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Sandeep Goyal unveils Dentsu Communications; Gullu Sen on board

The first office of Dentsu Communications opened on Dussehra day in Bangalore with Toyota as the ‘anchor’ client

There have been sundry unconfirmed reports in newspapers and isolated quotes of Sandeep Goyal in the media on his new venture for quite some time now. It seems now, the ex-Rediffusion, ex-ZEE hand is ready to unveil his dream project Dentsu Communications Pvt Ltd. Talking exclusively to agencyfaqs!, Goyal said the agency has been launched in the country with a proposed paid up capital of Rs 5 crore. In this venture, 74 per cent equity will be held by Dentsu Inc, Japan, and 26 per cent by Mogae Consultants Private Ltd, a company owned by Sandeep Goyal and wife Tanya Goyal.

The first office of Dentsu Communications opened on Dussehra day in Bangalore with Toyota as the ‘anchor' client. Talking about his dream project, Goyal, says, "Dentsu Communications will be a world-class advertising agency, strategically strong, consumer focused and creatively innovative and cut-through." Goyal also mentioned that over a period of time, Dentsu India will grow into areas that Dentsu, the parent agency, is well known for - including sports and event marketing, exhibitions and expos and one-on-one communication.

Dentsu Communications will launch its media operations in the New Year, making it "a full service agency, which, like the others, will pro-actively seek business from outside the Dentsu catchment", adds Goyal.

All these months, while Goyal was busy keeping the media at arm's length, he was putting together a strong team besides fine-tuning the nitty-gritty of the agency's operations. For one, Gullu Sen, earlier national creative director and vice-president, Rediffusion DY&R, has joined Dentsu Communications as executive vice-president and national creative director. (agencyfaqs! diehards would remember our report about Sen floating his design consultancy outfit Blue Turtle recently; Sen maintains that Blue Turtle will not shut shop.) Ruchira Raina, who was till recently a senior member of the marketing team at TVS, is the vice-president of Dentsu's first operation at Bangalore. Raina has about 15 years' experience in media, advertising and marketing.

While Kenji Nogami, on secondment from Dentsu, Tokyo, will be resident director, working closely with Raina, Asheesh Malhotra, who has joined Dentsu from Lowe, is head of client servicing. Malhotra has over 12 years of experience in advertising behind him. "Our CFO comes on board next week. The head of media will join soon. The team is coming together," informs Goyal. While the company will be run by professionals based in India, expatriate managers from Dentsu are expected to lend a hand from time to time.

With more accounts (besides Toyota) in the pipeline, Dentsu has sufficient business on its platter to start with. "We are starting out with a business base of about Rs 50 crore. Touchwood!" says an excited Goyal. This alliance admittedly puts Goyal in an advantageous position. There is no dearth of Dentsu-aligned businesses in the country. Logically, accounts such as Honda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki, currently residing with other agencies in various cities, should home in on Dentsu Communications sooner or later. On the accounts residing in Orchard (which has recently gone solo) - such as Indo-Nissin Foods and Hitachi - Goyal prefers to keep mum.

"It will be our endeavour to work with as many of Dentsu's global clients as possible. But these are still early days… We must always remember that it is clients who choose agencies and not agencies that choose clients," points out Goyal.

On the issue of a likely ‘relationship' between Dentsu Communications India and Rediffusion DY&R (again part of Dentsu network) Goyal suggests a wait and watch policy. © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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