Campaign India Agency Report Card 2010: MPG

Type of agency:  Media
Company ownership:  Havas Group
Key personnel: Anita Nayyar, CEO, Mohit Joshi, ED, North; Manoj Malkani, VP, West; Mahima Bhanukumar, head, South; Arnab Mitra, regional director of south Asia, Media Contacts

Accounts won: Tulip Network, IMN News, Lindt Chocolates, Puig, M3M, Hyundai Motors, Dixcy Scott, Royal Hygiene, First India Corporation, INQ Mobile, BNP Paribas Bank, Puig, She Comfort  
Accounts lost: Voltas, Hindustan Pencils

MPG was in the news recently when the controversial Reckitt media AOR was up for a pitch. For this incumbent, it was hardly smooth sailing.That said, the agency is clearly looking towards beefing up its India operations. India seems to be on an increased priority list for MPG APAC CEO Vishnu Mohan, and the agency has been beefing up its digital team under Media Contacts. New business wins in mobile, real estate and banking like INQ Mobile, M3M India and BNP Paribas kept the engines going as did work for existing clients like Maxx Mobiles, Jockey, Hyundai Kia. 
R Venkatsubramanian was one of the key hires made this year in the role of senior director investments. Towards the end of the year, the agency announced a joint venture with Percept Media for media buying and that’s likely to have implications as far as efficiencies go. No significant win to brag of, this year. 
How Campaign India rates the agency: 6

How MPG rates itself: 7
We would give ourselves an overall score of 7 out of 10 as we have been an extremely consistent agency not only in gaining new business but also in retaining people. All people especially at the senior level have been supporting the agency with their services for over three years now. With focus on diversified divisions like Media Contacts (digital) and Havas Sports & entertainment we have continued to entice our clients with a 360 degree integrated solution. Our tools and processes have always surprised our clients and especially when we have showcased them for new business pitches. Our robust offering in the areas of strategic tools has resulted in new business wins where clients see a lot of merit in our offering. We start partnering clients from the very beginning and provide a lot of inputs at the marketing level itself then lending ourselves to media solutions. The only agency which has done a Brand Sustainability Study and thrown a lot of light on what Sustainable brands are all about and how brands across many countries are adapting sustainability in the endeavor to provide a better tomorrow. We are the only media agency which has a SEO, SEM special division called Escelis out of Hyderabad, which further strengthens our digital product. Our endeavor to consolidate the volumes led us to form a JV with Percept Media which makes us jump the ladder with 2000+cr of media billings and more than double individual billings. We strongly believe that apart from organic growth, acquisitions and tie-ups are a great way of providing exponential growth and have adapted the same route to fast pace our growth.