Interpublic's Mediabrands Bolsters Digital Marketing Capabilities With Investment In India

NEW YORK, June 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mediabrands, the media holding company within Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), today announced the set up of a majority-owned joint venture with India-based Interactive Avenues, the market's top digital marketing solutions company.  In India, the joint venture will assume the name of Reprise Media.  Through this transaction the new business unit will specialize in search and social marketing and also offer a full scope of digital services which include digital media strategy and investment, digital creative development, campaign implementation and post activity analysis. Anjali Hegde, one of Interactive Avenue's founding partners becomes CEO, Reprise Media, India and will report to the new Reprise Media, India Board as well as Mediabrands Asia Pacific Regional Leadership.

Mediabrands will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture and Interactive Avenues will hold the remaining 49%. The partnership formalizes the long-time successful working relationship between Interactive Avenues and Mediabrands.  Interactive Avenues has rapidly established itself as India's leading expert in digital marketing.  Interactive Avenues has operations in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Interactive Avenues will continue to operate as an independent digital marketing solutions company and will provide complete support to this joint venture. The transaction bolsters Mediabrands' digital offering and services for clients and reinforces the media holding company's efforts to expand and deepen its marketing services operations across India and Asia Pacific.  Final details of the transaction will be presented to the IPG Board next month.

With approximately 1,000 media and marketing experts across the region, Asia Pacific remains a top priority for Mediabrands to help accelerate market share for its clients.  Mediabrands' priorities in 2010 for Asia Pacific include supporting UM and Initiative's regional growth, launching a suite of new products and integrated services, and building regional operations for its leading specialist business, notably Reprise Media (search engine and social media marketing), Cadreon (audience demand platform), Ansible (mobile marketing), Orion Trading (barter services), Ensemble (branded entertainment) and others.  In Asia Pacific alone, Reprise Media is established in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, and Australia.  In 2009 Ensemble and Orion Trading launched divisions in Australia.

"Interactive Avenues welcomes this opportunity to partner with IPG's Mediabrands on the Reprise Media venture in India," stated Anjali Hegde, CEO Reprise Media, India. "Through Interactive Avenue's leadership in digital marketing and Mediabrands' leading global agency network, the possibilities for Reprise Media India have no bounds. Our clients will be able to access the best of both worlds as well as the opportunities presented by accelerated growth in India's digital marketing space."

"Mediabrands is committed to aggressive business development across our key markets in Asia Pacific and of course, India is critical in that respect," said Tara Comonte, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Mediabrands. "We have enjoyed a very successful partnership with Interactive Avenues for the last two years and this new venture allows us to formalize the relationship and to reinforce our collective commitment to growing our digital business together in one of the most vibrant global markets today.  Interactive Avenues has an impressive track record, a strong management team as well as a market leading product and we are extremely pleased with the continued evolution of this relationship."

"The Aditya Birla Group is convinced about the power of the Digital medium and will aggressively use this medium in our marketing efforts," stated Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group. "Reprise Media demonstrated a deep level of understanding of our business as well as expertise across all facets of digital marketing and we look forward to working closely with them."

Shashi Sinha, CEO Lodestar UM (Universal McCann) added, "With an online community of approximately 81 million, India represents one of the world's largest Internet markets. But behind this impressive number, India still remains a multi-faceted and highly complex digital landscape. With Reprise Media India, we have the digital marketing experts that can navigate the digital space effectively and offer our clients unrivalled value for their campaigns, especially as this space reaches critical mass in the coming years."

About Interactive Avenues

Launched in April 2006 and funded by Sequoia Capital, 'Interactive Avenues' is India's leading digital marketing solutions company.  Interactive Avenues is among the top 10 digital agencies in Asia.  It is a Google AdWords Certified Partner and one of the three "Google Authorized Analytics Consultant" (GAAC) in India.  It is full service in its offerings with dedicated specialist teams for each function within digital marketing like Media services, Creative, Campaign management, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Technology solutions.  Interactive Avenues envisions itself to be the undisputed market leader in each aspect of the above mentioned digital marketing platforms. In the last 4 years, Interactive Avenues has worked on the digital marketing campaigns of close to 200 advertisers in the country, across diverse categories.

About Mediabrands

Created by IPG to manage all of its global media-related assets, Mediabrands employs 6,500 communications specialists operating in 90 countries and manages $32B in global media billings.  It is a proven entity in helping clients maximize the impact of their marketing investment to deliver explosive business results.  As the worldwide support center, Mediabrands enhances the communications offering and performance across its network of media agencies including Initiative, UM, MAGNA and a roster of diversified service groups.  Mediabrands is part of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), one of the world's leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies.  For more information, please visit www.mediabrandsww.com

SOURCE Mediabrands