‘We need markets like India and China to grow faster than the matured markets’
“A 73% retention rate was what made 2023 a good year for Wavemaker, which ended being the most successful media network worldwide,” says Hamish Davies, Global Chief Growth & Marketing Officer, Wavemaker. Commenting on India, he says. “The biggest win in India was Reckitt which was 75 million +, one of the biggest FMCG clients in India, that came in mid-year. The relationship has flourished since we took over. In the global scale that was the seventh biggest win or retention for us worldwide which is an illustration of just how important India is as a single business to drive growth all around the world.” Speaking on the current global sentiment, Davies says the year has been calm from a new business perspective. He says, “There has been several very large new business pitches in the first half of this year. Unilever and Amazon are two huge game-changer pitches that are in the market. There has been a series of very large pitches, what we haven’t seen so much is medium and smaller size businesses pitches either locally or regionally. I am not sure why that exactly is. It might be because there have been so many big pitches in the market that people have been put off or other reasons you can quite tell.” He continues, “This year has been dominated by a few major pitches and only now, in the early summer, other opportunities are coming to the fore.”
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A key focus for Wavemaker has been the start-up ecosystem. However, the rise in interest rate led to VC funding drying up which resulted in few fast economy businesses being in play. With interest rates declining, Davies says that there has been an uptick in fast economy clients.
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Last year saw the launch of WPP Open – an integrated platform for all services – across the group and this has led to the joining up of all components which was earlier done separately right from the Discover stage to building strategy to the planning stage to the activation stage and the measurement stage. Davies says that two major clients – Pepsico and Nestle – have embraced the platform. WPP Open now allows a faster that also enables outcome-based models because the measurement is entrenched in the planning process. Looking at the Indian market, Wavemaker India had a 100% retention rate and a big win with Reckitt and Davies says the leadership and dominant position ensures that clients continue with Wavemaker in India. On the way forward, Davies says, “This year we have doubled down on some big pitches and if they come off we will have a very good year. If they don’t we will have a less exciting year. We have a focused strategy this year. For India specifically they have a big number about $300 million target for new business for the group. We need markets like India and China to grow faster than the matured markets in North America and Europe.”