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It’s done: HP’s IPG falls into BBDO’s bag
Publicis India has been the incumbent agency on this business since 2001. It will continue to handle the corporate duties and creative duties for the personal systems group
BBDO Worldwide set up shop in India with PepsiCo’s lemon aerated drink, 7Up, in late 2007, when it bagged the business globally.
Now following another global alignment, BBDO has bagged the creative duties for Hewlett Packard’s (HP’s) imaging and printing group (IPG) business.
Confirming the news to agencyfaqs!, Mohit Abrol, country manager, marketing, IPG, for HP India, says, “For HP India, this is more of a trickle-down of the global decision of appointing BBDO as our agency. In various countries, BBDO is a flourishing agency in terms of business and good clients, and in India too, it is gearing up to handle the business.”
In India, Publicis won the creative duties for HP’s businesses in 2001. Prior to that, in August 2000, Mudra was handling the business. Publicis was among the shortlisted agencies at the time, but it didn’t get the business because HP didn’t think it would be able to handle its heavy portfolio; the agency was brought in later in the wake of the global alignment. Before Mudra, Draft-FCB-Ulka (then FCB-Ulka) held the business.
Sources peg the ad spend of HP’s IPG business in India at Rs 10 crore; PSG has a slightly stronger focus with an ad spend of Rs 15 crore.
Why the sudden decision to shift the IPG account globally to BBDO? Abrol shrugs, and says only that HP liked BBDO’s work and had confidence in the agency.
Industry sources have a different story to tell. Rumours are rife that Ron Coughlin, senior vice-president, worldwide marketing, Imaging and Printing Group, HP, is responsible for the shift. Before he joined HP last year, Coughlin was with PepsiCo on the global level. He was associated with PepsiCo for more than a decade, and over that period, he built up a good relationship with PepsiCo’s global creative agency, BBDO. The sources say that is why HP’s IPG account is moving to BBDO.
For the record, HP has two laptop brands in India, HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario. The creative duties of the Compaq brand, which is endorsed by Hindi film actor Shah Rukh Khan, are handled by McCann-Erickson.