MAM
Thailand’s Chuo Senko enters India via JV with DDB Mudra
MUMBAI: Thailand‘s media communications group Chuo Senko (Thailand) Public Company Limited is entering India through a joint venture company with DDB Mudra Group.
The two agency networks have floated an entity named Chuo Senko India Co Ltd, 49 per cent of which will be owned by DDB Mudra and 51 per cent by Chuo Senko (46 per cent through Chuo Senko and five per cent through Ad India Ltd).
Incidentally, this is DDB Mudra Group‘s first joint venture as it plans to aggressively expand its business in India. Omnicom has 51 per cent stake in DDB Mudra while the remaining 49 per cent is held by Mudra.
Chuo Senko has invested Rs 5 million for its equity stake in ChuoSenko India.
The JV company has been formed with the intention of launching agencies and firms in the business of advertising, public relation, media, shop decoration and other related advertising services.
Sources said an announcement of the first agency under this JV company will be made as soon as by the end of this month. When contacted, both Chuo Senko and DDB Mudra did not respond to repeated mails and calls.
For DDB Mudra, this deal means tapping into a larger pool of clients. In 2012, the group grew organically with accounts like Ashok Leyland, Adidas, Amway, Bank of Baroda, Carrier Midea and Castrol among others.
Starting in 1963 as a total solution advertising agency in Japan and later shifting its centre of operations to Thailand, Chuo Senko has taken the joint venture route to expand in other Asian markets. It currently has presence in four South East Asian markets apart from Thailand – Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia.
In November 2012, the agency formed a business alliance with Japanese agency Daiko Advertising in a bid to expand into the larger markets of the region. Under this business alliance, Chuo Senko enables Daiko to meet wide variety of client needs by utilising six offices of Chuo Senko in Southeast Asia, besides existing Daiko offices, three in China, two in Vietnam, and one each in Taiwan and India. Meanwhile, Chuo Senko will be able to support its existing clients’ business development in both the Chinese and the Japanese market, utilising the Daiko network in Japan and overseas.
Chuo Senko has clients like Honda, Hitachi, Bangkok Tokyo Department Store, Thanachart Bank Public Company, Epson, and Wan Thai Food Industry.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
