Vikas Mehta

A quick chat with the founding CEO of the MullenLoweLintas group’s all-new agency. Mehta has been Group CMO and President, Marketing Services for the MullenLoweLintas Group,

All of the constituents set to become part of PointNine have existed for some years now. Why the desire to now merge them under one head?

We are not disrupting the existing divisions. There is a market for special skillsets, and that will continue to be. While we will now have a unified team, we are not disbanding the existing teams. We are dropping the silos so they can work in a cross-functional way.

So how will the existing teams work.. where does it leave individual team leaders like Ameer Ismail who was just recently elevated?

The operating models of existing teams will continue. There will be an additional layer of a PointNineLintas team which will work in a horizontal way, so that it can leverage individual talent.

Will full-service include media?

The roadmap is to offer the entire spectrum of services and to expand. In media, we already have digital media buying and planning. And, as I said, the rest of the roadmap is to expand.

There’s a mention made that PointNine will also look at creative work – online and offline. Is this meant only to handle competitive brands in the group, or do we see PointNine also growing to be a worthy competitor to the ‘mother’ agency?

So in the unified team under PointNine, we already have 35-40 creatives. Yes, the three agency brands will be independent and going forward could compete.

So a creative head – CCO or NCD?

Yes, on Day 0 we already have people in creative. And we will have a creative head soon.

Why the name PointNine? Does the name PointNineLintas point to the agency being very close to the real thing and not exactly that? Or is it nine functions coming together.

No, no. It is to signify the beta version and is more of a reflection of the founding principles of the agency. It’s beta by choice and is a reflection of the prevailing marketing principles.

But the beta life also means that not everything is 100 per cent perfect?

Yeah, and that’s the world we live in.The best practives are evolving much faster than companies can. Our offerings, our engagement practices will allow us to evolve ahead of the market

All of this sounds good, but it will require teams to unlearn they worked and learn all-new capabilities?

Absolutely. And this is what we’ve been working over the last few months…. Arming our people with cross-functional expertise so that they can tap the best of talent across

The MullenLowe group is going through the process hyperbundlingelsewhere? IsPointNinepart of a larger global plan or will exist only in India for now?

This is a model developing and landing in India. It has been endorsed by the network and global bosses. As it is today, it’s for India. But it could well elsewhere.

You’ve have been part of MullenLoweLintas group’s rise over the years as well as various wins in effectiveness and strategy awards. Will that continue, now that you have an independent P&L responsibility?

At this point, my group role continues. We are in discussions on the future of it.

Any targets for the agency that you can share?

Given that we are some 20 days from launch, let me tell you what according to us will be the definition of our success. We wish put our work out of there which gives the value of seamlessness and its impact on business to clients. I am quite hopeful that’s how integration can be done going forward as against the 360-degree wagon wheel that currently exists.