8/8/2019 Brand Wagon

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2 THE FINANCIAL EXPRE SS

TUESDAY , OCTOBER 26, 2010

THE FINANCIAL EXPRE SS

“My first task 

was to set a new

agenda for the

future because we already had a

tremendous set of clients,”said Kamath.

A form er employee of Mudra who did

not want to be named says,“Mudra

always had big clients an d since 2003 ithad the vigour to become a topnotch

communication network.It did not

succeed because of lack of coordination

amongst the var ious businesses.”

Mudra first floated a healthcare unit

called Brand Ther apist as it already had

pharm a clients such as Cadila Healthca-

re,Core Pharmaceuticals,Paras Phar-

maceuticals,Sun Pharma and Torrent.In

2004,Mudr a,in association with Rapp

Collins Worldwide,formed a direct mark-

eting agency Rapp Collins India. DBS,

which was Mudra's digital solutions arm

became a part of Tribal DDB Worldwide.

The real growth oft he agency started

in 2005.T hat year it acqu ired Delhi-based

Kidstuff Promos and Events.It also

floated a new agency called Canvas Com-

munications to han dle the creative duties

of Johnson & Johnson's skincare brands.

In 2007,Mudra launched a new agency

called DDB Mudra that was mandated to

handle global DDB accounts coming int o

the country,including Unilever's Lipton

range an d also the conflicting businessesof the mother agency.Canvas was then

merged with DDB Mudra.

However,amidst all this, the creative

quotient of Mudra was being challenged.

And in 2007,Bobby Pawar moved back 

from Chicago and was named the

national creative director of Mudra. He

says,“When I joined Mudra there were

two tasks at hand. When someone talked

about the top creative work done out of 

India,no one mentioned Mudra. So,task 

number one was to change that.”The

second task was to change the vision

about creative solutions and create more

media neutral or br oad ideas.

And it was finally in 2009,Kamath did

a reconnaissance and restructured the

group into four a gencies—Mudra India,

Mudra Max, DDB Mudra and Ignite

India.Today,Mudr a Group is one of the

largest home-grown communication

networks with over 26 offices in India and

is valued at m ore tha n Rs 2000 crore.

“The revamp or the relaunch was

required. This is simply to say we

understand consumers better.But the

real story is about the new structure of 

Mudra, the four agencies,the

integration, and I believe this is our

strength.Also each business is anchored

by a board m ember.Therefore,besides

growing my business,I also need to

safeguard the shar eholder interest,”said

Jude Fernandes ,CEO of Mudra Ind ia ,

the creative agency that accounts for

nearly 40% of the group's revenues.

However,the largest grosser is th e

group’s media business – Mudra Max—

which contributes 42-45% of the annu al

tur nover.It was in 2008 that Mudra Max,

with two independent agencies under it,

Mudra Connext and Mudra Radar,was

created.“The first year was all aboutbuilding the teams and launching new

units,”says Pratap Bose,CEO,Mudr a

Max and COO,Mudra Group.

Bose also heads Ignite India,which

caters to the brand building needs of 

entrepreneur s.“The agency was kicked

off about a year ago.When we looked at

our clients ' entrepreneur ial ventures,we

saw a huge n eed for u s to look at clients in

smaller centres,clients who were

untouched by bigger agencies in non

metros.”However,when it ventured into

small towns and cities,the agency

realized that the clients were more

worried about issues such as raising

capital,packaging,distribution, pricing,

and advertising was the last thin g on

their min ds.“We realized that if we help

them in th ese issues then advertising

would automatically fall on our laps.”

The fourth ,an d the one of the most

important businesses of the group,is

DDB India,which is headed by Sandip

Vij.It has four specialist units under it

including DDB India,Tribal DDB,Rapp,DDB Health & Lifestyle.“ We are maki ng

significant investments in all DDB

Mudra u nits ,”says Vij.

Akshay Mehrotra,h ead – marketing

and corporate communications,Bajaj

Allianz

Insurance says,“In

DDB India,we see

people and partner s who

have a deep understanding

and capability to provide integrat-

ed communication solutions that connect

with customers across the country.”

Although handling Indian clients has

been one of Mudra’s biggest strengths,

this year it h as proved that it is equallycompetent to launch international iconic

brands in India.In 2010,th e agency

helped German auto m ajor Volkswagen

launch its cars in India. Lutz Kothe,chief 

general manager mar keting and PR,

Volkswagen India says,“The strength

lies in DDB Mudra's creative perform-

ance and the capability to understand th e

brand while tran sform ing it to the cus-

tomer’s needs.As India is certainly a

market of its own Volkswagen mixed the

DNA of the brand with the needs of the

market and its customers in a distinctive

strategy.DDB Mudra tran sform ed it into

a creative strategy which matched the

market n eeds.”

Clients have certainly appreciated the

new strategy at Mudra.Says Pranay

Dhabhai,m anaging director,Akai India,

“Partnerin g with Mudra is a vital and

integral part of our overall business

strategy and corr ectly fits with our goal

to reinstate our position in India.Their

strategic thinking with an overall media

perspective,an extremely passionate andenthusiastic team, made us choose them

as our media partners.”

However,not everyone is sur e whether

the latest restructurin g will work. “To my

estimation this entire process ofr estruc-

tu ring

followed by the

repositioning and new

logo is an effort to put

forward a united front.To some

extent I feel the r epositioning is really

shallow.Why w as it required is not clear.

The agency is known for some iconic

advertising which got lost somewhere.

Will this new initiative help Mudra

create new bran d stories? We will have to

wait and watch.”says the form er Mudra

employee,who did not want to be

identified.

To be sure,the gr oup is not sittin g easy.

“Going forward, the growth will come in

three ways,th rough partnerships,

collaborations and acquisitions,”says

Kamath, readying for new challenges.

For Mudra India,there are two

challenges,says CEO Fernandes. “One,todo better work,although th e quality of 

print an d television work has im proved

over the years.”Second is to generate

ideas which are media neutral. “It is also

important to renew our relationship with

existing clients including Godrej,Dabur,

Paras,Fu ture Group and help them

improve their market share,”h e adds.

Despite its spectacular growth,Mu dra

Max lost its biggest account th is year,

when th e Rs 400-crore m edia busin ess of 

Reliance Communications went t o rivals

Optimum Media Direction (OMD) and

MEC.But the agency sees a silver lining

in this.Pr atap Bose,CEO,Mudra Max,

says,“We reduced our dependency on one

big client and aggressively went out to

sign more.Also,I keep saying we have

nothing to lose and everything to win .”

Mudra is now looking to enter new

businesses like shopper m arketing,

sports marketing, public affair

communications.Last year it s igned a

 joint venture with Clear Channel in th e

out-of-home segmen t and wit h UK-basedretail design specialist Portland. The

endeavour is clearly to make the Mudr a

Group a cutting-edge,sophisticated

four-agency network that can take on

global rivals.

You turned Mudra from a mainl ine ad age ncy to a gi -

a n t i n t e g r a t e d c o m m u n i ca t i o n n e t wo r k . H o w h a s

t h e j o u r n e y b e e n ?

How can I culminate 30 years in just two lines? All I can

say,the fir st year when I joined back, that is, 2003,was spent

in stream lining the organization an d setting the goals for

the agency.And th e journ ey has been exciting.Challenges

were there in terms of building the leadership,setting up

the teams , changing the mindse t .Mudra a lways had a

tremendous set of clients and we simply built on them.

Industry watchers say that Mudra never suffered

f r o m a n y d e a r t h o f c l i e n t s . Bu t t i l l a b o u t 4 - 5 y ea r s

a g o , i t wa s t h e g a p s i n t h e c r e a t i v e s i d e t h a t wa s h o l d -

i n g i t b a c k . Do y o u a g r e e ?

In the 1980s Mudra was the tr endsetter and it had creat-

ed many iconic communications like Vimal,Dhar a and

others. Even in the 1990s, quality work was happening.

Twice in the 90s,Mudr a became the agency oft he year.It

was in 2000 when we started growing,th at th ere were new

demands on the creative front. So we brought Bobby

Pawar on board.

M u d r a h a s a l s o f o s t e r e d m a n y t o p c r e a t iv e s o f t h e i n -

dustry today – start ing from R Balakrishn an (Balki) ,

Pr a t a p S u t h a n , An u p Ch i t n i s , Ra m k i ( D Ra m a k r i s h -

n a ) , S a j a n Ra j Ku r u p , S o n a l Da b ra l , Am e r J a l e e l ,

Ryan Menezes – would you agree that retaining tal -

ent has been a chal len ge for Mudra?

Every creative persongoes through this churn

and they try the ir luck  

somewhere e lse. Yes , i t

has been a good challenge

for us.

The Rs 400-crore Re-

l iance Communica-

t i o n s m e d i a p l a n n i n g

b u s i n e s s h a s r e c e n t l y

m o v e d ou t . H o w h a s i t

affected Mudra Group,

especial ly Mudra Max?

Do y o u wa n t t o w i n i t

back?

It’s the loss oft he busi-

ness tha t has s treng th-

ened the goal to build a

strong business for Mu-

dra Max.Also,we are still

working with them (Anil

Ambani’s other business-

es under ADAG). Only the Reliance Communications

part went ou t . I th ink every bus iness has i ts ups and

downs.As the client has said,t hey wanted to review theoperations.Of course,we would like to win it back.And I

believe every business you lose is there to win back.

W i t h in t h e M u d r a G r o u p, wh i c h b u s i n e s s i s t h e

f a s t e s t g r o wi n g ?

We have just unleashed the growth potential of all the

four agencies,that is ,Mu dra India,Mudr a Max,DDB and

Ignite.Every single agency is growing at a rat e of 15-20%.

So far, Mudra Max h as been the largest as it h as 14-15

clients and my estim ation is that soon it will become 20.

And this is more in line with it s global partner Omnicom.

Despite your associat ion with DDB,do you think you

could not leverage i t?

That was one of the tasks when I joined back Mudra in

2003. And over the last five years, the DDB business has

grown tremen dously. We have most of the DDB global

units in India.Bobby Pawar is now on the creative council

ofDDB in the Asia Pacific region.I would say in the Mudr a

growth story,both DDB and Omnicom have been our m a-

 jor allies.

What was the idea behind the Mudra makeover?

The overall growth of Mudra has been a journey and

there are certain steps that needed to be taken.There was a

need to create a distinct identity for Mudra. We refreshed

the brand when Mu dra completed 25 years.But th at was a

small initiative.And now we have an identity that reflects

the organization and sets th e agenda for future.

What wi l l be the strategy going forward?

Mudra has bu il t i ts e lf in to these four agencies .Each

one has c la ri ty in te rms ofd irec t ion .There a re severa l a r-

eas where we would like to offer or strengthen ou r capabil-

i t ie s, such as sports m arke ting, public a ffa irs , shopper

marke ting and o the rs .Going forward , th e g rowth wil l

come in th ree ways, th rough partne rsh ips , co llabora -

tions and acquisitions.

“We have just unleashed the growth potential of  the four agencies”■Continued from page 1

   B   I   T   S

   &    B

   Y   T   E   S Anil Uniyal is CEO,

CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz

Anil Uniyal, chief operating officer,

Network18 Media, and business head,

TV18, media operations, has been

appointed CEO of Network18's

business news channels, CNBC-TV18

and CNBC Awaaz. In his new role,

Uniyal will be responsible for the

strategic, financial and operational

management of Ithe two channels and

will report to B Saikumar, group COO,

Network 18. B Saikumar, group COO,

Network18, said, “Anil has been one of 

the key executives involved in the

growth of Network18's business news

channels since their respective

launches. He is now expected to steer

the channels into a whole new phase of 

leadership and profitability.”

Madison wins ITC account;Mindshare gets Videocon d2h

Madison World has won the media

duties for ITC. The agency will now

handle the entire ITC portfolio, across

all verticals. The size of the business is

over Rs 400 crore. The incumbent onthe account is Lintas Media Group

(LMG). The media agencies that took

part in the pitch process include Group

M's MEC, Starcom MediaVest and

Mudra Max.

Meanwhile, media buying agency

Mindshare has won the Videocon d2h

business along with Philips and

Electrolux. “We are extremely happy to

set up Team Videocon and provide

communication

management

solutions that will

drive their

businesses,” said

Gowthaman

Ragothaman, leader,

Mindshare India.

OgilvyOne wins goldat DMA Echo

OgilvyOne Mumbai

has won a gold at

the DMA Echo

awards held in San

Francisco. Theaward is for the

‘Yacht Blueprint’

mailer done for DHL Express India.

OgilvyOne also picked up a Leader

Award for its entry ‘Number Game’ for

IBM. “What’s indeed a matter of pride

for us is that we are consistently

bettering ourselves,” said Vaishakhi

Bharucha, senior creative director.

The DMA Echo is considered to be

one of the highest honours in direct

marketing with a very rigorous three-

step judging process spanning a few

months. The award celebrates the

pinnacle of marketing excellence

combining visionary strategy,

compelling creative and breakthrough

results.

AR Rahman is brandambassador for Toyota Etios

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has roped in

AR Rahman as brand ambassador for

the Toyota Etios, which will be

launched in December this year.

Rahman will endorse the car throughvarious marketing campaigns of the

company.

On roping in the music maestro as

the face of the Etios campaign, Hiroshi

Nakagawa, managing director, TKM,

said, “There is a very strong connect

between the product and its brand

ambassador, with both being, ‘global’,

‘innovative’, ‘reliable’, and a ‘class-

above quality’.”

Kunal Mukherjee is marke-ting head, UTV Bindass

UTV Bindass has appointed Kunal

Mukherjee as its marketing head. This

announcement reinforces the

company’s decision to strengthen its

strategic team and highlight its

positioning as the first 360-degree

entertainment brand for Indian youth.

Confirming the development, Nikhil

Gandhi, business head, UTV Bindass,

said, “We are delighted to announce

that Kunal Mukherjee will take on the

role of marketing head for brand

Bindass, in addition to his current

portfolio of marketing head - UTV

World Movies, UTV Movies

and UTV Action.”

Sonam Kapoor is Electrolux brand ambassador

Home appliances maker Electrolux

has appointed Bollywood actress

Sonam Kapoor as its brand

ambassador in India.

Said Anil Khera, chief executiveofficer, PE Electronics Ltd, “This is

the first time that we have engaged

with a brand ambassador as we believe

that Sonam Kapoor encapsulates all

the qualities that Electrolux stands for

and will enable our customers to have

a better connect with our products.”

PE Electronics Ltd is a new

business unit that brings together two

premium brands Philips ( range of 

television products ) and Electrolux

(range of Home

Appliances) that

complement each

other as a single

entity under a unique

brand licensee

agreement.

■Continued from page 1

MUDRA’S NEW MOVES

“While earlier itwasn't known

as a creativepowerhouse, it hasnow establisheditself as a creativeagency. They aregiving competitionto O&M for thetop slot.”Rahul GhoshGroup creative director,TBWA

“Earlier you had togo all out to make

something happenin Mudra. Now,it’s a consolidatedeffort. There is amachinery inplace to makethings happencreatively.”Anup ChitnisECD,Ogilvy & Mather

“I saw Mudra growfrom a place where

creativity wasdiscouraged into aplace where creati-vity was respected,and I’m proud thatI was instrumentalin initiating thatchange.”Ryan MenezesECD,McCann Erickson

“When I wasthere,there was

this underdogimage and itwanted to provesomething. Now, itis a more esta-blished agency.The environmenthas changed.”Santosh DesaiCEO and MD, FutureBrands

“It used to be a veryIndian agency with

Indian entrepre-neurial clients andhad just startedpolishing theprocesses. Today,the internalprocessesseem tohave gotten better.”Chandradeep Mit raFounder and CEO,PipalMajik

(Clockwise from top)

 Ad campaigns created by

Mudra Group for Dabur Vatika,

McDonalds,Samsung, Reliance

Communications, Rasna ,

Big Bazaar and Godrej

FIVE FORMER EXECUTIVES VIEWS ON MUDRA

Photo montage:SURENDER SINGH