Aditya Chatterjee
Advertising

Delhi is poised to outgrow Mumbai, says O&M’s John Goodman

The Delhi office registered a growth of 30 per cent last year

John Goodman, CEO (India and South Asia) Ogilvy & Mather, seems to be in love with Delhi. “We are moving to a bigger and better office very soon,” he tells agencyfaqs!

But that’s just an indication of the role Delhi has been playing of late in O&M’s scheme of things. “The Delhi office registered a growth of 30 per cent last year,” says Goodman.

“It is in fact growing faster than O&M Mumbai and had it been in a different country, it would have been one of the top three agencies in our worldwide cadre of top 10 agencies,” he adds. Incidentally, the industry on an average has been registering a growth of 7-8 per cent over the past few years.

In fact, O&M Delhi recently added 40-odd people to the roster, and hired N Ramesh as creative director. Among the big accounts that O&M Delhi handles are LG and Hindustan Times. Its Hutch, Center Shock, Business World and Incredible India campaigns have earned accolades.

For the record, both O&M Delhi and Mumbai are in the Top 10 list, which includes O&M New York, Barcelona, Singapore and Cape Town, among others.

But Goodman believes Delhi is struggling under the shadow of Mumbai. “As far as the economy is concerned, it is growing much faster in Delhi and in the cities of the south than in Mumbai,” he points out.

He adds that the flow of foreign investments to Delhi and the sheer number of MNCs flocking to the National Capital Region of Noida and Gurgaon make the Capital a more attractive proposition.

“Mumbai lacks the business and investment infrastructure and environment that Delhi has,” he adds.

Even as Delhi beckons with the lure of the lucre, Goodman is sure that Mumbai is and will remain a favourite with the creative community. “The challenge remains in the fact that the creative community is centered in Mumbai and though Delhi is generating more business, it can never be the Ogilvy headquarters in India,” he clarifies. So Mumbai is safe, for the time being at least.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!

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