AD Agencies
Need a hit? It’s all about marketing and communications
Professional marketing in the business of entertainment is the need of the hour!
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That was the core theme at the Ad Club’s one-day seminar on ‘value creation’ held on 11 January at The Oberoi hotel in South Mumbai. Among the key points that came across:
* Bollywood needs marketing lessons from third-party consultants;
* India finds its voice in entertainment programming;
* Indian television programming had to use communication and marketing more effectively to connect to viewers and address basic emotional needs;
* advertisers need to look at TV personalities for brand endorsements;
* successful entertainment brands are elusive, illusory and magical; and radio advertising complements TV advertising.
* Product placements in TV serials could become a reality.
The speakers at the seminar sponsored by Star India constituted a well-balanced panel of achievers representing diverse fields. The list included: PNC chairman Pritish Nandy; writer/director Ashutosh Gowariker; Bharti Enterprises marcom director Hemant Sachdev; Banyan Tree Communications CMD Anish Trivedi; creative consultant Rekha Nigam; Leo Entertainment director Sanjay Bhutiani; UTV Group director Zarine Mehta; Star India COO Sameer Nair and Reliance Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna.
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Ad Club chairperson seminars committee and Percept Advertising CEO Rajesh Pant, while addressing the distinguished gathering, mentioned that there was a need to ensure professionalism in the marketing of entertainment because entertainment is the best option to satisfy clients looking for short-term answers and gains.
Pant also added that the idea also originated from the recent happenings that disproved the flurry of negative media reports expressing concerns about the sad state of the media and entertainment industry. Pant referred to the pessimistic media reports mentioning that “the myth of Bollywood was broken and it was a failure of imagination”.
“Recent media reports have predicted doomsday warnings for the Indian film industry due to the large number of flops. However, well-marketed recent commercial hits such as Kaante and Saathiya have shown that well-packaged entertainment sells despite all odds. Hollywood films are never understated and go for the audience jugular. The marketing promotions for these films are planned from the initial stages of conceptualisation,” Pant added.
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The attendees received inputs on various facets of entertainment and marketing such as in-film product placements; creating and cultivating relationships between celebrities and companies to establish and promote brand loyalty; building the brand’s image within the entertainment community; conceiving stratgeies to launch new brands within the community; creating a knowledge base and perspectives on how the programming elements can be used independently of marketing tactics; how the entertainment mix can ensure that programming elements can be integrated into the marketing process.
Pant felt that the concept of entertainment should be redefined and extended to include all those activities and events that elevate a person from the current travails of life.
AD Agencies
Omnicom doubles synergy target to $1.5 billion, flags more job cuts after IPG deal
Advertising giant targets deeper job cuts and restructuring by mid-2028
NEW YORK: Global advertising group Omnicom Group has sharply escalated its cost-cutting ambitions following its acquisition of Interpublic Group, doubling its annual synergy target to $1.5 billion by mid-2028, according to media reports.
The bulk of the savings, $1 billion a year, will come from labour costs, according to Omnicom’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation. This signals further job cuts, restructuring and the relocation of roles to lower-cost markets.
The tougher stance comes just months after Omnicom announced 4,000 redundancies in December, immediately after closing the IPG transaction.
Presentation slides show labour-related synergies accelerating over the next three years, rising to $645 million in 2026, $920 million in 2027 and $1 billion by 2028. The company said the savings will be delivered through a mix of headcount reductions, offshoring and near-shoring, alongside outsourcing selected back-office functions.
Beyond payroll, Omnicom expects to extract $240 million from real estate consolidation and a further $260 million from IT, procurement and operational efficiencies.
The revised $1.5 billion target is double the $750 million estimate flagged when the IPG deal was announced in late 2024, underscoring a more aggressive integration push than previously signalled.
Chief executive John Wren said Omnicom aims to deliver $900 million of the synergies by the end of 2026, with the full run-rate achieved within 30 months. On the earnings call, Wren and chief financial officer Phil Angelastro said early integration efforts had focused on eliminating duplicated corporate and operational functions.
“Unfortunately, you couldn’t keep two of everything,” Angelastro said, pointing to executive and structural overlaps created by the merger.
The restructuring has also led to a simplification of agency brands and reporting lines. Legacy networks such as DDB Worldwide, FCB and MullenLowe Group have been dismantled as standalone entities, with the group reorganised around nine “connected capabilities”, including Omnicom advertising and Omnicom media.
Omnicom is also expanding a unified resourcing model built around offshore hubs in Colombia, Costa Rica and India, which are expected to take on a larger share of delivery and support functions.
Angelastro said artificial intelligence was not the primary driver of staffing reductions, though automation and AI are being explored to lift productivity.
Omnicom expects total headcount to settle at about 105,000 employees, down from a combined 128,000 at the end of 2024. Around 10,000 roles will fall off payroll through divestments and exits from non-core agency assets.
Investors cheered the expanded savings plan. Omnicom shares jumped more than 15 per cent to close above $80, buoyed by the higher synergy target and a separate $5 billion share buyback programme. Analysts at Bank of America called the moves “key positives”, though flagged the absence of organic growth guidance for 2026.
The New York–headquartered group reported an annual net loss of $54.5 million on revenue of $17.3 billion, reflecting one month of IPG contribution and heavy one-off costs linked to the merger and restructuring.
Omnicom will host an investor day on 12 March, where it is expected to outline further integration milestones and capital allocation priorities.
