After over a year of conversations, Mediabrands has finally announced its digital plans in India. Making the announcement, Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group said, “This is exciting for us since India is one of our key markets from an IPG perspective. This adds to our presence in the market, and more importantly marks our digital plans in India. This reinforces our commitment in India.”
Anjali Hegde, one of Interactive Avenue’s founding partners, would be heading the JV, which will assume the name of Reprise Media in India, as its CEO and will report to the new Reprise Media, India Board as well as Mediabrands Asia Pacific Regional Leadership. Mediabrands will hold a 51per cent stake in the joint venture, while Interactive Avenues will hold the remaining 49 per cent.
Interactive Avenues has already been working with Lodestar Universal in India as Interactive Universal for the last 18 months. While this entity has not been formalised as yet, this development marks the official structure. The partnership formalises the long-time successful working relationship between Interactive Avenues and Mediabrands.
exchange4media readers would recall that the development was first reported in March 2009.
The new business unit will specialise in search and social marketing and also offer a full scope of digital services, which include digital media strategy and investment, digital creative development, campaign implementation and post activity analysis.
Anjali Hegde, CEO Reprise Media, India, said, “Interactive Avenues welcomes this opportunity to partner with IPG’s Mediabrands on the Reprise Media venture in India. Through Interactive Avenue’s leadership in digital marketing and Mediabrands’ leading global agency network, the possibilities for Reprise Media India have no bounds.”
“The Aditya Birla Group is convinced about the power of the Digital medium and will aggressively use this medium in our marketing efforts,” said Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group. He added, “Reprise Media demonstrated a deep level of understanding of our business as well as expertise across all facets of digital marketing and we look forward to working closely with them.”
Shashi Sinha, CEO, Lodestar UM (Universal McCann), added here, “With an online community of approximately 81 million, India represents one of the world’s largest Internet markets. But behind this impressive number, India still remains a multi-faceted and highly complex digital landscape. With Reprise Media India, we have the digital marketing experts that can navigate the digital space effectively and offer our clients unrivalled value for their campaigns, especially as this space reaches critical mass in the coming years.”
Source: exchange4media.com