The World: Growth prompts consolidation in India's media.

IPG has merged Universal McCann and Lodestar to take advantage of India's media landscape. Mark Tungate takes a look.

The Chinese, so the theory goes, will buy Western goods until they have cloned home-grown versions. Indian consumers, on the other hand, are more enthusiastic about Western brands.

On the media front, India's adspend is expected to rise 15.5 per cent this year to dollars 3.6 billion, according to Initiative's annual forecast, with massive growth for the internet at 35 per cent and even the press, which is expected to grow 14.2 per cent. The Indian government is also busy sorting out the country's messy, quasi-corrupt cable and satellite sector.

It is against this backdrop that Interpublic has merged two of its media agency brands in the country: Lodestar and Universal McCann. The newly formed Lodestar Universal immediately jumped to the number-two slot in media agency rankings, with billings estimated at 10 billion rupees (dollars 215 million), after Group M.

As well as large Indian clients such as the Tata Group (auto- motive, telecoms and IT), Amul (food), the Mahindra Group (trade and financial services) and Nerolac (paints), it will represent multinationals such as L'Oreal, Microsoft, Intel, MasterCard, Whirlpool and SC Johnson.

The outfit will be headed by Shashi Sinha, the founder of Lodestar. 'The Lodestar Universal branding makes sense because while Universal is the media engine of the IPG group, Lodestar is better-known in India,' he says.

Lodestar is a successful agency in India, with growth of between 40 and 45 per cent over the past two years, according to the India Economic Times. But Universal has struggled to make its presence felt in the market.