Dhar & Hoon in yet another avataar

After 15 years, Dhar & Hoon has come full circle, associating with the group with which it began its operations. In 1994, the agency had flagged off with John Miller (a brand from the Future Group). After three mergers and de-mergers, in its fourth merger, the creative outfit has come together with Future Brands, a specialised subsidiary of the Future Group that looks at creating and building powerful brands, to form D&H Blurb Communications.

Due to geographical differences – with Chadha being in Bengaluru and Dhar and Hoon in Delhi – the fusion fell apart. In 2005, it tied up with M&C Saatchi, but that relationship, too, lasted only a year.

In the recent merger, Future Brands has picked up 60 per cent stake in Dhar & Hoon. For Future Brands, this is definitely not the first of its kind deal. The unit has interests in the design space and has several tie ups with design shops, including stakes in design solution companies.

Future Brands is headed by Santosh Desai, who has worked with Ajit Hoon while both were in Mudra. Dhar has also known Desai personally and professionally.

In an exclusive chat with afaqs!, the three veterans of advertising came together to talk about Dhar & Hoon and D&H Blurb Communications. Excerpts from the conversation:

afaqs!: What is the reason behind Future Brands picking up a stake in Dhar & Hoon and what does the tie up entail?

With Future Brands also running Future Brands Consultancy, we keenly look at brand partnerships and take an interest in the branding component for our clients. We look at shaping brands and collaborating with Dhar & Hoon gets the expertise on board for that very purpose. It will help expand the range of services that we offer to our clients.

For starters, we are looking at aligning some brands with Dhar & Hoon as the creative custodian for those brands. However, that is still to happen.

I personally feel that the agency has a potential to grow as an independent agency – and that's why I thought to push it further.

afaqs!: Dhar & Hoon saw a good initiation. What happened to it suddenly, especially with mergers?

Hoon: Being a part of the advertising industry, we saw typical advertising losing relevance. We tried to push the envelope with Dhar & Hoon – by getting into the branding space per se.

Mergers essentially happened to move up the value chain. As India started becoming a part of the global set-up, alignments were kicking – companies beginning to award their businesses to agencies through global alignments. Accounts were becoming inaccessible. Take for instance the Nestle business – some portion was handled by Dhar & Hoon, but then the scheme of things began changing. We lost the Nestle business.

That's when we realised that mergers could be a way out.

afaqs!: With Future Brands coming into the picture, are you looking at offering something new and different?

Yes, we are looking at developing a whole new offering with regard to retail. It will take into consideration retail activation for the Future Group, as well as for the latter's clients and other clients of the agency. The Future Group has a strong loyalty programme where we look at leveraging our skills and going beyond traditional media.

Dhar & Hoon's offering has always been skewed towards the non-traditional media. We are looking at developing and offering insights in the new media space. Mobile marketing and e-commerce are some of the best bets around nowadays.

Even if it is not about looking into communication as such, conceptualising and developing brand packaging and designing are areas that we are looking at.

afaqs!: Any old clients dropping out or new clients opting in?

In terms of the recent happenings, old clients such as Godfrey Philips' Fundamint are still on board. Haier LCD televisions has come in as a new client – a non-Future Group business. We are also looking at signing up two or three new businesses.

afaqs!: What about some of the memorable works of Dhar & Hoon?

Dhar: The first set of creatives for John Millers, which was part of a massive and extensive campaign including about six commercials and a slew of press ads, was one of the biggest works that we began with.

BPL's coinage of Believe in the Best and the Amitabh Bachchan campaign are great memories. It was Bachchan’s first advertising endorsement ever, and it also put the agency on the map.

Chadha Dhar & Hoon worked on Bharat Petroleum's Pure For Sure initiative – the company was looking at transparency as value. The tagline – Pure For Sure – was put in place by the agency.

The Namastey campaign for British Airways, which went on air in 2007, was also one of the biggest ones for the agency.