Kapil Ohri
Digital

Rediffusion to enhance digital capabilities, hires Gopalan

All the allied functions of the agency, such as media planning, customer relationship management, public relations, and celebrity and event management, will be digitally equipped to offer complete communication solutions to its clients

Rediffusion Y&R is gearing up to beef up the digital capabilities of all its allied companies, such as The Media Edge (TME), its media agency; Wunderman, its customer relationship management arm; Rediffusion PR, its public relations agency; and Showdiff Worldwide, which offers services such as celebrity management, event conceptualisation and in-Bollywood placement.

It has appointed Ramswaroop Gopalan as national business head, digital services, for the purpose. He will report to Wasim Basir, executive vice-president, Rediffusion Y&R.

Earlier, Rediffusion Y&R had hired Karl Gomes as national creative director, digital, wooing him away from Arc Worldwide, the integrated marketing services arm of Leo Burnett.

Rediffusion to enhance digital capabilities, hires Gopalan
Gopalan used to be head of delivery at Tangerine Digital Entertainment, which offers digital services and film and TV production services.

Speaking to afaqs!, Basir says, “Gopalan brings with him a unique blend of branding and technology experience and he will act as a mentor to strengthen the digital capabilities of all our allied companies.”

He points out that Rediffusion Y&R is aiming at offering integrated communication solutions to its clients. “At Rediffusion, we want to help our clients to converse with consumers at any point of time and place, be it in a shop or on a mobile or on the Internet.”

Basir clarifies that some of the allied companies are already capable of communicating with consumers on the digital platform, so Gopalan’s role will be to upgrade these capabilities further and to help the agency navigate through this new, quickly evolving medium.

He indicates also that Rediffusion Y&R is working on various plans to strengthen its digital capabilities, but refuses to divulge any details. Asked what sort of digital capabilities Rediffusion Y&R will offer, he says, “We will be looking at equipping our TME media planners to plan for digital media as well.”

Gopalan tells afaqs! “I will be responsible for digitally enabling the activities of all our allies, such as TME, Wunderman, Rediffusion PR and Showdiff Worldwide. We will dig out consumer insights for the digital medium as well and use them in developing effective campaigns. In the future, we may launch an online reputation management service through Rediffusion PR and upgrade our electronic CRM through Wunderman.”

Gopalan is a 1996 alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and has about 14 years of experience in the advertising, media, Internet and information technology sectors. He started his career with Leo Burnett in 1996 and moved to Rediff.com in 1999. In September 2000, he moved to Sapient, a US based company that offers web based services. He left Sapient in December 2007 while he was working there as director, program management. In January 2008, he joined Tangerine Digital Entertainment.

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