Neha Kalra
Media

OMD enters the Capital with HP

Within two years of entering India, Optimum Media Direction (OMD) opens its fourth branch -- in Delhi, with a Rs 100-crore account, HP, to service

For Optimum Media Direction (OMD), the number of offices is now twice the number of years it has spent in the country. With the launch of its Delhi operations, the number of branches of the agency has gone up to four – the other three are in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Entering Delhi has got to do with some serious business for the Omnicom agency. The agency won the coveted account of the technology brand, Hewlett Packard (HP) in February this year, after a global alignment.

The servicing of the Rs 100-crore account from the Delhi office began in late June.

Setting up the Delhi team are Ashish Bhatnagar from mediaedge:cia, Satish Nair from Madison and Ritesh Dutt from Zenith Optimedia (ZO). Bhatnagar, as senior vice-president, will head the operations of the Delhi branch. It is learnt that Nair and Dutt have been brought in as business directors.

Bhatnagar, in his previous role, was general manager, mediaedge:cia. He began his career in Lucknow in 1996, and re-located to Mumbai in 2000 to join Starcom. He moved to Universal McCann (now Lodestar Universal) in 2002, and later, joined ZO in 2004.

At Starcom, he served as a senior tactician and investor, and headed buying across print media for the agency's clients. At Universal McCann, he was head, buying and implementation planning for the Nestlé and L'Oreal businesses. At ZO, as business director, he supervised three accounts: LML, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Maxima Watches.

Nair has almost two decades of experience in the media buying industry. He began his career with RK Swamy BBDO in 1991, where he spent seven years. He moved to TBWAIndia (then Anthem) in 1998 and was there for three years. At both the agencies, he mainly handled operations.

In 2001, he moved to Carat Media, where things changed when he was made in charge of the Airtel business. He handled the medial buying for Bharti during the launch phase.

Nair joined Madison in 2004, where he was business director, heading buying and implementation for print. He has joined OMD in a similar capacity, but sources reveal that apart from buying for print, he might be entrusted with responsibilities for television and radio buying as well.

Dutt, who is slated to join next week, comes to OMD after spending two years at ZO, where he headed media buying. He began his career in 1998 with PepsiCo, where he spent three years. He joined to take care of sales promotions, for the western and northern parts of the country.

From late 2001 to 2004, he was with Ogilvy & Mather, working on rural activation. In 2004, he switched to the media side, joining GroupM for media planning and buying. He was with the agency for about three years, and moved to ZO in 2007.

When Bhatnagar, Nair and Dutt were contacted, they declined to comment on the developments. Jasmin Sohrabji, managing director, OMD India, too, was unavailable.

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