MullenLoweLintas Group launches new full-service agency, PointNineLintas

MullenLoweLintas Group today announced the launch of its new independent full-service agency in India – PointNineLintas. It would offer omni-channel marketing capabilities including creative (on and offline), PR, activation, experiential, social, media and digital transformation; all under one roof. PointNineLintas will commence operations from August 1, 2017. 

Along with Lowe Lintas and Mullen Lintas, PointNineLintas would be the third independent agency of the MullenLoweLintas Group in India. Vikas Mehta, currently Group CMO and President, Marketing Services for MullenLoweLintas Group, has been named CEO of PointNineLintas. 

The existing marketing services of the Group will be aggregated under this new agency and will operate as its divisions. These include GolinOpinion – PR, reputation management; LinTeractive – digital marketing & transformation and LinEngage – activation, experiential & shopper. These divisions will come together to offer full-service horizontal offerings to clients of PointNineLintas, while continuing to retain their vertical offerings for existing clients. The new agency has a roadmap to further expand its capabilities by adding new offerings to its service stack, including creative, media, technology and platforms. 

Announcing the new agency, Joseph George (Joe), Group Chairman and CEO, MullenLoweLintas Group, said, “We made our intentions to go full-service clear four years ago. While the list of companies and industries pursuing full-service (under different labels) has grown tremendously in this time, the approach to it remains more or less the same. PointNineLintas is a fresh take at an agency model that’s multi-faceted at its core. So far, only holding companies have seen some success with this approach, but it’s restricted to a handful of very large global clients. An agency network doing this would be a first, and we believe it could broaden the base of clients who can tap into it.” 

Vikas Mehta has been with the MullenLowe Group for over a decade in various local and regional roles in the APAC region, including Managing Director – Lowe Vietnam and Regional Growth Officer – Lowe Asia-Pacific. He moved to MullenLoweLintas Group India in 2013 as the country’s first agency CMO. In 2014, he took an additional mandate to rebuild the group’s digital business by relaunching LinTeractive. Since 2015, he’s also been President of the Group’s Marketing Services divisions. Prior to his management stints, Mehta was a planner and he authored strategies, papers and case-studies that have won over 50 international awards for marketing effectiveness. Major ones include Effie (India, Singapore and APAC), Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, APAC Tambuli Awards, WARC Asia Prize for Strategy, 4A’s Jay Chiat Awards, among others. 

Speaking of the appointment, Joseph George said, “I have worked closely with Vikas the past 4 years and I am absolutely certain that he is most qualified to deliver on this ambition. Not just because of his subject matter competencies required for a multi-service agency, but also for his passionate, stubborn and informed belief in ‘full service’ being the only way to go!” 

Mehta added here, “We have gone from the age of communication to the age of experiences. While the market has evolved at a furious pace, the agency models haven’t. The opportunity to take the Lintas pedigree and build an agency for the experiential economy is an inspiring one. Hyper-bundling is our biggest priority as a network and I’m grateful for the challenge to build a new agency that’s hyper-bundled from day zero.” 

PointNineLintas will work on an operating model that’s designed to evolve, much like the OS of one’s preferred device, to reflect the accelerated pace at which the marketing landscape is shifting. In fact, the name PointNine reflects exactly that; a philosophy of ‘forever beta’, by choice. 

Amongst the largest country operations of the global MullenLowe Group (IPG), MullenLoweLintas Group (India) manages ~300 brands across multiples categories with a talent pool of 900+ people and 11 offices across 7 cities.