Welcome to What Drives You. You think it's cool?
I think it's very cool.
First time in a McLaren?
Yes… Oh yes.
It's fast right?
Yes, oh wow.
You're not afraid anymore.
I'm getting more used to it so, lucky you!
Now I forgot the question...
I’m Karen Tso and this is my new ride for the week.
I’m taking it for a spin along the Croisette for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity,
and bringing along some of the biggest names in advertising, business and entertainment.
As we ask…
Today, I’m taking a drive with Accenture Interactive’s Senior Managing Director, Anatoly Roytman.
Looking after Europe, Africa and Latin America for the professional service giant’s digital marketing arm,
Roytman says he’s on a mission to help create the agency of the future.
But before we get into all of that, we’re going back to the very beginning.
Roytman spent the beginning of his life in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union.
After studying computer science, those skills took him to America,
where he worked in Boston as a software engineer.
At the time, software engineering was very popular. It’s still popular.
But I got bored with it over time and decided to move up the food chain.
Roytman tried his hand at technical, management and strategy consulting.
But soon he was bored again. This time he started a digital agency.
Digital was a very new field.
1996, 1997 you were doing digital. No one even knew what that was then.
And it worked great until the internet bubble burst.
So you made it and then you lost everything.
Exactly.
The dotcom bubble burst, sending Roytman into bankruptcy.
So it was time to find a new a job.
Sticking with digital, he joined marketing and technology agency, Digitas.
I was starting from scratch.
I was with them for six years until Publicis bought them.
Then I decided to go and look for different types of companies
where we could combine technology and creativity.
That search led him to Sapient, which was also acquired by advertising holding company Publicis.
This is where Accenture found him, with an exciting new project.
I was recruited into Accenture to create a new type of business within Accenture.
We didn't have a proper name for it yet, but one year after I joined we called it Accenture Interactive.
Roytman moved from the U.S. to London to grow the Accenture Interactive business.
Since he joined, he’s helped push through a series of bold acquisitions.
We have done 22 acquisitions since because we wanted skills.
Now we are the largest digital network in the world.
Does the future look clearer to you?
I love it, I love it, I love it.
This is exactly what I was looking for all my life. I like being uncomfortable.
I think this is great because it drives new ideas. It drives new models.
I believe that we are only at the beginning of this journey. There is so much to do.
Cannes Lions, the festival of creativity, has traditionally been a stomping ground for ad agencies.
But consultancies like Accenture and Deloitte have significantly upped their presence at the event.
The world is bigger than advertising.
In fact, the world is bigger than marketing and creatives who are ambitious enough,
who want to change the world, they will join us.
Everything will be digital.
So I prefer not to even talk about digital because in my mind it will be everywhere.
There are a few areas not yet digitized.
But it's quickly becoming more programmatically accessed, so everything will be digital
including outdoor advertising for example.
How does that work? How will outdoor advertising be programmed?
There is a computer in the back that means that you can buy it.
You can auction it and it's already coming to your neighborhood.
There are few in London by the way already.
But with data and privacy concerns, do consumers really want this type of targeting?
The big issue with current advertising is that it's too intrusive and actually defeats the purpose.
So personalization has a limit.
I think it needs to be more of an agreement between consumers and advertisers where you reach a balance.
And I think it's important. We are not there yet but it's coming.