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Tag: WPP

  • WPP merges Meridian with Soho Square

    MUMBAI: Indian born agency Meridian Communication, which operates under Ogilvy and Mather, has merged with WPP‘s Soho Square.

    The aim of the merger is to take Meridian international and grow Soho Square‘s business in India. Soho Square has a growing international network in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.

    Soho Square, has three boutique agencies operating independently in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.

    Soho Square will deliver cross-disciplinary work spanning a full spectrum of marketing communications including brand development, brand identity, strategic planning and integrated creative solutions.

    Given the complex nature of the Indian market and its geography, the Soho Square approach in India will be to establish itself as a standalone in each city rather than a nationally integrated network. The India plans attempt to have Soho Square in many more cities in the near future.

    While the individual operations will share the same philosophy and principles as the international network in India, for the purpose of business the three city agencies will operate independent of each other.

    “Integrated solutions are central to our structure and philosophy. At Soho Square we can select and customize learning by drawing upon Ogilvy & Mather and other WPP resources in Asia Pacific,” Soho Square said.

    In Mumbai Soho Square‘s core team comprises Soho Square Mumbai head of office Samrat Bedi, executive creative directors and creative heads Anuraag Khandelwal and Satish deSa, VP account management Mohit Ahuja and SVP planning Shashank Lanjekar.

    Clients in Soho Square Mumbai include ITC‘s personal care products, Perfetti‘s Stop Not, Piaggio‘s Vespa, Bisleri, Pidilite‘s Raincoat, Hungama.com, Oberoi Realty, Nutrela Soya, H&R Johnson and Hockey India.

    In Bangalore, Soho Square‘s core team comprises head of office Shenaz Bapooji and creative directors C Ravikumar and Manoj.

    Clients in Soho Square Bangalore are Himalaya Healthcare‘s Consumer Products Division (Purifying Neem Face Wash, Clarifying Fairness Face Wash, Toothpastes, Face packs, Shampoos), Himalaya Asia Pac, The Bengaluru International Airport, GKB Opticals and iGate.

    In Delhi, the Soho Square clients are Honda Cars India Ltd. (formerly Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.), Godfrey Phillips India Ltd., HTC Ltd, HDFC Ltd and Voltas Ltd.

  • Lionsgate consolidates media biz with Mindshare

    MUMBAI: Hollywood studio Lionsgate which acquired Summit Entertainment last year, has consolidated the media business for the combined entity with WPP’s Mindshare. The move has been made to generate significant cost savings.

    The spends by the combined entity are in the range of $275 to 300 million.

    The announcement came after Lionsgate held a multi-agency review for its media buy and planning business. Horizon, Mindshare and Initiative were the participating agencies.

    Initiative was the media agency on record for Lionsgate while Mindshare handled the media duties for Summit before it was taken over.

    Mindshare’s office in Santa Monica, California will handle media planning and buying activities for theatrical features as well as all home entertainment releases by Lionsgate, Summit, Roadside Attractions and Pantelion Films.

    Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said, “By combining our media related services in one company, Lionsgate will immediately see significant savings which will impact the studio’s bottom line, achieve economies of scale that can be leveraged across our feature film entities and allow us additional resources to market and distribute our films in North America. In addition to significant cost savings, this move reflects a fresh strategic approach to media buying for our feature film and home entertainment slates. Mindshare has a great track record in its field and we look forward to ramping up our efforts with them in support of our 2013 slate and beyond. It was a tough decision as all of the candidates in the mix presented great opportunity for us, but in the end Mindshare met the needs of the studio in a manner that we believe will best serve our interests.”

    Mindshare North America CEO Anthony Young said, “We’re delighted to partner with Lionsgate and Summit on one of the most commercially exciting feature film slates in the world. Lionsgate has established a worldwide reputation as an innovator in the kinds of films it releases and the strategies it uses to market and distribute them, and we look forward to developing visionary and cost-effective media planning and buying strategies that reflect the Company’s entrepreneurial and game-changing spirit.”

  • WPP acquires eCommerce digital agency Salmon

    WPP acquires eCommerce digital agency Salmon

    MUMBAI: Global media communications company WPP has acquired 100 per cent of Okam Limited, the holding company of the UK-based digital agency Salmon Group.

    Salmon has expertise in technical and business areas and provides digital consulting, design, delivery and support services to leading retail, wholesale and manufacturing brands including Akzo Nobel, Argos, Game, Halfords, Kiddicare, Morrisons, Selfridges and Premier Farnell.

    The acquisition reflects the increasing importance of eCommerce to retailers, manufacturers and brand owners in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. eCommerce sales in the UK are growing at 10 per cent per annum and account for all the growth in retail sales. Salmon will be in a position to partner with the rest of WPP to broaden its offer and develop its business internationally.

    Salmon has a worldwide workforce of 420 people with offices in the UK, in China and in Australia. Salmon will continue to operate as an independent and stand-alone brand within WPP and be led by CEO Neil Stewart.

    Stewart said, “With increased client exposure and access to new geographies, our partnership with WPP will help fuel the next stage of our evolution into a global full-service digital delivery agency. We are delighted to be able to do this whilst preserving Salmon‘s independent culture and maintaining our focus on serving our clients.”

    WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said “The application of technology to marketing continues to accelerate, not least in the retail market and success requires close collaboration between our clients‘ marketing and sales organisations and their IT organisation. Close collaboration between Salmon and WPP‘s other agencies will allow WPP to bring clients a tightly-integrated solution across both marketing and technology and help both the CMO and CIO deliver customer-centric multi-channel solutions – yet another example of where CMO and CIO have to work together.”

    Salmon‘s consolidated unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 October 2012 were ?34.3 million, with gross assets of ?11.3 million.

    WPP‘s digital revenues (including associates) are budgeted to exceed $6 billion in 2013, over 33 per cent of the group‘s total revenues, which in 2011 totalled $16 billion. WPP has set a target of 35-40 per cent of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years.

  • WPP acquires remaining shares of three Colombian agencies

    MUMBAI: Three of WPP-owned companies – Grey, G2 Worldwide and MediaCom – have acquired the outstanding shares in three agencies in Bogota, Colombia.

    Global advertising agency network Grey has acquired the remaining shares in advertising agency REP/Grey. WPP‘s digital and relationship marketing company G2 Worldwide has acquired the remaining shares in REP/G2 while MediaCom (JV between Indian media group Madison and WPP‘s GroupM) has acquired the remaining shares in media agency Massive.

    After the latest acquisitions, WPP‘s collective revenues (including associates) in Columbia will amount to approximately US $110 million.

    The acquisitions are steps towards furthering strengthening WPP‘s presence in the Colombian communications services industry. Other WPP companies active in Colombia (including affiliates) are JWT, Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, Wunderman, OgilvyOne, Burson-Marsteller, Live, Energy, TNS, Kantar Worldpanel, Millward Brown and IBOPE.

    In the past month, WPP also announced that it had invested approximately $70 million to take a 20 per cent stake in Buenos Aires-based Globant S.A. and that its wholly owned subsidiary Wunderman acquired Mexico City-based Crossmedia S.A. The Group collectively, (including associates), will have revenues of over $1.6 billion and will employ over 18,000 people in the Latin American region alone in 2013.

  • WPP buys minority stake in Globant

    MUMBAI: Global communications services group WPP has agreed to acquire a 20 per cent stake in Globant S.A., an emerging worldwide provider of technical expertise and design and creative capabilities in the development of software products that can be applied to digital marketing campaigns on a global scale. WPP will invest approximately $70 million for acquiring the Globant stake.

    Headquartered in Buenos Aires, Globant employs 2,700 professionals in capacities ranging from engineers, marketing specialists and designers in 21 offices across 14 cities in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, the United States and the United Kingdom. The company‘s approach is unique in that it provides clients with both the infrastructure and technical support that drive digital marketing campaigns, combined with the creative and design skills usually found alone in digital agencies.

    Globant‘s net revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were $90 million and net revenues for the six months up to 30 June 2012 were $56.9 million with total assets of $69 million as of 30 June 2012.

    WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell said, “Increasingly, clients want better coordination between their IT departments and their marketing departments, between their chief information officers (CIOs) and their chief marketing officers (CMOs). There are many consulting companies or digital agencies that are expert in one function or the other. Few, if any, do both and even fewer can integrate deep technical and creative capabilities on a global scale as Globant does. Partnering with Globant will allow our companies to increasingly provide our clients with insights and skills that will make their digital marketing efforts even more effective and simpler to manage at both the front and back ends.”

    Globant has experience in working in state of the art digital marketing spaces including, but not limited to, mobile, gamification, social networks, cloud computing, big data and e-commerce. Globant‘s clients include American Express, JP Morgan Chase & Co., LinkedIn, Electronic Arts, Google, Coca-Cola, National Geographic, Zynga and Sabre Holdings, as well as a number of WPP companies, such as JWT, Young & Rubicam, Grey, GroupM and Kantar.

    Globant CEO and co-founder Martin Migoya said, “Our core competencies in gamification, cloud computing, big data, social networks and mobile enable us to deliver innovation to our customers and add value to their efforts to reach end users through software products. We are focused on staying ahead of the technology curve, which makes us the right partner for companies looking to build and engage consumers in a global way. We are extremely proud to welcome WPP into our family; their support will help us to achieve our goal of becoming one of the most innovative software development companies in the world.”

  • WPP’s Wunderman acquires majority stake in Crossmedia

    MUMBAI: WPP‘s global digital and relationship marketing company Wunderman has acquired a majority stake in Mexico-based digital marketing agency CM Interactive S.A. -Crossmedia.

    According to WPP, Wunderman has revenues of approximately $1 billion. Crossmedia‘s unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were over $5 million with gross assets of over $5 million, the agency conglomerate said in a statement.

    Founded in 2004, Crossmedia is headquartered in Mexico City and provides consulting, digital marketing, creative and media buying services to their clients. It employs 86 people and key clients include Banamex, Bimbo, PayPal and Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc.

    This acquisition continues WPP‘s strategy of investing in fast growing markets and sectors and its commitment to developing its strategic networks throughout Latin America. Mexico is WPP‘s second largest market in the region with revenues, including associates, of approximately US $200 million and approximately 3,000 people employed, the agency said.

  • WPP’s Kantar acquires digital media intelligence firm AdGooroo

    MUMBAI: WPP’S wholly-owned operating company information, insight and consultancy group Kantar has acquired AdGooroo, Inc. (“AdGooroo”) which provides global digital media intelligence.

    The acquisition is a step towards enhancing Kantar Media’s current methodic insight into display, video, ad networks and paid search advertising trends.

    The consultancy was founded in 2004 and based in Chicago. It employs 30 people and has unaudited assets of $1.3 million. The company will become part of Kantar Media.

    Currently, AdGooroo works with nearly 4000 users from many marketers and agencies, providing them with insight and data on competitors’ key words, creative, backlink data, campaign statistics and budgets.

    Kantar companies work across 100 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle.

  • Wunderman acquires majority stake in Mayko Trading

    MUMBAI: WPP‘s global digital and relationship marketing network Wunderman has acquired a majority stake in Sydney-based digital marketing and analytics consultancy Mayko Trading Pty Ltd.

    Mayko Trading was founded in 2005 and has over the past seven years developed expertise in designing and optimising customer experience and engagement with digital platforms. The company employs around 24 people and clients include Suncorp, Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Dan Murphy‘s, Bell Direct, Frontline Systems, Flordis, Engineers Australia and the Federal and State Governments.

    WPP said in a statement, “This investment reflects the Group‘s commitment to grow its digital capabilities and to support this growth with a strong independent technology capability.”

    In 2011, WPP‘s digital revenues were approximately 30 per cent of its total global revenues of more than $16 billion. WPP has set a target of 35-40 per cent of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five to 10 years.

  • GroupM agrees to acquire majority stake in Filmworks China

    MUMBAI: WPP has announced that its wholly-owned operating company GroupM, WPP’s global media investment management arm, has agreed to acquire Filmworks China, an entertainment marketing agency in China, subject to regulatory approval.

    Founded in 2010, Filmworks’ service offering includes marketing of entertainment media properties, merchandise licensing, tie-in promotion, product placement and celebrity endorsements. It has a blue-chip client list that includes Electronics Arts, DreamWorks, TCL Television, Li Ning and Yili Group.

    Filmworks’ unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were approximately RMB 12 million, with gross assets at the same date of approximately RMB 11 million.

    This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its services in fast-growing and important markets and sectors. WPP has been committed to the Greater China region for over 20 years. Greater China remains one of the fastest growth markets for the company and is currently WPP’s third largest market with revenues of $1.3 billion and 14,500 people (including associates).

  • MediaCom bags Qyuki.com media mandate

    MUMBAI: MediaCom has won the media mandate for Qyuki.com, a social media platform founded by Shekhar Kapur and AR Rahman.

    After a multi-agency pitch, MediaCom‘s Bengaluru office is given the task of handling the account.

    Qyuki CMO Bidisha Nagaraj said, “We were really impressed by MediaCom’s understanding of the digital space and the passion shown by the team. There could not have been a better team to manage the launch and growth of our brand.”

    Qyuki.com aims at engaging Indian youth by showcasing new media content. Users at Qyuki can explore new ways of creativity and self-expression as well as get an opportunity to come together to co-create, learn and experience content from creative experts.

    MediaCom India MD Debraj Tripathy said, “We are delighted to be associated with Qyuki. It is a unique opportunity for us to use our experience and skills in building a digital brand ground up.”

    Mediacom is a joint venture between WPP’s GroupM and homegrown media conglomerate Madison Media. The agency recently won the Rs 250 million media account for Miayas Beverages and Foods.