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Boby Kurian

Bangalore , Dec. 11

MAA Bozell has launched Dakshin, a new niche vertical focusing exclusively on the advertising needs for southern markets.

The new unit has already bagged the businesses of Hero Honda and Tata Motors in South.

Mr Bunty Peerbhoy, Chairman of MAA Group Holdings, said the new unit recognises the fact that consumers in the southern markets are completely different and react differently to advertisements. "It requires a different sort of stimulus and Dakshin will solely focus on the requirements of national players in these markets. It would also work with brands and companies whose businesses are mainly spread on South," Mr Peerbhoy said.

In recent years MAA Bozell has set up niche verticals for sectors such as pharma and information technology (IT). Mr Peerbhoy said these units would benefit with the growing awareness among companies in these sectors that it is better to work with specialists. We bring with us expertise, experience and knowledge pool, he added. The Bangalore-headquartered MAA Bozell, part of the Rs 170-crore MAA Group, has branches in all four southern States besides Mumbai and Delhi.

MAA Bozell, in which the InterPublic Group holds a 29 per cent stake, was among the fastest growing and profitable advertising agencies until 1996-97, when a list of defaulting clients pushed it into a crisis. The revenues dropped sharply in the subsequent years leading to a re-engineering of the business and right sizing of the loss making operations in Delhi and Mumbai to optimise productivity and operating margins to set off high interest rate loans. MAA also pumped in additional working capital by selling some equity of group companies to joint venture partners.

The other group entities include Draft Worldwide, where MAA recently diluted stake to 26 per cent, Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick, RAMMS India Pvt Ltd and MAA Print & Production. MAA Group holds a majority stake in all group companies except Draft Worldwide and Mr Peerbhoy ruled out further equity dilution in any of these companies, including MAA Bozell. The agency's equity partner, Bozell, part of True North Communications, merged with InterPublic Group in 2001.

MAA Bozell, which has come out of its troubled phase, reported modest profit of Rs 42 lakh in 2002-03. "We expect profits this year to increase four to five times," Mr Peerbhoy said. Stating that the agency would remain "furiously independent" in an age of sweeping consolidation, Mr Peerbhoy added that medium-sized agencies like MAA Bozell would do well to identify niche vertical opportunities, re-engineer the business and decide on what is good for them. Earlier this year, he scotched rumours that MAA Bozell would be merged with any of InterPublic's large agencies - Lowe or FCB - operating in India.

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