Vikas Mehta to head new full-service MullenLowe agency in India

MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced that it is amalgamating several of its exisiting services in India into one new full-service agency titled PointNine Lintas, which will be headed by current group CMO and president of marketing services Vikas Mehta. 

The services making up the new group include PR firm GolinOpinion; digital marketing and tranformation agency LinTeractive; and the activation and experiential agency LinEngage. Overall, PointNine Lintas hopes to be able to offer clients a multi-layer marketing solutions package covering creative (on and offline), PR, activation, experiential, social, media and digital transformation all at once. 

Despite this breadth, PointNine Lintas Group will remain distinct from the company's two other independent agencies in India; the advertising division Lowe Lintas and the creative agency Mullen Lintas. PointNine will be open for business from 1 August 2017 and further capabilities are expected to be added to its roster at a later date. 

The move is the latest in a series of 'hyper-bundling' initiatives carried out by MullenLowe over the last 12 months. Just this week, former DDB China Group CEO Richard Tan was appointed to head up a newly unified business in China, with MullenLowe's creative communications arm joining MullenLowe Profero's digital function under one "experience-led business transformation company," in the words of Vincent Digonnet, CEO of MullenLowe Group North Asia. 

“The experience economy has spoilt us with seamless product experiences," said Mehta, who has worked for the MullenLowe Group for over a decade in Vietnam and Singapore as well as India. "Products and screens around us are offering a seamless experience across touchpoints and devices. People expect the same of marketers and their brands. A hyper-bundled approach is the most certain way of creating these brand experiences seamlessly."

The constituent divisions of PointNine Lintas will work under a unified agency leadership team, Mehta told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "Think of the divisions as musicians and the agency leadership team as symphony conductors." 

"As a PointNine client, you won’t be working with a separate PR team, a digital team or a media team; you’d be working with ONE cross-functional team of PointNine Lintas." Vertical offerings will remain avaiable through all divisions, however, he said. 

The biggest challenge (and opportunity) for the new umbrella service will be in market-readiness, continued Mehta. "The majority of the clients are used to a roster of 7-8 agency partners who are all specialists, making clients the owners of integration. We are confident that there are enough clients who feel the pains of managing so many agency partners, who compete outside of the client meeting rooms. Our key to success will be collaboration - how well do we get our teams with diverse skill-sets to collaborate around a brand opportunity."