Sindhuja Rai started her career with a media agency and spent 13 years in the domain, before moving to the client side spending an equal number of years with Mondelez India and Mondelez International. Last year, Rai moved back to the agency side of the business to lead Wavemaker as the CEO for the APAC region. Speaking about returning to an agency, Rai says, “It has been a delight to come back to the agency side of the business.”
Rai’s stint at Mondelez helped her understand the depth of the corporate organizations and the nitty-gritty of their functioning. It helped her understand how different functions come together to create business value and drive growth. Now at Wavemaker, Rai says she is able to apply learnings from Mondelez for the growth of their diverse clients and categories. She states, “For me, everything that I built there (at Mondelez) as learnings is something which I am able to now leverage.”
Wavemaker has been a standout within GroupM, and Rai says, ”2023 was a great year for Wavemaker in APAC and globally as well. In terms of business growth, globally, we were the ones with the highest number of new businesses.”
Highlighting the clients’ expectation from an agency today, Rai says clients want to understand how to simplify the complex ecosystem and integrate the whole piece.
She says, “At WPP, we are more than equipped to do that. When I walk inside the client’s meeting room, I am not just the Wavemaker CEO for APAC; I am going in as a representative of Wavemaker, GroupM and WPP. When they share their business problems with me, I have the entire arsenal sitting in our house, and I can take out whatever is required to solve that problem. Wearing that enterprise hat is very crucial because clients are coming to us and asking us to help them solve their crucial business problems and integrate the solution across the different parts of the business that they engage with within the company.”
She continues, “The second ask, which is even more crucial, is how do we help them drive growth for their businesses. Media is being recognized across our client rooster as a strategic growth driver. As they are recognizing and realizing the expectation, the ask from us and our team is to step up and be more strategic growth partners on the table with them.”
Speaking on creativity, Rai says, “While efficiency can be derived by optimizing platforms and driving the best negotiation, creative spark is what really differentiates a brand and builds a connection with the consumer. The opportunity I am seeing in the marketplace and the ecosystem is how do we ensure that we can light that creative spark consistently across all the platforms on which the brand is active. Are we doing the same level of excellence that we deliver on television on a Meta, on TikTok, on Insta, and that is something which is a big unlock which is going to drive conversion of the business.”
Asked about Wavemaker India, Rai says, “We have a rockstar team in India. A key differentiator in the market. It is being recognized by the clients and it is being seen in the work that they are doing across a rooster of clients. That is a testament to the consistency of thought leadership that they are bringing to the table.”
Her future focus area is to ensure that the best work happening in the region is leveraged to create a scale and impact across the region.
