At SmallCap Spotlight, RK Swamy’s Group CFO Rajiv Naver shares how the 52-year-old firm has evolved into India’s only listed, fully integrated marketing services group. He highlights trust, transparency, and data-led clarity as key differentiators in an increasingly complex marketing landscape.
Richa Jain: Hello and welcome to SmallCap Spotlight. I’m Richa Jain. In focus today is RK Swamy, one of India’s largest integrated marketing companies with over 50 years of legacy and the only listed player in this space.
Let’s welcome on board the company’s group CFO, Mr. Rajeev Newar, as we uncover RK Swamy’s transformation journey and what lies ahead. Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Newar.
Rajeev Newar: Thank you, Richa. It’s a pleasure to be a part of this conversation. It’s a pleasure to have you. To begin with, you’ve completed over 50 years as India’s largest homegrown integrated marketing company.
But can you tell us a little bit about the early days, about the establishment journey?
Rajeev Newar: To be honest, Richa, it’s 52 years and it’s been honestly a remarkable journey. Started way back in 1973 and the journey is built on a long-term thinking, I would say, and institutional building and not just short-term wins. You know, we have worked for decades, a little over five decades, to build our foundation.
And what actually started as a creative agency has now grown into a full-blown and a full-fledged integrated marketing services group. And you know, this is what really sets us apart because we are the only Indian company, and I repeat the word only Indian company, to have successfully and organically built marketing communication, full-service market research, and customer data analytics at scale, all under one roof. And what this does is, it gives us a very unique positioning in the marketplace.
How? Very simple. Because this multi-discipline strategy has helped us to broad-base our revenue streams, has made the company inherently stable, as I would say, adaptable and future-ready. And we have not stopped at that.
We continuously, we are continuing to add new services under each of these streams. So all in all, I would say the foundation is strong. And if you allow me, I’m just going to share two lines in Hindi.
Can I do that? Yes, please. So I would say, That is beautiful. I’m reminded of Ekla Chola Re, as you say that.
Richa Jain: Yes, absolutely. Okay. So in what I would call a heavily competitive space, also considering the multitude of services that you offer, how do 52 years of client and media relationships translate into competitive advantage, let’s say against the global marketing giants?
Rajeev Newar: Good question, Richa.
You know, the global firms, I would say that they have their own place. And we have carved out our own space. The global firms are generally known to be catering to or servicing the global clients, which is an extension of the global mandates.
Our strength, we recognize that their strengths and therefore our strength lies elsewhere. And how is that? You know, over the last 52 years, we have built deep, long-standing relationships with the large Indian corporate houses, with the public sector enterprises. We have built, we have a geographical footprint across the length and breadth of India in all relevant locations.
And that makes us locally very relevant. And I don’t think we stopped there. I’ve already mentioned about those three key segments.
But apart from that, you also got strong domain, we have built strong domain expertise in areas such as pharma, healthcare, social and development communication, and various research-driven insights, where I’m not sure whether our peer group is really focusing. So, this gives us a sweet spot as well. More importantly, being Indians, we invest continuously.
And I mean continuously in understanding the Indian consumers, Indian regulators, India, the Indian media behavior, and the Indian market nuances. We are continuously investing in India. And all the above cumulatively and collectively makes us very competitive and very relevant.
See, we recognize one thing. This is a core market. We are not an extension of a global mandate.
As a result, we don’t compete head-on with the global giants, but we have created our own space and we dominate it. As they say, I remember of two more lines, if I can share that, which is, jahaan bheer thi, wahaan par hum bhi gaye. Jahaan bheer thi, wahaan par bhi hum gaye, par humne wo rasta bhi chuna, jo auron ko dikha nahi.
So, we did what others did, and we also did what others did not. And when these two things are put together, we have created our own space and our own sweet spot.
Richa Jain: Bilkul, Mr. Naver.
I think iss se better summarize nahi ho sakta hai ki aapne apni unique space, unique positioning kaise create kari hai, and that’s wonderful. But do you also think, and I mentioned earlier, you would be very proud, RK Swamy is the only listed integrated marketing company on the Indian exchanges. So, do you think this positioning also helps you compete? And how does it, if it does?
Rajeev Newar: I would say, you know, good question.
You know, like any company that is listed on the main board, I would say, has a unique positioning, Richa. Because as a listed company, we need to embrace a culture of openness, transparency. We need to have high levels of governance, high levels of compliance, something that need not be commonly common in our industry.
And therefore, when now that we are listed, and we demonstrate these virtues and values, it gives us a unique position. It gives us a clear and meaningful advantage and respect in the marketplace. You know, it’s been a little over a year and a half, and I can tell you clients recognize and respect this.
And our engagements with them suggest that they say that, you know, they’re dealing with an entity that is not only accountable to just clients, they’re also accountable to the shareholders, to the regulators, to the society and to the market. I think what listing has done for us is that it has built a level of trust and credibility that would be hard to replicate by an entity that is not listed. In that sense, obviously, you know, having now that we are listed, we occupy a unique solo position in the Indian marketing ecosystem.
And that itself is a powerful competitive advantage, I would say. Simply put, clients value this and view this immensely. You know, in an industry that is built on trust, accountability and transparency are our new key differentiators now, in addition to whatever I’ve mentioned earlier.
So we have two new key differentiators added to our already existing differentiators. And as they say, listing ke baad, listing ke baad, sirf naam hi nahi badlta, listing ke baad, sirf naam hi nahi badlta, logon ka hum par aitbaad bhi bhar jata hai. Bilkul.
Actually, main kehne wali thi, jaisi list hote hain, stakeholder expectations, all expectations change, especially in terms of accountability, governance, transparency that you also spoke about.
Richa Jain: So it’s wonderful to hear about that. For those of our viewers who are unfamiliar, what does integrated marketing services actually deliver that standalone agencies can’t?
Rajeev Newar: Well, I’m not surprised that they, well, many of them may not be aware of the integrated marketing services or what it stands for.
And that’s because, again, it’s not commonly common. So let me explain this differently. If you think of a consumer journey, right, from a client’s point of view, the clients will need a marketing strategy.
Clients will need branding inputs. Clients will need content to be created for an outreach program. Clients will need media engagement.
They will need media research, sorry, market research. They will need customer data analytics. And all these touch various points of the consumer journey.
Now, a standalone agency typically excel in one of these areas. But a client needs all of these. So a client would need to approach multiple entities to address the consumer journey holistically.
Whereas when a company like RK Swamy offers all these services under a unified management, it offers what is called an integrated marketing services. So we are a one-stop shop. And as an integrated marketing service provider, we provide all these services under a unified framework.
You know, for us here, this integration, as I said, which is not commonly common, and also one of our differentiators, is not about scale. It’s about alignment. So instead of working in silos, all these disciplines at our end, whether it is the content, which is the media, whether it’s the market research or the customer data analytics, harmoniously, harmoniously collaborate at the start of every client engagement.
And what does it result? It results in better decision making, sharper targeting, faster execution, stronger accountability, and better outcomes. You know, if we coined a term return on advertising money, in simple words, when you integrate these services and offer that in a harmonious way to a client, it is expected to give an improved return on advertising money. So integration ensures that every rupee spent on marketing is well spent, with a measurable impact delivered across the consumer journey.
So no part of the consumer journey is left unattended to or neglected. And therefore, it is from a client’s perspective, it’s a great advantage to have one company offering all services start to end that they would need for this consumer journey.
Richa Jain: Absolutely, I could not agree more, Mr. Newar, because I have also worked in the advertising space for 13 years.
And I realized what a one stop shop, such as RK Swamy, how powerful it becomes for the client, how targeted it becomes, and how beneficial it becomes. And like you rightly said, return on advertising money, that is the way it comes. So while that sounds great, I’m sure it comes with its own challenges.
Would you mind telling us a little bit about the challenges you face on a day-to-day basis?
Rajeev Newar: Sure. So Richa, we are a service industry. And like any other service industry, our challenges are familiar and continuous.
Attracting the right talent, nurturing them, talent retention, motivating talent, and making them future ready. So that’s common between us and the other service industries. But at the same time, the media, now this is very important, the media and the marketing landscape has become increasingly complex, fragmented, and fast moving.
I repeat, increasingly complex, fragmented, and fast moving. Hence, you’ll often hear me saying, complexity is the problem. Clarity is what the clients pay us for.
Complexity is the problem. Clarity is what the clients pay us for. And for us at RK Swami, we are, as business partners of our clients, we always want positive results for our clients.
And this is a continuing challenge. But we are not really hassled. Why? Because Richa, we are good at delivering.
Richa Jain: It is quite honestly inspiring to hear the clarity with which RK Swami works. With that, I will segue into our next segment, talking a little bit about your transformation journey. From traditional agency work to becoming a strategic marketing partner, in your own words, what’s driving this transformation?
Rajeev Newar: So I think I’ll continue from the answer, the previous response that I gave you, you know, the market is very complex.
Gone are the days when, you know, while we, while the industry may still call us an agency, we are less of an agent today. We are more of B2B. Because earlier, there used to be one devotion, fewer prints.
And therefore, you know, from a client’s perspective, they really knew what to do, when to do, how to do. But as I said, because of the fragmentation, because of the complexity in the marketplace, because of the fast, because of the multiple channels, the marketplace has become very, very complex. And when you have, when you’re facing this complexity, you need a thinker.
So it’s a need of the hour. The market needs a strategic marketing partner. It’s not an option.
It’s a must. And because we have capabilities to deliver at every aspect of the consumer journey, I would say that we are very well positioned to deliver it. More so, we recognize wherever there are, you know, nothing is constant, right? So we also need to constantly evolve.
So we also recognize that over time that the market needs a few services, which we need to probably sharpen or add to our services. So we recently introduced some of these. For example, the RK Swamy Center, the Center for Study of Indian Markets.
It’s a very deep study. It studies the Indian markets in depth. Many clients rely on that.
It helps them to understand the market well. Then our brand and marketing consulting group, which we launched a couple of months ago. It’s being received extremely well because consulting is an important element in marketing now.
AI is a buzzword. And we have introduced a lot of AI driven innovations. You need to have content across vernacular languages, across international languages.
And these content have to be at scale. We have demonstrated our ability at some very high profile events. And the list goes on.
So I feel given the complexity that exists in the market, Richa, it’s a no-brainer that the market needs a strategic marketing partner. And who better than us, who has these services under unified management? And can I share a secret? Yes, please. We have more ideas than people to execute them.
So one by one, we’ll bring them to the market. And maybe I’ll repeat what I shared a while ago. Complexity is the problem.
Clarity is what the clients pay us for. And I’ll continue by saying that clients don’t want agencies anymore. They want thinking partners.
And we recognize that. We realize that. And for us, this is not just a shift.
This is the path to a long-term professional. This is a path to our long-term financial and professional success. It reflects a commitment to our clients and investors.
And you’ll see more of us in that role hereafter.
Richa Jain: Mr. Newar, I have no doubt hearing you speak that RK Swamy has not only always tried to move with the time. I think RK Swamy stays future-ready because you spoke about evolving.
You spoke about the programs that you’ve launched. I would love to hear, and you touched upon AI, would love to hear about some of those investments. Is Varta, the Customer Experience Center, a part of one of those investments? And what problems would that be solving for clients?
Rajeev Newar: So while AI is a buzzword today, we had embraced AI long back.
It’s only the degree that is changing. That’s one. What is Varta? Varta is basically, if I was to explain Varta in simple words, sometimes seeing is believing, but sometimes difficult to explain in words.
But I would say it’s an end-to-end customer experience solution. Varta is an advanced conversational AI ecosystem that we have developed. What does it do? It integrates analytics, automation, real-time support, and deep analytics to manage and enhance every customer interaction.
Simple words, Varta helps clients to address two marketing issues. What are these two issues? First, revenue growth and customer retention. That’s a marketing challenge for many clients.
I would say all the clients. So Varta helps address revenue growth and customer retention challenges to a large degree. B, it also addresses operational excellence and cost efficiency.
Now, basically, Varta and these AI tools that we have developed are offered to clients through our services, a part of our services, to help them move from intuitive or intuition-led decisions to data-backed decisions, which are, I would say, insight-driven, which basically helps them to improve both efficiencies and effectiveness. So basically, that’s really what Varta is for us. And as far as the customer experience center is concerned, happy to share that we have expanded our capacity by almost 50% about two quarters ago.
And we may have to expand even more in the quarters to come, because this is a service that really doesn’t exist to the extent the country needs it. And so therefore, we see a huge potential for these services. And likewise, in our market research space, we have Cati, which also is something where we have almost doubled our capacity there.
So both these will be relevant for us, because these are marketing infrastructure for the analytics and research business, and we are constantly investing in them. And AI is basically for us a tool. We had always embraced AI.
It’s only a degree. We just shifted. See, data is everything.
And what better to have infrastructures based on that? So it’s good to hear.
Ruchi Jain: Now, within this space, Mr. Naver, do you think subscription-based digital services are changing your business model? And what has the client response been to that?
Rajeev Newar: Okay. You know, we have, as I said initially, that we need to walk down the path where others are walking, and we also need to walk down a path which others have not even sighted.
I mentioned that. Continuing from that journey, I’ll share something that very recently, maybe a week or 10 days ago, we launched what is called a digital video impact measurement service. Advertisers, which are the clients, are spending a lot of money on advertising and communication.
And therefore, they are increasingly looking for accountability and proof of impact. Whether our spending has been beneficial or not. Hence, when we published this report, digital video impact measurement service, the client response so far has been one of curiosity, some jaws dropped, and we see a very strong interest.
Because, and why did we do this study, subscription-based study? Because measurement is no longer optional. It is the new currency of marketing, as marketing needs validation. So, we see some very good prospects for the service.
We intend to drive this in a very concerted manner. This is a market we will create and lead. We will do this in a systematic way, systematically, one at a time.
We have enough number of people working in the market. So, well, we believe that the client response has been good. The report has been well received.
It has created the interest that we anticipated. And all in all, I would say we are happy with the response it has generated, Richa.
Richa Jain: So, Mr. Nevar, we touched upon this earlier.
In an ever-changing fast tech world now, can you share an example where AI or data analytics completely changed the outcome for a client campaign?
Rajeev Newar: Okay, easy and a tough question. So, I’ll answer this a little differently. You know, asking for that one success story is like asking which drop of water quenched the thirst.
So, when you are thirsty and you’re having a glass of water, and then asking which drop of water quenched the thirst. I’ll tell you why I’m giving this example is because the impact is cumulative. All the drops cumulatively quench the thirst.
Okay. Now, AI and data doesn’t change outcomes occasionally. It quietly changes them every single day.
Okay, it changes every single day. It’s a continuous impact. I’ll perhaps also add that if you don’t have data, or when we did not have data, we used to work on intuition, right? But in today’s day and age, when you have data, intuition opens the door.
But data decides how far you will walk in. So, whilst we are, you will appreciate that we are subjected to client confidentiality. But to answer your question more specifically, I’ll tell you that I’ll assure you that the shift is visible as data led campaigns are known to have consistently outperformed what I call as instinctively led ones.
And the most telling metric for us is the pace and the manner in which clients are adopting or embracing data analytics. Clients are increasingly choosing data analytics, not because they’re going with the herd mentality, because it works for them. Because we do it for our clients day in day out.
Therefore, the real question is not about highlighting that one campaign. The moot point is that clients that use data rarely go back. And the impact is over a period of time and continuous.