Iyer grew the Delhi operation by 83 per cent last year, making it the number one agency in the market, and was responsible for the southern region through last quarter.
Said Lynn de Souza, Lintas group director of media services and healthcare: "Iyer has led his team well, managed his clients exceptionally, and is a mature, farsighted manager."
Meanwhile, Insight claims a very different agenda from that of most media agencies.
S. Yesudas, who moved from Initiative Media to head the new agency, promises: "Insight is obviously a media specialist, but we would like to drive the communication process and come in at the start rather than at the end of it.
"We have taken specialisation to a different plane of efficiency."
Instead of planners and buyers, Insight will be staffed by brand managers, who will even brief the creative teams and take a call on the ideal creative solution.
As Yesudas explained, "We know the consumer and market better than anyone else, so why not drive the whole process?"
A number of accounts are likely to move from Initiative Media to give the fledgling agency critical mass, but Yesudas says it has already won an account for a financial company in a multi-agency pitch featuring several heavyweights such as MindShare and Madison.
Added de Souza: "This agency will not be required to work for the full service accounts in the three group agencies, but has already picked up large businesses which it will service end-to-end. The west is a large market where we need to improve."
The three agencies in the network, Initiative Media, Interactions and Insight, will not pitch against each other.
Insight intends focusing on 15 large accounts, compared with Initiative Media's 116 businesses of various sizes.