Makings of a merger: How Jack in the Box and Tidal7 became one

The story of J7, a newly formed digital agency birthed after independent agencies Jack in the Box and Tidal7 merged, began nearly a decade ago, not with a contract but with a conversation.

When Venkat Mallik, founder and CEO of Tidal7, was leading mergers and acquisitions for Omnicom in India, he approached Roopak Saluja about Jack in the Box Worldwide, which he was the founder and chairman of. Nothing came of it at the time.

“Jack in the Box had other plans,” Saluja recalls, but the contact created a connection. The two men stayed in touch, comparing notes as peers often do, occasionally talking about where the industry was heading and what challenges agencies were facing. Over the years, those informal exchanges grew more frequent and more serious, especially after Mallik had started his own venture with Tidal7.

Early 2025 saw the crystallisation of these discussions. The two recognised that their agencies had complementary strengths and gaps, and they began to ask whether working together could create a more holistic offering for clients. Within weeks, they made the decision to merge Jack in the Box Worldwide and Tidal7 to form J7.

This union did not unfold in isolation. A steady churn of mergers and acquisitions has reshaped the advertising industry in India and globally in recent years.

Dentsu has led in India with a string of acquisitions since 2016, building digital and analytics capabilities through local partnerships. Havas has also expanded aggressively in the region.

Globally, large consolidations, such as Omnicom’s agreement to acquire Interpublic Group, are a signal to a new order of ad industry.

The trend has been clear: agencies of all sizes have been pushed to broaden capabilities, integrate data and technology, and meet client demand for speed and measurable impact.

J7’s formation provides a window into what such moves look like behind the headlines. Apparently, it was less a grand transaction orchestrated by consultants than a carefully accelerated process managed in-house.

Because both agencies were independent, the process moved quickly. “What’s the point of wasting time? Neither of us has to report to head office in New York or London or elsewhere. The buck stops here,” says Saluja.

Finance teams devised what he describes as “a very innovative structure” that allowed the agencies to maintain their identities for the time being while linking them under one umbrella. Legal counsel, long-standing partners for both agencies, helped shape the framework.

Complementary strengths and shared values

The logic of the merger rested partly on skills and partly on values. “Jack in the Box has certain skill sets; we’re known for certain things, and we also have certain very big gaps. I feel like Tidal7 felt the same way as well. Luckily for both of us, we were able to fill in each other’s gaps quite well,” Saluja says.

But what made the deal move quickly was not just capability. “Over and above all of this, the only reason that this deal got done really fast, and the reason that we are extremely optimistic about what we can do together, is that there was a commonality in values and vision,” he notes.

Saluja acknowledges that words like “vision” often sound like what he jokingly calls “first-class marketing bullshit”, but insists that in this case, they mattered. “The moment you realise that, then you don’t sweat the small stuff.”

There were differences of view along the way, but both sides were willing to make compromises in service of the larger goal. “There was a little bit of give and take, and the deal got done in record time,” reveals Saluja.

A new name, a new identity

One visible outcome of the merger was the new name: J7. It carried a deliberate symbolism.

“That was very deliberate because we wanted to signal… there is something new. At the same time, we want to have our cake and eat it too, because in reality, we still have our relationships of our existing clients that we’ve built over the years,” Saluja explains.

The choice was treated like a client brief. “We were our own client. We wanted to signal something new, but also maintain continuity.” 

Someone jokingly remarked that the agency had been named after a boarding gate, but the name stuck. It was simple, catchy, and functional.

Clients and conflicts

One of the most delicate issues in any merger is how to handle client portfolios, particularly if there are overlaps. In this case, there were none.

“We were lucky that there were no overlaps of conflict to start with. So we didn’t have to deal with those complexities,” says Mallik.

Even if conflicts were to emerge, both point out that the industry has had a long experience in handling them.

Mallik adds that the dual identities of J7 could itself be an asset in managing conflicts: “It’s possible for us to use the two or three brand names that we now have to manage conflict. That gives us additional firepower.”

People and leadership

Another potential stumbling block is talent integration. The founders made a conscious decision to avoid uncertainty by clarifying roles early. “We wanted to make sure that when we get into the merger, we give everybody a fresh, positive, forward-looking start, rather than give people uncertainty,” says Mallik.

Leadership was restructured to reflect complementary skills. A new top management group was formed, including a business lead, a creative head, and a data and strategy lead.

Saluja and Mallik defined their roles clearly: Mallik took on the CEO position, running operations day-to-day, while Saluja now contributes as founder on strategy, new business, and growth, alongside his responsibilities at his other venture, Bang Bang.

“There’s no grey area for us. It’s very clearly defined,” says Saluja.

Practicalities: offices and finances

Operationally, J7 began consolidating offices but balanced this with sensitivity to employee needs. Hybrid and remote models were kept where necessary.

“We are obviously creating a balanced sort of approach to how we go about looking at work from office versus work from home versus hybrid, because there are existing realities of employees. We need to be sensitive to that,” Mallik observes.

On the financial side, the two agencies have kept separate profit and loss accounts, linked under the new structure.

“For now, we have two separate P&Ls, but they are linked in an innovative structure… I’ve never come across a structure of this kind before,” says Saluja. Over time, they intend to integrate further, but without disrupting current client relationships.

Looking ahead

When asked whether the merger positions J7 to resist future acquisitions or potentially primes it for them, Saluja expresses scepticism.

“Probably both or neither. Does it protect us? I don’t think anything protects anyone from anything right now, in this world of volatility and uncertainty. What it does do is definitely increase our chance of success going forward, both because it allows us to deliver better value for our clients. The moment you can do that, it delivers better value for us as a company,” he says.

He notes that the speed of industry change, particularly driven by AI, made long-term predictions uncertain. “All we can do is make ourselves better for the journey.”