Indiantelevision.com Team

(23 February 2007 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Percept has officially announced that former Vibrant Advertising director Amit Ray has joined Percept Media as director, strategy.

In response to recent reports of Tapan Pal's departure from aMap to join Percept Media as CEO, Percept Holdings vice-chairman and managing director Harindra Singh spoke of the recent news saying, "This is our first official release on Percept Media, and we have not written to anybody about this till date. So, what you must have seen or read must be speculation."

Ray had been with Vibrant Advertising (Reliance Industries' media AOR) for a year and has, in the past, worked with advertising agencies such as Lowe, Tara Sinha Associates (now McCann-Erickson) and Clarion (now Bates Enterprise). In 2001, he steered the formation of Mudra's media arm, Optimum Media Solutions (OMS), and later moved to Vibrant Advertising.

He is also the vice-chairman of MRUC's technical committee and plays a key role in IRS, India's key readership study. He also helped the industry by guiding ORG-MARG in improving their Peoplemetre software, informs an official release.

Speaking about his new role Ray said, "I am delighted to be a part of the Percept family. The media opportunities that are existing are immense, and Percept's vision for the Media business is truly commendable. Together, we will be able to provide committed, professional value services to our clients at optimum rates."

Singh added, "The year 2007 is going to be a critical year for our media business, but it will mature next year. Percept Media's immediate strategic focus is to consolidate and grow the media services business in the short term as we see an opportunity to be amongst the top 5 by our self and amongst the top-2 in partnership with a suitable strategic partner.

"Our key focus will be to provide clearly audited transactions for the clients to increase transparency and bringing a fair and level playing field in the media business. We will continue to have conventional media and will build on the various other opportunities that are able to spot and leverage in the media domain."

Percept Holdings launched Percept Media, on the back of the 'all cash' deal to buy back all of Aegis Group plc shareholdings in PDM India and Posterscope India - the consolidated annual billings of which is in excess of US$ 150 million. Percept has acquired "Allied Media" for traditional media services.