Thanks to new accounts, Wavemaker's overall biz saw 19% YoY growth in 2024: Ajay Gupte

Wavemaker recently celebrated its 7th anniversary. Despite evolving and adding new clients across various sectors, the WPP-owned agency remains steadfastly focused on tech innovations. This focus has been a driving force since its inception. Proactively investing in emerging areas like e-commerce, performance, and AI, Wavemaker has built a reputation for delivering impactful solutions.

In an interaction, Ajay Gupte, CEO - South Asia, Wavemaker, discusses clients, their evolving needs, the focus on ROI, and of course, AI—which he admits is clichéd but remains the real differentiator.

Wavemaker has been operating for nearly seven years. Could you briefly share your journey and some of the most significant highlights during this period?

There's so much to reflect on over the past seven years, filled with countless memories and milestones. But it’s important to begin with how Wavemaker was set up.

In 2016, the idea behind Wavemaker was driven by the rapid evolution of media. Step changes were no longer enough; transformation had to be swift and impactful to stay relevant and ahead of the curve.

At that time, we decided to merge two successful agencies, Maxis and MEC, to create a large entity that could achieve efficiencies and reinvest in the future—whether in people, data, tech, tools, or content. This global merger in 2017, spanning over 100 countries marked the launch of a new brand and logo, filled with excitement and ambition. Our simple mission: to be the world’s most wanted media agency, resonating through clients, employees, and partners alike.

What set us apart was our proactive investment in emerging areas like e-commerce, performance, data strategy, and content. These capabilities, built before they became market essentials, enabled us to lead. When COVID-19 accelerated demand for ROI-driven marketing, we were already equipped with the right tools, expertise, and people to deliver effective solutions.

These aren’t textbook learnings. Unlike standard concepts like reach or awareness, strategies for e-commerce, top-to-bottom funnel performance, and content integration are learned only through implementation. With a client base of 150 active accounts, we created a positive cycle of learning, case studies, and expertise. As clients saw our success with others, they sought us out for their own strategies—be it data clouds, e-commerce, or innovative campaigns.

Today, we have 24+ e-commerce clients, 30+ performance clients, and nearly all of our clients engage in content creation with us. This approach has delivered efficiency, impact, and recognition—winning us the most awards, retaining clients, and attracting top talent. The cycle feeds itself: better people, better work, better clients, better results, and more awards.

Every agency today is expanding its horizons, becoming more tech-savvy, and striving to stand out. What are the top three factors that set Wavemaker apart from others in the same space?

The first and most important factor is our leadership team. We have an exceptional group of 11 leaders who are incredibly passionate about this business. We've been working together for the last five years with a shared determination to keep Wavemaker as India’s most wanted media agency. This team has been instrumental in making strategic investment decisions and backing the right areas to deliver effective solutions to our clients. Each member plays a distinct and critical role, which has been key to our success.

The second factor is our client base. We’re fortunate to have a diverse and extensive portfolio, spanning every major category with multiple players in each. This breadth allows us to experiment, gain experience, and generate insights that wouldn’t be possible with a smaller client base. The third factor is our investments. We’ve made deliberate and strategic investments in areas that matter, like data, tools, and tech, ensuring that we stay ahead of the curve.

Talking of clients, how has your client roster for 2024 shaped up? What were the major account wins this year, and which have you successfully retained? How has that propelled the growth of the agency?

Some of our wins in 2023 -24 were Reckitt, KRBL, ConfirmTKT, Duroflex, Abhibus, Havmor, Crunchyroll, Zoff Spices, Birla Opus and Kreditbee. Retentions on the other hand included Pernod Ricard, Tata Consumer Products and Haier.

Reckitt was a large and prestigious win and it demonstrates our ability to drive impactful results quickly. We also manage e-commerce for clients like Wipro Consumer and Arun Ice Creams, where we successfully implemented cricket-based campaigns.

New account wins apart, we’ve expanded our service offerings to existing clients like Mondelez, Colgate, and Vodafone, including managing their e-commerce and data strategies.

This encompasses data collection, organisation, enhancement through partnerships, and campaign execution across the entire data funnel. Our growth is driven by three key areas: conventional media, specialised services focused on e-commerce and performance clients, and expanded service offerings for existing clients.

As for growth, thanks to the new accounts our overall business has seen a 19% YoY growth in 2024.

You were one of the first agencies to add data scientists to your team. Can you share more about that approach? How has it helped transform your operations and client offerings?

When I first hired a data scientist in 2019, I honestly had no idea what they were supposed to do. I was wondering why the team insisted on hiring a data scientist. But it’s been quite a journey since then, and today, they’re deeply embedded in the business, adding immense value at multiple levels for our clients.

Essentially, it’s all about taking big data—data from all the activities that clients undertake—and using it to create consumer cohorts. These cohorts help us identify which groups are most receptive to specific types of communication or products. From there, we deliver tailored communication, measure results, and continuously refine our approach. It’s a cycle of testing, learning, and improving efficiency and effectiveness at every stage.

Now, data scientists are integral to nearly every client team. It’s become a way of life for us. For example, I was amazed during a client review when I learned that the team had conducted 360 "test and learns" for a single client over a year.

These tests range from evaluating the performance of specific consumer cohorts to analysing the effectiveness of individual ads. Each hypothesis is either accepted or rejected, creating a continuous learning cycle that significantly improves the client’s performance metrics.

Any other new capabilities or services that you’ve introduced recently, especially in response to evolving client requirements?

It might sound cliché because everyone is talking about it, but we’ve been doing a lot in the area of AI. But I believe we’ve managed to classify its application quite simply. In my view, AI helps drive efficiency, effectiveness, and magic—and everything we do with AI falls under one of these three buckets.

AI has significantly streamlined tedious operational tasks. For example, processes like BARC runs or creating media plans—tasks that used to take seven hours—now take just seven minutes. Automation of data, generating insights, and creating better plans are areas where AI tools have added immense value. By eliminating mundane tasks, AI allows our teams to focus on higher-value work.

AI is also helping us define consumer cohorts and segments better, select the most appropriate media for specific clients, and identify target audiences, markets, and competitors with greater precision. These efforts are powered by WPP Open, a global platform with a $300 million annual investment by WPP. WPP Open brings together people, processes, products, and tools on a unified platform, ensuring seamless collaboration and access to shared information for planners, buyers, strategists, and data scientists.

What’s truly remarkable is the AI-driven insights. For example, if a media planner needs data on competitive levels in Andhra Pradesh for a brand like Harpic, they can simply type the request into the platform, and the AI generates a slide with all relevant insights. It analyses competitive data, news, and other information to deliver a comprehensive output. Having seen this in action, I can say it’s absolutely brilliant—it’s efficiency and effectiveness at their best.

And lastly magic is where WaveMaker excels. AI enables us to create unique engagement opportunities and experiential tech for our clients, delivering not just campaigns but memorable brand experiences.

Coming to the industry overall, with pitches having a strong focus on ROI, has pricing become the most critical factor in winning them? How do you approach this challenge?

Honestly, price has always been an important factor—it’s the bread and butter of our business. Since marketing budgets typically allocate 80% to media, efficiency in pricing has always been a key consideration. That hasn’t really changed.

What has evolved, though, is how we’ve been able to complement pricing with added value. Over the past few years, we’ve developed a unique communication strategy around building priming stage buyers and active stage buyers. This approach is represented in what we call the momentum wheel, which has four stages: priming, trigger, active, and purchase.

We’ve found that strength in the priming stage directly influences success in the active stage. For example, if a brand like Huggies is stronger in the priming stage, there’s an 80% higher likelihood of it being chosen during the active stage. This insight not only shapes our client strategies but also applies to how clients perceive us as an agency.

Our work, awards, client testimonials, and pitch wins are building a strong priming stage for Wavemaker. This creates a positive buzz, which leads to more invitations to pitches and, in turn, more wins.

To put it simply, while pricing remains the foundation and a key factor in winning pitches, we’ve been able to elevate the conversation.

Coming back to Wavemaker’s journey. Who has been your longest-standing client, and what has made that relationship special?

There are several long-standing clients, and the beauty of these relationships is how both the client and we have transformed together over the years. Let me give you an example.

We were Nexus, went through two logo changes, became Wavemaker, and had two more logo changes. Meanwhile, one of our clients Vodafone has also evolved—from Max Touch to Orange, to Vodafone, then Vodafone Idea, and now Vi. Throughout all these changes, we’ve been partners for nearly 30 years, which is incredible.

Another long-standing client is Pernod Ricard, which started as Seagram’s and continues to be a very special relationship. L’Oréal joined us in 2011, and Myntra has also been with us for what feels like forever.

We’ve also celebrated significant milestones with newer clients like Paytm and Netflix, where we released their first ad campaigns, marking the beginning of their journeys. These relationships remain incredibly meaningful because they represent trust and shared growth over the years.

But if I had to name the longest-standing clients, it would undoubtedly be Vodafone and Pernod Ricard.

Lastly, what are the key trends to watch in the media business for 2025?

Again, it’s a bit clichéd, but the real differentiator lies in the ability to implement AI effectively. AI’s impact on business will grow dramatically. As I mentioned before, our success comes from using it to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and magic and we plan to keep going down the same road in 2025 as well.