Building blocks in place, Dentsu to cart in global brands

Rohit Ohri, executive chairman, Dentsu India Group, said 2012 was a defining period for Dentsu. He shared his plans for the Indian business unit with Ashish K Tiwari. Excerpts:

How was 2012 for Dentsu?
It was a clearly a defining period. We underwent a transformation in terms of systems, technology, processes, talent, culture and so on. We have set the foundation and direction for the next 3-5 years. The last 12-odd months were fairly challenging as well as enormously rewarding. A lot of new business was won and a lot of existing clients expressed a great deal of satisfaction with the enhanced services and improved quality of work.

You also pursued the inorganic route…
The acquisition of Taproot was part of Dentsu’s foundation-building exercise. It was a strategic acquisition wherein we wanted best-in-class creative capabilities. Taproot is looked upon as the best on creative parameters and that’s what really prompted the decision. My vision on the overall approach is that, we don’t want to be a fringe player in the Indian advertising industry. We want to be pretty much in the front and centre, not necessarily defined by size. I don’t want to be the largest but the finest and the most integrated marketing and communications agency in India, which is what our stated objective is. Unlike others, Dentsu is not unbundled -- Dentsu Media and Dentsu Digital are part of the Dentsu India Group with one profit and loss statement.

How has the acquisition worked thus far? Some say you paid too much..
Not really. I don’t think the deal was overvalued. And honestly, what was said in the media was highly inflated. We have not talked about the deal size at all. So I am surprised by these ‘overvalued’ calls, and I’d not like to comment on such speculation.

Will we see some inorganic activities this year too?
We are looking at scaling up on the digital front because that’s one of the core strengths of Dentsu globally. In the US as well as in Japan, there are state-of-the-art companies being acquired. While acquisition is one route, we are also keen to bring some of our global brands to India. Also, through the Aegis acquisition, we will have digital capabilities at our disposal like Isobar. We are evaluating all the options to identify the best way to build a compelling digital offering in India.

Can you elaborate on the global brands being carted in?
Very shortly we’ll bring in a lot of Dentsu intellectual property (IP) into India. Dentsu has an innovation centre in Japan where they work with Apple, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Facebook, etc, to develop the next phase of consumer connect with technology. How do you create a platform that consumers can use to connect with brands? We are developing that, and one of these platforms will be launched in the third week of January, which will be for the first time in India.

There were reports about you acquiring majority stake Webchutney...
Webchutney was one of the options. Yes we did meet them like we did 6-7 others. However, what media reports stated was sheer conjecture. Acquisition is one of the options and we are currently in evaluation mode. Hopefully, over the next 30-45 days, we will have more clarity on the future course.

How is the corporate sector looking at advertising in 2013?
All companies are hoping 2013 will be better than 2012 . There was some pressure in the second half. I don’t see any dramatic change this year unless it turns out to be an election year. There is neither increase nor decrease in budgets. The second half could prove to be a better, but.