Hakuhodo Picking 50% In Percept

The $5.42 billion Hakuhodo, Japans second largest advertising agency, is picking up a 50 per cent stake in Percept Advertising, in a partnership aimed at expanding its operations in India and Asian countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Middle East. Percept Advertising will consequently be renamed Percept H.

Percept Advertising has three subsidiaries: Amo Communi- cations, Imageads and Percept Gulf.

These three companies are joint ventures; Percept holds about an 80 per cent stake each in Amo and Imageads and 66.66 per cent in Percept Gulf.

Hakuhodo already has a 50:50 joint venture in Hakuhodo Percept, which services Japanese brands like Suzuki, Sharp, Epson, Matsushita and others.

 

Percept H, Amo Communi- cations, Imageads and Percept Gulf will continue to specialise in specific market segments like Indian and multinational brands and clients, niche clients and below the line, financial clients and public sector units and the Middle East.

Tokokazu Jimbo, executive officer, Hakuhodo Inc said, "India is a promising market and we are looking at aggressively increasing our presence here and in other Asian markets. So we decided to deepen the relationship with Percept through this new partnership."

Harindra Singh, managing director, Percept Advertising said, "We expect to further strengthen Percepts client relationships using Hakuhodo s experience, their proprietary tools and expertise. Our vision is to develop Percept into a Pan-Asian agency network."

Percepts advertising network clients include Hero Honda, Bharti Telecom, Bajaj Tempo, Mango, Reid & Taylor, Godrej Office Furniture, Phillips, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, TVS, Shalimar Paints, Sahara India and Bank of Baroda.

On the international operations, Singh said, We (Percept H) are now looking at setting up businesses in new markets either through a JV or on our own."

Hakuhodo is the ninth largest advertising agency in the world, with annual billings of over $5.42 billion in the year ended March 31, 2002.

Percept, started in 1984, today provides its clients with an integrated marketing communication service with capitalised billings of over Rs 400 crore, encompassing advertising, entertainment, sports, promotions, celebrity anagement, retail marketing, rural marketing, social marketing, public relations, media services, TV & radio production, internet and IT solutions and media sales.

Percept also has a joint venture in Carat Integra, the media buying agency where it holds around 49 per cent and Carat holds 51 per cent.

It also owns a majority stake in another joint venture, Percept DMark; the balance is held by Aegies, a sports marketing company.