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Global communications giant WPP has appointed Ranjan Kapur as WPP country manager in India. He succeeds the late marketing guru Shunu Sen.
"Ranjan will act as a group ambassador representing WPP interests in India to help facilitate business development and orchestrate relevant cross company activity between WPP companies. The appointment is a further step in the development of WPP's strategic programme designed to make full resources of the group available to clients at a country level across both disciplines and geographies", a media release issued by the WPP group said.
The move is significant as Kapur, the former head of Ogilvy & Mather, will represent a slew of WPP's interests in India.
The group's companies in India include advertising agencies J Walter Thompson, Contract Advertising, Ogilvy, Bates India and Equus.
The WPP group also has a stake in Rediffusion DY&R and its subsidiary Everest DY&R. Together these agencies account for more than 50 per cent of the Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) Indian advertising industry.
Further the group's media specialists in India are GroupM, Mediaedgecia and Portland Outdoor. The group's other companies in India are The Henley Centre, IMRB, Quadra Advisory, Sudler& Hennessey, Wunderman and 141 Worldwide.
There are two strands to the WPP initiative--the development of WPP country managers and a limited number of WPP global client leaders.
WPP country managers already operate in the Andian region of Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, China, Iberia, Italy, Netherlands and Thailand\Vietnam.,
Kapur stepped in to replace Mani Iyer almost a decade ago. Now, creative head Piyush Pandey has stepped into Kapur's shoes.
During Kapur's tenure, the company has established a leadership position.
At a time when the industry was going great guns, Kapur was one of the first to diversify into allied disciplines. These included rural communication network Ogilvy Outreach, outdoor network Ogilvy landscapes and more recently, Ogilvy Healthcare.