JWT, the global marketing communications brand and India’s leading integrated communications company, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in India’s leading digital services agency, Hungama Digital Services, the highly awarded digital and promotions marketing division of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
The new entity which will be called Hungama Digital Services Pvt. Ltd. will be a full service digital agency specializing in digital marketing and social media solutions. As part of the acquisition, Hungama’ s activations arm, Hungama Promo Marketing will become a part of Hungama Digital Services Pvt. Ltd. and provide an engagement platform linked to online and offline deliveries.
Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. said, “With JWT, we are now part of the largest advertising network in the world. Hungama Digital Services is the coming together of two exceptional teams in a globally relevant market.” He added, “India is at the cusp of a digital revolution with the advent of 500+ million consumers getting online in the next 3-4 years. From augmented reality to developing applications for connected devices, Hungama Digital Services has been at the forefront of digital technology. With this partnership with JWT we hope to offer integrated digital and experiential services to our clients and prepare brands to connect, interact and now transact with their customers.”
Hungama Digital Services has been leading the digital space for 13 years and is spread across 6 cities in India. The existing team of 120 people, who will join Hungama Digital Services, will continue to drive the agency, including servicing old and new clients and offer creative and promo marketing services, viral marketing campaigns, social media marketing and mobile marketing, applications, managing websites and video services.
“Digital is our next new frontier. The idea of the partnership is to build a digital offering for our clients so we can live up to being a ‘single source’ partner across all their ‘marketing solutions’ needs. What will be most effective in the future is a new set of talented, digital high end specialists who will add new skills and capabilities to what JWT already offers to its clients. We want all our clients to be leaders in their respective categories.” said Colvyn Harris, CEO of JWT India.
With this acquisition, Hungama Digital Services along with JWT Digital capabilities will be a digital thought-leader with delivery capability in digital ideation, production, and social media.
By their association with many of India’s largest clients, Hungama Digital Services will be able to create the right traction and critical mass within the digital and business community in India.
“We have greatly expanded our digital capability across the region, and we are not standing still. JWT will continue to hire new digital experts and explore possible acquisitions across the region this year,” said Michael Maedel, President, JWT Asia Pacific.
JWT Asia Pacific has moved aggressively into the digital space over the last year, expanding both organically and through acquisitions. Most recently XM Asia, a JWT company, agreed to acquire Magnivate, Indonesia’s leading digital agency.
