O&M, India, launches a new agency, Meridian

Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has launched a new agency, Meridian, which will be a full-service ad agency based initially in Bangalore. The WPP Group agency will expand to other cities in the near future.

O&M will invest its resources to ensure Meridian’s success. N Ramesh, national creative director, O&M, Delhi, and Ganesh Raman, vice-president and head, O&M, Hyderabad, will head the new agency. While Ramesh will be the national creative director, Raman will be executive vice-president, Meridian.

“Meridian has been launched only in India and, as of now, there are no plans to expand it elsewhere,” says John Goodman, CEO, O&M, India and South Asia. “The idea behind launching the agency was simply that we wanted to do something different. The need was for an agency that is purely Indian in character and not aligned with an international network the way O&M and David are.”

“O&M’s strategy is based on the fact that there are several Indian companies that prefer working with agencies that are purely Indian in their approach. Meridian hopes to fill that need gap,” adds Goodman.

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, O&M, says that the new agency will also cater to clients who are more comfortable working with a smaller agency. He says, “By placing two senior O&M executives in the new agency, we have ensured that Meridian gets a good head start. We want to give even those clients who are more comfortable with small agencies the ‘O&M experience.”

David, another agency from the O&M and WPP Group, also caters to a similar need. Goodman clarifies, “David is completely different and radical in its approach and philosophy. It has a network across Asia and a wide portfolio consisting of various regional clients. Meridian will be a more conventional agency.”

However, Goodman asserts that Meridian will be open to serving both Indian and international clientele in India.

Goodman adds that Meridian will help handle conflicting businesses that cannot be taken on by O&M. He claims the agency has already bagged four clients, but he declined to divulge their names till the deals are finalised.

As far as the team at Meridian is concerned, both Ramesh and Raman bring with them in-depth knowledge and understanding of O&M and its systems, tools and techniques, which they hope to leverage at Meridian.

Meanwhile Emmanuel Upputuru, and Rani Reddy will replace Ramesh and Raman at O&M, respectively. While, Emmanuel Upputuru, creative head, LG business has been promoted as senior creative director, O&M, Delhi, Rani Reddy, activation head, West, Ogilvy Activation, has taken over from as general manager, Ogilvy & Mather, Hyderabad.

To further strengthen the creative team at O&M’s Delhi branch, Titus Upputuru and Nitin Srivastava have also been promoted to creative directors.

For the record, O&M, along with the WPP Group, launched David in India in 2000. Now, it’s time for Meridian to make a place for itself here.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!