How legacy advertising agencies are struggling in the digital era

Rediffusion isn't the only legacy brand to transition to a new generation of leaders.

The change of ownership at Rediffusion, the country’s oldest ad­v­ertising agency, last week, did not take many industry observers by surprise. Founded by Arun Nanda, Ajit Balakrishnan and Mohammed Khan, all veterans in the field, in 1973, the agency had a solid brand-building and advertising history but had been struggling to adapt to the digital era in recent years. Khan ex­ited the agency in 1983 to start his own shop called Enterprise, which became En­t­erprise Nexus and then Bates Enterprise after it was acquired by WPP in 2013.

Rediffusion, on the other hand, had long associations with WPP and Dentsu, which