In the year 2008, Mudra Group’s priority has been consolidation. During the year, Mudra added various specialised units such as Water, Terra, Celsius and 10 Integrated.
The Group also has plans to launch a retail unit, and a business analytics and consulting unit before March 2009. To ensure “the right skill set”, Mudra is looking at launching these units through international joint ventures and acquisitions.
It is clear that Chief Operating Officer, Pratap Bose, is looking at the volume game for Mudra’s future growth. In the five months since he joined the agency, four specialised services have been launched. Units like Tribal DDB and Mudra Healthcare and Lifestyle have been adding new businesses and working with some of the big clients. Although these businesses don’t translate to the advertising agency business, they play their role in contributing to the overall revenues of the Group.
Work has begun on both the new units. Mudra is looking for a suitable partner and is in active conversation with international companies. Bose commented on the plans for the retail unit, “In spite of the economic slowdown, retail is a key component for the future growth, in terms of what the clients really want. Retail, according to me, is a large spectrum. It includes design, brand identity, store design, modern or traditional trade, and the branches further into material specifications, logistics and implementations amongst other things. It’s a huge area, and we have to be clear on how we approach this and where we want to be present in.”
Bose explained why a JV format for both of these units had been settled on, when all the other units have been set up by Mudra alone, “Because this kind of special skill set doesn’t exist here, and we are looking at providing the absolute gold standard in each of our services.” Although admitting that the economic slowdown had slowed down the process of launching these units, he insisted that the Group is hopeful of meeting the March 2009 deadline.”
On the plans for 2009, he said, “Our media plans for the next year lie in strategically providing business solutions and making our media budgets more accountable than ever before. In the light of the economic recession, I hear clients saying that they expect their media agencies to work that much harder in coming up with seriously innovative ways to deliver ROI. That could mean coming up with great value driven deals with media channels or by embracing newer forms of media or simply by adopting a completely new construct on the traditional media plan. For Mudra Max, this would mean a far tighter interplay with our 12 specialised units in marketing services. We have very unique and capable offerings in digital, rural, promotions, and out-of-home to name a few, and we will use that expertise in a much differentiated manner to exploit the current economic situation.”
Earlier this year, Mudra integrated its media capabilities within the agency in order to go back to the full service structure. The all-new Mudra Max had set up two sub-brands – Mudra Connext and Mudra Radar. On what the transition was like for the media agency side of the business, Bose siad, “The year 2008-09 has been particularly good for both Mudra Radar and Mudra Connext units with a healthy top line growth. It remains to be seen what impact the economic slowdown would have on us in the last quarter of 2009.”
Bose’s final remarks were, “If the world is pulling back and taking a ‘wait and watch’ approach, then it’s the best time to consolidate. Because if it picks up, then you have the luxury of holding your horses and taking stock of the situation in the areas where you probably are weak or need improvement. To sum it up, we are consolidating our position for the year 2008-09, and we are looking at growth.”