Campaign India Agency Report Card 2010: Publicis Ambience

Type of agency Advertising

Company ownership Publicis Groupe

Key personnel Nakul Chopra, CEO, South Asia, Ashish Khazanchi, vice chairman and NCD, S. Subramanyeswar, national planning director 

Accounts won JK Helen Curtis- Park Avenue personal care and premium home freshners, Nerolac Corporate and Interior Paints, Reserve Bank of India awareness campaign,TBZ and V-Guard stabilizers 

Accounts lost VIP 

It wasn’t easy being Publicis Ambience in 2010. Not without a CEO and any considerable win to talk of, in a year which has seen a significant amount of competitive business being up for grabs. The beginning of the year saw the agency promoting its top brass Aniruddha Banerjee and Ashish Khazanchi to the role of chairman and vice chairman respectively. By the end of the year however, Banerjee had exited the agency, and Nakul Chopra had taken charge on behalf of the former. The agency’s performance at Goafest this year was good, it came third in the overall metal tally though you would be hard put to find examples of real work among the winning work. The agency won and lost the VIP business in the space of a few months. There was an opportunity to align the Renault-Nissan business in India but the account eventually went to Law & Kenneth. There was some reason to cheer. V-Guard, a project for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Helen Curtis, TBZ were some of the businesses that were hauled in. There is talk of Publicis Groupe streamlining its advertising agency business under the Publicis brand. While Capital and Publicis India have already merged to form a new entity Publicis Capital, it will be interesting to see how the agency regains lost steam in the next six to twelve months. 

How Campaign India rates the agency: 5

How Publicis Ambience rates itself: 8

2010 saw a major shift in the creation process, integrating the silos of creative, account management, planning, digital, experiential marketing and PR, so as to deliver holistic, media neutral Contagious ideas that change the conversation for brands. Huge investments have gone in to improving the delivery process and the value addition process – one of the rare agencies that focus on the development of processes to drive quality and satisfaction. A dream start to 2010, began with bagging the Park Avenue Personal Care business. Since then the year has been good financially with wins like Reserve Bank of India, TBZ etc being added to our roster. The one fact that stands out and more critically so, is the organic growth that we have achieved by gaining business from our existing clients. It just goes on to show the faith that our current clients have in us by entrusting us with more of their business. Like the business end, the creative end has been no different. Publicis Ambience continued to shine at the awards shows with impressive wins at Goafest (Publicis stood at no. 3 position at Goa Fest). It was one of the few Indian agencies that bagged a Gold metal at Cannes, made a mark at Spikes, Adfest etc. Publicis Ambience has successfully managed to change the conversation for brands through engaging and effective communication for them.