141 Sercon, Asia’s leading brand activation agency, today announced the appointment of Subhash Kamath as its Chairman, who is also the CEO & MD of Bates Asia in India and Ranjan Kapur as the Director, who is also the country manager for WPP in India. In addition, Jeffery Yu, Chairman of Bates Asia and Digby Richards, CEO for Bates Asia have been appointed as directors on the board. Vijay Singh, Managing Director & CEO and Rajesh Ghatge, Executive Director & COO would continue to manage the operations of the organisation and will report into the board of directors.

The reconstitution signifies the importance of rapidly growing marketing services industry across Asia with brands allocating larger percentages of their budgets towards the same. 141 Sercon is uniquely positioned to craft marketing experience across the physical and virtual touch points with equal ease. With this board reconstitution, 141Sercon is mandated with further expansion of its existing portfolio across Asian markets and it will be able to leverage heavily from the international presence and expertise of the group. The board will provide thought leadership to the organization which would present it a larger perspective with their years of experience in building world-class brands across the world.

Managing Director & CEO, Vijay Singh comments, “We are delighted to have Subhash, Ranjan, Jeffery and Digby on the 141Sercon board. These are strategic board appointments as their expertise and knowledge will greatly complement our existing high quality team, and we know we will be able to draw on their vast experience and impressive track record.”

Executive Director & COO Rajesh Ghatge says, “The participation of the senior leaders from the communication domain on the board adds value to the thought leadership of our agency in the marketing services space. Their involvement would facilitate integrating our (141Sercon’s) digital and below the line expertise withlarger brand ideas and amplifyingthem across non traditional communication mediums.

We also look forward to working with the board to attract and nurture some of the best talent in the marketing services space. Added to this as the lines between ATL and BTL continue to blur - we also forward working together with Bates to bring in innovation in the use of various mediums across touch points.”

Subhash Kamath, the chairman of 141Sercon says,” "The traditional advertising agency model has really changed. It is no longer relevant or sufficient to depend only on growth through mass media advertising. Clients are asking for business solutions, not just advertising campaigns, and we're restructuring ourselves to provide that.

Many agencies talk about this, even flash it in their credentials. But we've decided to walk the talk. 141 Sercon is 125 people strong, across 15 offices with specialized skillsets in CRM, Activation, lead generation etc.

That's a serious commitment, and we're very ambitious about looking at a 40+% growth every year for the next few years."

Jeffery Yu, Chairman of BatesAsia comments, “ Our vision is to be the undisputed expert in engaging consumers in and across “The Asias”. With our business and skill sets moving in the direction of becoming an interaction agency, 141 Sercon is a very strategic component to our offering.

India is also a key market for us and success in India is crucial in strengthening our offering as an Asia specialist. With 141 Sercon's expertise and solid track record in specialist areas such as B2B demand generation, analytics, digital out reach and brand related community development, - we are also exporting their best practice to other 141 offices around the region.”

Digby Richards, CEO of BatesAsia says, “At Bates 141, we change mindsets and behavior. One without the other is incomplete and short lived. 141 Sercon closes the loop on our offer in India, and is crucial to our success in Asia as a whole. We are embracing new ‘interaction’ model, where we’re not only playing at the top end of the ‘funnel’ where an idea might last a day, but extending our role in lead generation through to the shopper experience, where ideas pull people over the preference line. “

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About 141Sercon:

141Sercon is one of the largest specialized “below-the-line” marketing services agencies which cater to the emerging markets in Asia. 141Sercon is part of the WPP – World leaders in marketing communications.

141Sercon conceptualizes and executes effective business events and below the line marketing initiatives to help clients access markets and engages their channel and customers. 141Sercon currently provides this value offering to more than 70 leading brands and organization, across FMCG, Consumer Durable, Services and Information Technology verticals across the geographies of Asia. The team at 141Sercon endeavors to understand the brand’s marketing challenges, it’s environs, it’s customer behavior and channel response, and addresses them by using Below The Line Marketing techniques, in both the offline and online formats. The absolute focus on core competencies and deliverables for the clients has helped 141Sercon become one of the largest experiential marketing solutions providers across Asia.

For further information please contact :
Good Relations India Pvt. Ltd.
Sujata/ Natasha
011-4164-5491
sujata@gri.co.in/ natasha@gri.co.in