NYSE-listed Interpublic Group (IPG) has entered the Indian digital services space by forging a joint venture with digital marketing company, Interactive Avenues (IA), a press release by its media holding company, Mediabrands, said today.
"This is a marriage of equals...Reprise gets a vast global client base courtesy IPG's strong network while IPG gets a strong local support in IA," Shashi Sinha, CEO of Lodestar UM India, a division of IPG, told PTI over phone from Cannes.
The new business will specialise in search and social marketing and also offer services like digital media strategy and investment, digital creative development, campaign implemenation and post activity analysis.
Mediabrands will hold a 51 per cent in the JV christened Reprise Media, while the rest lies with IA, it added. IA's founding partners, Anjali Hegde, will serve as the chief executive officer of Reprise Media.
Sinha said Lodestar, the media buying and selling arm, and IA had been working together for 18-months now on digital projects and formalised the relationship with the JV.