Essence today announced the opening of four new offices in Asia-Pacific, in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jakarta and Melbourne.
Following increased investment from GroupM after the merging of Maxus and MEC into Wavemaker, Essence has grown its APAC office count to 10, expanding its regional offering to new and existing clients.
Anand Chakravarthy, managing director of Essence India, will be in charge of the two new offices, alongside the existing Delhi outfit, which opened in 2016. The Melbourne office is the second in Australia after Sydney, which also launched in 2016. Jovy Gill, managing director of Essence Australia, will also oversee the new operation.
Essence Jakarta sees the agency break new ground and enter Indonesia, under the direction of Kunal Gaha, managing director of Essence Central Asia.
Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC, said APAC continues to be the agency’s fastest-growing region. “As our clients continue to scale their businesses across channels and continents, we need to do the same,” she added.
Mark Patterson, APAC CEO of GroupM, said Essence’s expansion is “great news” and that GroupM will continue to invest in the agency in the region.
Essence’s growth in APAC has been extremely rapid. In 2013, the agency had just four employees in its original Singapore office, and now boasts almost 300 across 10 regional offices.
