Latest news with #PriyankaMehra
Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
WPP Media dominated India's $16-billion media agency market in 2024: COMvergence
Mumbai: WPP Media, formerly GroupM, has emerged as the top media agency group in India with $6.6 billion in billings in 2024, according to the latest Billings and Market Share report by COMvergence. The report, which tracks agency-level billings across both global and Indian markets, puts IPG Mediabrands and Publicis Media in second and third place with $2.0 billion and $1.7 billion in billings, respectively. The total market assessed by COMvergence in India stood at $16 billion, based on billings from 20 agency networks and two leading independents. The 2024 report also showed a significant uptick in digital media, with agencies clocking $6.8 billion in digital spends and digital comprising an average of 52% of total agency billings. That's up from just 42% in 2021, marking a sharp 10-point swing in three years. 'In the last three years from we have seen a shift in digital in India in the Billings from an average digital share of 42% in 2021 to an average digital share of 52% in 2024. There has been a marked increase in the digital spends in the FMCG, Auto category further boosted by Quick commerce spends on digital,' said Priyanka Mehra, regional director –south Asia & India at COMvergence. Within individual agencies, WPP entities took the top three spots. Mindshare led with $2.6 billion in billings, followed by Wavemaker at $1.8 billion, and EssenceMediacom at $1.7 billion. IPG's Lodestar UM came in fourth at $1 billion, while Madison Media—India's most prominent independent agency—rounded out the top five with $970 million in billings. The report reflects increasing consolidation among global holding companies in India's media planning and buying business, with WPP Media continuing to command significant market share despite recent organisational overhauls and the rebranding of GroupM under the WPP Media identity. Its India operations continue to house some of the country's biggest clients across FMCG, telecom, auto, and ecommerce. While IPG and Publicis have been growing steadily, particularly in digital and ecommerce-driven campaigns, the gap between the top group and the rest remains substantial. COMvergence's analysis is based on agency-reported data, public disclosures, proprietary modelling, and client-agency relationships. Globally, WPP Media retained its position as the largest media holding company with $64.6 billion in total billings. Publicis Media followed at $54.7 billion, and Omnicom Media Group came in third at $45.6 billion. Collectively, the top three represented 71% of total billings among the six largest holding companies. Among individual media agencies, Omnicom's OMD led globally with $26.3 billion in billings, followed by EssenceMediacom at $24.6 billion and Mindshare at $21.9 billion. India continues to be a strategic growth market for most global agency networks, given the scale of consumer marketing and the rise of digital-first sectors such as fintech, diect-to-consumer (D2C) brands, edtech and quick commerce. COMvergence's report, though focused on the larger networks, offers one of the few structured overviews of the media buying ecosystem in India, where granular market-level data remains scarce and often unaudited. The average digital share of 52% is also a sign of structural change, analysts said, indicating a move beyond traditional TV-led planning to omnichannel media strategies. Many agencies are also investing in full-funnel services that combine creative, content, media, and commerce, often led by tech-enabled offerings or proprietary tools. COMvergence, founded by Olivier Gauthier, is considered one of the most independent and credible global sources for agency billings and market share benchmarking. Its data is used widely by procurement teams, holding companies, consultants, and M&A analysts. For networked agencies, the rankings offer a clear picture of leadership, scale, and competitive movement. With marketers under pressure to drive growth, efficiency, and visibility in a fragmented media environment, the next phase of competition will likely be shaped by tech integration, measurement, and platform partnerships, areas where the largest groups have already made significant bets.
The National
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Ten cool art exhibitions to breeze through the UAE summer heat
The reputation of UAE summer as a time when life comes to a sweltering standstill, is a thing of the past – particularly on the arts scene. Galleries have begun embracing the season, with some new exhibitions rolling out and others being extended well into the hottest months. From photography as a medium of reckoning to an exhibition that brings streets into a gallery setting and another that champions farmers, there is a lot to see across the UAE. Here are 10 to get you started. No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation Curated by Priyanka Mehra, No Trespassing is Ishara Art Foundation 's first summer exhibition. The show brings street aesthetics into the gallery, with six artists engaging with urban materials as both subject and medium. Works by Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib and Sara Alahbabi turn building materials, pavements, signage and surfaces into acts of mark-making. Rather than define what the street is, the exhibition reflects how it's used, as a space that's chaotic, curated, lived-in and constantly rewritten. Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until August 30, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Cartographies, Revised at Manarat Al Saadiyat This exhibition is the culmination of a four-month residency at The Photography Studio at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Seven emerging artists from across the world take a cartographer's approach to image-making, using it to chart personal histories and narratives. Aman Ali's photographs, for instance, trace maternal love through worn hands. Reem Hamid projects shifting rhythms of stillness and movement via sand and performance. Fares Al Kaabi mourns demolished homes and a bygone time through windows and doorways. Monday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; until September 1; Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi Upside Down, by Morteza Khazaie at Leila Heller Gallery In Upside Down, Morteza Khazaie uses wood to make tall, curved forms inspired by trees bending to wind and storms. The sculptures show how trees endure without breaking by adapting to the elements. The works evoke a powerful metaphor for individual and societal change, transforming under pressure but nonetheless enduring. The use of wood in this context is also interesting. The material carries a sense of growth and history, while underscoring the resilience found in nature. It embodies the juxtaposition between pliability and strength. As curator Farshad Mahoutforoush said: 'Through these works, I wanted to explore how softness can be strength, and how being 'upside down' might simply mean seeing things differently.' Monday to Friday, 10am-7pm; Saturday, 11am- 7pm; until September 15, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Architectures of the In-Between at Aisha Alabbar Gallery The three artists featured in this exhibition all identify architecture as a bedrock to their practice. Yet, they have gone on to reinterpret the discipline in new and diverse ways. Atefeh Majidi Nezhad hangs lace like memory in her Zero-G series. Nevine Hamza gives form to nebulous metaphysical ideas through photography, digital art, collage and painting. Finally, Layla Juma renders social structures into minimalist geometries, revealing coded systems through drawing, installation and sculpture. Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; until August 23; Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai Between Sunrise and Sunset, by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim at Maraya Art Centre A seminal work by important Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Between Sunrise and Sunset was commissioned by the National Pavilion UAE and featured at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The work is now on display at Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah. The exhibition, which is in its final month, has been organised with the support of Lawrie Shabibi and the National Pavilion UAE. The exhibition features three paintings by Ibrahim, but the titular installation is the centrepiece, taking the entirety of the second-floor gallery space. The installation features 128 sculptural forms, each unique in shape, size and colour. The sculptures are arranged in a gradient, ranging from more vivid hues to the dulled and monochrome palettes that allude to nighttime. For Ibrahim, the work is meant to reflect the diversity of the UAE, both environmentally and culturally, while also evoking the metaphorical breadth of night and day. Saturday to Thursday, 10am-7pm; Friday, 4pm-7pm; until August 1; Al Qasba, Sharjah New acquisitions and a VR experience at Louvre Abu Dhabi While Louvre Abu Dhabi is not holding a special exhibition this summer, there are plenty of new attractions to make it a worthwhile visit – no matter how many times you've gone before. The museum has introduced a new rotation of loans and acquisitions across its permanent galleries. The additions range from Roman portraiture and South Asian courtly art to modernist works. Highlights include a finely carved Roman cameo thought to depict Agrippa Postumus, mounted in an 18th-century British setting; a luminous ivory-and-gold casket from 16th-century Sri Lanka; Juan Luna's enigmatic Una Bulaquena (1895), on loan from the National Museum of the Philippines; and Kandinsky 's White Oval (1921), which marks a moment of transition for the legendary artist. Louvre Abu Dhabi has also launched a virtual reality experience. The Quantum Dome Project is a VR installation that unfolds over 25 minutes. It immerses participants in digitally reconstructed environments from three disparate and historic corners of the globe: ancient Rome, medieval Baghdad and Mughal-era India. Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi Everyman's Mountain, by Omar Al Gurg at Lawrie Shabibi Emirati photographer and designer Omar Al Gurg is presenting his first solo show with Everyman's Mountain. The exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi features 24 archival prints from a six-day trek up Kilimanjaro in 2021. From misty forests and regenerating moorlands to the fragile icy summit, Al Gurg's work shows the mountain as a shifting ecosystem, shaped by nature and human activity. The exhibition is as much a personal odyssey as it is a broader environmental mediation, a tribute to nature's quiet transformations and our collective duty to preserve them. Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; until September 12; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai The Peasant, the Scholar and the Engineer, by Asuncion Molinos Gordo at Jameel Arts Centre Spanish artist-researcher Asuncion Molinos Gordo's first major retrospective in West Asia surveys 15 years of her work on rural knowledge, land use and food systems. Gordo's work draws on anthropology and cultural studies. It reframes farmers as not only food producers, but also intellectuals and engineers. Their vernacular practices, she points out, may hold keys to sustainability. Works that are being featured in the exhibition include her famous World Agriculture Museum, which was first staged in Cairo in 2010 and won the Sharjah Biennial Prize in 2015. Another highlight is Como Soliamos, a 2020 rammed-earth installation echoing Andalusian and falaj irrigation techniques. Saturday to Monday, Wednesday to Thursday, 10am-8pm; Friday; noon-8pm; until September 28; Jaddaf Waterfront, Dubai Unstable Grounds at 421 Arts Campus Unstable Grounds, the MFA graduate exhibition from NYU Abu Dhabi at 421, is a layered constellation of practices that reveal not just what is shown, but also what resists visibility. The exhibition features the works of eight artists, exploring themes of environment, displacement, memory and human connection, through installation, performance, video, sculpture and print. Highlights include Consequences of Circumstance by Hala El Abora, where images of birds, neither definitely dead nor alive, are carved on slabs of stone, disrupting the historical trope of the bird as a symbol of beauty and freedom. In The Sea is a Body which Moves, Adele Bea Cipste explores her evolving relationship to Abu Dhabi's shoreline across several works. In Gridlines, Jude Maharmeh presents hand-cut and incised clay-tiles that draw from the capital's urban aspect. Other installations question the limitations of materials, form and meaning. Danute Vaitekunaite, Mowen Li and Bao all examine their personal histories while experimenting with materials. Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; until September 7; Zayed Port, Abu Dhabi Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough… at Efie Gallery Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough… is a group exhibition curated by Ose Ekore. It features works by five contemporary artists: Samuel Fosso, Aida Muluneh, Kelani Abass, Abeer Sultan and Sumayah Fallatah. The artists come from different generations and use film and photography to reflect upon themes of growth and healing, while also showing how the mediums are barometers of change. Fallatah, for instance, reflects on experiences of the African diaspora in the Arab world by examining personal and family narratives. Sultan uses imagery of marine life to re-examine her family's migration from West Africa to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. Abass, inspired by his father's letterpress printing company, layers images, texts and found objects to explore the passage of time. Fosso's self-portraits challenge identity and representation by embodying stylised personas. These are inspired by African-American fashion and West African pop culture, and draw on the magazine images that were brought to the Central African Republic by Peace Corps volunteers. Finally, Muluneh's surreal photographs show face paint, masks and Ethiopian motifs to subvert stereotypical representations of African women.
The National
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Louvre Abu Dhabi's new loans and Mohammad Alfaraj's solo show
At Louvre Abu Dhabi, new loans and acquisitions have been woven into the museum's permanent galleries, adding fresh layers to its core universal narrative. At Ishara Art Foundation, a new exhibition brings a visual identity from the streets into a white cube space, while a show at Jameel Arts Centre delves into life in Saudi Arabia's oasis city Al Ahsa. Here are three exhibitions to explore this weekend. New loans and acquisitions at Louvre Abu Dhabi Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced a new rotation of loans and acquisitions across its permanent galleries. The additions range from Roman portraiture and South Asian courtly art to modernist works. Highlights include a finely carved Roman cameo thought to depict Agrippa Postumus, mounted in an 18th-century British setting; a luminous ivory-and-gold casket from 16th-century Sri Lanka; and Juan Luna's enigmatic Una Bulaquena (1895), on loan from the National Museum of the Philippines. Other artefacts build subtle conversations with existing displays: a limestone Head of an Ephebe from Cyprus joins other sculptures of the human face; a Gabonese reliquary figure enters a display of funerary objects; and Kandinsky 's White Oval (1921) marks a moment of artistic transition. Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation Curated by Priyanka Mehra, No Trespassing is Ishara Art Foundation's first summer exhibition. The show brings street aesthetics into the gallery, with six artists engaging with urban materials as both subject and medium. Works by Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib and Sara Alahbabi turn building materials, pavements, signage and surfaces into acts of mark-making. Rather than define what the street is, the exhibition reflects how it's used, as a space that's chaotic, curated, lived-in and constantly rewritten. Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until August 30, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Seas are sweet, fish tears are salty at Jameel Arts Centre Art Jameel presents the first institutional solo exhibition of Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj. Rooted in his hometown of Al Ahsa, the works draw from agricultural landscapes, oral traditions and the details of everyday life. The show spans photography, film, installation and poetry, unfolding across both the indoor galleries and garden spaces of Jameel Arts Centre. Hands, birds and palm trees recur throughout, forming a loose constellation of motifs. New commissions include a sound piece, a site-specific structure and a video work. The exhibition reflects Alfaraj's interest in storytelling, moving across human and non-human worlds.
