Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) has announced the launch of its specialist content agency The Story Lab (TSL) in India, with former Reliance Broadcast Network CSO Sunil Kumaran as country head.
Kumaran will be based in Mumbai and guided by Kartik Iyer of Carat, informed a DAN statement. Iyer is designated ‘executive sponsor’ for TSL.
In a career spanning over two decades, Kumaran has also worked with JWT, Lowe Lintas and Rediffusion.
Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO for South Asia, DAN, said, “Content is an exciting space for us to be in. Clients are increasingly looking at how they can ‘influence’ the consumers more effectively than just increasing their ‘reach’ through traditional forms of advertising. We have been building various expertise centres within Denstu Aegis Network and TSL is a significant step towards consolidating our position as a network, which delivers superior value to clients and partners. Also, this is a big step forward in helping us achieve our mission of being the second largest agency group by end 2017 in India, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in India.”
Kartik Iyer, MD, Carat India, added, “An entity like TSL is the need of the hour as brands look to accelerate the effectiveness of their ecosystems through innovative content solutions that can deliver scale, engagement and advocacy. We are very happy to have Sunil Kumaran on board who brings with him years of strategic media planning experience and deep understanding of this space.”
Kumaran said, “I’m very excited about this new initiative which is based on the philosophy of providing a superior value proposition to clients. Media convergence has disrupted the traditional advertising-led marketing communications model and ‘Content’ is one of the most valuable assets within media companies’ and brands’ ecosystems. I am looking forward to doing some exciting work across brands within the Dentsu Aegis Network group.”
The DAN content agency will have a play in the space of content partnerships, curation, original content and content investment. TSL operates in 16 countries including India.
