Press Play to listen to Sean Donovan, President Asia -TBWA on MVP The Master’s Voice
Delighted to welcome, to the 79th episode of our award-winning MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast series, a respected leader from global advertising, marketing and more – Sean Donovan, President Asia of TBWA, which, as ‘the Disruption company’, prides itself on developing disruptive brand ideas that change culture and drive impact.
Sean, who brings a rich and powerful combination of experience, knowledge, strategy, delivery and thought-leadership to TBWA, is charged with further advancing TBWA’s position across the Asia region, with the continued ambition to deepen the company’s specialist units in analytics, data consultancy and e-commerce, and with continuing to drive creative excellence across the entire brand-experience journey and approach that has paid off with 2021 and 2022 being the best years of revenue growth for the Region.
Culture, spread across five tenets of leadership at TBWA
From the get go, Sean’s off with a clincher of a reply to my first question of what he brings to the TBWA table from a rich, rewarding and proven career: Culture, he says, which he believes is ‘something that’s underestimated quite a lot’. Sean swears by the power of ‘purposefully building culture in organizations’.
Culture, across five primary facets.
A culture of community: Building a culture of community, which is about building social capital by finding ways to work together with great leaders. “it’s a cultural strand of our DNA that I firmly believe in water,” Sean tells me.
He speaks of the principle of culture as community which is like a bedrock for TBWA. Sean believes that although there are different TBWA companies with separate P&Ls and in different markets, the TBWA team sees themselves as an individual collective of people throughout the region.
“I look at the capabilities across the region, as a collective, not building everything individually in a single office. So the approach we’ve taken is to leverage each agency and each country strengths and building out centres of excellence across the region,” Sean tells me.
A culture of product: The second is the culture of product, says Sean, who firmly believes in the power of creativity to change lives to change the world to make a difference – something that comes up automatically more and more in the changing world of advertising.
A culture of talent: Sean believes in building a culture of talent, because he believes “we have a social and a moral responsibility to build our talent as well – a have societal obligation, actually, to help them be the best version of themselves”.
A culture of performance: Sean believes in a culture of performance, and in “analyzing, setting ambitious objectives, and aiming all we can to achieve those”. And the fifth is…
A culture of change: Sean believes that credibility to change and the ability to change are critical pillars, without either of which, “you have some version of decline.
“It’s an acceptance that we have to make,” Sean says, adding, “and change is scary.”
Hit the decks running: But there’s a great quote from amongst many great African expressions the Sean really loves. “It says that when the gazelle wakes up in the morning, it better be running, or it may be eaten by the lion. And when the lion wakes up in the morning it better run, or it may start that day by not catching the running gazelle. Either way, in Africa, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running!”
Which, Sean says, is all about agility, versatility, embracing change, and embracing change quickly. So for Sean, it’s a lot to do with culture — one word expressed across those five facets that are the sort of leadership tenets he believes in, and which he hopes he’s bringing into the TBWA collective.
TBWA – The Disruption company
Sean speaks about how ‘disruption thinking’ and delivery is a 30-year-old commitment for TBWA.
And from what he says across our conversation, Sean proves that a disruptive thinking and approach (as the TBWA website too puts it) is not just a ‘catchphrase or trend but a mindset’, the thought and syntax of which is integral to this TBWA leader’s DNA who obviously lives and consistently expresses the thinking and practice of disruption.
Again, much like the TBWA website says: ‘You don’t dabble in Disruption thinking; you embody it, day in and day out.’
TBWA is known to be a disruptive powerhouse, and Sean tells me how disruption fits into a landscape where the industry seems increasingly commoditized.
And while disruption at TBWA is a process in which data is a very important input as are other aspects like analytics and the process-driven mind that works on disruption, Sean also revels on being asked how important and strong the TBWA culture allows the gut to remain in that disruption mix.
The TBWA pillars, brands and more
Sean also tells me about the TBWA India footprint, the kind of brands it handles, and the strengths and USPS of its pillars like analytics, data consultancy, health, and ecommerce and, of course, creative excellence. He also shares how prepared the agency collective is for the cookie-less world that might actually become a reality by end-2024.
Sean shares how TBWA’s India operation fits into the collective’s global strategy, and speaks about TBWA’s plans for India. He is excited about the infusion of senior talent at TBWA India, with K Russel having joined TBWA Delhi as Chief Creative Experience Officer, or CCEO (rather than CCO), as also Ranjeev Vij having joined them as COO to lead operations in Delhi
Culture and talent are a powerful combination at TBWA, says Sean, adding, “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail to you.” And his hammer is a combination of the talent and the culture his team and he are forever fostering at TBWA to, in turn, empower the collective further.
Sean also speaks about how brands seem to be moving to scale back on ad spends in tough times. He shares his views on awards shows and their relevance, and speaks about his favourite ads from very recent times. And more.