Imagination, a London based global creative agency with over 44 years of international experience, entered the Indian market recently. Imagination?s prime focus is building brand experience ? it prides itself on being an independent, experiential agency working with brands such as Jaguar, Aston Martin, Shell, Tata Group, Ford and Coca-Cola.

Mark Barrett, CEO Asia Pacific, Imagination was in Mumbai earlier this month. He has been the architect of a regional expansion that has included the launch of Imagination in China, Singapore and India as well as its growth in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. Barrett spoke to FE?s Anushree Chandran on how Imagination will continue to hold on to its independence in the wake of several independents being sold to large multinational holding companies, and his expectations from the Indian and Asia Pacific markets. Edited excerpts.

Imagination came to India a few months back. How has the going been so far?

India is a market where a lot of our clients are looking at serious entry and growth. We have two offices here, one in Mumbai and the other in Bangalore. At the same time, we have been working in and out of India for more than 10 years. We have got some of India?s biggest companies talking to us about a lot of things, whether it?s branding or experiential marketing. There?s a lot that we are doing in digital. Our India clients include Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors, Ford, Andaz Hotels, Oberoi Hotels. In India, we created brand representations and experiences for JLR, Tata Motors and Ford at the Auto Expo in Delhi in January 2012. We?ve got some good conversations happening with the Tatas regarding future opportunities and collaboration. We are also leading the design and styling of the new Andaz hotel in New Delhi. A lot of work is around leisure and retail design. We are working with the Oberoi Group for their hotel design. We are also working in New Delhi on the new Hyatt hotel which opens in 2014. And we are also working on the new Ritz Carlton in Bangalore. Imagination?s also got a project in India for Hewlett Packard. Once our operations get established in India, we will open an office in New Delhi too. Some of the Indian entrepreneurs have big vision, big ideas and fantastic opportunities and they are working on projects that may not go to the market in the next five years, but they assist in branding.

Also, the good thing about being independent is that you can offer solutions to other agencies as well. We?ve worked with Dentsu at the Apac level and are interested in similar partnerships in India.

What is the reason behind such a late entry into India?

Well, we are a private company. We are self-funded and are naturally cautious about the way we enter markets. When we decide to come in, we have great strategies.

Though it?s slowing down a bit, we are committed to growing business in India. Our biggest challenge is getting the message across to the market that, yes, we are an international agency and we are privately owned, but we operate at a local cost.

Just recently, BBH, one of the most prominent independent agencies globally, was bought by Publicis. At some point, would Imagination also look to sell?

We pride ourselves on being independent. We have no intention of being bought by anyone. We?ve had plenty of opportunities of being purchased by some of the bigger multinational companies, but we saw no reason to sell. The benefit of being independent is that we have one balance sheet globally. I would like to see more independent agencies of our calibre. I think independent agencies deliver the best creative solutions because we are not tied to bottom lines. We are not tied to shareholders or what the stock market is doing.

How do you see the market panning out in the short-term, given the global financial crisis.

Lets start with India first. I think we will storm out this situation of the economy slowing down. We will get confidence back in the market and lots of good business in India. We know what we want out of the market and what the market will do for us. As a region, in Asia Pacific, we are expecting to more than double our revenues here in the next 5 years. We?ve got investments coming into India, China, Singapore. We?ve got a Tokyo office going. We?ve got investment moving into Sydney. We have got a bigger team in Melbourne. That gives us a very good footprint in the Asia Pacific region. Globally, we are working in Qatar for Shell. We are investing in Moscow and we?ve got plans to go into Sao Paulo in Brazil and couple of other markets within America. In five years, we will have doubled our global business as well. Not just in the Asia Pacific.

Are acquisitions part of your strategy?

We?ve done a couple of acquisitions but they are not a big part of our strategy. And when I say a couple, let me stress that these are very minor acquisitions. Are they going to be part of our strategy in the future? Possibly.