Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital is setting up in India with the help of Poran Malani, who’s been appointed director of its Indian operations.
Malani will apparently lead the content side of the business in the fast-growing market. He has worked as a marketing and advertising consultant for the last couple of years, and before that he was one of Sorrell’s WPP India chiefs for nine and a half years, in his role as president of Ogilvy India. Malani has also worked at Vodafone in London, McCann in New York, and at Coca-Cola.
While in India this week, Sorrell told the Times of India: “WPP has relationships with virtually every company (in India), so it would be difficult to avoid them. The whole canvas is available to us. We are not restricted in any way here.”
India is a big growth market and the media scene there is in need of better transparency, according to Sorrell, which S4 appears to be offering.
In a press statement, Sorrell, is executive chairman of S4 Capital, said: “As you can imagine, we are delighted to announce our entry into the vibrant Indian market. India is a country that we admire and respect. We expect great things from Poran in a short amount of time. No pressure. We believe that the shift to digital presents both MediaMonks and MightyHive with significant opportunities in a market that will become even more important as India becomes the most populous country on earth.”
Malani said: “The opportunity for the S4Capital model in India is huge. India is globally recognized for its creativity and its leading-edge technology, making it the perfect place for integrating the two into a new service model. We expect India to become a very important part of our global offering and we know that our proposition is incredibly relevant to Indian clients.”
S4 Capital obviously wants to come over as a democratic set up, because the press release also quotes the CEOs of MediaMonks and MightyHive, both of whom are also executive directors of S4 Capital.
