Percept restructures Marcom Business, creates Percept One

Percept has restructured and consolidated the manifold Marketing Communications Services into a single business entity effective July 2014.

Previously, the Marketing Communications Services business of Percept spanned three separate verticals, namely Creative Services, Media Services and Other Marcom Services.

The Creative Services vertical encompassed Advertising, Brand Marketing Consultancy & Communications, Corporate Identity, Strategy, Creative, Design & Packaging, and Integrated Marketing Communication Consultancy services. The Media Services vertical spanned Media Planning & Buying; Out-of-Home Media; Retail Media; Rural Media; and Digital Media.

The third vertical included a host of services including Experiential Marketing; Sports Management & Marketing; Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions Management; Event Management & Marketing; Celebrity Endorsements & Talent Management; Entertainment Branding & Marketing; Branded Entertainment; Brand Activations & Promotions; Public & Media Relations, and Social Media Marketing.

In the new structure the diverse Companies and SBUs encompassing the Marketing Communications business will consolidate into a single holistic entity, Percept One, currently having revenues of INR 1,250 million.

Shiv Sethuraman has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, Percept One, with effect from July 14, 2014. He will be responsible for leading Business Development and Integration of all Marcom Services, creating opportunities for synergy within and across the Marcom businesses of the Percept Group, attaining profitability and revenue growth organically & inorganically, as also paving the roadmap for the overall Marcom Business of the Percept Group. Shiv has a challenging mandate of driving a 30% Year-on-Year growth with a target of achieving Revenues totalling INR 2,750 million by 2017.

Shiv has had a remarkable two decade long career in the Media and Communications domain. He has handled dynamic portfolios spanning global brand development and business acquisition, and served as Country Head in Europe as also in India. Prior to joining Percept, Shiv was associated with TBWA, India in the role of Chief Executive Officer and personally led the Nissan, Adidas and Infrastructure/Realty cluster within the Agency. He kick-started his advertising career with Ogilvy where he cut his teeth on many of the key Clients of the Agency such as Cadbury, Castrol Unilever & Shell amongst others. He moved to Ogilvy, Paris in 2001 as Global Business Director and was later elevated to the position of MD, Ogilvy & Mather, Paris where he acquired large global and regional accounts such as Louis Vuitton, Coca Cola - Europe and Europcar and also managed several businesses including IBM, Unilever & Nestle.

Commenting on his new role as CEO, Marcom Services, Percept Limited, Shiv Sethuraman said, “Percept has been a pioneer in the entertainment, media and communications space and has set many benchmarks over the decades. With the creation of Percept One we are now bringing together the very successful individual businesses to create an integrated entity. This entity is already 700 people strong and has over INR 1250 million in revenue, making it one of the leading companies in its space. The mandate and the challenge is to use this size and scale to propel us to a faster growth trajectory. I look forward to working closely with the team at Percept to ensure that Percept One reaches its goals.”

Welcoming Shiv to Percept, Ajay Upadhyay, Director, Percept Limited said, “We strongly believe that Shiv will be able to provide the leadership that Percept One needs to become a strong unified Marcom service.  His global leadership experience and brand experience will help us achieve the scale and growth targets we have set for ourselves.”