Medulla Communications partners with The BlocPartners

Medulla Communications has entered into a partnership with The BlocPartners. The alliance of agencies, formerly known as Indigenus, is a global network of leading independent health creative agencies.

Started 14 years ago with just seven partner agencies, today the network has 19 agencies (Medulla being the 19th agency to partner with them) and 500+ staff members.

Praful Akali

Speaking about the partnership and what it entails, Praful Akali, Managing Director, Medulla Communications, said, “A lot of the pitches in the US are for the global business v/s US market business and this is especially true for pharma companies because most of the pharma advertising across the world happens to be out of the US. So, what The BlocPartners does is they partner with independent healthcare advertising agencies across the world and the idea is for all of us to come together and pitch for business that otherwise wouldn’t have come to us at all. By joining The BlocPartners we become the agency out of India for any business that the global clients have in India.”

This partnership also means that each partner agency brings more clients into the network thus letting other agencies with the network pitch of local businesses for the same client.

Taking us through the genesis of The BlocPartners, Rico Viray, Founding Partner, The Bloc, said, “What we wanted to do was identify other agencies like us who were independent and knew the local market and the laws and regulations. So, 14 years ago, I basically went on a road trip to identify such agencies. The proposal was, instead of a network owing the agencies, the agencies would own the network. Therefore, when we develop work for global brands it is not the network telling the local agency what to do. We work with our local agency partners and then develop a plan.”

Before their association with Medulla, The BlocParnters had a partnership with Sorento, an Indian health and wellness communications agency. That partnership ended when Havas Group acquired Sorento in 2017.

Speaking about their reason to zero in on Medulla, Viray said, “For a about a year and a half we have been looking for a suitable partner in India. All our member agencies are leaders in their markets and Medulla has obviously established its reputation with its creativity.”

Elaborating on the revenue model Viray said, “This network was started by agencies themselves so there is no P&L. There is no holding company to whom a percentage of the profit goes to. There is a certain percentage that everybody gives to support the network but The BlocPartners doesn’t take a cut from profits.”

Medualla has already pitched for and won two businesses after entering the partnership with The BlocPartners.

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