‘W+K’+A : Advertising merger set to happen

The six-month old mystery regarding Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) is unraveling bit by bit. For the last few months, the agency has been making attempts to set shop in India. Earlier, W+K announced entry in India armed with the global creative duties for the Nokia account. The last piece of news that seeped in disclosed that W+K's office will be in Delhi (Gurgaon), and that the company is scouting for people.

Sources now inform that there is a merger waiting to happen. According to sources close to the development, an announcement on the merger of W+K and Delhi based creative shop A Advertising can be expected soon.

Also, speculation is rife that V Sunil, the creative mind behind A Advertising, will get to play a major role in the new merger, and may even head the W+K outfit in India.

A Advertising in the past has been engaged in some creative work for Nokia. The agency has acted as a creative consultant for Nokia at times and rolled out campaigns for Nokia 1100, Nokia N-gage, CDMA range and the Nokia 2112.

Sunil, an ex-O&M, started his advertising career as an artist in a studio in Bangalore in the late 80s. Later he joined Contract Advertising in Bangalore followed by McCann Erickson as an art director. A couple of promotions later he went on to work with Contract Delhi, Lintas (only for six months) before he joined O&M Delhi.

A Advertising so far has worked on a couple of accounts such as Ministry of Tourism's Incredible India, Royal Enfield, Indigo and a few others.

W+K has been scouting for people in India. It is now left to be seen whether someone from A Advertising will hold the reins at W+K.