his agency won't laze around like the lion it is represented by. Two months after The Brand Reporter wrote about the aggression being displayed by the Publicis Groupe in India, one of its agencies, Publicis Ambience, present only in Mumbai so far, is innaugurating its South India operations in Chennai and Bangalore.

Kaushik Tiwari, who had been heading the South operations of Rediffusion, has been roped in as the executive vice president of the southern operations. The Chennai branch will come up first; the Bangalore operations are expected to be up and running by September. While most agencies start in Bangalore, Publicis' move to Chennai came about with the acquisition of the Citibank business, which has a division in Chennai. The agency required a Chennai branch to service the account; it will pitch for new business soon. ... more