Campaign India Agency Report Card: Bates 141

Type of agency:  Advertising
Company ownership: WPP
Key personnel: Sonal Dabral, chairman, Sandeep Pathak, CEO, Manosh Mukherjee, COO, Dheeraj Sinha,CSO, Jayanto Banerjee, EVP, Vijay Singh, MD, 141 Sercon
Accounts won: Fiat; Dell (global alignment); ABP Group; Cavin Care; Birla Sunlife; Axiom Estates; Khadim Group; Chennai Live (FM Venture of Muthoot Group); Radio City and Nirulas.
Accounts lost: Kewal Kiran Clothing, Xylys (Titan), HPCL, IDBI

A year that started ominously for Bates India ended well, with the agency moving into 2009 with a well balanced portfolio of clients. The agency entered 2008 with the loss of Nokia weighing heavily on its shoulders. However, despite the knock-out, Bates India held steady. Some significant wins for this Asia-focussed WPP subsidiary in 2008 included:  Fiat; Dell (global alignment); ABP Group; Cavin Care; Birla Sunlife; Axiom Estates; Khadim Group; Chennai Live (FM Venture of Muthoot Group) and Nirulas.
Bates’ work on Virgin Mobile was ‘Hatke’ and saw ‘tongue-in-cheek’, at times risquй, advertising coming out of Bates that made people sit up and notice. The agency saw its management structure being re-structured after the exit of its CEO, Subhash Kamath who joined BBH as one of the founding partners. Alok Aggarwal, the Delhi branch head moved to Cheil while Anand Narasimhan, VP strategy and business also quit. Rajeev Raja, ECD, Bates 141 also moved to DDB Mudra. They tapped the resources internally and promoted Sandeep Pathak as CEO while bringing in Jayanto Banerjee as EVP.  141 Sercon is making its presence felt with its below-the-line solutions.
One area where Bates must be disappointed is its performance in major creative awards, but the future looks reasonably good for the agency especially if silver at the Effies for its ‘Think Hatke’ campaign is anything to go by.
Campaign India Score: 7
 

How BATES 141 rates itself: 7
Bates141 is the change agency. In 2008 we partnered our clients to create visible changes in the marketplace. In business terms, we added key clients like Virgin Mobile, Fiat, AIG, Cavin Kare, Radio City , etc. We have had a good beginning at the medals front this year especially on effectiveness, our Gold Effie case on Marico Corporate was a finalist at the World Effie Festival in Singapore. a finalist at Cannes & New York festival, silver at Abbys, a silver Effie for Virgin Mobile and WPP Atticus Award for original thinking.  Under the leadership of a new execo chaired by Sonal, the agency is beaming with optimism and belief that we will create bigger and more meaningful change for our clients and their brands in the coming year.