Pratap Bose to launch new media firm in June

Mumbai: Pratap Bose, who quit the Omnicom agency DDB Mudra in April 2014, is readying to launch his new media and communications venture next month. The former chief operating officer who worked at Mudra for six years, prefers to call it a media and communications conglomerate.

Unwilling to divulge its name just yet, Bose says that the new agency will first start with a core unit, which will focus on branded content, sports marketing, media planning and buying, out-of-home advertising, rural marketing, retail solutions, events promotions and shopper marketing (or understanding how consumers behave when shopping).

This will be followed by investments in advertising and other digital media products.

The new firm already has 40 people on board. “We are looking at increasing this number to 150 in the first year,” Bose said. Over 20 people are said to be joining Bose’s start-up from DDB Mudra. Earlier this week, Mandeep Malhotra, president of the out-of-home, retail and experiential vertical at DDB MudraMax, quit the agency to sign on with Bose. Malhotra is an equity partner in the venture.

Although Bose refuses to name the other shareholders in the company, he admits there are others. “The agency business isn’t something one can do on one’s own. It requires collaborations, acquisitions, equity partnerships and joint ventures. And we will be looking at doing all that, going forward,” he said.

The company isn’t closed to the idea of international partnerships, too.

A former Ogilvy and Mather employee, Bose said he decided to start a media firm of his own as he had spent 25 years creating value for agencies and clients he worked with. “It’s time I did some of that for myself as well,” he added. The new venture has already raised close to $10 million in funding. “There isn’t going to be just one bank of investors, given the broad scope of services we plan to offer,” he said, while refusing to comment on further fundraising plans.

Bose claims that by the time the company is ready to start operations, it will have signed up 15-20 clients in categories such as e-commerce, real estate, financial services and consumer products.

“We want to be able to specialize in and build a strong consumer interface and offer lasting business solutions,” said Malhotra. “Like with any other new venture, there is some amount of excitement and anxiety...as for my new role...I will build on our core competencies as we expand.”

“There aren’t many offerings that bind everything in the communications space together. That’s our USP,” Bose added.

Bobby Pawar, director and chief creative officer, Publicis, South Asia, said the success of a new venture is a function of how different its offering is and how much it adds in terms of incremental value to a client. “We are all in the commodity business. It’s not so much about the idea but about the capability to execute that idea. That’s what gets clients to come back again and again,” he said.