There're unique aspects to Indian market that make it incredibly exciting: Jamie Seltzer

In a strategic move to enhance its data-driven marketing prowess, Havas India has locally launched CSA, the global technology, data, and analytics division of Havas. CSA India will merge with PivotConsult to form Havas Media Network India’s data and tech brand. CSA’s entry into the Indian marketing landscape harnesses a deep understanding of clients’ business challenges, combining global expertise and local insights to provide a holistic view of marketing performance.

Gaurav Seth has been appointed as Managing Partner to lead CSA India’s operations, reporting to Shibu Shivanandan, CEO and founder of PivotRoots.

In India for the launch of CSA India, Adgully spoke to Jamie Seltzer, Global EVP, CSA & Mx Analytics, who share her deep insights the growth of data analytics from a global perspective, the three core pillars of CSA, her observations on the unique aspects of the Indian market, targeting and personalization in today’s market ecosystem, and much more.

What are the various ways in which CSA India will enhance Havas India’s technology, data, and analytics capbilities?

We’re super excited to be bringing CSA to life in India and launching CSA in India. But, it’s by no means the first incarnation of the technology, data, and analytics capabilities in the market. When we talk about launching CSA in India, it’s really about adding the capabilities from India into the global CSA network. And so when we think about CSA at a global level, we’re in 17 countries, we’re looking at how we can expand our global footprint, where all of our global brands are, where our biggest markets are, and how we can bring the capabilities of consulting, of technology implementation and management of data science and analytics together. How do we bring the different markets together to create best practices, to share learnings?

I think that’s really where we’re most excited – to be able to bring the India team that already exists, both from the Havas CSA perspective and most recently through the acquisition of PivotRoots and PivotConsult, bringing that expertise, combining those two expertise together within India, and then bringing that expertise into the global network so that we can start to learn, grow, and share together.

Prior to this merger, what all have been the core areas that CSA has been handling?

At a global level, we have three core pillars. CSA Consult focuses on data consulting, data transformation, audits, and assessments. Essentially it is working with our clients to understand where they are now and where they want their businesses to be and then coming up with solutions on how we help them get there using data, technology, analytics, and things like that. That’s the CSA Consult pillar; and closely related is CSA Tech, where we go into implementing those technology platforms, managing those platforms for our clients, implementing reporting dashboards, engaging with them on the actual technology front. Then on the Science side, it’s really about how do we bring a level of rigor and analytics, especially custom analytics, to our client base. Whether that’s around measurement solutions like incrementality modeling or MMM, or things like brand modeling, GeoLift testing, all of those things are areas where we’ve been innovating and pushing forward product development for our clients. But also how do we bring advanced and bespoke analytics to the kind of input side of things as we plan. So, how do we identify better audiences through analysis of customer databases? Or how do we create better budgeting scenarios? Or how do we understand consumer responses to creative? So, those are the three pillars of CSA at a global level.

When it comes to local market activations of CSA, we ask that our markets work within that framework. But obviously, each market has nuances and areas that they want to flex into more than others or areas where their clients are really pressing for more work. And so what we do in our approach is to, within that guiding global framework, give markets the flexibility to meet clients where they are, where their needs are, and focus on the specifics for those clients in that market.

Prior to CSA’s launch in India, how has Havas been handling its data analytics offerings to the clients? What are the tools and technologies that Havas has been using?

The team in India has been working on data analytics and tech projects for many years. It’s just been at the local level and more with local clients. And then with the acquisition of PivotRoots and PivotConsult, it really allowed us to go to market and to scale that much more quickly and to bring in the expertise and the knowledge base from that team. I wouldn’t say that we’ve started from scratch. There’s great work that’s being done. But now with the launch of CSA and joining the CSA global network and with the inclusion of PivotConsult into CSA, India is really accelerating that growth.

(Gaurav Seth, Managing Partner, CSA India, added here): PivotConsult is a part of PivotRoots, which was acquired by Havas last year. It’s a fairly established practice with more than about 25-30 odd clients. Now that we are transitioning into CSA, it adds global best practices, and it adds the experience that we have with clients across the globe. For example, in North America, we have a large presence in the pharmaceutical industry, we can use those best practices and start off from here, and we can use the expertise that we’ve built, and it augments what we are already doing in India. In that regard, it’s been there for two years now. Even without CSA or PivotConsult, analytics and some of these functions have existed in the teams, within the agency, and that expertise has been there. It’s just that now that marketing technology and advertising technology is more widely used and more of it is being used, it only made sense for us to create a separate division that can exclusively focus on this aspect of the business, which requires people who are data scientists, who are data analysts, who are able to understand marketing and advertising technology, have them in place, have different processes in place because media planning happens in a different way.

Whereas when you implement a solution for a client, there is a different approach to that in terms of customer retention, and there are different strategies that are in place. That requires a fair bit of solutioning, a fair bit of customer success. How well you are able to understand the problems, continuously engage with the customers and what you do to retain them – these are different processes that require more fleshing out. It requires a different type of expertise, and we have recognized that. That’s where PivotConsult came in, and then that’s where CSA comes in at a global level and now in India.

What kind of reorganization will the merger of PivotConsult into CSA India result in?

Gaurav Seth: One of the things that we did was understand what are the services that PivotConsult is offering, and then what are the services that CSA offers. We went through that entire exercise and then we saw that probably about 75-80% of the services are the same, which is a good thing. We already have the right experts with us right now. Speaking of different functions, we have data analysts, data scientists, marketing automation experts, and activation experts. So, we have a strong team of 55+ people that are already there, servicing 25-30 odd large clients/ customers. Where we see more hirings is when we are launching CSA and we will be going out into the market using the entire Havas network to go after newer prospects. That’s when once we have more business coming our way, we will be hiring, but the functions that we will be hiring for will be similar.

When a new business launches, you want to ensure that all the functions are covered so that you are able to service a customer. But the good thing here is that we already have that in place.

When you look through your global perspective, what are your observations on the evolution of the tech and data analytics landscape in India?

It’s been quite eye-opening having been here and seeing firsthand, the landscape, the cultural diversity, the sheer number of people, the engagement with technology, products, and brands.

There are unique aspects to the Indian market that I think make it incredibly exciting. The number of mobile phone users and the engagement with UPI is quite different from the rest of the world. That gives you a better understanding of consumer behaviour, and that really excites us in terms of what we can learn from Indian consumer behaviour and bring that to other markets. The Indian consumer base, the Indian data and tech landscape are evolving rapidly. One of the things that’s been most exciting for us is not just the consumer landscape, but the technology and innovation that’s coming out of India, especially within Havas and PivotRoots, and also across India more broadly, and that’s what we’re most excited about in launching CSA in India and adding these capabilities.

How much catching up do you think Indian agencies have to do in terms of global data analytics?

From what I’ve noticed here and also from being in many other markets, I wouldn’t say it’s a matter of catching up. India has a strong population of data scientists and technologists, and our ability as a global network to come together and provide the bi-directional information sharing, CSA really allows us to have a level of consistency. We want to have consistency in the global offering of CSA. So, there are things that have been tested and proven in one market that we bring to the next and ensure that they’re brought together and developed. That’s really what CSA is bringing to India and the Indian market. And we’re excited about learning from the India market. I’d say catching up is not the right answer, but I think it’s about consistency and how we provide consistency across all the markets, given the nuances in each.

How can marketers effectively use data analytics for more targeted marketing strategies in today’s market landscape?

Targeting and personalization are really important, especially as we get into a world where the third-party cookie is going away and we need to understand how to continue to target and how to personalize. Even if we lose that third-party cookie, there are still opportunities to use identifiers like email addresses, first-party data, and mobile device IDs to continue to understand where consumers are, what they’re engaging with, and how they want to engage with our brands.

What we’re seeing now is more and more marketers are recognizing the importance of those experiences and the experience economy that we’re in, where they want to be able to provide a really strong customer experience. And the key to providing a strong customer experience is that one-on-one relationship with consumers and understanding what they need and when they need it. It’s about a holistic, personalized approach to consumer targeting and understanding what content resonates with consumers and when.

With additional inputs by Nehal Shukla.

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