How Arun Nanda Plans To Reinvent Rediffusion

Post buying back Y&R & Dentsu’s 40% share in Rediffusion, the veteran adman says he will expand digital prowess, focus on business growth and take the Group ‘fearlessly’ forward.

- Srabana Lahiri

On the morning of August 3, 2018, the industry woke up to news of the founders of the advertising agency Rediffusion - Diwan Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan – buying back the 40% shares held in their company by WPP-owned Y&R and Dentsu. Their bold statement as they reclaimed full control of the agency they had set up 45 years ago announced that they had embarked on it to “take ownership of clients and their work” and in today’s scenario, they would be able to do it better if Rediffusion was on its own.

For years, they had staved off bids by the erstwhile CEO of WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, to increase his stake in Rediffusion from the 26.7% he already held through Y&R. “Not now, not ever,” Nanda is believed to have told Sir Martin in 2007. More than a decade later incidentally with Sir Martin out of the scenario - Nanda’s move to regain control of the agency is being seen as a serious re-entry and repositioning of Rediffusion in the business, having warmed up in the last couple of years by infusing new talent, winning new accounts and priming it to face the tech-first world leveraging the strength of the home-grown digital platform, rediff.com.