After the global merger between J Walter Thompson and Wunderman, the Indian arms of the two advertising firms are now merging too. They will now be functioning under the brand new banner of Wunderman Thompson. India will be the second country in which the merger is going into effect. The first one was the US.
The chairman and group CEO of Wunderman Thompson, Tarun Rai, will be overseeing the merger and Manoj Mansukhani, who was the head of Wunderman India, has been appointed the chief transformation officer. Between the two of them, the two agencies can expect smooth transitions and well-thought-out processes.
Even though Wunderman is a huge name globally, it is a relatively smaller agency in India with big clients such as Microsoft, HSBC, and Bose. Fortunately, this merger did not create any redundancies for Wunderman, and the company is now going to expand its repertoire to the 1000 plus clients that a giant like JWT brings to the table.
When asked about the merger, Tarun Rai said “We are a new breed of an ad agency. We are setting a fresh precedent for the industry. The global capabilities of two very large companies are now available for our clients in South Asia. With 20,000 people across 90 countries, the scale is truly global. And because we are one company now, we can deliver it seamlessly and simply. We can deliver long-term brand-building along with the last-mile consumer engagement — all under one roof.”
He further elaborated on how the new agency can offer fabulous end to end services by saying “It makes us more responsible for the delivery of clients’ communication objectives as well as their business targets. It also makes us more accountable for the results. And from our point of view, the new capabilities are an avenue for growth for us too — to get a larger share of our clients’ marcom (marketing communications) budget,”
JWT has a few companies under its banners such as Marium, Contract advertising, Geometry Global Encompass Network, Hungama Digital Services, and ADK Fortune. These independent entities will still remain as they were, however, they now belong to Wunderman Thompson.
The main reason for this change is the digital disruption that has taken over India. Elaborating on this merger, Rai said India is a unique market. Traditional media spends are still 70% of the total advertising expenditure. And they are growing in double digits. However, digital spends are growing at more than 30%. It’s a very fragmented media scene and brands have to be active on many platforms. Therefore, to be able to deliver creative solutions for traditional media as well as digital platforms and have the capability all the way to e-commerce as part of one seamless offering makes Wunderman Thompson a formidable new company”
