Campaign India Agency Report Card: Umbrella

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: Independent
Key personnel: Bhupal Ramnathkar, founder and MD; Deven Sansare,executive ereative director; Farhad F. Elavia, chief operating officer
Accounts won: Volvo-Eicher Commercial Vehicles; Saraswat Bank; Marico – Therapie; Marico – Aftershower; Chemistry- Esjay International Pvt. Ltd; The Parekh Group-Mine Diamonds; TOI – Added more business; Essar Steel
Accounts lost: None

For a boutique creative shop, Umbrella continues to do well, both in terms of business and in terms of recognition. Their successes with Marico brands is a healthy pointer to the direction in which the agency is headed. Of late, the campaign for the Shiv Sena during the assembly elections was refreshing for the clean lines - unusual for the category. Overall, a good year  — but still lacking the big spending client.

Campaign Score: 8
 
How Umbrella rated itself: 9

Key people joining (10pts): We have three key people: Ramnathkar, founder & MD; Deven Sansare, executive creative director  and Farhad F. Elavia, chief operating officer.
Key people leaving (10 pts): None of the key people left.
New accounts won (7 pts): Volvo-Eicher Commercial Vehicles;Saraswat Bank; Marico – Therapie; Marico – Aftershower; Chemistry; Esjay International Pvt. Ltd; The Parekh Group; Mine Diamonds; TOI – Added more business; Essar Steel. We would have loved to have more.
New accounts lost (10pts): We didn’t lose any account, old or new, in 2009.
Growth (number of offices, number of people) (9pts): We’ve never really looked at having our offices dotting the nation or the globe. So we don’t count growth in those terms. People, yes. Would love to be able to hire more and more talented people and have the money to hire them.
Creative recognition (7pts): Two Gold Design Abbies in a year when Goafest introduced Design Awards, we think, is good. Not getting any metal internationally was a drag. Changes in ownership status and the impact of the same (10pts):  Ownership hasn’t changed hands. ‘General’ health of the agency (8pts): General health is a function of the seven points that came before this one. That’s how we give ourselves an eight here. Now, if we add those scores it comes up to be 71/80. Guess that adds up to us awarding ourselves an 8.88 out of 10, rounding it off to 9.