After the recent appointment of Mr Rohit Ohri as Executive Chairman of the Dentsu Group, the Japanese agency is expected to add FMCG as a new category to its client roster.
Currently a slew of high profile auto and consumer durable brands dominate the client list of the eight-year old Dentsu Group in India, while FMCG brands have been missing.
Speaking to
Mr Ohri's long experience in JWT, where he handled big multinational accounts such as Pepsi, is expected to come in handy when he goes about adding FMCG accounts for the Dentsu Group. Mr Ohri handled the Pepsi account out of JWT in Delhi for almost seven years among the 21 years he spent with the WPP agency.
Besides there is also likelihood of more Japanese companies and brands being added to the Dentsu roster especially with India recently signing a free trade agreement with Japan.
As Mr Ohri said, “We are likely to become the preferred partners for those Japanese companies which are planning to enter India and would like to peek into the Indian market. Dentsu would have the first mover advantage as the agency in Japan would help such companies.''
Currently Dentsu has a 50:50 ratio between the Japanese and non-Japanese clients in India. The big Japanese accounts comprise auto majors such as Toyota, Suzuki and Honda followed by durable majors – Panasonic and Sony.
In fact to avoid client conflict among the top three auto clients, Dentsu has floated three creative agencies: Dentsu Communications, Dentsu Marcom and Dentsu Creative Impact apart from more agencies for media, digital, design and sports marketing.
Dentsu would also be improving the quality of manpower at its agency.
“My first job would be to get the best talent on board. There is need to build a new culture and improve the quality of work at the agency,” added Mr Ohri.