Mumbai: Need proof that Indian ad agencies are well and truly under the control of the global headquarters of international advertising conglomerates?
Meet Charles Cadell, recently appointed chief executive officer, or CEO, of Lowe India, or Shiv Sethuraman, who has taken over as CEO of TBWA India. Then there’s Takashi Koyanagi, who moved from Dentsu Inc.’s headquarters in Tokyo to Dentsu India as executive vice-president and now heads the Japanese ad company’s digital joint venture Clickstreamers India Pvt. Ltd.
Charles Cadell has been recently appointed as the CEO of Lowe India. (Photo: Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint )
They are all part of a new, expanding and highly influential breed of top leaders in Indian advertising called the “network men”. They are not just expatriates working in Indian ad agencies, but top executives hired directly by international ad networks or holding companies to help drive their India operations in which they now hold complete or majority equity.
“Ad networks tend to appoint their own man within agency offices so that they can get the real picture of ground realities without the salad dressing given by the Indian management,” says Chandradeep Mitra, president of Mudra MAX, an arm of Mudra Communications Pvt. Ltd.
As equity gets transferred to global networks, it’s a sign for the market that there’s a new authority. “The new man reflects a change of guard. It’s a signal to clients that the ad network is more involved at an operations level. Also, if he’s a global planner, it reflects category expertise and best of global practices,” Mitra adds.
Takashi Koyanagi heads Clickstreamers India Pvt. Ltd. (Photo: Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint )
Many network men will be rainmakers, driving expansion and revenues across various communication platforms. Sethuraman says his immediate goal is to make TBWA India—reportedly on the verge of being bought over by TBWA Worldwide—the third or fourth agency in India within the next two years.
He also hopes to bring TBWA’s global philosophy of creative disruption in a big way here, and deploy it to maximum advantage, both in strategic thinking and in creative products.
Sethuraman will naturally be tapping into his extensive experience in the agency as well as interactions with clients in India and abroad. His last assignment was with Ogilvy Paris, where he was managing director. Prior to that, he was a global business director at Ogilvy Paris, leading teams on Nestle SA and Louis Vuitton.
After Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc., or IPG, bought the entire stake in Lintas India Pvt. Ltd, it brought in Charles Cadell as one of the top guns at Lowe India. Cadell was previously chief executive of Leo Burnett Malaysia and president of Asia Pacific for Arc Worldwide.