Bates Underlines Four Areas Of Growth At Local Level

Bates India Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of New York-based Bates Worldwide, will power its bid to become a Rs 100-crore agency by December 2000 with concentrated business development in four earmarked areas _ media buying, below-the-line activities, interactive media and traditional advertising.

To emphasise the importance of Indian operations to the $7.7 billion Bates Worldwide network, Bates India has been organisationally placed as part of Bates Europe.

This has further been strengthened by the fact that Bates India chairman, Jean de Yturbe, doubles as Bates Europe chairman.

Outlining Bates India's plans for growth and consolidation, Yturbe told newspersons here yesterday, "Expansion, acquisition and reorganisation would drive growth plans over the current year. Acquisitions, however, would not be top of the priority now. First on the agenda would be consolidation."

 

In line with the Bates global strategy, October onwards there would be an emphasis on developing the interactive media division, XM, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bates Worldwide's holding company Cordiant Communications Group Plc.

According to Yturbe, XM is the group's fastest growing business unit globally and would function in India as a separate company, independent of the Bates India management.

Media buying would be executed through Zenith Media, while below-the-line activities would be handled by 141. Traditional advertising would fall under the umbrella organisation, Bates India.

With the exception of XM, the entry of the other three would be facilitated through Bates India.

At a later stage, the agency plans to bring in healthcare marketing and management consultancy as well, said Madhukar Kamath, managing director and chief executive director of Bates India.

Increased business in the coming months would come from a sustained focus on catering to the greater needs of the already existing clients as well as making a foray into other accounts through the existing clientele of Bates' subsidiaries, he added.

Elaborating on this Yturbe said, "For instance, 141, which is headquartered in London, would build up their own clients and business and could later provide a good access point to enter certain clients who cannot be accessed through traditional advertising."

The agency has totally revamped their Calcutta office and will do the same in their offices elsewhere in the country. But Yturbe clarified that the transformation will not be restricted to the physical aspect only and a revamped working style would soon evolve.

"We will attract and absorb more talented and creative people," he said.

A new senior vice-president and general manager will be appointed for the Calcutta office.

Bates Worldwide has been growing organically with the acquisitions of Healthworld, the world's third largest

healthcare marketing agency, Diamond, the largest agency in South Korea and US-based Interactive Edge.