Aug 27, 2008

Mktg - RK Swamy's division in online creative foray

Freelancers may rock in their boots. Internal communication collaterals, traditionally outsourced by companies to advertising agencies, can now be sourced online in a new initiative from HR Directions, the HR communication division of advertising agency R K Swamy BBDO.

The Chennai-based company’s foray into the online creative communication market was marked by the launch of a HR services portal HRdirectiononline.com on Monday.

Srinivasan K Swamy, chairman and managing director, R K Swamy BBDO, said Rs 3 crore would be invested in the venture in its first phase, and after a year of its launch, the portal would generate revenues of Rs 10 crore.

The portal will offer creative posters and e-mailers for internal communications through readymade creatives which can be customised by HR managers in any language font on their computers via an online editing interface.

“We will offer ready-to-use internal communication designs by providing high quality creatives and other collateral,” Arun Kumar, senior partner, HR Direction, said. The portal is also expected to prepare HR advertisements and release them for the client companies.

Over 1,000 readymade posters, e-mailers and other creatives are available on the portal, said Swamy, adding that HR Direction proposes to add 200 new creatives every month. The portal is working on building up a licensed database of over 18,000 images through an agreement with Getty Images, he said.

R K Swamy claimed that subscription amounts for the service have been kept low to encourage trial and extensive use. On the portal, download of a single creative unit will be charged at Rs 10,000, four creatives at Rs 25,000, 15 at Rs 75,000, 5,000 units at Rs 1.5 lakh and 8,000 units at Rs 3 lakh.

The company estimates that companies with an employee strength in the 3,000-4,000 range to be presently spending Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore annually on their employee communication needs. GE, Texas Instruments, Motorola India and BPO company Scope International are presently among those availing of the portal’s services.

Addressable verticals for the service include IT/ITeS companies, PSUs, pharmaceuticals, retail and BFSI companies, Swamy said.

HR Direction has enlisted the services of group marketing company Hansa Marketing Services to market the new online service in the US market. The portal is expected to log about two-thirds of its revenues from the overseas markets.

R K Swamy BBDO is the flagship company of the Rs 650-crore R K Swamy/Hansa Group, and an agency brand of the BBDO Worldwide network for over two decades. BBDO India is BBDO Worldwide’s other agency brand in India.

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