Mudra sees 35% growth in turnover

The group, which achieved a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore last year, expects a major chunk of its revenues to come from the marketing services division in the coming years.

Madhukar Kamath, managing director and CEO said, "Till now, 55 per cent of our revenues were contributed by Mudra advertising, 10 per cent by media buying and 35 per cent came from marketing services. However, this mix would change as market dynamics indicate one and half times higher growth in marketing services compared to conventional advertising. In three to four years, marketing services could amount to nearly 60 per cent of Mudra group's revenues."

In an era where advertising agencies have begun compromising on their margins to win clients, Kamath expects about 30 per cent of the group's growth to come from newer clients, 30 per cent organically and 40 per cent in the form of new businesses from the existing clients.

Some of the key clients of Mudra Group consist of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Jet Airways and Novartis.

This month, the group announced the addition of rural marketing, public relations, events, sports and retail marketing capabilities, and would look at various options, including starting an agency, collaborating with partners and going for acquisitions.

It has appointed Pratap Bose as the chief operating officer to implement its plans. Bose was earlier the CEO of Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) India.

Two months back, Mudra restructured its media buying arm. This was named as Mudra Max and had two agencies titled Mudra Connext and Mudra Radar.

The group also appointed Bobby Pawar from O&M, New York as the chief creative officer for Mudra advertising. It has hired 60 to 70 creative professionals in the last one year.

To ensure that its growth plans remain on track, Kamath has formed a special organisation development team of 15 human resource managers, called the LLC- learning, leadership and change, headed by Ajit Menon.

The team was formed a year and a half ago to re-orient the organisation's strategy from being not just an agency but a full-service communication group.

The strong HR team, said Kamath, is what differentiates Mudra from other international agencies operating in India.