On Advertising: A race to connect in India By Eric Pfanner International Herald Tribune SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2005 LONDON To introduce a new Gillette razor in India last summer, a local marketing agency parked specially modified trucks - with sound systems, female MCs and "shaving booths" - outside call centers and shopping malls where young Indian men work and play. The MCs invited them to step up and try out the Gillette Mach3 Turbo Champion, a low-cost version of the company's popular three-bladed razor that was specially designed for the Indian market. The promotion was a hit with consumers, said Srikant Sastri, managing director of the agency, Solutions Integrated Marketing Services, persuading many of them to switch on the spot from the old-fashioned, double-edged razors that are still commonly used in India. "There is a large and growing middle class in India, which is attracting many multinationals," Sastri said by telephone. "Some succeed and some don't. The ones that succeed are the ones that offer relevant benefits for the Indian consumer." Driven by a desire to connect with Indian consumers, advertising executives from London, Paris and New York are racking up frequent-flier miles, searching for attractive acquisitions to bolster their positions. Last week, Publicis Groupe, based in Paris, announced an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Solutions Integrated, one of the leading independent marketing companies in India, with about $60 million in billings and around 200 full-time employees. Solutions Integrated, which is based in New Delhi and has offices in five other Indian cities and a subsidiary in Singapore, specializes in areas outside traditional advertising, including "field marketing" like the Gillette promotion, as well as managing clients' relationships with customers. Its clients include Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Cisco Systems. It also owns a call center, serving mostly domestic businesses. "We intend to expand very fast in this market, which is growing very quickly," said Maurice L?vy, chief executive of Publicis. He said the company was considering other acquisitions there, as well as in other promising Asian markets, like China. For Publicis, the acquisition is an effort to catch up to WPP Group, based in London, which is far and away the leader in India. WPP owns, or has significant stakes in, five of the 10 biggest creative agencies operating there. In September it beefed up one of those units, Bates, by acquiring control of a leading local agency, Enterprise Nexus Communications. The two are being merged and renamed as Bates Enterprise. Other leading advertising companies are also said to be shopping around. Omnicom Group, based in New York, the No.1 owner of ad agencies, generally expresses a preference for organic growth, but there has been speculation in the Indian press that it might be in the hunt for an acquisition. "We don't have anything to announce at this time, but we are looking," a spokeswoman, Velvet Yoshinami, said. The problem, executives, say, is that there is a dwindling number of large, attractive targets left for the big international holding companies to acquire. Madison Communications, a firm based in Mumbai, India, and specializing in media buying, is said to have drawn the interest of several potential bidders. Elsewhere, however, the business is dominated by agencies already owned by the multinational groups, or by tiny shops that are below their radar screens and serve mostly local clients. Sastri said he had had conversations with several of the leading holding companies before agreeing to the deal with Publicis. He declined to provide a price. "Everyone was chasing us, which is an attractive position to be in," he said. The JWT division of WPP Group has shaken up its leadership in Britain following several setbacks, including the loss of portions of Unilever's detergents account. Toby Hoare, who has been managing the WPP team serving a banking client, HSBC, was named executive chairman of the British unit of JWT, replacing Simon Bolton. JWT said Bolton would stay with the company but did not specify his new role. BBDO Worldwide, part of Omnicom Group, named Chris Thomas as chairman and chief executive of BBDO Asia. Thomas has headed BBDO's affiliated direct marketing agency, Proximity, in London.