Publicis Formalises Name Change For Ambience, Twin-agency Plan  ( October '7,2003, FE)

Ambience D’Arcy Advertising Pvt Ltd will now be known as Ambience Publicis Advertising Pvt Ltd. This name change formalises the earlier announcement made by Publicis Worldwide Asia-Pacific chairman Guillaume Levy-Lambert that following the decision to dissolve the D’Arcy network globally Ambience D’Arcy would become part of Publicis Worldwide—the flagship network of the Publicis Groupe S.A.

Publicis Worldwide, the fifth largest and fastest growing agency network in the world, now has two agencies in India—Ambience Publicis and Publicis India. A press release issued by the company said the two-agency strategy has been devised bearing in mind the potential for growth in the Indian market and the emphasis that Publicis Worldwide would like to place on that potential.

“While the two agencies share a common top management, they are separate and distinct agencies that will not hesitate to compete with one another. While they may share backroom resources such as Finance and IT, they are completely separate in all front-end resources such as account management, account planning and creative etc and hence there is no potential of conflict between the two agencies,” the release added.

The common senior management comprises Ashok Kurien chairman for both agencies and managing director for Ambience Publicis; Elsie Nanji vice- chair and chief creative officer for both agencies; and Nakul Chopra group president for both agencies. Subhash Kamath heads Ambience Publicis as COO and Param Saikia Publicis India as COO.

Making this announcement Mr Levy-Lambert said, “In the course of the past nine months Ambience Publicis has already become a jewel in the crown for Publicis Worldwide—in fact we have already earmarked India as one of the global centers for excellence. Also Elsie Nanji is today the only representative from Asia on David Droga’s Global Creative Council for Publicis Worldwide.

We are of the firm opinion that Asia is going to be the key market for growth in the coming years and within Asia, China and India will be pivotal. The two-agency strategy will ideally position us to capitalise the growth we envisage for India. I expect Ambience Publicis will play a leading role in realising our potential in this market.”

Ambience Publicis chairman and managing Director Ashok Kurien added, “For Ambience this spells the start of yet another chapter of growth and improvement. This drive to be the best already manifests in making Publicis Worldwide the fastest growing network in the world.”