Dentsu India to build FMCG credentials through 'Mama Lab'

Dentsu India, the Indian unit of the Japanese advertising agency, is on the move. After bringing back old clients such as Canon and Toshiba on board and focusing on its digital arm, the agency now plans to bolster its FMCG credentials next.

'Mama Lab', Dentsu India's latest project will track the new-age mother as a consumer.

This will help it acquire more FMCG clients, hopes the agency.

Rohit Ohri, Executive Chairman, Dentsu India and CEO, Dentsu Asia Pacific (South), says, "We have a few FMCG clients like Unicharm, ITC, DS Foods, NourishCo, to name a few. We have broadly an automotive client base. We would further diversify into FMCG now".

Ohri explains that there was a need to break the stereotype of mother in advertising. Ohri's team takes into account that women are becoming a larger part of the workforce.

"Nobody is focusing on women as a group. Today, it's more about a co-owned, co-shared partnership between a husband and a wife. The Mama Lab will break the stereotypical mother," says Ohri, adding that today's mother is aspirational and has many dimensions to her that need to be brought out.

Dentsu India has some success stories to report with clients in India recently. The growth of Unicharm in India is in itself a case study, according to Ohri. "Mamy Poko Pants [a diaper brand] is an integrated client for us. In the last two to three years, it has achieved a leadership position in the market," says Ohri.

Swati Bhattacharya, one of the National Creative Directors of Dentsu India, heads the Dentsu Mama Lab project. "The project will take off next month," she says .

In Japan, Dentsu works with Facebook, Google and other large global corporations, developing new interfaces for brands. "A conversation is on with social networking site Facebook at a regional level in Asia-Pacific on how the Dentsu Aegis Network can work with it, as a group, optimising its relationship," says Ohri. Clearly, Dentsu is in an expansion mode in India and beyond.