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Our Bureau

Bangalore, July 10 Communications services group WPP is looking at acquisitions in India and the rest of Asia as part of its growth strategy, said Mr Mark Read, Director of Strategy, WPP.

The group is eyeing companies in non-traditional areas such as brand identity, public affairs, digital and direct marketing, said Mr Read. He was here in the city in connection with the two-day ‘WPP Asia Strategy’ meet that saw heads of WPP agency networks in Asia discussing the road ahead.

WPP Digital recently acquired a 100 per cent stake in digital marketing agency BLUE Interactive Marketing, Singapore. Last year, it picked up a majority stake in Bangalore-based design firm Ray + Keshavan.

According to Mr Read, WPP has seen phenomenal growth from the India and China markets, which have been growing at over 20 per cent for the past several years. Mr Read said: “Asia Pacific, Latin America, West Asia and Africa account for about 20 per cent of WPP’s revenues, which we want to grow to one-third in five years. We are very positive about India.”

A key driver of growth in Asia will be new media, along with traditional media. While both traditional and new media are growing fast in Asia (particularly in India), Mr Read said the digital medium will be “the new leg of our growth strategy.” Currently, only 2 per cent of global ad spends comes from online advertising. This will grow to 8 per cent in 3-4 years, said Mr Read. Mobile marketing is another area to watch out for in the long term, he added.

Another area of increasing importance in India is analytics. Group M, a WPP entity, through its outfit Meritus Analytics India in Bangalore, does a lot of work in this field for as number of WPP companies, said Mr Read.

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