Campaign India Agency Report Card 2011: O&M

Ownership: WPP

Key Personnel: Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, Ogilvy South Asia, SN Rane, co-executive chairman and COO, Ogilvy South Asia, Madhukar Sabnavis, country head, discovery and planning, regional director, thought leadership, Abhijit Avasthi and Rajiv Rao, national creative director(s)

Account won: MIRC Electronics, Siemens (Bosch), Vedanta, Fortis Hospitals

Account lost: Religare, DLF India Ltd, iGate and Mantri Developers

One word to describe Ogilvy India’s performance is ‘consistency’.  The agency has been known for its noticeable campaigns as well as award winning work, and Ogilvy has managed to do both this year as well.  Among key people joining the agency, Joono Simon was roped in from Leo Burnett, Colombo as ECD, Ogilvy Bangalore. This year, the agency added new accounts like MIRC Electronics, Siemens (Bosch), Vedanta, Fortis Hospitals, while lost a few accounts. While the Zoozoos for Vodafone were reinvented and presented in a new avatar that caught people’s fascination, the agency was also lauded for its work on Cadbury’s.  The agency continued its award-winning spree this year. Plus it snared 30 metals including one grand prix and five gold awards at Goafest, five metals at AME, three metals including one gold award at Cannes Lions and one gold at Spikes Asia. Also, the agency won the Most Effective Individual Agency office in APAC from Effie Worldwide and WARC and the ‘Yahoo! Big Idea Chair’ in 2011.
How Campaign India rates the agency: 9

How Ogilvy India rates itself: 9
It’s been another very good year for Ogilvy India. Our performance on both, the creativity and effectiveness front, has been very strong. What’s particularly encouraging is that our big effectiveness winners like Cadbury ‘Shubh Arambh’ and Vodafone ‘Blackberry Boys’ were big campaigns and were also felicitated at the creative awards establishing that the two are not at cross purposes. The continued success of the Zoozoos online and the scale of the Unilever ‘Khushiyon ki doli’ rural outreach program is a reflection of the agency’s strength in connecting with audiences at both ends of the pyramid. The work on ‘Fox Crime launch’ – an integrated TV and online campaign was path breaking. And the agency continued to invest in new initiatives like Data Analytics. The NSDC business win in Delhi provides an opportunity to make a difference to the national agenda of the country.
Talent retention has been better than last year; though the challenge remains in expanding the gene pool to boost the continuous growth of the agency.