How GCPL's creative pivot paid off home

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Godrej consumer draws about 38% of its business from international markets. Summary Two years after GodreJ consumer products decided to take all creative work in the home, the strategy seems to be going well. What lessons can compete with FMCG firms with a large brand from Godrej’s experience? In 2023, when the Mumbai-based FMCG enterprise Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) decided to fold its long-standing grid of external advertising agencies and bring creative work completely to the house, it looked like a bold experiment. Two years later, the move appears to be reforming how GCPL approaches the brand building across India, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The company’s Lightbox Creative Lab is running creative campaigns for its hair color to room freshener brands worldwide from an internal team of about eight people. In India, GCPL accounts of agencies such as Creativeland Asia, Leo Burnett and JWT folded to merge all creative functions in the home. Creative is now the essence of our business and is no longer a support function, the company said. In FY25, Lightbox helped the business save 40 basis points in costs and improve its creative hits. The move was led by the managing director and CEO of GCPL, Sudhir Sitapati, who believes the company has both the right size and culture to make an internal agency viable. “Sudhir said, ‘Look, I’m taking this call. I want to do this, because for a business, our size felt like the right way to do ads, ” Ashwin Moorthy, world head of categories and marketing head in India, said in an interview with Mint. Historically, GCPL works with multiple agencies, fragmented commands and inconsistent execution on geographical areas. This made its marketing ecosystem slow, ineffective and diluted the power of our ideas. ‘We recognized the need to simplify, centralize and scale. We went to a single agency, global category model. This means that we develop one central idea and then adapt it to each geography with local cast, language and clues, ‘according to the company’s fiscal 2025 annual report.’ What this unlocking is is consistency in brand story. A&P usually spends most major businesses with various agencies, including major media planning firms that handle ads on TV, print, digital and outdoor platforms. Most also rent third party agencies on social media to manage influencers involvement. Although there are advantages and disadvantages to using internal agencies, many companies-especially Startups have chosen to build their creative teams internally. For example, Food Aggregator swiggy has a creative team led by Mayur Hola. In the 1990s, Lintas (now Lowe Lintas) was the dedicated agency for Hindustan Lever Ltd’s brands in India. The agency was originally a shooting of Unilever, HLL’s parent company. However, they are working closely with different agencies for creative mandates. In the home talent last fiscal, the producer of Cinthol soap and Godrej Expert Hair Dyes spent £ 1,369,21 on advertising and publicity on a consolidated level. Of these, more than 80% went creative and production, with the remaining after buying media. In FY25, the company reported consolidated turnover of £ 14,364 crore. Moorthy said what helps to put a lot of creative rents within walking distance of the marketing team. Ideas are tested quickly without adding low approvals. “It has been shaving off a campaign cycle for months because we have reduced the unnecessary back and forth,” said Moorthy. Secondly, there is continuity. Once a creative has worked on a brand, they stay with it, the next film is seamless. Third, the cost stabilized. ‘I had negotiated on agencies fees earlier two months a year. It’s gone, ‘he added. Lighbox’s internal team consists of Swati Bhattacharya, which is at the head of the vision. Bhattacharya was previously the creative chairman of FCB India. The team also contains Gaurav Kumar, chief creative strategist, who was previously with Leo Burnett as executive creative director. Godrej’s team contains Shalini Avadhani as a main creative strategist. In total, the 12 -member team, including visualization and photographers, who sit from the company’s Vikhroli office in Mumbai, produces about 35 campaigns for different categories annually. Moorthy said the move added more speed to creative production. “GCPL holds almost twice the number of campaigns we ran in FY22,” said Moorthy, referring that GCPL is a top -3 TV advertising spender in India. Campaigns for the World GCPL draw about 38% of its business from international markets. While GCPL on a project base is still working with creative agencies in international markets, creative people in India have been adopted in local languages ​​in international markets. In Latin America, for example, GCPL introduced a five-minute shampoo-hair color with a film built on the universal herd of the ‘always-late friend’. The insight worked well in the markets of Argentina and traveled to Jakarta, and the advertisement was soon transferred to Indonesia before returning to India. “We tested the same film in Indonesia from Spanish to Bahasa and again with local models in Indonesia,” he said. In South Africa, the Lightbox team worked on the Incto Hair Color brand with a culturally relevant campaign. “Women kept saying that they felt judged by the color of their skin. The team turned the narrative to judge ‘me according to the color of my hair’ with fashion colors (pink, blue, red, etc.). The idea comes from Lightbox in India, but sounded deep in South Africa, ‘Moorthy said. GCPL’s flagship household insecticide brand Goodknight benefited from tackling the internal team. The same author wrote four consecutive films; “It’s a depth to understand the brand,” he added. Of course, not all experiments work, as GCPL works in adult markets where brand positioning and use cases can vary. Diversity and consistency brands bring in creative agencies of third-parties to add different perspectives to their storytelling-something that internal teams can miss while focusing on consumers and plans for the market. “The creative business thrives on diversity,” says Shantanu Sirohi, CEO of Interactive Avenues, the digital marketing arm of IPG Media Brands. ‘The role of the agency is to give your brand a share in a consumer’s mind in this increasingly fragmented world – if that is the purpose, I’m not sure if outsourcing is best. U miss diversity. ‘ But Vani Gupta Dandia, managing partner at Cherrypeachplum Growth Partners, a business consultant firm, points to several benefits related to the creative agency. “The whole process of creative development would certainly be much faster,” she said. Dandia also pointed to transparency in costs as a clear advantage. “There is a happy opaque Nexus between creative and production. Agencies take great cuts from the production houses that push them forward to the client. Second, with an internal agency, can save clients at pitch fees. If they naturally pay a pitch,” Dandia added. In addition, it is not entirely uncommon for advertising managers to move agencies – this can lead to some contradiction in the story of a brand. ‘Can an advertising agency be true brand keepers and take brand assets with consistency forward? Yes, but only when the teams are small, the core team members keep a long lead, and top management on either side has the maturity and business concept of what is needed to build brands in the long run, ‘she added. Moorthy maintains that although creative work has moved in the home, the buying and production of media still outsource media. “They bring their own lens and prevent ‘cohorness’ about films,’ he added. Moorthy said for the time being that the playbook for Lightbox is nice “set”. “The only risk is if we lose people. We need to give the creative team more space and jump, ‘he said, adding that talent is the backbone of execution. Catch all the corporate news and updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates and live business news. More Topics #GodreJ Consumer Products Read Next Story