Dr. Sandeep Goyal on building Rediffusion’s future through challenges

As Diwan Arun Nanda hands over the mantle of Chairman to Dr. Sandeep Goyal of Rediffusion, the latter recalls what it was like working at the agency during its golden period and how he is taking the challenges in stride.

There was a time when Indian television viewers were uncertain about the phenomenon of direct-to-home (DTH) television services. In came the joint venture by Tata Sons and The Walt Disney Company called Tata Sky that aimed to revolutionize the television industry and move the viewers away from cable TV.

With it, came the tagline for their iconic campaign, ‘Isko Laga Dala to Life Jhingalala’ which was conceptualized by the homegrown agency Rediffusion, evoking a sense of nostalgia.

This agency was born in 1973, when Diwan Arun Nanda along with Ajit Balakrishnan and Mohammed Khan joined forces together, and today, Rediffusion has gone on to create a legacy of 50 years. 

It was Nanda who enumerated the philosophy of the agency, ‘We will create advertising that becomes famous, part of the language and the culture of the people changing forever how they look at a brand.’

In the past 50 years, the agency has been responsible for creating some of the most iconic campaigns, including ‘Give me Red’ for Everready, Airtel’s melodious tune made by composer AR Rahman called ‘Express Yourself’, ‘Whenever you see color, Think of us’ for Jenson & Nicholson, ‘Talk to Me’ for Colgate and more. 

“These campaigns created unforgettable history for the brands, made them famous, made their advertising famous, and made most of them undisputed market leaders,” comments Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chairman & Managing Director, Rediffusion.

As Nanda hands over the mantle of Chairman to Dr. Goyal, the latter recalls what it was like working at the agency during its golden period and how he and his partner, Tanya Goyal, are taking the changes and challenges in stride. 

In his four-year stint as President at the agency from 1994 to 2001, Dr. Goyal worked directly with Diwan Arun Nanda and developed ‘tremendous’ respect for him. 

“Looking back, my eight years in Rediffusion then were the second golden period of Rediffusion - the first being the early years from 1975 to 1990 when the agency was at its creative peak,” reminisces Dr. Goyal as he mentions the free hand Nanda gave him at running the agency.

Drawing parallels to a river’s flow, Dr. Sandeep Goyal mentions that the agency became a ‘fast paced’ river in the plains in the 90s with stable businesses like Colgate, Eveready, Shaw Wallace, TELCO, Tata Tea, Glaxo, Godfrey Philips and more. Later, the agency became a ‘calmer, more expansive river’ acquiring businesses for brands like Airtel, Maruti, Citibank, BPL and more. 

Also Read: Motorola’s Shivam Ranjan on making product innovation a central tenet of marketing 

Keeping the Legacy Alive

While Dr. Goyal moved onto his entrepreneurial journey with Mogae Media which eventually bought out Rediffusion in 2021, managing a legacy agency comes with its own set of challenges.

“I have inherited an agency that had a very troubled decade, and more importantly, had been impacted negatively by the fight between Diwan Nanda and Sir Martin Sorrell which had led to the exit of Colgate, Citibank, Airtel, Ford and the entire media business.”

When he took over, the agency also lost business with the State Bank of India, which was the second-largest client, and with Nanda being unwell, it was run on autopilot by some junior functionaries. He continues that the agency had lost both clients and good-quality talent, and because of covid and WFH, a certain laziness had crept into the entire organization.

“Tanya and I are building Rediffusion into a strategy-strong, creative-savvy agency that can actually partner brands and clients. I say this because most other agencies today have become largely transactional with zero investment in strategy or marketing thinking.”

Shaping the Future 

When asked where the future of advertising is headed, Dr. Goyal answered, “Advertising is more and more going to be driven by technology. Concurrently, it will be driven by consumer proximity. Agencies will have no choice but to learn both technology and data insights.”

The agency, in line with this, has recently launched a new vertical Rediffusion AI Studios. 

In the last two years, the main agency has also added nearly 20-25 clients, including BMW, Tata Power, Dabur, Taj Hotels, Infoedge and more, and has re-established a significant presence in Delhi. 

They have repositioned Everest into being a 100% digital agency and launched new verticals like Next by Rediffusion and Ladyfinger, the latter with a specialized offering for mainline brands targeting women. 

Dr. Goyal expresses that the agency is becoming strategy focused with their Red Lab consumer insights team, ICYMI portal, and recently established The Bharat Lab tapping into the consumer psyche. 

“We have covered a lot of ground in 2 years. So, expansion and consolidation have gone hand-in-hand,” he says.

He also credits the senior talent Tista Sen, Asheesh Malhotra, Ruchira Raina, Divyanshu Bharodia, Virender Tirvrekar, Ajit Rakhade, Sangeet Chaudhary, Rigved Sarkar, Pramod Sharma, Nilesh Naik, Rahul Vengalil, Dipty Gurjar, Priyanka Magan, Rohan Parab, Kalyani Srivastava for shaping the agency’s future. 

Dr. Sandeep Goyal signs off by saying, “The Rediffusion of tomorrow will be a nimble, sure-footed smart agency that thinks strategically and creates winning creatives for our partner brands.”