OMS in innovation mode – ropes in ex-Insight’s Jairaj Padmanabhan

OMS seems to be in a major revamp mode. The media agency of the Mudra Group wants to be seen from now on as a holistic, integrated media agency focusing on multiple touch points.

Chandradeep Mitra, president, OMS, tells agencyfaqs!, “We hope to be a one-stop shop for our clients.”

Mitra explains, “So far, media agencies have mainly concentrated on television, print and radio. Most media planners don’t possess the skill sets to plan for outdoor, cinema or the Internet. We hope to train our team to be capable of planning and budgeting across all media, be it the Internet or outdoor.”

However, this doesn’t mean that Mudra’s different specialist divisions such as the Internet and digital media unit, Tribal DDB, and the out-of-home specialist, Primesite, will merge with OMS. Mitra clarifies that the different divisions within Mudra will work in close coordination among themselves.

OMS will, instead, seek the help of Tribal DDB and Primesite for tools and specific skill sets and to provide a complete 360-degree solution to its clients.

Specifically for OMS clients, while the agency will do all the planning and budgeting, the execution of the strategy will be done by these divisions.

As Mitra says, “The other two divisions will get more business.”

Mitra explains the reasons for the changes in the agency. “Traditionally, the starting point for any communication has always been the creative idea,” he says. “The creative agency still largely believes itself to be the brand custodian.”

OMS hopes to change all that. It wants to make media the starting point as well as the last point (execution) in the communication process, with the creative function somewhere in between.

“It is the media agency’s job to figure out the ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ part of the communication; the creative guys deal with the ‘what’ part,” Mitra says. “Creative solutions will be more focused if they know which media need to be tapped. Depending on the category, brand task and TG, we will decide which touch points need to be used.”

OMS also plans to have a greater focus on planning, budgeting and brand-casting or branded content (which involves branded entertainment space such as in-film placements or weaving brands into television shows).

Specifically for handling its brand-casting element, the agency has roped in ex-Insight’s Jairaj Padmanabhan, who will now function as regional director, OMS. In his last assignment at Insight, he was the agency’s associate vice-president. In addition, two of Mudra’s divisions – Tantr and Videotec –have been brought under the wing of OMS.

On Padmanabhan’s appointment, Mitra says that he is a national resource and will play a crucial role in building the agency’s capabilities in brand-casting. “Padmanabhan has spent 14 years in the fields of media, research, the Internet, film and television. He understands entertainment well and will be a perfect fit for our brand-casting discipline.”

Padmanabhan started his career in 1992 at the National Institute of Business Management. He moved on to join management consultancy firm Business Horizons. His stint with media started at O&M in the media planning department, where he worked on brands such as Asian Paints and Parle. In 1996, he joined Initiative and was there till 2000. He has worked on brands such as Park Avenue, Bajaj Auto, Idea Cellular and the re-launch of Jet Airways.

He left the Lintas Media Group as head of Millennium Media, the group’s erstwhile second media agency. After a brief stint at Homeland Networks, he rejoined Initiative, after which he was one of the key team members in setting up the media agency, Insight. He took a brief sabbatical from media to make his own feature film, ‘You, Bomsi n Me’.

OMS will also conduct studies on media consumption habits, category consumption habits and the existence of multiple TGs for the same brand. “In a sense, we are bringing account planning into the media fold!” quips Mitra.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!