Dhar & Hoon launches media arm

Delhi-based agency Dhar & Hoon has decided to venture into the shark-infested waters with the launch of a media arm, Dhar & Hoon Media. Launched recently, the media arm will service the media requirements of the existing clients of Dhar & Hoon. Heading the four-man army at Dhar & Hoon Media is Pankaj Kumar, who has worked on Coca-Cola while in Madison, on various Dabur brands while at Adbur (Dabur's in-house media agency) and on Nestle during his stint at McCann-Erickson.

Evidently, Dhar & Hoon Media will work hand-in-glove with the creative department of the agency. Explaining the rationale for setting up the media arm, Nikhil Rungta, account director, Dhar & Hoon, says, "It will work hand-in-glove with the creative department to provide the much needed media point of view. Today most of the communication is media driven. At times media innovations give creative directions as well. So, we wanted to incorporate the media point of view and use media beyond sheer numbers."

Dhar & Hoon is quite gung ho about its new venture. "We are known for our creative skills and media will help augment that. We hope to use media creatively and apply qualitative judgement to it," says an excited Rungta. Without divulging the amount invested in the venture, officials at Dhar & Hoon indicate that the bulk of the investment has gone into "…software and databases necessary for the smooth functioning of the media department."

It has too. Industry veterans aver, while most of the investment in setting up a creative outfit/ brand consultancy/agency go into people, a media agency calls for mammoth investments in databases, proprietary tools and syndicated research. In an industry where there is no room for marginal players, chances of survival are directly proportional to investments. "The stakes are perpetually high in the media business. While investments are large, the returns are low. Because it is a low margin business, the volume of business by default has to be large. To sustain the business, therefore, there are two pre-requisites - a large volume of business and deep pockets," explains Sandeep Vij, president, Optimum Media Solutions.

Substantiating his point, Vij adds, "In an agency roughly, 50 per cent of cost is that of manpower. And most of the cost is variable and manoeuvrable to business needs. Whereas, in the media business, there are fixed costs upfront. Thus the very nature of the business demands that for any media agency to survive, irrespective of its size, it should to be in the thick of action than be safely perched on the periphery."

Rungta has his arguments ready. "This might apply to the giants, but not to the small media set ups. And ours is not an independent media set up. Just like a client servicing department and a creative department in an agency, we have a media department. The sole purpose of this exercise is to develop a media point of view for our existing clients."

While the game is not so easy, Dhar & Hoon is decidedly upbeat about the prospects of its media arm. After all, it has a good mix of accounts (the foremost among them being Milk Foods, Dabur's Real fruit juice, Honda Cars, Anand Group and Modi Apollo International) to give it a leg-up. © 2002 agencyfaqs!