Top-level agency churn refuses to quell with Punitha Arumugam, chief executive officer at the Sam Balsara-controlled Madison Media, being the latest high-profile executive to call it a day. She is slated to join Google, India, next month. While both Arumugam and Google were not available for comments, persons in the know say the Madison Media head was keen to be associated with the digital medium, a segment growing fast in India.
At present, digital advertising constitutes just five per cent of the Rs 26,000-crore advertising pie in India. But unlike traditional media such as print and TV, digital advertising is growing at about 50 per cent per annum. Print, on the other hand, is slated to grow at six per cent this year, while TV is likely to grow at 10 per cent. Of total advertising, print constitutes about 43 per cent, while TV is about 42 per cent.
Arumugam is expected to bring her more than 15 years of media experience to Google, where she will be designated as vice-president, agency & advertiser relationships.
Arumugam has spent 13 years at Madison Media building the agency into a formidable media entity with clients such as ITC, Procter & Gamble, Godrej, McDonald's, TVS etc. But she is not the only one to have quit after a long innings with an agency. Last year, Rohit Ohri, senior vice-president and managing partner, JWT, Delhi, put in his papers after 21 years, joining Dentsu India Group as executive chairman. In recent months, Bobby Pawar and Sonal Dabral have quit their respective agencies (DDB Mudra and Bates) for new assignments after putting in five years respectively in their roles there. Pawar now is the chief creative officer & managing partner at JWT, while Dabral is the chairman & chief creative officer at DDB Mudra.
Both Dabral and Pawar are crucial members of the core, national-level team put in place by their respective agencies. Dabral joins Pratap Bose, chief operating officer, DDB Mudra and Madhukar Kamath, group chief executive officer and managing director, DDB Mudra, to manage operations at the group. Specifically, Dabral will be responsible for the creative output across the DDB Mudra group agencies.
Pawar too is part of the crack team at JWT which includes CEO Colvyn Harris, chief strategy officer Bindu Sethi and head of digital Max Hegerman, among others. Under him, there are three national creative directors — Senthil Kumar, Swati Bhattacharya and Tista Sen.
