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Tag: WPP

  • WPP’s Kuvera joins hands with China’s mobile platform PaiPai

    WPP’s Kuvera joins hands with China’s mobile platform PaiPai

    MUMBAI: Kuvera, a wholly owned WPP company specializing in e-commerce in China has forged a partnership with Paipai, China’s social commerce platform on mobile owned by JD.com. The deal names Kuvera as Paipai’s strategic partner in a new initiative of developing mobile social e-commerce in China for global brands.

     

    Under the agreement, Kuvera acts as a total solution provider for WPP’s clients to conduct online retailing business on Paipai’s e-commerce platform, utilizing social networking and a variety of marketing tools; if circumstances permit, Paipai will recommend WPP agencies to Paipai’s merchants, as a preferred service provider of marketing and promotion services and as a strategic partner of Paipai.

     

    Specifically, Kuvera becomes a qualified service provider on Paipai and will assist Paipai to recruit new brand merchants. Kuvera will provide a full spectrum of services to clients, including transaction services, storefront management, brand promotion and customer relationship management (CRM). In turn, Paipai will provide clients with necessary support and resources, including traffic, technical solutions and merchandising staff. 

     

    The agreement also provides Kuvera access to Paipai’s advertising inventory, including its organic traffic and traffic from social media which Paipai connects with, such as WeChat and QQ.

     

    “It is a milestone that we are going to provide a total solution package including advertising and online sales for global brand names under social e-commerce context. Through Paipai and Kuvera, we hope more global brand names can enjoy the benefit and excitement that social e-commerce brings to them and we hope JD and WPP will have further and tighter co-operation along the way,” said JD.com CEO Richard Liu. 

     

    “China’s consumers are among the world’s most engaged in the e-commerce, social networking and mobile spaces. This agreement provides WPP and our clients the ability to leverage Paipai and JD.com’s platforms,” added WPP CEO Martin Sorrell. 

     

    “Brands are seeking to reach Chinese consumers more effectively, particularly over social and mobile networks. With this agreement, our clients now have greater access to social commerce channels, including the highly popular WeChat ecosystem,” said WPP China CEO Bessie Lee.

     

    In 2014 in Greater China, WPP companies (including associates) generated revenue of $1.5 billion with almost 15,000 people, with digital revenue around $450 million. WPP’s global digital revenue was $6.9 billion in 2014, representing 36 per cent of the Group’s total revenues of $19 billion. 

     

    “We are excited to have WPP as a strategic partner of Paipai. With WPP’s unparalleled branding and advertising expertise globally, we together will provide a total solution including brand and long tail ads and marketing strategy to our customers in the social commerce universe,” said Paipai president Kate Kui.

     

  • WPP to acquire minority stake in OTT TV service FlowNetwork

    WPP to acquire minority stake in OTT TV service FlowNetwork

    MUMBAI: WPP has agreed to acquire a minority stake in FlowNetwork. FlowNetwork is a new, Swedish, over-the-top television service, delivering its programmes via the internet, which supplies Sweden’s regional newspapers with technology and content.

     

    Newspapers served by FlowNetwork include Norrköpings tidningar, Folkbladet, Motala Vadstena Tidning, Norrländska Socialdemokraten, Östgöta Correspondenten, Norrbottens-Kuriren, Västervik-Tidningen, Hela Gotland and UNT. FlowNetwork is co-producer of the new Swedish drama series G?smamman.

     

    This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its integrated services in fast-growing and important markets and sectors and strengthening its capabilities including digital media. WPP’s digital revenues (including associates) were $6.9 billion in 2014, representing 36 per cent of the Group’s total revenues of nearly $19 billion. WPP has set a target of 40-45 per cent of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years.

     

    In Scandinavia, WPP companies (including associates) generate revenues of over US$500 million and employ over 2,500 people. In Sweden alone, WPP businesses generate revenues of over $180 million and employ over 800 people.

  • WPP reports record ?1.5 billion annual profit

    WPP reports record ?1.5 billion annual profit

    MUMBAI: For 2014, Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group reported a record ?1.5 billion annual profit in 2014, which was up by 12 per cent on reported revenue of ?11.53 billion, which was up 4.6 per cent year on year.

     

    WPP, which owns agencies such as Ogilvy, J. Walter Thompson, and Milward Brown, said 2015 was off to a flying start. Like-for-like revenue in January rose 6.7 per cent, with like-for-like net sales up 3.9 per cent, which WPP says was stronger than the final quarter of 2014 and 2014 itself.

     

    The agency expects to grow net sales by three per cent in 2015 and is looking at a headline operating margin target of 0.3 margin points, excluding the impact of currency.

     

    WPP’s reported billings at ?46.186 billion, were up 6.8 per cent in constant currency driven by a strong leadership position in net new business league tables. On the other hand, WPP saw like-for-like revenue growth in all regions, led by strong growth in North America, United Kingdom and Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa & the Middle East and Central & Eastern Europe, and by all sectors, with particularly strong growth in advertising and media investment management and branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications (including direct, digital and interactive).

     

    The group’s like-for-like net sales growth were at 3.3 per cent, with the gap compared to revenue growth more than the first half, as the scale of digital media purchases in media investment management and data investment management revenue continues to increase.

     

    WPP saw EBITDA growth of 0.7 per cent, up 7.5 per cent in constant currency, reflecting currency headwinds, but giving 0.2 margin points improvement, to 19.0 per cent on net sales, with like-for-like operating costs (+3.1 per cent) rising slower than net sales.

     

    PBIT increase of 1.1 per cent to ?1.681 billion, up eight per cent in constant currency was observed for the year. Net sales margin, a more accurate competitive comparator, up 0.2 margin points to an industry leading 16.7 per cent, up 0.3 margin points in constant currency, in line with target.

     

    WPP saw exceptional gains of ?196 million largely representing gains on the AppNexus and Rentrak transactions completed in the second half, together with other gains of ?45 million, including gains on the re-measurement of the Group’s equity interests, partly offset by ?89 million of restructuring costs, ?39 million of IT transformation costs and ?7 million of investment write-downs, giving a net exceptional gain of ?61 million.

     

    WPP was recognised again in 2014 for creative and effectiveness excellence with the award of the Cannes Lion to WPP for the most creative Holding Company, for the fourth successive year, since the awards inception and another to Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, for the third consecutive year, as the most creative agency network. In another rare occurrence in the industry, in 2014 Grey was named Global Agency of the Year 2013 by both US trade magazines Ad Age and Ad Week. For the third consecutive year, WPP was awarded the EFFIE as the most effective Holding Company.

  • NewsX launches new campaign targeting youth

    NewsX launches new campaign targeting youth

    MUMBAI: iTV network’s English news channel NewsX has launched its new See Beyond campaign to enhance its brand values and depict its stand. Targeted primarily at the youth, the campaign is a continuation to the channel’s motto – News Not Noise – and is expected to explore a new dimension.  

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about the theme and target audience of the campaign, iTV network group CMO Savy Dillip says, “The campaign theme is ‘See Beyond’ and the target audience is between 25 – 44 Sec AB, basically from Metros and 1+ audience.”

    The creative agency behind the execution of the new campaign is WPP’s Wunderman. “We are very happy that the agency seems to have understood the brand and cracked a brilliant campaign, which is like a fresh breath of air from the routine news channel brand campaigns. Usually the general sense is that the news brand campaigns talk about unbiased, true journalism that is existent in the channels. We have tried to do something different here,” Dilip says.

    The 360 degree campaign will be promoted in all possible mediums to ensure substantial reach. Dilip adds, “We have tried to use the traditional and social mediums to promote it comprising B2B, B2C, outdoor, OOH, on-air and social platforms. We would want to reach the audience across platforms and across genres. Hence we are trying to communicate the message through the best of the mediums.” 

    NewsX is planning to launch five back to back campaigns for the same. “We are actually coming up with five campaigns from the network, which has never been done before by any media house or for any news network. The campaign depicts the DNA of our national English news channel, NewsX, which is a dominant leader in the age group of 25-44 in Metros.”

    The theme of the campaign suggests that one has to see beyond what is shown, which indirectly throws the ball in viewers’ court to decide which content to trust and what to ignore. “The theme in itself, suggests that one needs to see beyond things, be it a news channel or the viewer for that matter anyone. There is so much sensationalism and hyperbole involved in the news genre these days, and hence as a channel we would like to bring to the viewers what lies beneath and make them see the unseen,” asserts Dillip.

    News channels are today deriving campaigns based on social issues, which has become a trend of sorts. When queried if NewsX was also following the same trend, Dilip asserts, “If you really see, the theme of the campaign is used never before. If you take any news channel, they keep bombarding about best journalism, best stories, best facts, best coverage, unbiased, innovative, impactful, inclusiveness etc. But our theme is ‘See Beyond’, which does not actually communicate about our journalists or the news, or the importance of the brand. More importantly, it is not in the social space. We have done six creatives, based on politics, human rights, sports and religion, which are basically the issues that we are covering and battling on a daily basis,” she concludes.

  • MEC Africa launched; Monica Kambo to head

    MEC Africa launched; Monica Kambo to head

    MUMBAI: Media agency MEC has officially opened its doors to a new Sub-Saharan network, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

     

    Following WPP’s move to a controlling stake in ScanGroup last year, MEC Africa has launched with a team of over 20 people and will cover 22 markets in East and West Africa, supplementing MEC’s existing offering in South Africa and North Africa.

     

    Monica Kambo has been named as managing director of the new office, and will work closely with MEC’s international team, Global Solutions, in London.

     

    MEC Africa will work with existing ScanGroup clients and with MEC international clients in the region. 

     

    MEC global COO and EMEA chairman Alastair Aird said, “Launching MEC in new markets is always exciting, so I’m personally delighted to be welcoming 22 new markets into the MEC EMEA family. Africa is a complex but fascinating region, with many great opportunities, so it’s a truly exciting time to be partnering with our clients here. With the support of our collaborative and experienced network, and with Monica at the helm, I’m confident we’ll be able to integrate the same rigour and strategic leadership to our work for our clients as we do elsewhere in the world, and that for us is key to delivering growth to them.”

  • GroupM launches MEC, MediaCom & Mindshare in Sub-Saharan Africa

    GroupM launches MEC, MediaCom & Mindshare in Sub-Saharan Africa

    MUMBAI: GroupM has launched its MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare media agencies in sub-Saharan Africa, supplementing GroupM’s existing offering in South Africa and Northern Africa and strengthening its position as the global leader in media investment management.

     

    This development follows the lead of GroupM parent company WPP, which last year increased its stake to a controlling interest in Scangroup, the leading advertising and communication services group in East Africa.

     

    Based out of Nairobi, GroupM and the three media agencies will manage all sub-Saharan entities and client relations managed out of Nairobi. Monica Kambo, Rajiv Gopinath and Mac Machaiah will serve respectively as the agency leads for MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare. Kambo comes over from Ogilvy & Mather Africa where she was the general manager of media services, Gopinth joins from MediaCom Singapore where he was responsible for running the P&G account in China and Machaiah previously led Mindshare in Southern India.

     

    Clients who work with MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare will benefit from the consolidated media management of GroupM, while receiving best-in-class client leadership, communication strategy and executional delivery deeply connected to the agencies’ respective global networks. This will provide clients in sub-Saharan Africa with the market’s most advanced media capabilities and give access to training and development on the latest strategic planning, media tools and technology.

     

    “Sub-Saharan Africa is a key growth priority for many of our clients and we are increasing our presence and capabilities across the region,” said GroupM CEO EMEA Dominic Grainger.

     

    These operations will have a market-leading position and the overall network, along with its affiliates, shall comprise a team of more than 150 people across sub-Saharan Africa. The evolution of the company’s media offering supports its growth strategy, client growth, and fast-changing opportunities for brands.

     

    Nandu Buty will assume day-to-day leadership of GroupM in sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to his responsibilities as COO of Scangroup, with the management team of each of the operating agencies.

     

    “This is an important development for us as it means we can advance our media agencies aligned to their respective global networks,” said Buty.

  • WPP’s tenthavenue appoints Sudipto Roy as CEO, Emerging Markets

    WPP’s tenthavenue appoints Sudipto Roy as CEO, Emerging Markets

    MUMBAI: WPP’s global communications company, tenthavenue, has appointed Sudipto Roy as CEO of Emerging Markets, covering Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey.

     

    Roy will lead tenthavenue across high growth established markets, including China, South East Asia, Hong Kong, South Africa, and drive tenthavenue’s expansion into new markets, including Turkey, Middle East and Japan.

     

    Based out of Singapore, Roy will begin his new tenure in mid-April. Roy spent a significant part of his career in various leadership roles within Mindshare across India, APAC and Africa. These include chief client officer, chair of the Product, Service and Partnerships council, and as client lead for Unilever across APAC, Africa and Turkey, where he played a key role in global leadership of the account.

     

    In the last two years, he spearheaded the partnership drive at Mindshare across diverse domains such as big data, mobility, emerging consumer marketing, content and word of mouth marketing, marketing data and visualisation technologies, as well as orchestrating the creation of new products and revenue streams.

     

    Tenthavenue founder and CEO Rupert Day said, “This appointment comes at a time when we are refocusing our vision for the future. We have had a fantastic start over the last four years, and we want to remain nimble, agile and focused for the next five. By recruiting Roy, we are continuing the energy and direction tenthavenue requires to keep growing, and to keep building winning propositions. Roy is a pivotal part of our APAC management team, and has the right experience to help us realise our strategic ambition to become the best ‘connected experiences’ company in the world. His deep knowledge of the emerging markets, of the technology landscape and his ability to connect the dots to drive new age partnerships is the perfect combination for a company like ours.”

     

    Roy added, “tenthavenue is poised to create a highly differentiated marketing services model for the future. The company has an inherent strength in out-of-home experiences, on-the-go experiences and mobility. That’s the perfect combination for a new age services model as consumers spend less time in front of the TV and desktop and become mobile. The ambition is to forge the units under one strategic umbrella and together become the best ‘connected experiences’ company in the world, driven by deep consumer data and personalisation of content. This vision, combined with the deep entrepreneurial energy in the company, is what has attracted me to join tenthavenue.”

     

    Launched in 2011, tenthavenue now operates across over 55 offices in 25 countries. Based on the four key pillars of data, content, technology and media, tenthavenue builds products and services that enable advertisers to create connected brand experiences. As parent to WPP’s ‘Connected Consumer’ agencies, the tenthavenue agency family consists of market leaders and rising stars in their respective fields, including Kinetic, Aviator, Joule, Spafax, Candyspace, Forward and TMARC.

  • WPP’s Kantar inks global alliance outside US with ComScore

    WPP’s Kantar inks global alliance outside US with ComScore

    MUMBAI: ComScore has inked a strategic alliance with WPP’s data investment management division, Kantar.

     

    The alliance, which covers territories outside the US, establishes a framework for the parties to bring the best of breed together from the two companies – their products, technology, data assets, research panels and relationships – to provide world class cross-media audience and campaign measurement capabilities.

     

    The alliance follows the intended acquisition by WPP, announced earlier today, of a substantial equity stake in comScore. Under the terms of the agreement, comScore will issue 4.45 per cent in shares in exchange for the benefits of the strategic alliance, and acquisition of certain European Internet audience measurement assets. WPP will also purchase up to 15 per cent shares of comScore through a tender offer with an offering price of $46.13, giving WPP a total ownership stake in comScore of between 15-20 per cent. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015. Provided WPP’s tender offer is successful, it is expected to be accretive to comScore’s non-GAAP earnings per share in 2015.

     

    comScore will partner with Kantar and its operating businesses on cross-media audience and campaign measurement in non-US markets. comScore will also acquire the assets of Kantar’s Internet audience measurement businesses in certain European markets. In these markets, Kantar and comScore will continue to provide the same level of seamless integration and data services.

     

    “This long-term, strategic alliance will simplify the deployment of global measurement capabilities and accelerate the creation of new services for the industry. The emerging mediascape points to a massive global opportunity waiting to be unlocked by cracking the code on cross-media audience and campaign measurement. We look forward to working together with Kantar to deliver new measurement products based on our complementary offerings in these markets,” said comScore CEO Serge Matta.

     

    Kantar CEO Eric Salama added, “By partnering with comScore and combining our respective strengths, we will integrate data and expertise to give our clients a new standard in measuring audiences and campaigns across multiple platforms. This continues our strategy of combining survey, panel and census data and putting digital at the heart of all we do.”

  • Mindshare appoints Prasanth Kumar as south Asia CEO

    Mindshare appoints Prasanth Kumar as south Asia CEO

    MUMBAI: Mindshare APAC, the global media agency network part of WPP, has appointed Prasanth Kumar or PK as he is popularly known, to the role of south Asia CEO.

     

    Currently head of GroupM’s Central Trading Group and a member of GroupM’s south Asia executive committee, PK will report to GroupM south Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and Mindshare Asia Pacific COO Gowthaman Ragothaman.

     

    The announcement was made following the news that the current CEO, Ravi Rao will be transitioning into a new role within GroupM, the details of which will be announced shortly.

     

    Srinivas commented, “Prasanth was a unanimous choice for this role. He is a very dynamic leader always full of ideas and a true organisation man. In the past ten years he has played a stellar role in ensuring GroupM’s scale is leveraged to maximise value for our clients. He has championed some exciting partnerships for GroupM both in the digital and traditional media spaces. I am sure under his leadership Mindshare will scale new peaks and delight its clients with a quality media product. I’d like to thank Ravi Rao for his contribution and wish him the very best in his new role within the network.”

     

    Kumar’s role is effective 1 March 2015.

  • “We’ve come a long way from being WPP’s little known agency”: Samrat Bedi

    “We’ve come a long way from being WPP’s little known agency”: Samrat Bedi

    The year 2014 will go down in history as the year of Indian politics. The main contenders of the two-horse race, Bharatiya Janta Party and Congress, launched massive campaigns to woo voters and became the talking point of the year.

     

    The BJP campaign ran in series with ‘janta maaf nahi karegi’ and ‘achche din aane wale hai’ becoming the most popular taglines of the year. While some pulled a meme on them, others continue to strongly believe in them and hoped to see a better and brighter India.

     

    The agency behind the ‘political campaign that created history,’ Soho Square, won not only hearts and accolades from the ‘aam janta’ but the advertising fraternity as well. It won the Grand Effie at the Effies 2014, bringing it at par with the bigger agencies like O&M, Lowe Lintas and McCann Worldgroup India.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Meghna Sharma caught up with Soho Sqaure head Samrat Bedi for a quick freewheeling chat after the award function.

    Excerpts:

     

    After winning the mandate, what was the reaction of the team? Was there a lot of pressure to deliver?

     

    We knew that it was a challenging one as it was an uncharted territory for the entire team. We had never done anything like this before. When we started working on it, a day’s work felt like what one would usually do in a week’s time.

     

    We held meetings at 1 pm everyday where we were given a new brief. After watching a lot of news and reading papers, to gauge the nation’s mood, we would again meet around 2:30 pm or so and come up with new content/idea by night.

     

    We are very proud of the campaign and it was a huge learning lesson.

     

    Whom would you attribute the win to?

     

    It was a team effort. It might sound clichéd but the magnitude of the project was so huge that the whole team had to get involved. There was no senior or junior when we got down to working on the campaign as it was unknown territory and needed everyone’s support.

     

    One can say a benchmark has been created. So, what will be the next big thing for Soho Square?

     

    Tough question. (laughs) I would like to call it a springboard rather than a benchmark. One can always do better and create newer benchmarks. Nonetheless, it will work as a springboard for us and now help us grow pillar to pillar.

     

    In a month’s time, we will be launching the coffee table book on the BJP campaign as well. 

     

    What advice will you like to give other “smaller” agencies?

     

    Just because we won the BJP mandate doesn’t make Soho Sqaure an expert. We cannot give advise to anyone because we are sure every other agency has the best talent pool and the ambition to come up with fantastic work across categories.

     

    However, one thing is for sure that the campaign helped us from being the “little known agency of WPP” to an agency which can now be counted amongst the big leagues.

     

    Sometimes it takes just an idea to change people’s perceptions!