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Nithya Subramanian

Mr Keith Smith, Regional Chairman, TBWA/Asia-Pacific.

NEW DELHI, March 26

FROM Anthem to TBWA\Anthem to finally TBWA India. It's not just the international name that this Rs 100-crore (capitalised billings) advertising agency is donning, it is also looking at growing its business in the Indian market in a big way.

As part of its global brand building strategy, this Omnicom Group agency has decided to drop the Indian part (Anthem) of the name.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Keith Smith, Regional Chairman, TBWA\Asia Pacific said, "We are always talking about branding. So just as we have dropped the local names in other countries, we decided to do so in India too."

While the Indian market has potential, the growth rates have not been high. "The Indian market is not as big as it should be. Compared to China India lags behind. And we see some real opportunity. India should be in our top-10 list in the next five years," he said.

The agency will look at becoming an integrated group in India just as it is in other countries providing all kinds of services such as direct marketing, public relations, outdoor advertising besides the advertising services.

Also the international tools such as Disruption and Connection would be used extensively by the agency in developing strategies for various brands. This year, the agency is hoping to achieve capitalised billings of Rs 130 crore.

Mr Smith also ruled out growth through the acquisition route for the time being. "We are not looking at any fresh acquisitions," he said.

Talking about the Indian market, Mr Smith said that while India has a fairly sophisticated print medium, there is a greater focus on television in the Philippines. "But agencies as such look at creating the big idea and then exploding the big idea through all communication routes," he added.

A favourite campaign is that of SK Telecom, a company that lost out a sponsorship deal to Korean Telecom during the FIFA World Cup. "We were not allowed to use the players or images from the World Cup. So we thought of the `Be the Reds' campaign where there were red street parties. The entire place had people wearing red shirts and partying," he said.

To consolidate media buying

IF WPP has consolidated its media buying business into three specialist agencies, the Omnicom Group is also planning to consolidate its media buying business by bringing in OMD (Optimum Media Direction).

Mr George John, Chairman & Managing Director, TBWA India, said, "The media buying business of all the Omnicom Group agencies will be brought under one roof later this year."

The Omnicom Group is present in India through its holdings in TBWA, DDB Needham and BBDO.

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