Cannes Lions 2023: Good creative work is the fastest shortcut to pricing yourself higher

‘India day’ at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2023 continued with Gautam Reghunath, co-founder and CEO, Talented, and PG Aditiya, co-founder and CCO, Talented, taking to the stage.

 

The duo discussed how and why they quit their jobs at Dentsu Creative (formerly Dentsu Webchutney) a few months before the agency bagged the agency of the year at the festival last year.

 

Reghunath said, “We started in April, just two months before the festival. We just couldn’t continue at the agency because we had mentally checked out. We had quietly quit,” he said.

Before carrying on with the reason for launching Talented the duo discussed their roots.

 

“My father was in advertising and he got me my first job by calling someone who he had given his first job. I hated advertising back then and I don’t like the state of it right now too,” said Reghunath.

 

Aditiya added, “I’m sort of an outsider-ish insider. I never thought of becoming an entrepreneur. The simple reason for this was that my family thought there was an entrepreneurial curse running and affecting three generations. Luckily, I’m the fourth generation and I’m told my curse has been lifted.”

 

On the topic of quitting to start his operations, he said, “Somehow advertising and its problems got to us. People are getting tired of working across categories. And advertising has probably had it the worst.”

 

Aditya then quoted what Banksy had to say about the advertising industry:

 

“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.”

 

He then stated that what made him and Reghunath angry and quit was the way agencies operate.

 

Reghunath then stated why he believed it is a great time to be an independent agency.

 

“It takes much lesser capital to start an agency. There’s also a false notion that there are limited business models within the agency business and that can be corrected. Secondly, the industry isn’t at its peak. Some of the leading agencies aren’t structured well. That’s opened up opportunities for us,” he said.

 

He added that both of them were pissed off with the status quo which included financials of the industry and how salaries hadn’t changed.

 

“There are also never enough people within the agency. I also had a tough time personally. As CEO, I was promising things to my team but couldn’t fulfil them because of 10 levels of approvals,” added Reghunath.

 

Aditiya said that there have been instances of agencies wanting to change things, but those conversations were limited only to the water cooler or within WhatsApp groups.

 

He then shared excerpts from Talented’s handbook and gave tips on how those wanting to go independent should.

 

“Start with a name. It makes it real,” he said before revealing that the name Talented was Reghunath’s idea while he wanted to call it ‘Sane People’.

 

He also said he was proud of copying best practices from the industry and even outside and revealed that the agency offers employee stock options which means the agency will be employee owned in the next three years.

 

“Craft a financial and company structure that matches your principles. You need about capital for six months. We share 50% of our revenues as salaries of our employees. We also invest in other companies as a group, which means our employees who have stock options, also get a stake in those companies,” said Reghunath.

 

He added that picking the right co-founder is 50% of the job.

 

“We are different from each other, but our values are aligned,” he said.

 

Aditiya continued, “You can manufacture culture. It’s called picking the right founding team. During year one you can try and experiment. We have paid hiring tests, which is a signal to show that even simple acts of creativity have value. We are also experimenting with decentralised decision making, this signals we care about the employees.”

 

The duo added that they follow a ‘no –follow-ups’ culture.

 

Explaining this, Aditiya, said, “Arrogant creative people feel it’s account management’s job to follow up with them. 40% of an account manager’s time goes into following up with the agency. A creative person who needs no follow-ups commands a premium salary.”

 

They added that the payment and financial issue in the industry is good creative work.

 

“This is the fastest shortcut to pricing yourself higher. We pay a premium for the best talent. This helps us produce creative work that helps to price ourselves higher. And that in turn helps us pay our staff better,” said Reghunath.

 

Ending the session, Aditiya spoke about the importance of sleep.

 

“To do great work, we need to get great sleep. That’s the simple hack. We ask people how they sleep. Good sleep helps work, mental health and efficiency,” he said.