MAA Bozell restructures; to focus on healthcare and financial communication

For a while now MAA Bozell has been working at putting its house in order.

It has refocused its business interests in two clear directions. While in the south of India, which has been its traditional stronghold, MAA Bozell will concentrate on growing its advertising business, in the north and west (as represented by its offices in Delhi and Mumbai), the agency plans to redirect its energies into developing the two emerging segments of healthcare and financial communication.

This comes in the wake of a larger international alignment that happened over the past few years. In fact, post the IPG (Interpublic Group of Companies) acquisition of its rival True North Communications in June 2000, some changes were expected to reflect at MAA Bozell in India. This was because True North Communications had bought out Bozell in 1998, and barring a few places in the world, the Bozell brand was merged with the FCB network (part of True North). So when True North was acquired by IPG, the possibility of a merger of Bozell with FCB in India loomed large. While that hasn't happened yet, MAA has had to make some key changes in its operations across the country ever since.

As part of the agency's renewed focus, the Delhi branch would concentrate on growing its healthcare communications division, MAA Wellness. The office of the ad agency MAA Communication Bozell has been relocated to Okhla Industrial Estate (in south Delhi), in the same complex that houses various other divisions of the MAA Group - including Corporate Voice Shandwick (for public relations), MAA RAMMS (merchandising and retail solutions division) and MAA Wellness.

Talking about the recent changes, Ramkumar Seshu, COO, MAA Bozell, said, "We were losing focus in Delhi. Now that we have got our focus back, we are going to play on our strengths. In Delhi MAA Wellness will get aggressive in pitching for business." What about the existing advertising accounts? It seems there aren't many left with the branch. "Client casualty has been very high in Delhi; the recession has also hit the industry badly. While some of our accounts have become dormant or defunct, some have defaulted heavily," explains Seshu.

The onus of growing its Delhi operations now rests with two senior executives who have joined the branch recently. While Dr Mehul Shukla has taken over as the head of MAA Wellness, Ajay Lamba has joined as vice-president. MAA Wellness has already picked up some big-ticket clients in Delhi like Ranbaxy, GlaxoSmithkline, Maharishi Ayurved and Win Medicare. In Mumbai, the company plans to focus on financial services besides healthcare. The financial division, which kicked off operations recently, has three accounts in its kitty - Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank and RBI. The combined size of MAA Wellness in India is Rs 15 crore.

In the south however MAA Bozell will continue to grow its core business of mainline advertising. MAA Bozell has four branches down south - in Cochin, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore - and is strongest in that region. Currently the size of the MAA Group is between Rs 130 and Rs 150 crore and about 60 to 80 per cent of its billings come from the advertising business. In the next financial year, it hopes to clock turnover of Rs 175 crore.

Some of the accounts that the MAA Bozell services across its branches are Volvo, Hindustan Petroleum, Cochin Port Trust, Coconut Development Board, Escotel, Kairali TV, Kerala State Rubber Cooperative Ltd, Deccan Chronicle, Alstom Power, Air Mauritius and LIC. © 2002 agencyfaqs!