MUMBAI: BBDO India, which was set up in 2007 under the leadership of chairman & national creative director Josy Paul (who was later joined by CEO Ajai Jhala), yesterday got the go-ahead from India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to formalize its setup.

Under the approval, R K Swamy BBDO has been permitted to induct foreign equity amounting to Rs 12.75 million from BBDO Worldwide into its wholly-owned subsidiary BBDO India. Following this, BBDO India will operate as a separate private limited company.

RK Swamy BBDO group CEO Shekar Swamy says that the process of changing BBDO India from a wholly-owned subsidiary into a new company is currently on and it will become functional as a private limited organization by the end of the first quarter of 2010.
 
Adds Shekar: “The clearances have been under process for the past year or so. We believe that BBDO would like to scale up BBDO India, but it’s unlikely to happen in 2010. We have offices in Delhi and Mumbai and would like to consolidate them first.”

BBDO Worldwide will become a majority stake owner in BBDO India while RK Swamy BBDO will invest a significant amount to become a minority partner.
 
Says Swamy, “We needed BBDO India to function as a separate entity so that we could have multiple agencies from our stable operational in the market, thereby, increasing our overall market share. Thus, we decided to bring in a change in the investment pattern at BBDO India.” 

Swamy further reveals that BBDO India is doing well with accounts such as 7Up, Hewlett Packard’s Printing and Imaging Business, Gillette, Quaker Oats, Nimbooz, Aviva Life Insurance, Wrigley’s Doublemint and a new brand from Godrej. Some of its recent works include campaigns such as Aviva ‘Education Is insurance’, Quaker Oats’ ‘Mission to Make India Heart Healthy’, Nimbooz ‘Ekdum Asli Indian’, 7 Up ‘Mood Ko Do Lemon Ka Lift’ and Wrigley’s Doublemint ‘Front Foot Pe Chabao’.