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Tag: Aegis Media

  • Aegis Media swallows India’s Communicate 2

    MUMBAI: Aegis Group has made its second acquistion in India. The UK-based agency snapped up Communicate 2, a performance marketing and search agency in India, to strengthen its digital presence in India.

    Communicate 2‘s gross assets till March-end stood at Rs 129.9 million.

    Pursuing targeted acquisitions, Aegis Media had acquired a majority stake in Doosra Brand Communications to add creative capability to its India outfit.

    In the recent deal, Aegis has decided to merge Communicate 2 with iProspect India‘s existing operations as it seeks to strengthen its network in key cities across India and provide additional service capabilities for its clients. The agency will now be known as iProspectCommunicate 2.

    “The combined employee strength will be about 150 people,” said Aegis Media chairman India and CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin.

    Communicate 2 is a specialist performance marketing agency which focuses on search marketing, digital strategy consulting, social media and digital content production.

    Vivek Bhargava will continue to lead this merged entity as CEO. “We are very happy to welcome Communicate 2, led by Vivek Bhargava, to the Aegis Media family. Communicate 2 is India‘s pioneering Search and Performance marketing agency and Vivek is a well known guru in this field. I believe that search will be the fastest growing part of our industry for the foreseeable future and as part of the iProspect network, Communicate 2 will continue to be the undisputed leader in this area,” said Bhasin.

    Vivek will also join the Aegis Media India executive council. “We look forward to seeing iProspectCommunicate 2 going from strength to strength,” Bhasin added.

    The acquisition, which has just been completed, is in line with the Aegis‘ strategy of increasing its digital profile and capability in faster growing regions.

    Aegis Media also runs Isobar in the digital space. The interests of Isobar and iProspect, however, are very different. While Isobar is a global digital marketing network that is into web development, app development, media buying and planning for digital medium, iProspect is a global digital performance agency. iProspect helps brands maximise their online marketing RoI through paid search, social media strategy, search engine optimisation, display, mobile marketing, comparison shopping engines, conversion optimisation, attribution modelling and management, and other related services.

    The Indian digital ad industry is sized at around Rs 24 billion and has a huge growth opportunity. Currently, Aegis generates close to 12 per cent of its India revenues from digital. “In the Indian digital ad pie, Aegis‘ digital agencies Isobar and iProspect constitute around 3.25 per cent. This works out to Rs 780 million,” a source said.

    Originally established in 1997, Communicate 2 handles clients like Tata Consultancy Services, Cleartrip, ICICI Lombard and HDFC Bank. It has offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune and employs over 130 employees.

    In July this year, Japanese media conglomerate Dentsu agreed to buy out UK-based Aegis Media Group for a whopping $4.9 billion.

    Also read:
    Dentsu to acquire Aegis for $4.9 bn

  • Agencies feel need to speed up BARC

    MUMBAI: The need for speeding up the existence of a transparent television audience system under the aegis of the broadcasters and the advertising and media agencies is gaining ground after NDTV‘s lawsuit has made allegations against TAM Media, the single TV ratings measurement currency in India.

    “BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) needs to probably be expedited. It will not be a supervisory but a governing body. The clients, the broadcasters and the agencies will be represented in that,” said Aegis Media CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin.

    The shareholding of BARC was announced in March 2012 with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) holding 60 per cent equity and the balance 40 per cent being equally shared by the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). But it has still to become operational and the draft incorporating the memorandum of agreement (MOA) and the Articles of Association (AoA) finally approved and signed.

    Several industry professionals from the advertising and media agencies said that a body overseeing TAM was the need of the hour.

    A senior official from a leading agency emphasised the need for a body like BARC as TAM has become akin to the Holy Grail or Bible when it comes to TV ratings. “I have always wondered how can you base your decisions on a single ratings agency that is so powerful to decide the buying of over Rs 110 billion of television advertising spend. I have found the peoplemeters and the sample size inadequate and there have been allegations of tampering. It defies rationale under these circumstances if we are not to speed up BARC.”

    Another top official from a different agency pointed out that the best way is to review data simultaneously as it gets thrown up so that errors can be kept in check or rectified timely. The anomalies can, thus, be investigated promptly. If there is any mistake, genuine or of malicious intent, it can be set right,” he remarked.

    Media agencies do not depend entirely on TAM when they do their buying plans for their clients. “We also look at other factors and along with our internal research and some element of gut feel we decide on how we can best get to the target audience of the brand. Advertisers and media agencies don’t trust the TAM data blindly before putting monies behind the channel,” a media professional said.

    Is monopoly of a single ratings currency bad? Bhasin does not think monopoly is the issue. “The issue is if somebody is not doing the job properly or deliberately doing it wrong. That is what has to be monitored and controlled,” he said.

    Another senior media executive, however, disagrees. According to him, this may be a good time for other research agencies to offer services compatible to TAM and provide the industry with an alternative.

    Bhasin, though, feels that it is a better option to have the industry’s resources pooled in one place and a monitoring body structured.

    Most of the media executives agree on one thing: to make BARC operational with much thought and detailing.

  • Koovs.com appoints Carat Bengaluru as media AoR

    MUMBAI: Fashion e-store Koovs.com has appointed Aegis Media‘s Carat Media Services as its media AoR following a multi agency pitch. The agency‘s Bengaluru branch will be handling the account.

    Carat‘s south operations were started three months back and this is the second win for the office since then, the first being Wipro‘s OOH and digital account.

    Koovs.com director Rajesh Kamra said, “We were delighted to see the response we received from Carat on the brief and their huge passion for our business. Their tools and technologies as well as their approach to media completely took us by surprise as they were truly business focused. We are pleased to have them as a partner and are sure that they would contribute significantly to our business growth.”

    Carat Media SVP – south Joydeep Raha added, “Our thorough understanding of the online consumers with respect to their attitudes and aspirational needs was critical in recommending customised media solutions for Koovs as an online lifestyle portal bringing in the best solutions in luxury & lifestyle. We look forward to partnering Koovs in their endeavours and will leave no stone unturned to deliver cutting edge Integrated solutions for the brand.”

    Carat India managing director Kartik Iyer said, “I am delighted to partner with Koovs.com, which is India‘s fastest growing ecommerce site and thank Rajesh Kamra for reposing faith and confidence in our cutting edge media solutions, backed by relevant consumer insights.”

  • Aegis expands footprint in Chennai

    MUMBAI: Aegis is expanding its footprint in India. Carat, the media agency from the Aegis stable, has launched in Chennai. Posterscope will also expand its team and launch new services in Chennai.

    Carat will be headed by senior vice president south Joydeep Raha. Aegis also plans to expand its Carat Fresh teams in Chennai with recruitment of new talent and introduction of new services.

    In addition to this, Aegis Media India is consolidating its Chennai office in one building which will house Vizeum, Isobar (Digital) Iprospect (Search), Posterscope (OOH), Hyperspace (Retail), Carat and Carat Fresh Integrated (Activation).

    Aegis Media chairman India and CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “We believe Chennai will be an extremely important market in the years to come and the spectacular success of Vizeum has proven that. Vizeum has won several businesses and expanded rapidly in Chennai. We are investing in a world class, state-of-the-art office, with the latest systems, technologies and connectivity. Shortly our clients in Chennai will, perhaps for the first time, have available to them, all specializations under one roof. We will soon announce the launch of a few more of our services, later this year. Our One Aegis promise will, from July 2nd, be available to our clients in Chennai, too. ”

    Vizeum managing director Indian sub continent S Yesudas added, “I have to place on record my appreciation for Team Vizeum Chennai who saw the merit in our story and chucked their other established jobs to put their hands on ours when we were just beginning. We will stay focused on this market in terms of our investment in our product as well as talent. My gratitude also goes out to each of our clients who have stood by us, with a special thanks to Amrutanjan and Sambhu for being the inspiration for our launch in Chennai.”

  • Nescafe launches new summer campaign

    Mumbai: Coffee major Nescafe has launched a 360 degree integrated campaign to ensure that its consumers ‘shake and make‘ and chill with cold coffee this summer.

    It is making an attempt to ensure that coffee remains a beverage of choice even in summers and further extend Nescafe‘s market leadership in the category, the company said.

    Nescafe has roped in Aegis Media‘s Posterscope to conceptualise its outdoor campaign in Delhi and Kolkata while DDB MudraMax has come on board to work on its OOH campaign in Mumbai.

    The objective of the campaign was to generate high level of engagement for this new format of Nescafe amongst the TG. The campaign has been created around the ‘Shake Well Make Well‘ proposition (in sync with the ongoing TVC for the brand). Nescafe brand ambassador Deepika Padukone will feature in the ads across cities.

    Posterscope Group India managing director Haresh Nayak said, “This is our 3rd year of working on the brand and our 8th summer related campaign across categories and brands. For this campaign we have focused on impact through high frequency and have used our Prism Suite of tools to greater effect.”

    Posterscope India senior business director Vinay Goel added, “Keeping the brand and brief in mind, we planned a high decibel high impact campaign with extensive mix of out of home media vehicles. The choices of media for this campaign are strategic wherein we used traditional media like billboard and unipole for largeness. Bus shelters, metro stations, mall branding and commercial office places for reach while Digital OOH like LED screen and digital screens inside Easy cab used to bring in technology.‘

    In Gurgaon, the DLF buildings were targeted and sculpted by creating a corridor with multiple media like Wall wraps, building façade, lift branding, bench branding and scrollers.

    One of the key challenges for Posterscope was to obtain the desired quality and number of media vehicles at the right locations. Multiple hits across all important high traffic routes have helped quick registration and high recall of the campaign, the agency said.

    In Mumbai, more than eighty bus-shelters spread strategically over the city ensured high-visibility and recall along with key sites at malls. Volvo and King long buses were also used to peak the interests, DDB MudraMax said.

  • Aegis Media aims at widening profits in 2012

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media expects to widen its profitability in India this year after breaking even in 2011 as it has set itself the target of doubling growth from each of its business verticals.

    “We broke even in 2011. And we expect 2012 to be the first year when we will be significantly profitable,” says Aegis Media chairman (India) and CEO (South East Asia) Ashish Bhasin.

    Aegis Media, part of Aegis Group, has four main businesses – media planning and buying; digital and search; Out-of-home and retail; and activation and creative.

    “Our target for this year is that every business will have at least double the growth of their own category,” says Bhasin.

    Aegis Media does not believe in a silo structure, the way many agencies are run. “We have a unique operating model in that sense. We give the clients all the benefits of specialisation without the hassles of silo-isation. And we are able to do it because we treat India as one country with one P&L (profit and loss).”

    WPP, for instance, has its different agencies work independently and report to the parent company separately .

    “We are media and agency agnostic. We can work with any agency. We are just media specific and we tell clients what combination of media is good for their product or brand,” Bhasin adds.

    Aegis Media‘s aggressively intent got reflected late last year when it acquired a majority stake in Doosra Brand Communications to add creative capability to its India outfit.

    So what will Doosra do for growth? “We are looking at quality rather than volume of work from there. We want them to have one or two marquee clients. Take few great companies and do path-breaking work for them, that‘s the direction we are looking at. We have also planned if at some later stage we can get into end-to-end film solution for clients,” says Bhasin.

    What about Carat, Aegis Media‘s flagship brand, which was a loss-making outfit? “We had good clients in Carat but were not doing full justice to them. So for the last three years our focus has been to give them more attention and quality. So rather than going out for new businesses we wanted to service them well and get more businesses out of them. So for clients like Philips, of which we had only small part of their account, we now have 100 per cent of it,” says Bhasin.

  • D Sriram joins Madison Media as consulting director

    D Sriram joins Madison Media as consulting director

    MUMBAI: D Sriram is soon joining Madison Media as consulting director.

    Confirming the development, a highly placed executive said, “Sriram will be rejoining us. He will be consulting for the agency from Singapore.”

    This is Sriram‘s second stint with Madison. Earlier, in 1995, he was with the agency serving as media director.

    Later, he moved to Media Vest as GM China and was subsequently promoted as Starcom MediaVest Group CEO, Asia Pacific in 2005.

    After SMG, Sriram moved to Promeoh as CEO and later to Aegis Media as its COO.Since November 2010, Sriram has been working as an independent consultant.

  • Vizeum launches consumer engagement service, ropes in Anand Kumar

    Vizeum launches consumer engagement service, ropes in Anand Kumar

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media’s Vizeum India has appointed Anand Kumar as associate general manager – engagement planning for its newly launched active consumer engagement service.

    Based in Mumbai, Kumar will report to Vizeum MD Indian sub-continent S Yesudas.

    He moves in from Network18 Group where he was senior account group head- advertising and sales.

    Yesudas said, “As the communication channel choices increase and the limited time at the consumers’ disposal further shrink, we believe we need to focus on engaging with consumers at different occasions and different state of mind based on the same strategic thread of the overall communication. Anand’s appointment is in line with this.
    Passive advertising sells a particular product and makes the consumer walk to the point of sale.

    However, there is a good chance that the consumer might walk out with a totally different brand because of some dynamics at the point of sale. On the other hand, had there been reinforcement of the message once again in the consumers’ mind as actively as possible just before the decision to pull out the wallet, chances are that the same brand would have been benefited. Both these scenarios call for different consumer engagements –the former talking ‘AT’ the consumer and the later, talking ‘WITH’ the consumer. Talking ‘WITH’ the consumer is all about actively engaging them at a different state of mind.”

    Kumar said, “Vizeum India today is a strong and credible agency in just less than two and-a-half years. Their well articulated understanding of talking ‘At’ and ‘With’ consumers can further enhance thought leadership status. I look forward to working closely with the leadership team in Vizeum as they move to next level of aggressive growth and consolidation story.”

  • Vizeum India bags X S Real’s media biz

    Vizeum India bags X S Real’s media biz

    MUMBAI: Chennai based property developer, X S Real has appointed Aegis Media‘s Vizeum India as its media AoR.


    Vizeum India will now handle X S Real‘s media mandate to help them talk to their consumers in as captive a manner as possible.


    X S Real CMO S Suresh said, “We welcome Vizeum as our strategic media partners. We found their thinking, contemporary and their team, passionate. This is not one of the best times for our industry and we needed a partner who will understand our business and think on our behalf. We look forward to a productive association and wish Vizeum all the very best.”


    Vizeum MD – Indian Subcontinent S Yesudas added “We have pleasure in welcoming X S Real into the Vizeum family. We will do all that‘s required to ensure the niche the brand has been able to occupy gets further developed with consumers as the real ambassadors. We are thankful to the X S Real management for considering us worthy to partner them in realizing their ambition. This business will be handled out of our Chennai Office.”

  • Isobar to handle Expedia’s social media and ORM account

    Isobar to handle Expedia’s social media and ORM account

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media’s Isobar has been signed on by online travel company, Expedia, to manage its social media presence in India.


    Expedia marketing head Manmeet Ahluwalia said that social media and ORM is perhaps the most important tool for success in today’s digitally connected world specially in their line of business.


    “It is core to our marketing strategy and hence we wanted to look for the best agency to partner with. We chose Isobar as they have done some outstanding work in India,” he concluded.
     
    Isobar India MD Shamsuddin Jasani added, “This is a great win for us. We are much exited that the world leader in online travel has appointed us as their social media and ORM agency. Social is a core ingredient for Expedia’s success and isobar will work as the catalyst in achieving this success.”


    Expedia recently entered into an exclusive partnership with AirAsia to offer a complete range of value flights, hotels, and holiday options for the Indian consumer.