MUMBAI Havas Sports, the sports marketing arm of Havas Group, and Showdiff Worldwide, the events, sports and celebrity management joint venture between Rediffusion DY&R and former cricketer Ravi Shastri, have announced a strategic partnership in the field of sports marketing for the Indian sub-continent.
"The objective of this strategic alliance is to capitalise on the rapidly growing sports marketing domain in the Indian sub-continent," said Mahesh Chauhan, managing director of Rediffusion DY&R.
"India has seriously lacked a world-class professional sports marketing firm and this tie-up will help us fill that lacuna," he added. "It also gives India the added benefit of using Havas?worldwide representation and expertise to help Indian brands reach out through sports to other parts of the world."
The Havas Sports-Showdiff Worldwide collaboration will have representation spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. "We are currently working on a project to promote tourism through a sports marketing initiative," added Chauhan. "This should hopefully be on ground in 2007."
"Showdiff Worldwide has a pedigree of world class entertainment and corporate events, and this, combined with our sports marketing expertise, will create a combination that will be a force to reckon with in India," said Lucien Boyer, CEO of Havas Sports International.
Showdiff counts Singapore Airlines, Colgate and British Council among its clients.
