Third media agency from IPG Mediabrands named BPN

Suresh Balakrishna has been appointed as CEO. BPN will have offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi and Hyderabad.

IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company of IPG, has announced the launch of its third agency, named BPN (Brand Programming Network). The full service media agency will be launched in India today, June 12.

BPN will cater to the conventional, digital as well as outdoor media needs of the clients. It will also offer training and consultancy services to media houses, along with branded content. The consultancy services will be related to issues like brand strategy, sales strategy and brand positioning.

IPG plans to launch the agency in 14 more countries across five continents. These countries include India and the US in the first phase, and 12 more countries including Netherlands, Chile, Portugal, Uruguay and Poland.

The agency claims to have a start up billing of more than USD 900 million, working with brands such as Heineken, GSK, Staples and Applebee. BPN will work on the service mandate of Jyothy-Henkel, Bajaj Auto, Samsonite and a few other clients of LMG to start up with a billing of over Rs 1,000 crore. These accounts were lately won by the agency and it is learnt that LMG had pitched for BPN since the new agency didn't have a name until now.

Suresh Balakrishna has been appointed as CEO, BPN and will head the agency, which will have offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

IMG Mediabrands already has two media agency networks, UM, represented by Lodestar UM in India, and Initiative, represented by Lintas Initiative in India.

About the launch of a third agency, Balakrishna says, "It always helps in handling the conflicts. Plus, there are different specific characters to each agency. With a new agency under the umbrella, we are able to showcase an extra character of the media group."

In an official communiqué, Lynn De Souza, chairman and CEO of Lintas Media Group, says, "For media agencies thus far, the starting point has always been the advertiser. Consolidation, portfolio management and aggregation are all client-focused and to some extent consumer data-driven. BPN will focus on the brand. We believe that the time has come to turn back several chapters and make the brand the hero of all communication efforts, and BPN has developed processes to do just that."

The agency is already pitching and has recently acquired several accounts including Henkel in Mumbai, Yepme.com in Delhi, OCL in Kolkata and Jayalakshmi Silks in Kochi.

Balakrishna adds, "Using the best of data, insights and creativity that LMG and IPG Mediabrands have globally and here in India, BPN will focus on promoting brand programming using social media as a key source of information to reach consumers at every touch point. We will work closely with Reprise Media, the digital offer, and Lintas Initiative Outdoor to offer brands complete media solutions."

The company believes that the new agency will be characterised by its agility, creativity and understanding of new avenues like the digital medium, branded content and mobile telephony, apart from the conviction to be able to deliver the best media product through astute planning and aggressive buying.

For the records, Mediabrands is a part of the Interpublic Group (IPG), a global organisation of advertising agencies and marketing services companies.