WPP's Hogarth Worldwide forays into India

WPP-owned market implementation agency Hogarth Worldwide has launched its operations in India. The agency begins its India innings by acquiring Prodigi (a WPP–Digital Company in partnership with Smile).Headquartered in London, the agency is globally headed by Barry Jones, Founder &Chairman and the India operations will be led by Gopikaa Davar, the present CEO of Prodigi India. Through this expansion, the agency is looking to expand the India team from 80 people to a count of 300 by 2017.

Hogarth’s advertising production technology infrastructure presents huge opportunities for Indian brand marketers to gain swifter access to the agency’s unique offerings spanning advertising production across all media, propriety technology solutions, transcreation and language services, in addition to the digital marketing capabilities of Prodigi. Furthermore, benefiting from an efficient and consistently production cycle – at a fraction of the historic cost, while enhancing quality.

With 22 recognised languages in India, brands are increasingly recognising the need for synchronicity of marketing campaigns covering the entire gamut of advertising and communications making it relevant across markets – and the entry of Hogarth in India addresses the demand of the growing domestic market.

Commenting on the India launch, Barry Jones, Chairman, Hogarth Worldwide, said, “Hogarth has grown from 14 people to 3,000 in eight years through the introduction of new ways of working and technologies. We will be using proven disruptive methodologies and proprietary technology to bring more efficiencies to the Indian advertisement market. I am delighted that Hogarth now has such a powerful production capability in the market, able to help not only Indian companies access global markets but for our multinational clients to truly connect with Indian consumers. I very much looking forward to working with Gopikaa and her teamof already 80 in Delhi.”

Sharing the same sentiment, Gopikaa Davar, CEO, Hogarth India, added, “We are thrilled to be a part of the world’s largest marketing implementation agency, as their technology led integrated solutions address the needs of large scale advertisers in India across all advertising and communications channels.”

Delivering services across 120 markets, the agency currently operates out of 25 offices across continents. Headquartered in London, Hogarth was founded in 2008 in an attic room in London, growing from a 14 start-up team (then) to becoming a home for over 3,000 people across countries. The agency has its offices in New York, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Johannesburg, Mexico City and Jakarta, amongst others. 

Hogarth’s clientele includes Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Rolex, GSK, Vodafone and Coca-Cola.