Publicis Media, part of French advertising and communications giant Publicis Groupe, has acquired Mumbai-based digital out-of-home agency Ecosys OOH Advertising Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
Publicis Media India CEO Anupriya Acharya said in a press release the company has grown significantly in the out-of-home advertising category over the past few years and that the “differentiated expertise†of Ecosys will benefit its clients and fuel growth.
Ecosys CEO Sujit Banerjee said the acquisition will open up new growth opportunities.
Ecosys OOH Advertising was incorporated in 2017, though the business was started two years before. The company is owned by six partners—Sujit Banerjee, Mangesh Shinde, Hardik Kapdi, Manish Chandy, Nipun Arora and Ruben Srivastava—who hold different positions in the firm.
This is the first acquisition in India by Publicis Groupe after a gap of four years, according to VCCEdge, the data research arm of VCCircle. VCCEdge data also show that, in the two years through January 2014, it had acquired as many as eight companies. These included Delhi-based advertising and digital agency Law & Kenneth, Mumbai-based Beehive Communications, digital media agency iStrat and brand strategy consulting firm MarketGate.
These eight included two digital marketing agencies that Publicis Media bought: Convonix Systems in 2013 and Resultrix Media the year before.
Paris-listed Publicis operates through four verticals – Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Health. The group has presence across 100-plus countries and employs nearly 80,000 professionals. The ad agencies under the Publicis Media umbrella include Starcom, Zenith, Digitas, Spark Foundry, Blue 449 and Performics.
