MUMBAI: Mediabrands, the media holding company within Interpublic Group, is setting up a joint venture company with Interactive Avenues to offer solutions in search and social marketing.
Mediabrands will hold a 51 per cent stake in the joint venture while the remaining 49 per cent will be with the digital marketing solutions company.
The JV, named Reprise Media India, will be headed by Anjali Hegde, one of Interactive Avenue‘s founding partners. He will report to the board as well as Mediabrands Asia Pacific Regional Leadership.
Reprise Media will offer a full scope of digital services which include digital media strategy and investment, digital creative development, campaign implementation and post activity analysis.
Interactive Avenues that has operations in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore will continue to operate as an independent digital marketing solutions company and provide complete support to this joint venture.
The transaction bolsters Mediabrands‘ digital offering and services for clients and reinforces the media holding company‘s efforts to expand and deepen its marketing services operations across India and Asia Pacific.
Final details of the transaction will be presented to the IPG Board next month.
Said UM (Universal McCann) CEO Shashi Sinha, "With an online community of approximately 81 million, India represents one of the world‘s largest Internet markets. But behind this impressive number, India still remains a multi-faceted and highly complex digital landscape. With Reprise Media India, we have the digital marketing experts that can navigate the digital space effectively and offer our clients value for their campaigns, especially as this space reaches critical mass in the coming years."
With approximately 1,000 media and marketing experts across the region, Asia Pacific remains a top priority for Mediabrands to help accelerate market share for its clients. Mediabrands‘ priorities in 2010 for Asia Pacific include supporting UM and Initiative‘s regional growth, launching a suite of new products and integrated services, and building regional operations for its specialist business, particularly Reprise Media (search engine and social media marketing), Cadreon (audience demand platform), Ansible (mobile marketing), Orion Trading (barter services) and Ensemble (branded entertainment).
In Asia Pacific alone, Reprise Media is established in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, and Australia. In 2009 Ensemble and Orion Trading launched divisions in Australia.
Stated Aditya Birla Group chief marketing officer - financial services Ajay Kakar, "The Aditya Birla Group is convinced about the power of the Digital medium and will aggressively use this medium in our marketing efforts. Reprise Media demonstrated a deep level of understanding of our business as well as expertise across all facets of digital marketing and we look forward to working closely with them."
