Campaign India Agency Report Card: McCann Erickson

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: IPG
Key personnel: Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Worldgroup, Sanjay Nayak, president, McCann Worldgroup
Accounts won: Jet Airways, Sun Direct, ING Group among others
Accounts lost: Monte Carlo

McCann Erickson is surely closing the year on a happy note as the agency bagged the Best Agency Office award at the recently concluded Media Agency of the Year award.
The agency won quite a few creative accounts this year including Jet Airways, Sun Direct (Sun TV’s DTH venture) and ING group of companies.  It also won the Monte Carlo account for a brief period of two months after which the account went back to its incumbent agency JWT.
This year, McCann Worldgroup also announced its plans bring its new age communication company T.A.G. to India.
However, everything with the agency was not hunky dory as it landed into a major global controversy with Hanes because of a scam campaign that was released in an Indian newspaper.  The campaign, which evidently was released by an enthusiastic creative without official sanction, resulted in Hanes sacking McCann on the account. McCann was handling the account since 2004 when the brand was first launched in India.
Overall, the year also saw  the agency underperforming at Award shows (by its own high standards). Ananda Milk won at Cannes and Saffola at the Effies. McCann stayed away from the Abby’s.
The year has been steady and unspectacular, and McCann watchers would have expected a lot more, especially on brands such as  Coke, Happydent, Alpenliebe and Chlormint.
Campaign Score: 7

How MCCANN ERICKSON rates itself: 9
In barely more than just 10 years of its presence in India the agency is considered among the  top 3 most admired agencies in India. This meteoric rise has come from its consistently great work on a spectrum of clients and by giving voice to a range of brands.
This year has been a historical year for McCann on many aspects.
On New business McCann had impressive 34 wins. 
In terms of people some key recruitments have happened last year . Ryan Menezes, first Cannes gold winner of India and ex- NCD of Mudra, Amit Kumar a very senior and respected  Planner , Anil Thomas CD of Bangalore, Juhi Chaturvedi and Tejol Kolwalkar aand Niranjan Kaushik – all Creative Directors. Last year also has been a year of absolute growth for the agency – all its divisions, healthcare (awarded specialist agency of the region by Media magazine), MRM (Direct, CRM and Digital)  and Momentum ( events, promotion and activation) have performed exceptionally well in the year.