MxMIndia

Category: Ad Agencies

  • The introductory films of Anar showcase a beautiful flashback narrative of a young woman and a man where they revisit their pasts through the drink

    Paper Boat takes trip down memory lane again for new product offering Anar

    By A Correspondent

     

    Paper Boat has announced the launch of its new television campaign. The campaign will promote its new fruit offering – Anar and also Aamras.

     

    Conceptualized and written by Lowe Lintas, three short stories (two Anar and one Aamras) explore memories triggered by the products themselves, a core insight that the brand has built its entire portfolio on. The campaign was shot over three days at various locations in Mumbai. The introductory films of Anar showcase a beautiful flashback narrative of a young woman and a man where they revisit their pasts through the drink. The third film re-creates the magic of Aamras, which is also a favorite by volume.

     

    If the first campaign had the signature penmanship of Gulzar, the new campaign matches strides, with lyrics penned by the multi-faceted Swanand Kirkire. Rounding it off is an adaptation of Malgudi Days soundtrack along with the voice of effervescent Usha Uthup who signs off with the brand message.

     

    Speaking about the campaign, Rajesh Ramaswamy, Executive Creative Director, Lowe Lintas, said, “Paper Boat is a brand that is very dear to us. The very name puts a smile on everyone’s face. The passion the client has for the brand is infectious. The way they approach everything is straight from the heart. The best thing is that when you are dealing with the topic like memories, there can be no expert on it. Everyone’s opinion counts. Maybe the essence of the brand makes everyone want to be a part of it, because everyone is right.”

     

    The 30 and 20 seconders are supported by a marketing plan that is designed to maximize reach for the new product. This includes airtime across general entertainment channels (GEC), infotainment, English entertainment, movies, niche regional channels and prominent spots during theIndia-South Africa Series.

     

    Excited about the campaign launch, Neeraj Kakkar, Founder – Chief Executive Officer, Hector Beverages Pvt. Ltd., said, “Picture fluttering butterflies in your stomach on your first science project submission or the first time on a jet plane or that first dreaded day at your dream job. Our second campaign is equivalent to those many important firsts. It is an exciting second. Our drinks are a bridge between then and now; the films are a reflection of this thought, brought to life in a manner that is contemporary. We are delighted with how Swanand Kirkire’s lyrics and Usha Uthup’s voice bring life to our vision, making these videos all the more evocative.”

     

  • Alvares is based out of Mumbai and will report to Sunil Lulla, Chairman and Managing Director, GREY group India

    Grey appoints Leroy Alvares as President – Digital Services

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gulbahar Taurani

    GREY group India has appointed Leroy Alvares to lead the agency’s digital services in India. He joins GREY group as President – Digital Services. Alvares will be responsible for developing proprietary and innovative digital-oriented solutions for GREY’s clients. Alvares is based out of Mumbai and will report to Sunil Lulla, Chairman and Managing Director, GREY group India.

     

    On Alvares’ appointment, Lulla said, “While GREY has significantly integrated its practices across its offices in India, there is still an enormous opportunity to leverage on Leroy’s skills in the digital domain to ‘New & Next’ oriented services. Leroy brings tremendous maturity, confidence and panache to original and innovative digital thinking.  His new role will see him follow an integrated work culture practice, bringing digital thinking and capability for all clients.  His core focus is to accelerate GREY’s already well-established digital capabilities across India. I know with Leroy at the helm, the Grey Digital footprint will only get stronger.”

     

    In Alvares’ previous stints, he has served as the President of Rediffusion Y&R Digital, Rediffusion-Wunderman and Sudler & Hennessey India. He was with iContact and Ogilvy India before he joined Tribal DDB as country head. A veteran with over 20 years of experience, Alvares has worked across a diverse range of categories including retail, telecommunications, financial services, information technology, pharmaceuticals, travel & tourism, and fashion & lifestyle.

     

  • appjacketPLUS allows app publishers to serve video or rich media ads from global networks irrespective of the app user’s location

    AppjacketPlus rolls out for enhanced in-app advtg

    By A Correspondent

     

    Seventynine, part of SVG Media has launched appjacketPlus,  a new in-app advertising platform that brings greater monetization capabilities to app developers and publishers. appjacketPlus is powered with enhanced features and controls for publishers including but not limited to the world’s first zero buffering and HD-quality video display technology. It also features machine learning algorithm for consumer targeting and reach, and a mediation engine for best in class yield.

    Mustali Kachwala, co-founder at Seventynine said, “With appjacketPlus, we have made in-app advertising even more financially rewarding for mobile app developers and publishers with the inclusion of a powerful global mediation engine. The new SDK will further strengthen our position as the mobile technology platform of choice, with over 350 leading apps and over 100 advertisers are already using our technology.”

    As part of appjacketPlus, Seventynine will offer its technology and technical support to large App publishers who maintain their own sales teams, and are looking for a robust solution to enhance their inventory offerings.

     

  • Sachin joins from Draft FCB Ulka where he was Group Creative Director

    Leo Burnett appoints Sachin Das Burma as Group ECD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sachin Das Burma
    Sachin Das Burma

    Leo Burnett India has appointed Sachin Das Burma as Group Executive Creative Director at its Delhi office.

     

    Sachin comes to the team having built his credentials across several marquee brands like Dabur, Nokia, Indian Airlines, Carrier, Hyundai, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Slice, Iodex, Horlicks, Airtel, Hero Motors, MakeMyTrip, Snapdeal, HCL, Tata Salt, amongst others.

     

    Welcoming him on board, Samir Gangahar, President – North, Leo Burnett India, said, “We are delighted to welcome Sachin. With an impressive track-record of creating path-breaking integrated communication across categories and the hunger to do a lot more, I’m excited to see him craft ideas that impact consumer behaviour and solve business problems across our portfolio of brands.”

     

    RajDeepak Das

    RajDeepak Das Chief Creative officer, Leo Burnett India, added, “In Sachin we have found a leader who has the ability to keep things simple and connect every piece to a human truth. His ideology and working style is ideal to drive innovation and integration in the communication process. I’m sure Sachin’s inclusion will significantly enhance our capability of solving our clients’ problems by creating new age work based on strong consumer insights.”

     

    Sachin joins from Draft FCB Ulka where he was Group Creative Director. He has won many awards in national and international circuits including Goafest, New York Festival, Adfest, D&Ad, etc. He has also worked with Contract Advertising, Bates India and JWT.

     

  • The film captures a few dimensions where women are excelling like entertainment, sports & engineering

    FCB Ulka celebrates women power in new TVC

    By A Correspondent

     

    Today, more than ever before we see women at the forefront of myriad fields. The Indian woman is pushing her limits, redefining boundaries, and subsequently earning herself top position in everything she does & making her presence felt. Recognising this role of women in our lives, Amul has unveiled a new campaign celebrating the same.

     

    Women are now fiercely ambitious and are proving their mettle not only on the home front, but also in their respective professions. The campaign raises a toast to these women & portrays how milk energises them to go about their life and shine. The film captures a few dimensions where women are excelling like entertainment, sports & engineering.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF said,“We are happy to demonstrate the role of women in the advancement of our society. In fact, Amul is a brand which has been built on women empowerment over the last 7 decades. Our campaign “AmulDoodh Pita hai India” is very popular across the country and we are confident that this creative will further propel the brand.”

     

    Haresh Moorjani, Executive Creative Director, FCB Ulka & creator of the earlier campaigns on Amul Milk, said “Historically we have seen that there is a strong association between a country’s progress & how it treats its women. Today, if we are where we are it is solely because of the role women play in our lives – at home &outside. Taking this forward the Amul Milk campaign is an ode to the Indian woman captured in the track that says Aageaagebadtahai India. AmulDoodhPeetahai India!”

     

  • Indian e-commerce growth rate claimed to be faster than China during its early stages.

    YuuZoo appoints Ventes Avenues as reseller partner

    By A Correspondent

     

    Singapore-listed YuuZoo Corporation Limited, a leading global third generation social e-commerce company, announced it is expanding its footprint in India by appointing Ventes Avenues as a reseller partner of YuuZoo’s products and services in the local market of 1.25 billion people.

     

    The move is seen to take advantage of the country’s rapid e-commerce growth, and is another addition to YuuZoo’s advance in the world’s emerging markets. Currently one of the fastest growing markets in Asia, India is targeted to hit US$137 billion in market value by 2020, a steep rise from 2013’s US$11 billion. This massive growth is attributed to the local population’s increasing Internet and smartphone adoption, making it the country with the third-largest internet user base in the world.

     

    Under the terms of the agreement, Mumbai-based Ventes Avenues will market and sell YuuZoo networks to local clients. The company will promote YuuZoo through different marketing channel. YuuZoo will host and manage the social e-commerce networks, as well as the advertising and payment capabilities of each network.

     

    Niloufer Dundh

    Speaking on their recent appointment, Niloufer Dundh, Founder and CEO of Ventes Avenues remarked, “We are excited to partner with YuuZoo because there is tremendous potential in India, where we are seeing companies go in the direction that YuuZoo is leading. Our market has shown great interest in YuuZoo and we are delighted to be able to offer them its social e-commerce solutions. The gamified social commerce is also seeing great interest because our local market is social media savvy. YuuZoo’s social e-commerce solutions are very much what businesses here need to succeed in this modern age. We always want to be a step ahead of the race and we are happy that YuuZoo is our partner.”

     

    James Sundaram, CEO, YuuZoo said, “India is an e-commerce giant that is about to wake up, and YuuZoo will be there when that happens. That is why we are putting our systems in place through our partnership with Ventes Avenues. The market has traction now so there is no better time to expand our foothold in India. It is also a particularly exciting market because its growth rate today is faster than China’s when China was still in its early stages. The potential is great and I am confident that our unique, patent-pending solutions will be a strong player in India.”

     

  • A special extract from Piyush Pandey's Pandeymonium + a 164-word review

    Piyush Pandey on Martin Sorrell

     

    On Wednesday, Piyush Pandey’s memoirs ‘Pandeymonium’ was released in Mumbai with much fanfare with Amitabh Bachchan releasing the book and several dignitaries, family and friends in the audience. It was tough pulling out an extract from the book, but here’s one that we though we thought would interest MxMIndia readers…

     

    By Piyush Pandey

     

    People would like to believe that Martin is a control freak—nothing could be further from the truth. Martin’s name is misused by his managers in the operating companies so as to help them achieve their own ends. Martin would not even be aware of many of the things that his managers claim that he has an opinion on. His interest is in communication, in the health of his companies, in the finances, in corporate-governance issues, in the stock price and in WPP’s shareholders. Martin does not interfere in the running of the companies and has little interest in decisions that ought to be taken by his local managers-which is perhaps why WPP does so well globally. The fact that India is so important to WPP now, and yet the Indian operations are run totally by Indian managers underlines his belief that global businesses are best run by managers who know the lay of the land.

     

    If cigarettes helped me spend more time with David* than was warranted by my designation, it was cricket that helped build my relationship with Martin. Martin is a huge cricket fan, following the game from wherever he may be in the world. In London, he watches matches at Lord’s whenever he gets the opportunity. He plays as well, taking part in charity matches for causes that he believes in.

     

     

    Review in 164 words. Unputdownable

     

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    Why a hundred and sixty four words? Piyush Pandey’s Pandeymonium can be reviewed in just one. Unputdownable.

     

    It’s a breezy read. The way Piyush speaks. And the way his ‘curator’ Anant Rangaswami writes. You can read it in one post-dinner sitting.

     

    The first part of the book is great fun. Depending on how much other people’s experiences move you, you can possibly have tears rolling a few times. I cried a bit.

     

    The second part of the book gets him into talking specifics about Ogilvy. To those not into advertising and Oglivy, in particular, this could be a stretch, but Piyush ensures that he doesn’t get too much into details.

     

    I was hoping to read some juicy comments and comments on people and issues, one has heard Piyush feels very strongly about. But there’s none of that.

     

    Pandeymonium is a must-read for all those whose lives have been touched by Piyush or his advertising. It’s a mustest-read for those wanting to get into advertising.

     

    Planning for one of his earlier trips to India, he mentioned to Ranjan Kapur that he wanted to play a cricket match in India. He asked him to get me to sort it out (he was aware that I had played first-class cricket). He wanted the teams to be formed from employees of the three larger agencies WPP had in India those days: Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA); Contract (which was considered a separate company, though it was 100 per cent owned by HTA); and O&M. Martin also wanted a couple of former India cricketers to play so as to add some flavour to the match.

     

    I did the maths and decided that each of the three agencies would contribute six players, making it eighteen players. Martin would make it nineteen. That would leave us three players short. I requested Bapu Nadkarni, Eknath Solkar and Ashok Mankad to play, and they all agreed.

     

    We now had twenty-two players, and the next challenge was the composition of the two teams. I had some thoughts on that. I wrote to the managers of HTA and Contract asking each of them to send me the names of their six players—and their heights. They wrote back and asked me why I wanted to know about their heights. I told them that it was for the cricket whites that we needed to play in.

     

    Martin was to captain one team, while I would captain the other. I divided the remaining twenty players into two teams.

     

    Martin came to the ground and discovered that his team was called Short Legs XI and that mine was Long Legs XI. I had created the teams based on the heights of the players. Martin came up to me and said, ‘You cheeky bastard.’

     

    For me, Martin is a human being and no more.

     

    That match set the tone for my relationship with Martin. It allowed us to be relaxed, frank, trusting and honest with each other—and that makes for a profitable working relationship.

     

    During another of Martin’s visit, I planned something else. When you entered the office, from far you could see a poster outside my room with ‘WPP’ written on it. WPP did not have an office at Ogilvy. So when Martin came, he saw the signage and walked to my room. From close, you could see the small letters between WPP. It said, ‘Worldwide Office of Piyush Pandey’. ‘Cheeky bastard’ is what he said to me again, as he laughed.

     

    ‘Cheeky bastard’ is a phrase that Martin loves to use, and I’ve been described as one by Martin on more than two occasions. In 2000, I was flying to judge the Cleo Awards at Aspen, Colorado. The perks of being a juror meant that I flew first class on British Airways. First class was a rarity as WPP’s policy did not allow it. I was in the first-class lounge in London, waiting for my connecting flight to the US, when I bumped into Martin. I walked up to him and said, ‘Hi, Martin, Cleo is paying for this trip. Just in case you call up Rane (my colleague and then Finance Head of Ogilvy in India) and ask him who is paying for this.’ ‘You cheeky bastard, did I ask you?’ He said. ‘No, you didn’t, but you would have called up Rane; I just saved you a couple of pounds on the phone call,’ I replied.

     

    When we meet now, conversations are relaxed and direct. Martin discusses larger issues with me, such as the company’s reputation and corporate governance, two areas where he spends considerable time and energy. We hardly ever talk about work or revenues. Indeed, sometimes we have to contrive devices which get him to look at recent work that has been done; I do not think that he has ever asked for a formal review.

     

    I’ve learnt so much from Martin-perhaps because I saw him as a human being and no more. Approach Martin with fear or trepidation or guile, as many do, and what you have achieved is to ensure that Martin doesn’t relax. That’s your loss.

     

    * reference made to David Ogilvy whom he refers to earlier in the chapter

     

    Pandeymonium
    Piyush Pandey on Advertising
    By Piyush Pandey
    Penguin Books India (Portfolio)
    Hardback, Pages 244
    Rs 799
    (Rs 556 on Flipkart)

     

    ​Excerpted with permission from the publisher​

     

  • Move aimed towards revitalizing the brand ahead of the launch of its social multipurpose wallet

    TranServ appoints Happy Creative its creative agency

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mobile digital payments company TranServ announced the appointment of Hyderabad-based Happy Creative Services as its creative partner. The move comes ahead of the launch of TranServ’s social multipurpose wallet and will look to revitalize the company’s existing brand proposition in order to facilitate a better customer connect with the Indian users.

     

    Through this new social multipurpose wallet, TranServ aims to turn the Indian digital payments industry on its head by incorporating a social angle into digital transactions. The wallet is expected to be a huge hit with the smartphone-friendly mobile population of the country and will push forward TranServ’s aim of creating a ubiquitous, holistic digital payments ecosystem in the country.

     

    Speaking on the announcement, Asutosh Upadhyay, Head-Marketing & Product, TranServ, said, “As TranServ forays into the B2C market segment, we are looking to re-position our existing brand proposition to provide a more personal connect to the new segment of users. Bringing Happy Creative is a calculated decision that would give us an outsider’s perspective into the digital payments industry. This will help us garner more insights into the consumer psyche, which can then be leveraged to overcome traditional communication hurdles and will translate into products that can resonate better with the Indian population.”

     

    Praveen Das, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Happy Creative, commented, “Everyone uses money, but the communication has always been limited to older groups. It is only now that finance is becoming a mass offering across age groups, and we are thrilled to be part of this flux. Having designed brands in the digital space, we are especially excited for TranServ because we have done a complete re-branding of the brand’s name, positioning, and identity creation. We are now looking forward to how our efforts pan out in the digital ecosystem.”

     

    TranServ currently leverages innovative, easy to integrate APIs to deliver the best payments solutions to big, medium and small businesses across the country. With its social mobile wallet loaded with features such as referral-based incentive programmes, funds transfer from one wallet to another, money transfer from wallet to the bank account, reward redemption through rewards management companies, and social gifting,

     

  • Salil has an extensive experience working with agencies and companies like Saatchi & Saatchi, CNN IBN, Microsoft and Happy Creative

    Grey India appoints Salil Inamdar as the National Head – Digital Content and Creative

    By A Correspondent

     

    Salil Inamdar

    GREY group India has appointed Salil Inamdar as the National Head for Digital Content and Creative. Salil joins from Interactive Avenues where he was heading digital creative and content.

     

    Salil comes with an experience of over 15 years of across diverse media disciplines, from traditional advertising to film to media. At GREY, he will spearhead his capabilities across all areas of digital communications for those clients who avail digital services. Based in Bangalore office, Salil will oversee work across all GREY group India offices. He will report to Leroy Alvares (President-Digital Services) on the digital business and client needs; and creatively to Sandipan Bhattacharyya (Chief Creative Officer).

     

    Sandipan said, “Salil straddles rich experiences across digital, television and mainline and that’s what makes him just right for repurposing the digital offering at GREY. He will also be instrumental in pushing our mandate of famously effective integrated ideas that are served up in the consumers’ medium of choice.”

     

    Salil has an extensive experience working with agencies and companies like Saatchi & Saatchi, CNN IBN, Microsoft and Happy Creative. His work has been covered by domestic and international press along with awards like the D&AD, Webby, AVA, RAPA, Spikes Asia, Adfest and the FWA. He has worked on brands such as TVS, Arvind, Toyota, Puma, Amazon, ITC Foods, Tanishq and Future Brands, amongst many others.

     

    “I am delighted to have Salil join us. I am sure with him on board the we will sharpen the digital practice and journey toward impactful communications that will make a difference to our clients business and consumer,” said Alvares.

     

  • Following 2014 Acquisition of US-Based MKTG INC, Network Framing Up Sports and Entertainment, Experiential and Lifestyle Capability Worldwide

    Dentsu announces launch of new agency MKTG

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network announced the formation of a ninth global network brand, MKTG, the lifestyle marketing agency it acquired in August 2014. The move further strengthens the network’s sports and entertainment, experiential and lifestyle marketing offering and continues its expansion around the globe.

     

    In addition, Out-of-Home agency Posterscope’s experiential arm, psLIVE’s offices across Europe and Asia Pacific, South Africa’s Crimson Room, Australia/New Zealand’s Apollo Nation and leading US-based sports and entertainment consultancy Team Epic will be realigned as part of MKTG over the next 12 months.

     

    Leveraging its collective experience, global network and resources, the realigned agency will provide clients with a truly integrated through-the-line service offering including sports and entertainment consulting, experiential marketing, sponsorship identification, negotiation and activation, hospitality, strategy, research and insights, custom measurement, digital and creative capabilities, content development, design and retail marketing.

     

    “As a network, we are constantly evolving to meet the demands of our clients, to be responsive to the needs and desires of consumers and to remain pioneering in the evolution of our industry,” said Jerry Buhlmann, CEO Dentsu Aegis Network and Executive Officer of Dentsu Inc. “The tremendous growth and importance of lifestyle marketing made it clear that strategically it was time to unify our like-minded businesses as one single brand. We are completely committed to building out our lifestyle marketing offering and integrating the combined strength of these services to deliver on a far larger and broader scale.”

     

    “Something that sets Dentsu Aegis Network apart is that we are constantly reevaluating our businesses and are willing to reorganise ourselves to best serve our clients; ultimately providing the best value we can,” said Annie Rickard, Global Brand President, Posterscope; Global Chairman, MKTG. “With this realignment, we can now provide a seamless offering across lifestyle, sports and entertainment for our clients and allow all of our agencies to benefit from this platform.”

     

    “We are truly excited about this next chapter and the opportunity to work across the network to deliver unrivaled lifestyle marketing solutions for brands,” said Charlie Horsey, Global Brand President, MKTG, CEO MKTG USA. “The realignment will also greatly benefit our current long-standing client base and our employees who now have the ability to plug into resources and opportunities around the globe.”

     

    Ashish Bhasin

    Ashish Bhasin, chairman & CEO South Asia – Dentsu Aegis Network, chairman Posterscope and psLIVE – Asia Pacific said, “In India, the lifestyle marketing solutions market is growing at twice the rate of the ATL market. With Fountainhead, a leading player in India and MKTG, a leading global player, we now will have the best offering of global standards, through Fountainhead MKTG, which will make us the best lifestyle marketing solutions agency in India. This is another big step forward in helping us achieve our mission of being the second largest agency group by end 2017 in India, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in India.”

     

    As the agencies transition towards operating as one global brand, MKTG will grow from 450 full time employees and 7,000 brand ambassadors in the United States, to nearly 1,000 full time employees in 14 countries, providing a truly global lifestyle marketing solution for clients. MKTG will be headquartered in New York City.

     

  • Leo Burnett was empanelled by HPCL in 2008 and since then has been their creative partner

    Leo Burnett wins HPCL biz in multi-agency pitch

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leo Burnett has won the creative mandate for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) in a multi-agency pitch. With this, Leo Burnett will continue to partner the brand in helping them achieve their business objectives.

     

    Rakesh Hinduja

    Confirming the win, Rakesh Hinduja, Executive Vice President, Leo Burnett India, said, “I’m delighted that the strategic roadmap we presented during the pitch process was spot on and in complete sync with the client’s vision. This is an exciting phase both for the brand and for us, where the objective is to adopt a fresh communication approach and create a new language which consumers across the country could relate to in a much better way. I’m optimistic that with our multidisciplinary team working seamlessly on the account, we will surpass the client’s expectations and help the brand attain greater heights of success.”

     

    Leo Burnett was empanelled by HPCL in 2008 and since then has been their creative partner.

     

  • Has the feisty Arun Nanda (wt Ajit Balakrishnan) agreed to sell his 60 percent to WPP? A report says it is 'likely' to have…

    Rediffusion-WPP. Deal Or No Deal?

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Is it a story done every year by the news media, as a senior Rediffusion Y&R executive told MxMIndia when we called her/him to verify whether WPP-Rediff was a done deal?

     

    We don’t know. We aren’t sure.

     

    Denials are regularly issued for many M&A deals, but then often these stories are leaked to put pressure on a company that is not buckling under.

     

    Then there are also stories like the one which said that Piyush Pandey was going to join nephew Abhijit Avasthi in his start-up. Pandey has rubbished the story in his recently released ‘Pandeymonium’.

     

    “In most cases, the ‘news’ is completely unfounded, even as the article carries authoritative quotes attributed to unnamed sources ‘close to the developments,” wrote Pandey as he went on to write about the speculative story on him establishing his own advertising as he turned 60 earlier this year.

     

    We don’t know, We aren’t sure.

     

    We can’t say that the Rediffusion deal story is unfounded.  We also ‘confirmed’ it from a couple of independent sources.

     

    Btw, we also spoke to a senior functionary at the Dentsu Aegis Network in India who told us that the 13.33 percent investment is from the Dentsu HQ in Minato, Tokyo in Japan, so we should be calling some ‘San’ there and saying: “Konnichiwa”.

     

    But, since we have rights to republish specific Eco Times stories, here’s what appeared this morning:

    WPP to finally take control of Rediffusion; Y&R to raise stake in Arun Nanda-led agency to 86%

     

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta

     

    In 2007, Arun Nanda, who started Rediffusion in 1973, had declared, “Not now, not ever,” to an offer from Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world’s largest advertising conglomerate WPP, to acquire a controlling stake in his agency for Rs 500 crore. But at 72, Nanda, one of the last standing independent Indian advertising warhorses, seems to have finally put his sword down in the war that Sorrell has been trying to win since 2005. The battle has now been reduced to negotiations.

     

    WPP’s creative agency Young & Rubicam (Y&R), which owns 26.7 per cent in Rediffusion Y&R, is likely to raise its stake to 86 per cent in a deal staggered over the next few months. Y&R will first increase its stake to 51 per cent and gradually buy out Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan. Nanda and Balakrishnan currently own 60 per cent stake in Rediffusion Holdings Pvt Ltd.

     

    It has Everest Brand Solutions, Wunderman, Sudler & Hennessey and Rediffusion-Edelman as subsidiaries.

     

    The first stage of the deal – the acquisition of management control – will see Nanda and Balakrishnan take home a payout estimated to be around Rs 100 crore.

     

    “Your sources may be incorrect,” wrote Sorrell in response to an email questionnaire sent by ET. A mail written to Nanda did not elicit any response. But during his recent visit to India earlier this month, Sorrell told a number of WPP group CEOs about the agreement of the deal.

     

    The due diligence has already begun. According to multiple sources, while Sorrell, Nanda and Balakrishnan have the deal in principle, they will sign on the dotted line in the coming months. Once the deal is sealed, Rediffusion Y&R and its group companies will be rebranded as Y&R to reflect the new ownership.

     

    While Nanda is likely to exit the creative and media business completely, he will continue to oversee the PR business, and retain a controlling stake in PR agency Rediffusion-Edelman.

     

    “Of all the Rediffusion companies, it is the PR division Edelman that clocks in more than 50 per cent of the revenues…I think it will be best for Nanda to go with the Y&R offer,” said an advertising veteran aware of the deal.

     

    Nanda and Balakrishnan first diluted their stake in 1994 when Dentsu Inc and Y&R, each bought 20 per cent stake in Rediffusion, which was then rebranded Rediffusion DY&R.

     

    In 2000, WPP acquired Y&R. In 2004, the joint venture Dentsu-Y&R was formed in Japan, and the two agencies’ stakes in Rediffusion were redistributed as per a worldwide agreement. In India, Dentsu ended up with a 13.3 per cent stake, while Y&R held 26.7 per cent.

     

    Dentsu’s 13.33 per cent stake is also likely to be transferred to Y&R, said a source familiar with the deal.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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