AGENCY RECKONERAPRIL 27- MAY 3, 2016

Presenting Brand Equity Agency Reckoner 2015-16; the ultimate guide to the country’s most powerful creative, media and specialist agencies, as well as its leaders with the maximum clout

Guess who's No:1?

"The fault lies in defin-ing what Adver-tising is."

The MostInfluential

ILLUSTRATION: ANIRBAN BORA

My Agency Strongest!

SPECIAL ISSUE

BE EDITORIAL: Ravi Balakrishnan, Amit Bapna, Delshad Irani, Shephali Bhatt, Mukta Lad and Priyanka Nair

DESIGN: Shubhra Dey, Subhash Kundaria and Vilas Pai ILLUSTRATIONS: Anirban Bora, Thinkstock PHOTOGRAPHS: Bharat Chanda and Nitin Sonawane

How We Did ItContentPg4

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The Brand Equity Agency Reckoner 2015 survey was conducted by Niels-e n i n N o v e m -

ber-2015 to Jan-2016. Follow-ing seven segments were cov-ered in survey for evaluation. 1. Top Ad Agencies2. Top Media Agencies3. Top Production Houses4. Top Design Specialist

Agencies5. Top Digital Marketing

agencies6. Most Influential Person

in Creative and Media 7. Most Admired Marketer

Compared to the previous edition of the survey one major change was incorporat-ed in the methodology. This year, all the seven segments were evaluated by agencies as well as marketers. Last year, agencies were evaluated only by the marketers.

Who was interviewed? A total of 105 industry profes-sionals participated in the survey through online meth-od. 42 were from ad agencies, 26 from media agencies and 37 were marketing and com-munications professionals from different industries: FMCG, e-commerce, retail, consumer durables, telecom, infrastructure, pharmaceuti-cals, financial services, etc.

Of 105, 34 participants were from top management (CEO, CMO, MD, Chairman etc), 23 senior management (SVP, VP, President, Heads etc), 19 mid-dle management (Director, AVP etc), 23 managerial level (Senior Manager, Manager, GM, DGM) and 6 were from junior level (AM, planner, executive etc).

In terms of years of experi-ence: 34 participants had over 20 years of experience. 35 par-ticipants had 11-20 years of experience, 25 participants had 8-10 years of experience and 11 participants had 6-7 years of experience. Final assessment was done among the respondents who participated through online survey route.

What did we ask? Ad agency, media agency, pro-duction house, design special-ist agency and digital market-ing agency segment:Advertising agencies:Respondents were asked to rank up to 10 agencies consid-ering the work created over the past year. Rank 1 was assigned best agency accord-ing to the respondent, Rank 2 to second best and so on till Rank 10. Though respondents

were provided with exhaus-tive list of agencies to choose from, they also had the option to nominate any other agency that they fe l t should be included.

Advertising agencies were further evaluated on follow-ing parameters on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means Very Poor and 10 means Excellent.

Client Servicing Creative Account Planning Integrated Marketing and

Innovation F o r o t h e r s e g m e n t s ,

respondents were just asked to consider few parameters while nominating top agen-cies. These parameters were:Media Agencies: Best deals, effective use of research, ability to provide higher retur n on media investment and ability to provide solutions that inte-grate different mediaProduction House: Execution quality and inno-vationDesign Specialists: Creative & strategic inputs, ef fective use of design to

strengthen the brand and exe-cution Digital Marketing Agencies:Creative and strategic solu-t ions, use o f latest and advanced technology, ability to promote brands across dif-ferent media and execution.Most Influential Person in Creative and Media:

Respondents were asked to rank the Top 10 most influen-tial people in advertising, media agency and production people who have created some of the best work in this area. Here, again respondents had the option to nominate any other name apart from what was provided in the list.

Most Admired MarketerWithout any aid/list respond-ents were asked to provide the Top 3 brands in rank order (irrespective of industry/cate-gory) that have been marketed so well that they would consid-er the marketing team for Most Admired Marketer. Respond-ents were asked to consider fol-lowing parameters while nom-inating the brands. Well defined marketing structure with an effective chain of command Creativity Respect for agencies in their role as creative partners

How the ranking was arrived atAt the first stage, self/own organisation nominations were ignored in order to ensure unbi-ased assessment. Post that within each segment, ‘weighted average rank score’ was calcu-lated. Higher weighted scores indicate higher rank order.

For ad agencies on addition-al four parameters, weighted average rating scores were used to arrive at Top 10 agen-cies on respective parameters.

2 April 27 - May 3, 2016AGENCY RECKONER 2015-16 A NCY RECKONER 2015 16 AGENA

This year all seven segments in the Agency Reckoner survey were evalu-ated by both agen-cies as well as marketers. Last year, agencies were evaluated only by the marketers

The Top 3 From The Top Five

The Creative Top 20 Media Math Digital Doctors Design Thinking

"I doubt any other profession would have given me the exposure I got in advertising"

Prasoon Joshi on why advertising still matters

Who is the Most Influential Person in advertising?

Top 10 Production Houses Most Admired Marketers

?BBDO, CLA, BBH, Soho Square rising...

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METHODOLOGY FOR THE BRAND EQUITY AGENCY RECKONER 2015-16

The Creative Top 204

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Mindshare [ Rank in 2014: 1]

Madison [ Rank in 2014: 2]

Maxus [ Rank in 2014: 6]

Lodestar UM [ Rank in 2014: 5]

Mediacom [ Rank in 2014: 7]

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DY Works

Elephant Design

Ray + Keshavan

Fitch

Umbrella

Media Math

Digital Doctors

Design Thinking

From 60-second telly ads to YouTube-first long films, they've mastered all. Here are the agencies with the most creative clout in the country

And the most powerful media agencies are...

No longer the last slide in a PPT, in the digital world these agencies are kings

The Top 10 agencies that are adding design to madness

April 27 - May 3, 2016AGENCY RECKONER 2015-16 A NCY RECKONER 2015 16 AGENA

Ogilvy [ Rank in 2014: 1]

Lowe Lintas [ Rank in 2014: 3]

J Walter Thompson [ Rank in 2014: 2]

McCann Worldgroup [ Rank in 2014: 4]

Taproot Dentsu [ Rank in 2014: 5]

FCB Ulka (formerly draftFCB Ulka) [ Rank in 2014: 13]

Leo Burnett [ Rank in 2014: 7]

DDB Mudra [ Rank in 2014: 6]

BBDO India [ Rank in 2014: 11]

Contract [ Rank in 2014: 8]

Dentsu [ Rank in 2014: 17]

CreativeLand Asia [ Rank in 2014: 16 ]

Publicis [ Rank in 2014: 15]

L & K Saatchi & Saatchi [ Rank in 2014: 12]

Grey [ Rank in 2014: 14]

Interface [ Rank in 2014: 20]

BBH [ Rank in 2014: NE]

RK Swamy BBDO [ Rank in 2014: 9]

Soho Square [ Rank in 2014: NE]

Wieden + Kennedy [ Rank in 2014: NE]

NE: New Entry in top 20

Starcom Mediavest group [ Rank in 2014: 4]

OMD [ Rank in 2014: 9]

Dentsu Media [Rank in 2014: 8]

DDB Mudramax [ Rank in 2014: 14]

ZenithOptimedia [ Rank in 2014: 10]

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Vyas Gianetti Creative

Landor Associates

Designsutra

Red Lion

Interbrand

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Webchutney

Ogilvy One

Foxy Moron

Isobar India

Interactive Avenues

Indigo Consulting

WatConsult

22feet Tribal

iContract

Hungama Digital Services

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#1. OGILVY

In a year through which Ogilvy lost a key creative leader in Abhijit Avasthi,

the agency still emerges tops. Executive chairman and creative director, India and South Asiam, Piyush Pandey picks a few campaigns that played a role get-ting it there — work that has done the agency proud and are dear to him, cre-ated over the last year, even as he claims pinpointing just three is tough.

Beauty Tips with Reshma campaign: The PSA campaign for ‘Make Love Not Scars’ touches on a very important sub-ject: acid attacks on women. The execu-tion makes you sit up and take notice. Though I was not at the shoot, I’d have cried through it, seeing these women share their trauma.

The Titan Raga body of work: The air-port film with Nimrit Kaur, the wedding film starring Katrina Kaif and the ‘Break the bias’ women’s day film – are a col-lective ode to the Indian women. The films have been shot in a very real fashion with insights that connect with the Indian women.

Tata Sky Daily Recharge campaign: The campaign ran during IPL 2015; a 13-part episodic love story that got recharged daily. The beautifully cast and enacted film kept people waiting for the next one. There have been epi-sodic films earlier too but none where the storyline developed this way on a daily basis. A brave client (Harit Nagpal - current Tata Sky CEO who was formerly at Vodafone) demonstrated that the ZooZoos was not his final century.

#2. LOWE LINTAS

Chief creative officer Arun Iyer believes his agency’s greatest strength is insightful work that works for the brand, irrespective of legacy, size and

stature; from Idea, Tanishq and Havells to Olx, Urban Ladder, FreeCharge, Prac-to, Grofers, Paper Boat and Hotstar. In a reflective mood, he believes an area of improvement would be being able to shed the baggage of being a “TV agency.” “A lot of our work is medium agnostic but it's taking time to shed that legacy,” he admits. He prefers to pick brands instead of campaigns:

Lifebuoy: A balance of hard-working work and inter-esting activations on ground. With Lifebuoy we've managed to take a mainstream brand and infiltrate all mediums. Be it with 'Chamki' or the earlier cam-paign, 'Gondappa'.

Paper Boat: We've given the brand form, brought it to life, and defined the world of the brand.

Google: Be it the recent cricket films or initiatives like 'Helping women get online', it's not advertising, it's hardcore content.

#4. MCCANN WORLDGROUP

It’s been a creatively satisfying time for McCann Worldgroup with the

agency topping the list on the India leg of the Gunn Report three years running. Prasoon Joshi, chairman, McCann Worldgroup, Asia Pacific admits to being a little puzzled this doesn’t reflect in the agency’s rank-ing in the reckoner. Here’s some of the work he found the most satisfy-ing from the agency’s output.

Nestle: I think our work on Nestle has been very good. We had the stam-mering and the cartoonist films for Nescafe. And then there was the fact that the client trusted us enough to give us the mandate for the relaunch of Maggi which I think we did great efforts on; particularly the first online films where we talked about the brand without being too overt.

Radio Mirchi – Rudali: The Rudali film for Radio Mirchi was great from a craft and storytelling standpoint.

Dettol: We’ve had a multipronged strategy including activation at the Nashik Kumbh Mela last year, where we got people to save water with the hand sanitiser. We linked the brand to Clean India. The Dettol jingle has become incredibly popular and includes habit forming messages. We are making Dettol Ka Dhula a proposition. It’s worked wonderfully and does everything a brand should do in today’s complex land-scape.

#5. TAPROOT DENTSU

In spite of naysayers who kept insisting the ‘honeymoon’ between Taproot and some of

its key clients ended shortly after the tie-up with Dentsu, here it is, holding on to No 5 in a year where the competition has been doing anything but sitting idle. Fresh from nipping at the heels of J Walter Thompson at the recently concluded Abby awards, co-founder Santosh Padhi gives us his creative favourites from the agency’s recent output.

Airtel 4G: One of the most high-decibel campaigns of 2015, the Airtel 4G com-munication consoli-dated its position as the country’s leading

telecom service provider. Love the Airtel 4G girl or hate her, no one could ignore her. And early this year, in keeping with public senti-ment, the telecom giant boldly and effectively used self-deprecating humour to make a point about network.

Birla Sun Life Insurance: Insurance was being peddled as a means for tax saving, invest-ment etc. With the launch of the platform ‘Khud Ko Kar Buland’, Birla Sun Life projected insurance for what its true purpose is – pro-tection. Our campaign went a long way in both creating awareness and improving con-sideration. In a category where penetration is low after many players have said their piece for many years, a single powerful thought spelt success for the brand and the business alike.

The Times Of India: India’s leading English daily, but not in Kolkata, with the likes of The Telegraph to contend with. This was the chal-lenge The Times of India presented us. Lead-ing us to create a regional campaign #KolKo-tha. The term literally means “the talk of Kolkata”. The communication cap-tured idiosyncrasies of how Bengalis talk and what they talk about. And there are few better spaces for a newspaper to own. The campaign was very popular and grabbed all the eyeballs The Times needed.

#3. J WALTER THOMPSON

There were changes galore at J Walter Thompson India following one of its roughest years in the business which saw several longtime staffers

depart. And then the global ops found itself in the centre of a controversy earlier this year, thanks to allegedly racist and sexist remarks from its erst-while CEO Gustavo Martinez. In India however, the agency appears to be sta-bilising under CEO, Tarun Rai, and chief creative officer, Senthil Kumar, the first person to hold that designation who has risen through the ranks. Kumar opts to pick all of his Top 3 from 2016. “A creative agency is only as good as its live ideas,” he says.

Pepsi Minican series: The Mini Can launch campaign is pure play digital content. It has already scored over five million organic views online.

Airtel Udaan Activa-tion: We created a platform to enable five children to tell a story with bestselling author Amish Tripa-thi, at the Jaipur Literature Festival using teleportation and video calls on the Airtel Mobile Network.

Nestle KitKat Breaks: About three

different breaks that happen simulta-neously across the same airport with everyone from the announc-ers to the passengers to the ticket collectors taking a break, bringing alive multi-ple levels of the KitKat break

THE TOP 3 FROM THE TOP FIVEWe asked heads of the Top 5 agencies for their favourite — not necessarily the most successful or the most awarded

— campaigns from the last year and got some surprising answers

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Production House

Most Admired Marketer

An idea is only as good as its director. Here are some of India's finest ad filmmaking shops

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Nirvana Films

Equinox Films

Ramesh Deo Productions

Corcoise Films

Chrome Pictures

Mondelez

Airtel

Amazon

HUL

Vodafone

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Bang Bang Films

Genesis Films

Rajiv Menon Productions

Curious Films

Footcandles Films

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Coca-Cola

Nestle

Star Sports

Flipkart

Idea

5 April 27 - May 3, 2016AGENCY RECKONER 2015-16 A NCY RECKONER 2015 16 AGENA

I believe in the Advertising pro-fession for a number of rea-sons. Firstly, it is one of the most transparent and honest

of many professions. An ad pro-claims itself to be one. It may uti-lise many innovative methods to appeal and communicate but its intent is always clear - to project and amplify a product and estab-lish a connect with the consum-er. It empowers the consumer with an informed choice and the product with the opportunity to go beyond and create an intangi-ble emotional space and bond — create a brand. We are in a busi-ness of creating a brand- con-sumer connect that endures the immediate. And we take on this task with panache and intricacy. With the hardcore aspect of selling there is space created for ideas, for emotion, for craft, for music, for art.

The second aspect is more personal. Like many other Indians, I was born in a small town and had a limited expo-sure to the world at large. I doubt any other profession would have given me the exposure I got in advertising. In the United States, E u r o p e , L a t i n America, China, Japan…wherever great minds and ideas were happen-ing, the industry gave me an opportunity to observe, assimi-late and collaborate.

In 2014, I chaired the Titanium jury at Cannes. Sitting with 10 of the most eclectic minds in one room, discussing ideas, I doubt that can be substituted with much else. The more you see and the more you interact with bright people, the more you learn. Everyone has a different purpose in life. I don’t know if it has to do with upbringing or the way you are wired but for me, money was never the driving force. It always was growing; trying to be better than my for-mer self, so I can look back and feel I have travelled. Of having the throbbing sense of life, being able to hold the livewire in my hand and feel the energy of the times I’m living in. Those were my motivations.

Advertising always kept me in touch with what’s happening: how people behave. Be it via con-sumer studies or interacting with the latest technology, I’ve been able to stay abreast of changes. Advertising has kept me younger and more idea virile.

Of course, on the professional front, my journey began as a cre-ative person and along the way,

my company thought I was wor-thy enough to lead the agency. It’s been a symbiotic relationship. Advertising has given a plat-form, a vantage point and I have contributed mind, craft and pas-sion for creation.

And so, when it comes to pes-simism about the business, I don’t feel it. The fault lies in defining what Advertising is. You must believe the most important things are building a brand to be more than a product and building a business and con-nected relationship between brand and consumer. Advertis-ing helps create this. Think this and you won’t feel it has lost rel-evance. Those who define it as a

30 second commer-cial or print ad are the only ones who say ‘Advertising is getting limited.’

Even in the most ancient ways of sell-ing, you see that the science has always been there. A street vendor maintains eye contact and a relationship with his consumer. He has a target audi-ence, a database he c o m m u n i c a t e s with and attempts to establish a long term relationship. Be it through offer-ing credit or the lit-tle extras- dhaniya mirchi combo to home delivery - by way of promotion.

The need for a relationship between someone doing busi-ness and a consumer has never gone away. Not even in today’s complex media landscape.

What has changed is the way you build the relationship. Mediums and methods evolve and there is a requirement to keep pace or be ahead of the curve in many ways. The peripherals, the variables are in a state of constant change and that is the beauty and excitement of it all . The core is what needs to be the lodestar. Even with something as instant as Snapchat, the message and the pictures disappear, but the impression in your mind and the need for creating it is the same. It doesn’t matter whether you do it via flashes or captive viewing. The need for a narra-tive for a Brand has not died. The constituents of the narra-tive have changed. It’s a tough-er task creating narrative with so many more variables. But it still needs to be there. The 'how' needs to be learnt – to create narratives for today. As long as there is a product, a market, a consumer - Advertising in vari-ous avatars will exist and evolve to glue these together.

Why Advertising Still MattersMcCann's Prasoon Joshi on the many reasons advertising has given him to remain optimistic

Agencies pick marketers they are most happy to work with and for

Advertising has kept me younger and more idea virile

— Prasoon Joshi

The InfluentialsHere's a look at the most influential people in advertising according to the Brand Equity Agency Reckoner 2015-16

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Prasoon Joshi (McCann Worldgroup): Joshi continues to bring a lyrical approach to everything from his agency’s ads — remember that earworm of a Dettol commercial? — to actual fi lm lyrics. The Gunn Report loves him. As do the ad public, considering he was besieged by selfi e requests at Goafest: whether it was for his ad man avatar, lyric man avatar or both is something we were left wondering about.

CVL Srinivas (GroupM): He literally had big shoes to fi ll when he took over from Vikram Sakhuja as GroupM’s chief. But to GroupM’s formidable size, Srini has helped bring creative clout as well. Should the Piyushs and Prasoons of the world start getting worried?

R Balakrishnan (Lowe Lintas): In a business where leaders frequently keep a fi rm grip on the reins, while paying lip service to opportunities for all, Balki split Lowe Lintas into two agencies empowering his creative heads Amer Jaleel and Arun Iyer. Visionary leadership, the fi rst step to a graceful exit or a not so subtle way of pointing marketers to different people while shooting another ‘hatke’ Bollywood fl ick? These theories offered gratis by his peers (complete with elaborate subplots) make our heads spin harder than that time we tried keeping track of all the brands shoehorned into Shamitabh.

Vikram Sakhuja(Madison): He’s been a client (P&G) and an agency man. The fourth most infl uential media person on the list is group CEO Madison Media & OOH at Madison World, who joined Balsara & Co in 2015. Sakhuja has an interesting feather in his cap, that of managing Maxus’ global operations from Mumbai. So what if within a year (in 2013) he eventually had to move to New York at least for a bit to handle another assignment?

Sam Balsara (Madison): 2015 was the year Balsara was defi nitely going to sell Madison and ride into the sunset. But then so were 2014, 2013, 2012…you get the drift. India’s largest independent and most sought after partner remains tantalisingly out of reach of all suitors. Will 2016 fi nally be the year? We are not holding our breath.

Rohit Ohri (FCB Ulka): After 21 years with JWT, Ohri quit the agency that’s No 3 on the Agency Reckoner to join Dentsu as executive chairman in 2011. Then last year he made another big move to FCB Ulka that kept him in the news. The theatrewallah (who also played the lead role in TV serial ‘Ganadevta’) turned adman, is currently FCB Ulka’s group chairman and CEO.

Agnello Dias (Taproot Dentsu): With PepsiCo changing the game when it came to its agency partners last year, the glory days of JWT standing for Just Went to Taproot seem behind Agnello Dias. However, Dias and Taproot Dentsu are still a creative force to reckon with and for better or worse, gave us a 21st century Lalitaji in the Airtel girl.

Josy Paul (BBDO): No write up on Paul is complete without at least a passing mention of his hat. Mad as a hatter (so that’s out of the way), Paul is a permanent fi xture on the Most Infl uentials list thanks to his long presence on the ad circuit, passionate talks that bring on the waterworks and laughs and international award-winning work.

Piyush Pandey (Ogilvy): In a world where brands and ad men struggle to get noticed, all Piyush Pandey has to do is show up. His brief appearance at Goafest’16 got the loudest ovation and not too many people grudged him his hasty exit. Given his clout and his aversion to retirement, we won’t be surprised if we are writing similar copy a decade down the line.

Shashi Sinha (IPG Mediabrands)Everybody’s friend, Sinha is an industry veteran who has been and still is a champion of the advertising business even when factions, turf wars and egos threaten to destroy an already fragile state of affairs. In 2015, Sinha who is the CEO of IPG Mediabrands was elected the chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC).

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MG Parameswaran (FC B Ulka)Bobby Pawar (Publicis) Ashish Bhasin (Aegis) Madhukar Sabnavis (Ogilvy) Nandini Dias (Lodestar UM) Arun Iyer (Lowe Lintas) Ravi Rao (Mindshare) Joseph George (Lowe Lintas) Prasoon Pandey (Corcoise Films) Abhijit Avasthi (Sideways) Arun Nanda (Rediffusion YR) Santosh Padhi (Taproot Dentsu) Madhukar Kamath(DDB Mudra) Nakul Chopra (Publicis) Sonal Dabral(DDB Mudra) Tarun Rai (J Walter Thompson) Sunil Lulla (Grey) Govind Pandey (TBWA) Abhinay Deo (Ramesh Deo Productions) CR Mallikarjundas (Starcom Mediavest Group) Kartik Sharma (Maxus) Kunal Jeswani (Ogilvy) Srinivasan Swamy (RK Swamy) Hanley King (Starcom) Prashant Kumar (Ogilvy) Preeti Nair (Curry Nation) Sajan Raj Kurup (Creativeland Asia) T Gangadhar (MEC) Ajai Jhala (BBDO) Amer Jaleel (Lowe Lintas) Anil S Nair (L&K Saatchi & Saatchi) Jasmin Sohrabji (OMD) Senthil Kumar (J Walter Thompson) Prakash Verma (Nirvana) Praveen Kenneth (L&K Saatchi & Saatchi) Jitender Dabas (McCann Worldgroup) Anupriya Acharya (Publicis Media, formerly ZO) Ram Madhvani (Equinox) Jyoti Bansal (PHD) Subhash Kamath (BBH)

April 27 - May 3, 2016AGENCY RECKONER 2015-16 A NCY RECKONER 2015 16 AGENA

Regn.No.MAHENG/2002/6711 Volume 15 Issue No. 17 Published for the Proprietors, Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd. by R. Krishnamurthy at The Times Of India Building, Dr. D.N.Road, Mumbai 400 001 Tel. No. (022) 6635 3535, 2273 3535, Fax- (022)-2273 1144 and printed by him at (1) The Times of India Suburban Press, Akurli Road, Western Express Highway,Kandivili (E), Mumbai 400 101. Tel. No. (022) 28872324, 28872930, Fax- (022) 28874230 (2) The Times of India Print City, Plot No. 4, T.T.C. Industrial Area, Thane Belapur Road, Airoli, Navi Mumbai-400708 and (3) TIMES PRESS, Plot No. 5A, Road No. 1, IDA Nacharam Ranga Reddy District, Hyderabad-500076. Editor: Ravi Balakrishnan(Responsible for selection

of news under PRB Act).© All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of the Publisher is prohibited.

The Unusual Entrants

For the bulk of its nine year existence, Crea-tiveland Asia was subjected to a lot of derisive

snorting from its competitors for being “the Parle agency”, having started out with several brands from the Mumbai-based- marketer in its kitty. The tag stuck as it created a lot of visible and talked about work on brands like Hippo and Frooti. However over the last year, the agency has more than just survived the Parle business moving out. By all accounts, it has been one of the best runs the agency has had, bagging Dominos, Micromax, Godrej No 1, Benetton and The Indian Express.

Founder and creative chairman, Sajan Raj Kurup is especially happy about not having to compro-mise: “In June, we turn 9. And in 9 years we’ve not gone back on any of the things we started out doing: We still charge a pitch fee and don’t actively solicit. We are now 167 people strong, make more money than ever, have larger brands than ever

and create work that we are prouder of than ever; and are still fi ercely independent.”

He adds that industry consult-ants have bench-marked his fi rm

against other agencies both large and

independent to fi nd that in terms of profi tability, Crea-tiveland Asia might make it to the Top 3 in India.

This year, CLA intends acquiring a specialist or two, focusing on areas

like design and content. As for selling to a larger network, like several other independents from Taproot to Law & Kenneth have done, Kurup says, “Ours is too big an idea to sell out. We may bring in strategic investments but won’t sell to a net-work. Let’s just say they won’t be able to afford us.”

He’s also happy to have continued the agency’s tradition of noticeable, talked about work. He says, “People have come and gone and times have changed and a few clients have come and gone fortunately or unfortunately. But the one thing we’ve not stopped doing is putting out things that are benchmarked with the best.”

Being part of the fi rst wave of startups, many in the industry assumed Creativeland Asia would be a small creative boutique with modest ambitions. Refl ecting on a journey, that’s brought his agency fi ghting shy of the Top 10, Kurup says, “We created a brand out of our candid honesty and edgy ap-proach to creative solutions. That’s the only thing I know to do well: I don’t know to play safe. I stuck my neck out and sometimes got slapped for it and at other times, rewarded.”

When we asked BBDO India’s chairman and chief

creative offi cer, Josy Paul for the agency’s highlights from 2015, his answer was surprisingly suc-cinct, “recognition”.

“We’ve been at it for a while,” he tells us, “but not everybody fully understood what we were trying to do.” Perhaps he also refers to his industry fel-lows who’ve liberally mocked BBDO’s 'acts not ads' mantra. The tipping point was in June 2015. In other words, a Grand Prix and gold at Cannes Lions for work on P&G brands Whis-per (Touch The Pickle) and Ariel (Share The Load). These wins compelled people to look at the agency and work in a different, more generous light; “It was a defi ning moment that gave us confi dence, made us believe a little more in what we were doing”. It also helped Paul understand the nature of ideas. He says, “Often when you are on the fringes you need forces beyond yourself to become mainstream.” The forces: Con-sumers, infl uencers or powers that be. “The ecosystem is as important as what you create.”

Paul and BBDO’s CEO Ajay

Jhala are building not just an agency but an R&D department where there’s a lot of tinkering with old and new formulations. Says Paul, treading into philo-sophical territory, “every day we must fi ght our own past,” and a ‘this worked last time, can we do it again’ ad mental-

ity that plagues most agencies which have a dominant crea-tive style. To critics who say BBDO’s work is not “massy”, Paul says the mass market un-derstands actions and not just words. "The more actions we can give in communication the bigger it is than any language.”

Actions like a book in a wall (Aviva) or shaving (Gillette’s ‘Women against Lazy Stubble’) or putting clothes in the wash-ing machine. Now there’s even a nifty odd/even calendar on detergent packs to aid equita-ble distribution of household chores.

“We Are Probably Among The Top 3 In Profi tability”

“We Don’t Have ‘Branches’, But We Have Roots”

7

New shops break into the Top 20 and old warhorses move up the charts

CLA the highest ranking indie in the Agency Reckoner

BBDO cracks the Top 10 Best Agencies in the Agency Reckoner

"We won't sell to a network. Let's just say they won't be able to afford us"

— Sajan Raj Kurup

To critics who say BBDO's work is not "massy", Paul says the mass market understands actions and not just words

BBDORANK 9

CLARANK 12

Every agency worth its salt will tell you it intends branching out beyond advertising. Over the last

year, BBH claims to have actually pulled this off, according to its CEO and managing partner, Sub-hash Kamath: “Our core strengths are confl uence of strategy and creative. Brand consulting, design and agile production were natural areas to explore.” It’s

been a good year for business too, he says with the agency having landed Snapdeal, a couple of projects for Philips and some additional brands from Marico. The focus for the next few months

is starting up the Delhi offi ce. Speaking of what makes the agency different,

Kamath attributes it to a fl at structure and a lack of the elaborate trail of designations and hierarchies that plague many other shops. All clients are serviced by its senior-most executives and new entrants can directly speak to the top bosses. International visitors typically spend 45 minutes with our people individually, Kamath adds. “All this didn’t strike us a differentiator but we now realise it has paid rich dividends.”

BBH and Soho Square squeeze into the ranks from 11 to 20

BBHRANK 17

Ogilvy’s second shop makes a debut in the Top 20. The agency earned its spurs back in 2014 with the Acche Din campaign for the BJP. High profi le assignments like the Tata Motors campaign

with Lionel Messi and a steady stream of account wins including Faber and anti-smoking gum Nic-otex, prove it’s more than just a fl ash in the pan.

Soho SquareRANK 19

The Top 20 Hits

April 27 - May 3, 2016AGENCY RECKONER 2015-16 A NCY RECKONER 2015 16 AGENA

(From left to right) Subhash Kamath, Russell Barrett,

Arvind Krishnan & Sanjay Sharma