Dentsu makes key appointments; eyes growth in digital and sports marketing spaces

After two significant campaigns to begin 2010 with, Dentsu India has aggressive plans to make the year what Rajesh Aggrawal, president, calls a "blockbuster". With new senior level appointments and well chalked out growth plans, the path seems paved for the agency.

Dentsu Marcom recently saw the exit of some senior professionals. While Rajat Sethi quit as managing director, its creative head, Titus Upputuru, moved on to join Saatchi & Saatchi.

However, the agency has already made good by roping in seasoned professionals. Ashit Desai has been appointed creative head of Dentsu Communications, Delhi, while Nitin Suri joins Dentsu Marcom as executive creative director.

"The objective was to plan for growth for the next five years. This is really the second phase of Dentsu. We are done with the setting up phase. In order to plan for the next phase, we have been recruiting a lot of people in servicing, creative and planning across the country," Aggrawal tells afaqs!.

Desai brings 20 years of experience in advertising and comes in from TBWA, Mumbai. Earlier, he has worked with Mudra and Lowe Lintas on brands such as Britannia, Hindustan Unilever brands including Kissan and Dalda, and Titan.

"I am looking forward to creating advertising stories that are insightful, unique and above all, entertaining. Dentsu has some big global brands and it is exciting to be able to create work that will be talked about. Lastly, I'd like to leverage Dentsu's expertise in digital and design to make our communication more relevant and impactful," says Suri.

Naresh Gupta, national planning head, Publicis India had also joined Dentsu Marcom as director, strategy and planning recently.

The recent exits, Aggrawal says, are in sync with Dentsu's plans ahead.

"We need people who can deliver and match up to the kind of pace we have set for ourselves. A part of the restructuring is not only to bring in new talent but letting go of the ones who are not fitting in with the agency's philosophy and are not being able to contribute and lead the entire growth phenomena," he explains.

Identifying media as a huge area of impetus for Dentsu, certain internal promotions have also been made in its media business.

Sanjoy Chakrabarty, chief operating officer, Dentsu Media India has been promoted as chief executive officer. Sai Nagesh, chief growth officer, will now be the new chief operating officer.

"My immediate mandate will be to substantially enhance the value of our offering by investing huge resources and proprietary research data database (like VALCON, CPM, Mobile Usage Behaviour and more) and also getting Dentsu's global media tools for the Indian market, multiplying business volumes," says Chakrabarty.

Aggrawal says there shall be further appointments in due course of time across its various divisions, particularly the digital space, that he says is one of the critical growth areas identified.

"When I say digital, I mean expertise across the Internet as well as mobile. India is on the verge of explosion in this area and we want to take the leadership position by bringing in technology, expertise and people," he says.

The agency has major initiatives planned in the mobile and social media spaces. It is laying emphasis on content creation in the digital arena.

"We are not traditional media planners in the digital space. We are doing a lot of stuff around content. We are creating properties and building social networking products on mobile from scratch. We do not repurpose content," Aggrawal elaborates.

Another focus area is sports marketing. Bringing in global expertise, Dentsu Sport is looking at avenues beyond cricket and endorsements in India.

According to Aggrawal, engaging fans during the off-season is critical. He cites the example of the Indian Premier League and questions what is being done to keep the fans engaged throughout the year.

"Today, in India, everything stops at cricket. There is a very large world out there besides cricket, which has not been touched upon, that is not just about cricket or endorsements. A lot of those positions will be taken by us. Maybe cricket or non-cricket," he says.

Riding high on the successful campaigns for Aircel (Save the Tiger) and Maruti Suzuki (Eeco), Aggrawal insists that this is only the beginning of many more to come this year.

"There are a lot of new campaigns and clients in the offing. We are talking to a lot of fast moving consumer goods, personal care, technology, infrastructure and finance brands. 2010 will be a blockbuster year for us," he says.