The Interpublic Group (IPG) has launched a new agency in India christened Pickle, which will function as a full service agency and will handle business that conflicts with IPG’s older agency Lowe India. IPG’s other agency in India SSC&B Lintas will be merged with the new outfit. Pickle will now service the former’s existing accounts, besides pitching for new business.
Pickle is being headed by Sumeet Chatterjee, (pictured, left) formerly with The Times Group, who has taken charge as president and Rahul Jauhari (pictured, right) who is head, creative for the new venture. Chatterjee has worked with Lowe previously for five years, prior to his stint at Times Group and O&M, while Jauhari comes in from Rediffusion DY&R. Recruitment is in full swing and as Chatterjee and Jauhari revealed to Campaign India, key appointments in Delhi and Bangalore had been finalized. Pickle’s Delhi office would be headed by Priya Balan, formerly with Lowe Bangkok, while Kaustav Chatterjee and Gurdish Kaur had come on board from JWT as group creative director (copy) and group creative director (art) respectively.
Bangalore would be headed by GS Sridhar who would be taking charge as branch head and would also lead its creative team. Pickle would report directly to Stephen Gatfield, executive vice president of strategy and network operations and chief executive officer, Lowe Worldwide.
Chatterjee says, “Clearly from a business viewpoint, we plan to operate as a low cost structure company. The only resources that we would be utilizing from Lowe would be backend support such as finances and HR to optimize costs.” He is clear that the Lowe association ends there.
Chatterjee and Jauhari emphasise that Pickle has been set up as an independent IPG agency and are eager to dispel the assumption that it be seen as a second agency to Lowe, set up merely to handle conflicting business. Point out the cynicism that would accompany such an explanation in an industry which has typically viewed newer second agencies as also-rans and Jauhari adds, "We operate on a low cost structure but the intention is to be a large agency and we will get to that. I don’t understand anything called a small agency. I understand an agency and how big the clients are and how big the work is.”
