Alokananda Chakraborty
Advertising

Aggression is the new byword for Mediacom

The media arm of Grey Worldwide has been on a roll over the past few months

"Size plays a critical role in media," says Harish Shriyan, senior vice-president, Mediacom. "With the arrival of giants such as MindShare, being small is definitely passé," he avers. Indeed, for Shriyan and his colleagues at Mediacom, these are tumultuous times. And to keep pace with the rapidly evolving dynamics of the media-agency enterprise, Mediacom has decided to step up its new business activity underscoring an important point - aggression. "Internally, around six to eight months ago, we decided that new business activity has to increase, if we are to reach a critical mass."

The change in strategy has augured well for Mediacom with the agency acquiring some keys AORs in the past few months. The latest is the media planning and buying assignments of NDTV (English and Hindi) as well as tyre brand Bridgestone. Both businesses put together add Rs 15 crore to the billing of Mediacom, whose roster includes clients such as SET, Marico, J&J, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Wrigley's, Revlon, Carrier Aircon, Hindalco, among others.

Mediacom is also the agency of record for tobacco major VST and Maxwell Apparels, which moves from Maximize (the Maxwell account is estimated at Rs 15 crore). It has added the media accounts of Barista as well as the J&J baby franchise planning assignment, which according to Shriyan makes up "50 per cent of the business". "We handle the entire media buying for J&J," he states. "The new addition is in the area of strategic planning, which was so far handled by the respective creative agencies." Mediacom was awarded the baby franchise planning account in a pitch that also included Initiative Media. According to Shriyan, this should "increase the income" from J&J whose media buying duties worth Rs 40 crore was being handled by the agency for quite some time now.

Apart from gains on the media front, ad agency Grey has added the creative account of Medimix soap, with the media duties already in custody of Mediacom. For the record, Mediacom handles the soap brand Medimix, skin care capsules Tejaswini, Medimix cough syrup, Cuticura talcum powder and Viha sandalwood soap. Also, to give Grey a fillip is the soon-to-be launched SUV (sports utility vehicle) brand from Hyundai titled Terracan.

"Our current size, if you put together existing as well as new business, should be in the region of Rs 550 to Rs 560 crore," claims Shriyan. "Of course, we are hungry for more," he adds. © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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