Campaign India Agency Report Card 2011: BBDO India

BBDO India had a good year in terms of metal gleam. The Women Against Lazy Stubble (WALS) campaign continued to earn recognition, starting with a Gold at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards in May, and then a Creative Effectiveness Lion in June. Other campaigns like ‘Shave Sutra’ also helped the agency pick up eight metals at Spikes Asia in September. As part of a global realignment, BBDO India became the Agency on Record for BlackBerry in India, and released a campaign in October. People-wise, it’s been a stable year, save for the departure of Naggesh Pannaswami to Curry-Nation. The jury felt that the agency has succeeded in making its brands a part of conversations, living up to their philosophy of creating acts, not ads. With Gillette, they invented some new creative stuff for everyone to see and their attempt is commendable. Now if we can see the same traction on 7UP, the Pepsi brand they have, it will be super. 
How Campaign India rates the agency: 8

How BBDO/Proximity India rates itself: 4
We believe we have improved over last year’s performance and give ourselves a 4.  Why 4?
Because we won four Lions at Cannes. Because four of our creative people were ranked in the Top Ten in Asia Pacific by Thecreativerankings.com.

Because we won 4 new iconic brands: Johnson’s Baby, Blackberry, Visa and Nissan.

Because 4+1 exciting senior talent - with diverse work and cultural background – joined the BBDO family: Varun Mehta, senior creative director (Special Projects),  Siddharth Bhattacharyya, associate vice president,  Shefali Kothari, associate vice president, Malini Chaudhury, creative director, Punit Singh, associate vice president – digital technology (for Proximity India).

And because we have 4 other highlights: Gold at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, highest points with maximum number of metals at Spikes Asia, P&G’s Brand Building Award for Gillette, and Proximity winning its first digital metal at the Asian Digital Marketing Awards within its first year of operations.

We believe that our mantra of ‘Create Acts,  Not Ads’  has not only allowed us to focus on creating great movement ideas for our biggest brands, it has also helped us attract new talent who want to be part of the third frontier that we operate in.
Now for mission 5 for next year!