fix the larger part of it, you know, that what money is one, the five of the reasons which talent is to come, and when Anupya got in or Vikram got in the role model, what attracted him to advertising at that point in time, may not be necessarily the reason. So money is one part, the five of the factors, you know, the joy of doing great work, rather than the operational excellence he spoke about, or the working hours, work-life balance, there are many other factors. So you will get that right. If you correct quality talent, rest is taken care of. Vikram, I think you phrase the question in terms of which are the negative kind of forces which are bothering you. It's because all of them have to be addressed. Yeah, but I'd say obsession with pricing bothers me because it's just there's so much energy that goes into that. And you know, here's a tip. In fact, you know, for all those guys who are obsessed with pricing, there are always three things. There is a pitch pricing is what you actually execute and what you finally report. And that's a whole story and that's a finally a book can be written on that. So it's kind of silly. That's what people are chasing and what they're finally getting. And that's a separate thing altogether. But I think talent and pricing are the two things which concern me. The rest of them are all positive challenges. And pricing is both, of course, competition pricing as well as media pricing. It is kind of interlinked.  Yes, that's okay. We'll finish it. I think Sashi really summed it up very, very well. I think if I have to choose one between that, I think getting the right talent and having the right kind of people will solve for many of the other problems. In my view, it will also solve the pricing problem for me. Last word, Anupya. So for me, it is a world of constant evolution. And unlearn and relearn for us is extremely important, not only in our industry, in all the industries. It's very important to whatever has worked in the past, for sure, you can't be successful on the back of that in the future. So unlearning and relearning is really the key. Out of the five things I mentioned, which ones are your top? Competition for talent, because India is a fast-going market. If you don't have the ability to attract the right talent at scale and at speed and train them and hone them, then everything else that you can do is not going to really reap any benefits because there is no talent who is going to deliver on that, right? So competition for talent, I think, is the most. And plus, you're not only competing within the networks, you're also competing with everybody outside in the industry. That's right. Fantastic. So I think one of the key takeaways is the industry really needs to work on being able to attract better talent, the kind of talent that entered the industry 20 years back. With that, wrapping up the panel, thank you for listening patiently. A big round of applause to all the panelists. Thank you for making it.


As rope shippers we are always trying to find more profitable products and improve our stores. But there are some very easy tips and tricks that can help us to maximize our profits for every buyer that comes to our stores and get much more sales. In this video I will show you nine different strategies that I am implementing in all my stores to improve my profits for every client that comes into my store and wants to buy any of my products. Short intro and we are starting. Hello everybody! So our first method to get more profits per sale from our products is to have partnerships with our suppliers. The partnerships can be private partnerships, direct partnerships with our suppliers if we work with big sites like AliExpress for example, or it can be a special partnership with a specific supplier. For example in AutoDS we have a special link for a discount of 3% for any purchase from Costway.com. You can get more details about it below this video. So this method will really help you to get more 3% of profits per sale when you work with Costway. We have something similar for Banggood where if you go to Banggood's dropship center instead of 5% discount you will get 7% and it will be much more profitable than your competitors and we will talk about it later in this video. The second method to maximize your profits when you work with dropshipping products is using the lighting deals. So if I go to any site for example we will take Banggood.com. We have here the flash deals section. If I go to the flash deals section I will see there that I can see more products with discounts that are with the discount right now. So for example this camera price is $30 while right now it costs only $13. Now think about it not all of the dropshippers are using dropshipping softwares and not all of the dropshippers are following the prices of the suppliers. It means that if you work with flash deals you will be much more competitive and you will be able to make more profits per sale because instead of really decreasing your price you can decrease your price a bit just to be below the competition but to grab more profits. So for example this product I wouldn't really decrease the price as the the source price is $13. I would sell it as considering if my price was for example $20 and in this method I would grab at least 10% profits more from the sale. That's the second tip number three use the global shipping program of ebay. What do I mean? I'm talking about it in other video which will be in the description of this video but the global shipping program is a program that will help you to send from United States suppliers not only to United States. For example if you work with amazon.com you can send only inside the US but if you work with a global shipping program your audience and the people who can buy from you will be much bigger audience. What do I mean? If I go to a site which called for example similar web.com which is a site that shows traffic to stores to sites. I will write here ebay.com and I will get the result of how many people are going to buy on ebay.com from different countries. Now if I scroll down here I can see that from the United States it's only 80% of the traffic of ebay.com but what about Canada, Russia, United Kingdom, China is less relevant but more other countries. What about them? What about all the people that come to buy from these different countries on ebay.com? If you are not using the global shipping program you are missing these people and they will not be able to buy from you. This why we created the guide about how to work with the global shipping program and I'm really really recommending you to use this program and apply it to all your listings that don't have the global shipping program and don't ship worldwide from other sites like AliExpress for example that offers you worldwide shipping. The fourth thing that I'm doing in my stores is to add at least 10% of my products as products with coupons. The coupons can come directly from the supplier from a specific partnership as I said in the tip number one but you can also use service for example like the Autodesk Finder. In Autodesk Finder we scan Amazon every day for coupon products. Now think about the huge potential of it. Sometimes Amazon offers you coupons of 50% discount even or 20% discount or $20 it doesn't matter. They offer really huge discounts in a term of coupon for different products. How can we use it for our stores? We just put the regular pricing for our products and then when we place our orders we will grab the coupon and grab much more profit per sale. If we take a look on the Autodesk Finder we can see here that we have the products with high chance of coupons which are products that Autodesk found that they really have a coupon right now and then you can upload them with the click of a button directly to your store. This tip made a huge results to part of the people who I taught in the past and for the students of our mentors. You can even see that on our mentorship program page the huge profits that people shown there. Let me show you that. For example this student of Clayton in the mentorship program showed a huge result of $80 difference from a coupon that he sold a product using this coupon. So think about that. This user made for example around $13 in profits but he made additional $80 in profits just using the coupon. By the way the automated orders will also grab the coupons for you automatically. Tip number 5. Use dropship center of different sites when they have this option. For example Banggood.com offers you a dropship center with huge discounts. We have a full video about how you can get there immediately a VIP level and get more discounts but I will talk about it shortly in this video too. So we have a partnership with Banggood.com that offers you 7% discount initially instead of 5% discount that everyone who will register to the dropship center will get. Below this video I will add a link to the Banggood dropship center and to the video about how to opt in to this service. Now how will it help you? If you go to Banggood dropship center you can see that you can get up to 20% discount just from this that you are working with at Banggood dropship center and then you will get much bigger advantage over any of your competitors and grab much more profit on your sales. Now something important here. You need to be consistent with one dropship center because if you sell more using this supplier for example Banggood you will get bigger discounts and Banggood will love you more and then you will get much more discounts per sale and grab much more profits. So I really recommend you to take one supplier when you focus on their dropship center. I recommend Banggood because they have the US shipping center and Chinese one and then just grow with them more and more until you get to the highest discounts here and then you can be much more competitive, sell much more and make much more profits. Tip number six. Let's say that you listed in your store a product where the keyword was the lightweight tripod. Now let's say that you listed this product from a US supplier for example amazon.com and you will have here the different prices of products. Now if we check what is the average price here we would see prices like $30, $17, $70 and many other different prices which are higher than $30 in average as we can see here. Now if we go to any Chinese supplier for example Aliexpress we will see on the same category and on the same keyword much much cheaper prices which goes up to $10 from what I can see here. Now think about it. You can take a product that sells well for you from a United States supplier where the prices are much higher and then list the same product from Chinese supplier where the cost for you will be much cheaper and you can grab much more profits. That's what I do. I'm first listing products from US suppliers. I see that they work well for me and then I'm just taking the same product finding it with cheaper price which usually will be from Chinese suppliers listing it to my store and I will grab in this method much more profits for sales of the same product for the same keywords. Remember what's important in eBay search algorithm is the keywords. So if the keyword is the same the photos are good mostly you will be able to still compete with yourself and with other sellers for the same product for the same keywords but with much cheaper prices because you buying it from China. Now something important here it will decrease the sales a bit because the slower the slower shipping time but not all of the buyers are care about the shipping speed. So it means that maybe some of the buyers will see our product and will not buy it because of the slower shipping time but for this you also have your products for the same keyword from United States suppliers with faster shipping speed. I hope that it's clear. It means that basically what you do you take the same product with the same keyword and listing it with two different shipping speeds one from China and one from the United States then people who search for cheaper prices will buy from your Chinese listing and people who search for faster shipping will buy from you your US warehouses and US listing. Remember it cannot be the exact same product because it's against eBay's policy but it can be similar products on the same keywords and again not exactly the same title but something similar with the same main keyword. I hope that this tip is clear for you. This one is really important and we really help you to scale up your business and to gain more profits per sale for products that you already know that works well for you. Seventh strategy that I'm doing in my stores to increase my profits per sale is using the business policies. If you put the right business policy you can grab some more profits using a very simple and special trick. Let's see what I do.  Now let's say that you work with China but you can also implement it for US suppliers in the same method just think out of the box how to implement it right. So what I do is that on my policy I offer one shipping method which is a bit slower for example economy shipping from China and another one which is the standard one. Now for the standard one I will grab more profits $2 per sale just for this that the buyer will ask for faster shipping. Now for us when we work from Chinese suppliers the price will be the same anyway and anyway AutoDS will include for you the shipping price inside the product price. But what we do here is that we give to the buyer the feeling that they can get the product faster using this that they will just pay you $2 per sale. Now from my experience really high percent of the buyers will ask for faster shipping and will pay you this to extra dollars. You can play with it you can put a bit lower amount or a bit bigger amount and just grab more profits using this method. Now if you see here here I take more money for the shipping and this is because from this to this locations the shipping is more expensive for me and this is why we also grab more profits here and asking more money from the buyer for this shipping. Tip number eight this feature is one of my favorite features in AutoDS and this is the price optimization. You can do that also manually and just use the bulk changes and filters in your tool if the tool doesn't support the price optimization but in AutoDS what you can do is to configure the AutoDS platform to increase the price for you automatically every sale. So what I do here is that after I sold at least one product from a specific product the price will be increased after each sale by five percent for example in this case. Now what does it mean? It means that when we start selling more and more the price will be increased more and more and we will do more profits because we will have an advantage over our competitors because we have more sales history and we will just grab more profits for the sales. Now I recommended to start increasing the price not after the first sale especially not for beginners but after something like two or three sales at least. Another thing here is that you shouldn't worry about this that the price will be too high because AutoDS will also decrease the price for you automatically and you can just take a look on this feature it will just go and decrease the price every X days according to your configuration and this way you will still be competitive in case that your price went too high. The last tip here tip number nine is using the messages to buyers. Take one product that works well for you your best selling product and it should be a generic product it should be something that not very specific to it shouldn't be a chair for example it should be something that most of the people will find it as relevant for them for example a gift or something for for home or something for garden something that most of the people will find it relevant especially for the specific period of the year you should also think maybe we are in summer or in the winter or in this case right now COVID-19 and find something that is really general for the specific season then take this product and push this product as upset to your users to your buyers how to do that when you have an order it's highly recommended to send three messages to your buyers thank you for buying for us this is your tracking number and please leave us a positive feedback after the buyer received his order now we can maximize it for ourselves if you go to messages to buyers thank you message you can add here a link to a hot selling product and say there hey I know that you bought from us and I want to help you even more this is one of our top selling products and we highly recommend you to buy this because right now we have a discount for this product for example and you can even offer them a small discount then most of your of your buyers will not buy that but part of the buyers even a small percent of them will still buy that and then you will grab more profits for a specific client that anyway bought something from you this tip is amazing because it's really easy to implement it doesn't take you any time especially if you work with the automatic system of the messages and it really really works I hope that you like this video I hope that you will implement these nine tips it will increase your profits each of the tips will increase it by a small percent but all of them together will do will make a huge difference in your store and in your see in the next videos and don't forget to subscribe this youtube channel like this video so more people will get benefits of this video and share it with your friends and other dropshippers to help them become better sellers see in the next videos bye bye


Okay, that's okay. That's okay. I don't need. Okay. Hello everyone. My name is Bajgi Bizaram here to talk about the small tool that visualizes placement resource view. As you most probably know OpenStack started collecting the resource view in a separate service called placement. And today it's already tracking CPU memory and disk utilization of the compute hosts. But in the recent releases we added a lot of other resources and other features to placement like tracking bandwidth, tracking cyborg accelerators. And through this we added a lot of complexity into the resource view of what is stored in placement. When you want to query the placement resource view, you will end up using OpenStack CLI because there are resource provider subcommands in the OpenStack CLI to get that. You have to go and list of the resource providers, check the inventory, check the trades, check the aggregates. And also you have to know what are the consumptions in placement. So you have to know what is the consumer. Consumers tend to be another server. So you list the servers. Remember the UIDs and go back to placement and query the locations of the servers. So this is a lot of command to remember. And the output of these commands are referring to UIDs. You have to correlate between command output. So when I use these, I always end up drawing a picture by hand. And then I realize that, okay, that picture can be drawn by a tool, not just by me on a paper. So I ended up implementing something that visualizes the placement information and that's ended to be an OpenStack CLI plugin. You can pip install it called OSC placement tree. It actually provides two new OpenStack CLI subcommands called resource provider tree list and resource provider tree show. The tree list will give you the whole resource view of the overall cluster. And the provider tree show can limit this output to a single provider tree, which is basically a compute node. And this tool emits GraphWiz.formatted text output that you can pipe into whatever tool that understands GraphWiz and you will get a picture. How this picture looks like. So this is an output from a two compute node DevStack, which has bandwidth configured in both compute nodes. And one of the compute nodes has even one FPGA from Cyborg. So this is a pretty complex picture already. Let's zoom in. This is one compute node from this two compute nodes placement, two compute nodes DevStack. All the boxes are resource providers. The top box is the compute resource provider and down below there are child providers because we have to have more fine grain control about who reports what kind of resources. If you zoom even further, then this is the compute root provider. This provides inventories from different resource classes like disk memory and vCPU. And the output contains the used and total and reserved amounts of these resources. This also shows the traits the compute has. These are compute capabilities. And it would show aggregates if there would be any aggregate defined. I don't have those. And of course it shows the name of the compute and the UID of the resource provider. And on this picture, which is more interesting, is there are arrows that shows relationship between providers and consumers. So the normal arrows are parent-child relationship between the root provider and the child providers. And the dashed arrows will be consumptions. If you go down on this picture, this is a child provider actually for the compute node that provides the bandwidth. But what is more interesting is the bottom of the picture that is a consumer. In this case, this is a server booted by NOVA. And there is two arrows coming out of this that presents two types of consumption by this consumer. The one is in the left side going to the grandchild bandwidth provider. On the right side, this arrow goes up to the root. And both arrows are annotated with the amount of resources this consumer consumes from that specific provider. So this is the structure. Okay, what's good for why I did this? I had to troubleshoot a lot of resource allocation problems in my environment. And as I said, I always ended up drawing pictures. And I wanted to automate that. Also, it helped me to understand how placement models resources, how placement models consumption. And last but not least, as a NOVA developer, I had to understand how we test the complex placement interactions. And we have functional test both in NOVA and placement that sets up pretty complex scenarios. And those test cases tend to describe what they are doing. But I wanted to verify that the description is correct. This is what the fixture tells me what we'll do. It's actually what it does in placement. So what I did, I just ran this tool against the database created by the test case and then compared the description in the test case with the actual picture I got from the tool. What is it not good for? If you try to run this against a big, big, big deployment, especially the OpenStack Resource Provider 3 list command, then it might fail on the client side. Because this goes and queries everything out of placement. And today, placement doesn't have one get API. So I have to iterate through a lot of API calls and then gather all the information in memory in the client side and then generate the graph. So actually, I tried this against 100 compute node deployment and it takes 20 seconds in my laptop to generate the picture. That's still okay, but I wouldn't run it against a thousand nodes deployment that most probably blow your client. What you can do is you can use the 3-show command because that's limited output to a single compute by the name of the compute. So that's always safe to run because it's just one compute. That couldn't be that big. So you miss something. If you miss something, tell me. I'm Gibi on FreeNode and I am here on this summit on PTG. And of course, you can go and fork the repo and send me pull requests. It's not under the governance of the foundation right now because it just increased dent and me who has contributed to that. So it was easier just to keep it as a GitHub repo. But if there is enough interest, I can move it under the foundation stuff. I already know some of the things that I'm missing. For example, placement talker gates today is just UIDs in the picture, but I can draw arrows to represent it visually. Also, there are relationships between consumers. If you resize or migrate a server, then that will mean that you will have two separate allocations, one on the source host and one on the destination host for the server. And that would be just two separate boxes on this picture. I should correlate them as well that these two consumption because of the same server being migrated at the moment. And also, as I said, I use a lot of this in the functional test of NOVA and placement. Today, I have patch proposed to placement to enable dumping this resource view as a .file at every functional test step in a placement functional test run. So you can actually step through the evolution of this picture as the test progresses. You can enable it with an environmental flag. And also, I have a snippet of code that you can copy into the NOVA functional test and then you can get the same. I also plan to propose that patch against NOVA to automate this. But if you have anything else, then please tell me. Thank you.