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| Sunday, 28 April 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Advantage poised to cover all aspects of brand communications by Elmo Leonard The advertising agency, Advantage Sri Lanka, will hitherto be known as Advantage-DY&R Brand Communications. This follows Advantage's merger last week with Rediffusion-Dentsu, Young and Rubicam (DY&R), one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. Dentsu of Japan, one of the largest agencies, and Young and Rubicam, along with Rediffusion-DY&R, India's fifth largest advertising agency, have acquired controlling stakes in Advantage Sri Lanka, a media conference was told. Chairman DY&R Arul Nanda said the foreigners would hold 50.1 per cent of shareholding equity. Nanda considered his company's decision to form a joint venture with Advantage and get a foothold here as "wise". "Advantage has a strong client base here, and an in-depth local knowledge," he said. Advantage commenced operations in Sri Lanka in 1994 and acquired Zenith Advertising in 1996. Nanda said that South Asians work side by side with professionals from UK and the United States in computer software and other areas of intellectual property. Now, they are also making inroads into the international advertising sphere, he said. The international principles would now add modern global communication techniques, which would give the agency a competitive edge in Sri Lanka, President RDY&R Ram Sehgal said. The Advantage endeavour is now well placed "to provide focused solutions which cover every aspect of brand communications," Sehgal said. These include foreign partner companies specialising in various sectors, such as Wimderman (customer relationship management); The Media Edge (total media communications); Burston-Marsteller (public affairs or public relations) and Landor (strategic branding consultants). A feature of the agency is Y&R's proprietary tool for building and managing brand equity - the Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), conducted with over 40,000 people across 27 countries. "BAV is the most extensive worldwide study of brands ever undertaken," Advantage CEO Pradipta Roy said. |
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