Second agencies?or, offshoots of ad agencies?are making a big-bang comeback. O&M India has just strengthened the operations of its second agency, Meridian Communications, with Rensil D?Silva as executive creative director and Kumar Subramanyam as president. Says Piyush Pandey, vice-chairman, O&M Asia Pacific: ?Meridian will be a second O&M in every aspect. Both agencies will also pitch for the same accounts,? As part of its expansion plan, O&M is extending Meridian?s reach to Delhi.
JWT has relaunched its second agency, Fortune, as a full-fledged agency. According to Tarun Rai, managing partner of JWT India, ?Prior to the move, it was essentially a financial advertising agency.? Last year, Mudra Advertising launched its third agency, Canvas, in Ahmedabad, which counts Yo! Bikes and Adnani among its clients. Amid all this, Contract?s Core, Grey Worldwide?s G3 Communications and K Factor?s Trineon Communications have all been making noises about creating a bigger splash. With the Indian ad industry growing 24% in 2006 to Rs 16,300 crore in capitalised billings, and hoping to expand even faster this year, agencies are obviously hoping to carve themselves larger slices by pitching for conflicting accounts with their second agencies.
