Columbus India has been appointed as the digital AOR for AIS Glass. The account was won following a pitch process across all the businesses of AIS Glass including architectural glass, automotive glass, consumer glass, AIS Windows, AIS Glasxperts, AIS Windshield Experts and AIS Car Fit Experts, and will be handled out of the agency’s Mumbai and Gurugram offices. Sohail Khan from Columbus India’s Mumbai Office will be spearheading this relationship along with a multifaceted cross functional team from across regions.
Vikram Khanna
Commenting on the appointment, Vikram Khanna, COO (Consumer Glass & Architectural Institutional Business), CMO & CIO, Asahi India Glass said: “AIS is India’s leading automotive and building glass company. We are trying to establish direct connect with our consumers in Automotive, Home and building market with our brands – AIS Windshield Experts, AIS Glasxperts and AIS Windows. A strong agency for the ever-expanding digital space is required to keep us connected with consumers in digital world, and on-boarding Columbus India gives us that confidence to do so. AIS is happy to welcome Columbus India, a part of the Dentsu Aegis group… We have the confidence in this relationship to reach out to our consumers on the digital medium more closely and effectively.”
Nitin Sabharwal
Added Nitin Sabharwal, COO, Columbus India:“AIS glass is one of our most awesome wins in the recent past as this was one of the last pitches done by our late CEO Anurag Gupta himself and also due to the fact that we are actually helping AIS in their digital transformation across all platforms and digital assets.”
Deven Dharamdasani
Said Deven Dharamdasani, CEO, SVG Media: “It’s a matter of great pride for Columbus India to be the Brand Voice and the communication partner for AIS India. A brand that has been leading for over three decades in the glass industry to have placed their trust in us. We are excited to partner with them in their digital journey and hope to bring in the change in their social media brand communication and engagement with their audiences”.
Dentsu Aegis Network India has promoted erstwhile COO Deven Dharamdasani to the new role of CEO, SVG Media. The network took the decision following the demise of Anurag Gupta, former CEO – SVG Media, in July this year. Additionally, Nitin Sabharwal, former Chief Business Officer – SVG Columbus, has now been elevated to Chief Operating Officer.
Said Ashish Bhasin, CEO, Greater South, Dentsu Aegis Network and Chairman & CEO India said: “Anurag’s passing is a deep and a shocking loss for SVG, for DAN and for the entire Digital fraternity. Deven, Chirag, Ashwani and Nitin are integral to SVG and they understand and resonate with Anurag’s vision for the agency. I wish them all the luck and look forward to SVG’s growth under their vigilant leadership.” Meanwhile, SVG Media’s mobile business will continue to function under Chirag Shah, CEO, SVG Mobile.
This news could be looked at from two ends. That the Dentsu Aegis Network has completed yet another acquisition and become really big in digital. Or fro the Smile Group point of view, where the co-promoters Harish Bahl and Manish Vij have hit the jackpot yet again after selling Quasar to WPP in 2008. According to some industry estimates, the deal size is in the region of Rs 750 crore.
So let’s hear it from the DAN pov first:
Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the acquisition of SVG Media Private Limited, one of the largest independent digital agencies in India. SVG Media will join the network’s Asia Pacific digital marketingagency Columbus and will become SVGColumbus.
Manish Vij (L) Harish Bahl (R)
Dentsu Aegis Network claims to be currently Google’s largest search partner in India, and the addition of SVG Media will further strengthen the Group’s leading search position in the market. This acquisition will also support Columbus’expansion in Asia Pacific – now in nine markets across the region.
SVG Media includes the flagship brands DGM, Komli and Seventynine. Founded in 2006, SVG Media comprises over 280 specialists across four major Indian cities Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. It offers diverse digital media competencies including online performance marketing, mobile app distribution, representations, social and web services through its flagship brands. The group has one of the largest client bases in the Indian digital media sector with over 700 monthly active advertiser campaigns locally, as well as international clients in Dubai, Indonesia and China.
Anurag Gupta,CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, will report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia. Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, Chirag Shah,CEO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Deven Dharamdasani,COO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Akshay Mathur, Business Head of Komli, and Ashwani Mehta,Finance Controller,will join the SVG Columbus Managing Board, which will be chaired by Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Performance, Dentsu Aegis Network India.
Harish Bahl and Manish Vij, founder and co-founder of the Smile Group, will continue to focus on investments through the Smile Group and will no longer act as directors of SVG Media. It has also been agreed that the Smile Group will retain the TyrooTechlabs business.
Said Ashish Bhasin,Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia: “India is a significant market with rapid growth potential in its mobile and performance marketing business, and Dentsu Aegis Network India has a strong track record in the search and performance space to deliver this. Given its capabilities in data led search, performance marketing and mobile,SVG Columbus is ideally positioned to capture the fragmented long tail publisher market in India using technology and data. As a Group we have leading position in digital in India, particularly in search and performance and this gives us a clear leadership position in this area. We will now have over 1,300 digital professionals, accounting for over 35% of our revenues, well ahead of our competitors.â€
On behalf of SVG Columbus management, Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus,,said: “We started out as a digital media group more than a decade ago, and for us to join forces with a clear market leader in digital, that is Dentsu Aegis Network, makes perfect sense. Their priority in placing digital at the forefront of their strategy and goals align perfectly with ours. We will continue to scale our offering in performance marketing and serving clients through the network and other agency networks. We are assured of their strong growth momentum, which will enable us to further enhance our scale as a business operationally and geographically. Their unique one P&L model also allows us to be part of that shared vision towards a digital world which will provide us with access to the latest industry technology and talent to deliver the best solutions for our clients.â€
Meanwhile, this is what Messrs Vij and Bahl have to say:
Manish Vij Co-Founder Smile Group: “We built SVG Media with the philosophy of profitable growth and market leadership. This philosophy is not the most popular in digital industry but has been very gratifying for SVG Media founders and key leadership. We understand that media consumptions habits are changing rapidly therefore will now focus on building the TyrooTech business and other media incubations.â€
Harish Bahl, Founder at Smile Group:“At Smile we are proud to have continuously built successful JV partnerships or exits with large global firms as, Airbnb, Yahoo, WPP Digital, Scan Group-Africa etc. SVG’s market leadership and exit to DAN is another feather in the cap for Smile. Our strategy of Investing, Building and JVs through one common platform, is uniquely attractive to global unicorns and entrepreneurs and has evolved over years of learnings. We hope to share few more exciting announcements in 2017.â€
