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MUMBAI: Future Group and Starcom MediaVest Group have jointly announced
that with effect from 1 January 2007, all media investments for
member companies of the Future Group, will be managed by Starcom
Worldwide.
The Starcom responsibility of the Future Group media investment
management will be handled by Manish Porwal, who is slated to assume
his new responsibility of Starcom Worldwide India-West and South
managing director, starting 1 January.
The account will be managed by Starcom in three separate locations
in India - Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi, with central reporting to
the marketing team at the group's head quarters in Mumbai. Some
of the staff to handle the account will be shifted from Starcom's
existing talent pool, while some others will be recruited from the
market.
Specific initiatives that Starcom wishes to implement to activate
this assignment will be announced in due course.Pantaloon Retail
president-marketing Sanjeev Agrawal said, "We are passing through
some really exciting times, with consumer spends growing rapidly,
and retailing as a business literally exploding. We are a pioneer
and leader in the area of retail. We recognize that the media landscape
in India is complex and will be even more so in the times ahead.
To take us through the challenges and opportunities ahead and help
our brand connect with our consumers, we were looking for a new
media partner.
Starcom's focus on Return on Objectives [ROO] as a new metric for
marketing accountability appealed to us. We were also happy to see
that they have built true 360 degrees communication capability over
the last few years. These are the reasons we decided to align with
them" commenting on the win, Starcom MediaVest Group CEO-South
Asia Ravi Kiran said, "I believe we have a complete mind match
with the Future Group marketing team. For some time now, we have
been proposing a view of the future of marketing and communication
which is based on today's market realities of attention-challenged,
multi-tasking consumers, and the need to activate all the assets
of media owners, instead of just negotiating with them to reduce
cost. This is the basis for Return On Objectives, a principle that
emphasizes leveraging market opportunities, rather than internal
constraints such as minimizing costs.
We hope to deliver engaging consumer connections, using platform-agnostic
ideas, activated media owner assets and through-the-line planning
and execution capabilities, to the brands of Future Group."
Mumbai based retail group Future Group’s flagship enterprise
is Pantaloon Retail in addition to other companies such as Home
Solutions Retail India, Indus League Clothing, Galaxy Entertainment
and others. the group operates through six verticals: Future Retail
(encompassing all lines of retail business), Future Capital (financial
products and services), Future Brands (all brands owned or managed
by group companies), Future Space (management of retail real estate),
Future Logistics (management of supply chain and distribution) and
Future Media (development and management of retail media spaces).
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