Omnicom to beef up India presence

Omnicom group, one of the world's largest advertising and marketing agency with total revenues of $9.7 billion, is looking at strengthening its presence in India.

Michael Birkin, vice-chairman and president, and CEO Asia Pacific, said they would have a more consolidated plan ready within a few months, and that they would be looking at recruiting people for their India operations soon.

The group has a presence in India through its group ad agencies (TBWA and DDBO Worldwide) and PR agency Perfect Relations, Birkin didn't rule out the possibility of entering into tie-ups with others existing Indian players.

Globally, the company has been involved with advertising, marketing and plans to stick with its core competency areas in India as well.

Dismissing that 30-second advertisement is dead, Birken said, "Brands are built by good 30-second advertisements, but that's not enough. The multimedia approach is needed and we need to build on brand messages through experimental advertising."

According to him, the key to successful advertising lies in making the customer feel like they are key stakeholders in the brand.

Birken said, "It has what it takes to dominate in the world markets but there are still some problems with the distribution system which needed to be smoothened out."

What was needed was to develop brands, which could be marketed globally. Some of the brands that Omnicom handles on the advertising front globally are Reebok, FedEx, JC Penney and GE.