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WPP Marketing Communications is GroupM Media now
The number one media group in the country was rebranded last week in keeping with the change in identity at the global level
On November 12, 2003, WPP Marketing Communications, the holding company of media brands MindShare, MindShare Fulcrum and Maximize, was rechristened GroupM Media India Pvt Ltd. This rebranding exercise comes after the WPP group brought its diverse media brands under one umbrella called GroupM Worldwide, earlier this year.
Entities under GroupM Worldwide include MindShare, Maximize, Media Insight and ME:CIA, which is a fusion of agencies The Media Edge and CIA. However, in India, The Media Edge, headed by COO Divya Gupta, continues to retain its identity, and is in no way linked with the rebranding of WPP Marketing.
The decision to rebrand at the global level, explains Sai Nagesh, director, marketing and corporate affairs, GroupM, was to not only bring all media brands under one holding company but to also look at backroom synergies in areas of research and so on.
Though implications for the Indian conglomerate are not so many considering that the group's research needs are handled by Bangalore-based ATG-MCI, a WPP group company, the rebranding exercise as such was long overdue. "We have essentially renamed the holding company," says Nagesh. "The three brands of MindShare, MindShare Fulcrum and Maximize remain as they are," he says.
Meanwhile, the third quarter results of WPP, which is the third largest advertising and media conglomerate after Omnicom and IPG, were positive despite the financial drain of the CCG (Cordiant Communications Group) acquisition earlier this year.
Revenues increased by 11 per cent when compared with its third quarter performance last year, touching $1.7 billion. Archrival and number one network Omnicom also registered positive gains in the third quarter with the group announcing a 7 per cent increase in profits over the past year.
Of the WPP entities, MindShare Worldwide in particular recently scored a major victory by bagging the media business of Yahoo! in the US. The American arm has also set its sights at the coveted media business of Coca-Cola, which was put up for review in September this year. In the fray were incumbent agencies Universal McCann, which handles media buying, and Starcom MediaVest Group, which looks into planning, besides Carat and MindShare. © 2003 agencyfaqs!