It is not without a reason that Ranjan Kapur, chairman, Bates India, chose Sanjay Thapar, group president (north & east), Ogilvy, to be the chief executive officer of the agency. Thapar, who is slated to join Bates in July, is known as a turnaround specialist, having revived operations at Ogilvy's Kolkata and Delhi offices in the 14 years that he was with the agency. The 47-year-old, who has worked with footwear major Bata as well as with the Bangalore-based advertising agency MAA (earlier called MAA Bozell) before joining Ogilvy, hopes to bring some magic back into the agency, which has struggled with top management exiting in recent months. "My mandate is clear," says the IIM Lucknow alumnus, "To double the agency's size in three years."
Bates' fortunes have been mixed in India. The agency, which was earlier Clarion Advertising, has been rechristened a number of times in the last 15 years, since first getting affiliation from international agency group Bates Worldwide. The latter was acquired by WPP in 2003, and since then Bates India has been a WPP agency. While the erstwhile Clarion was a formidable creative agency with film-maker Satyajit Ray among other advertising luminaries who worked there, the Bates of today is different: 60 per cent of its revenues comes from businesses outside advertising. Thapar says he sees no problem with it. "But, yes, we do not intend to neglect above-the-line or mainline advertising, either. That is also a focus area for us," he says.
The reason for the focus on mainline advertising is linked with the domination of mass-media channels such as print and television in India. In recent years, digital advertising has risen, but accounts for just five per cent of the total advertising pie in India. Print and TV advertising constitute 42 and 46 per cent, respectively. A neglect of it, then, is purely at the agency's peril, say experts.
