MAA Bozell wins biz worth Rs 15 crore

MAA Bozell, the agency of the southern states, has been keeping a low profile for many long months. And, critics had almost written it off, when the agency was in the midst of a downsizing.

Least affected by such speculations, MAA Bozell has been busy doing its job - quietly. The hard work seems to have paid off as the agency, in recent months, has won business worth Rs 15 crore and is currently reinforcing its team with talented professionals.

Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd (AHLL), a fairly large business, has recently come the agency's way in a multi-agency pitch. AHLL is an initiative of the Apollo Hospitals Group. "The task at hand is to focus on building up a network of world-class, day-to-day healthcare facilities across the nation and abroad. In a year's time, AHLL has already set up 25 of these facilities. MAA Bozell is the integrated marketing strategy and communications partner for this entire initiative," explains Bunty Peerbhoy, chairman, MAA Group Holding Pvt Ltd.

Apart from this, the agency has added a couple of high-profile public sector accounts such as Coconut Development Board and Marine Products Export Development Authority - both retained in a multi-agency pitch. The challenge with regard to Marine Products Export Development Authority is to promote Indian seafood across major markets abroad, namely, the US, the EU, Japan, China, South East Asia and the Middle East.

In addition to that, MAA Bozell has won the regional business for Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Hero Honda. For Tata Motors, the agency is working on the South India-based marketing communication for Indigo, Indigo Marina and Sumo Victa. As for ICICI Bank, MAA has been awarded the regional communications business for the car loans division.

With regard to Hero Honda, says Peerbhoy, "As part of our Dakshin initiative, Hero Honda has assigned the regional account to us. This is to be handled across our four southern offices on a model that functions on decentralised operations and centralised planning."

Spartek Ceramics, the company is into tiles business, moved to the agency for holistic support in market promotional activities. "Our job is to create a unique lifestyle-led positioning for the brand in India. The group is now on a complete restructuring programme and is making major forays into vitrified tiles and other allied lifestyle products. The agency is partnering the client through this critical phase," says Peerbhoy.

But this is not all. The agency has pocketed several other businesses that include AMD, the computer processor, KLF Oil Industries, Social franchising of Reproductive and Child Health services, ORS and Iron and Folic Acid awareness, Bal Pharma, pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca, Vikram Hospital,, an Infosys' BPO outfit Progeon, Presidency Group of Institutions, and KG Builders, a major construction and real estate group based in Chennai.

Talking about the vision for MAA Bozell, Peerbhoy says, "We were the pioneers of integrated communications. We were probably way to ahead of our times, but now the time is absolutely perfect. With advertising being pushed down the value chain and agencies being treated on par with vendors, what is required is something new and fresh that delivers great value and results. And that is what integrated communications does. Our vision is to continue to innovate and look for newer ways to add value and to move up the value chain."

And, strengthening this conviction at MAA Bozell is appointments of driven professionals. Anirban Chaudhuri has joined MAA Bozell as senior vice-president. "His immediate task is to consolidate Bangalore and then progress to expand the activities across other locations," informs Peerbhoy.

Chaudhuri comes from Shining Emotional Surplus Pvt Ltd, a management and brand consulting firm owned by Paris based designer Shombit Sengupta. Chaudhuri was the COO of Shining and played a key role in expanding the business in India.

In the four years at Shining, he worked with major Indian corporates such as HLL (Brooke Bond relaunch, Knorr, Kissan), Mahindra (automotive division), Britannia, Bombay Dyeing, Jubilant Organosys and its group companies, Haldia Petro Chemicals, Rasna, WeP Peripherals Ltd (erstwhile Wipro e-Peripherals) and Biotique.

As for Chaudhuri's experience in marketing, he has worked with Stock Holding Corporation of India, Malayala Manorama and The Statesman, Kolkata.

Taking charge of the Chennai branch is Antony Rajkumar, who has joined MAA Bozell as branch manager, Chennai with additional charge of Hyderabad Branch for an interim period.

After stints at Oberoi Group of Hotels as a sales executive and Hindustan Sanitaryware (glass division) as marketing officer responsible for Central and South India regions, Rajkumar joined TBWA Anthem. There he had set up the Research Cell, and later moved to O&M (Delhi and Chennai) and Rediffusion DY&R. Some of the brands that he has worked on include Four Square (Godfrey Philips), Perfetti, Electrolux, Club Mahindra CavinKare and Bharti Telecom.

Rajkumar's key mandate, delineates Peerbhoy, "...is to rebuild Chennai operations into a successful and growth oriented branch in the current financial year. He is assisted by a team of young, enterprising and qualified individuals across all agency functions,"

In the creative department, Praveen Das has joined as group head, art. He moves from JWT. A pass out of Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishath, Das has worked on brands such as Levi, I-flex, Lipton, Kingfisher, Pepsi, Standard Chartered Bank and Van Heusen.

Apart from Das, Kishore Karumbaiah has joined as an associate creative director. He has worked on brands such as Tanishq, Fastrack and Kissan Tom Pataka in Lowe. Later on, he moved to JWT to work on brands such as Spice Telecom, HLL, Kingfisher, UB Export, Levis, Van Heusen, Black Dog and Standard Chartered.

After that, he had a brief stint in Bulls Eye Media as a creative consultant, where he worked on brands such as Pizza Corner, Music World and Daimler Chrysler. At 26, he has already won quite a few national awards and accolades at the New York Festivals.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!