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The year that went by was bubbling with account and people movements in the ad fraternity, interestingly with many new outfits coming into existence. afaqs! explores
2009 was a year packed with the usual tussle for accounts amongst creative agencies, people switching jobs and yes, most certainly, many taking bold steps to venture out beyond the shadow of the large agencies on their own, despite the slowdown. afaqs! runs through some of the significant stirrers of the ad business during this period.
The year began with a jolt, with several individual outfits being set up by people who stepped out from large agencies to explore the tide on their own: the Aggie-Paddy venture, TapRoot India; Mudra's Jagdish Acharya forming Cut The Crap; 22 Feet by Brijesh Jacob (ex-Grey and Lowe); Leo Burnett's Sukumar Menon putting together Black Swan Life; and Narayan Kumar's Metal.
It was homecoming for JC Giri at Ogilvy, who returned to the agency after a stint at STAR TV India, as regional director on the Unilever business. Abhijit Avasthi and Rajiv Rao took on the reins as national creative directors from Piyush Pandey. The agency grabbed the Dabur Vatika Hair Oil business, as well as the Religare Enterprises and VLCC accounts.
David, the presumably dormant third agency from the Ogilvy stable, saw a resurrection in 2009 with the win of the Dabur Total Protect account. Ogilvy's second agency, Meridian, apart from winning the Honda Jazz business, lost Axis Bank to Lowe.
JWT had a couple of wins with UNICEF Red Ribbon Express, SET Max, Whyte & Mackay, Thomas Cook, and sharing SBI General Insurance with Interpub. Apart from losing Apollo Tyres to Capital Advertising, on the people front, it lost Shavon Barua to Euro RSCG.
The automobile sector was also busy last year - Maruti Splash was awarded to Dentsu Creative Impact, Meridian won the duties for the most expensive premium hatchback witnessed by India in the year - the Honda Jazz; Tata Nano went to Rediffusion Y&R; Volvo Cars came trotting to Pickle Advertising; Toyota Motors shifted its SUV/MUV business from Dentsu to Percept/H. GM had a re-shuffle of its agencies, with roster agency McCann Erickson going off its radar, followed by Leo Burnett, too, with an expiration of contracts - Wieden+Kennedy and Publicis India becoming the new custodians for the slew of brands.
Volkswagen drove its way into DDB Mudra, while Rajeev Raja climbed the ladder as national creative director at the agency. Rajiv Sabnis joined as president for the Indian operations at DDB Mudra from M&C Saatchi, where he was executive director. Suranjan Das from Fortune Communications replaced Sabnis at M&C Saatchi.
McCann Worldgroup set up its second agency - T.A.G. - in India last year. The agency opened with twin wins from the Videocon Group - the consumer durables business and Datacom, the telecom brand which is yet to witness a launch. Dish TV also fell in its lap. Himanshu Saxena, group business director at McCann, took on the national role for T.A.G., looking after the Delhi and Mumbai offices.
Being one of the roster agencies for the Tata Group for quite some time, and with the list of telecom players in the country seeing an increment during the year, Draft FCB Ulka added the Tata GSM business to its kitty. While Sanjay Tandon joined the agency from JWT to head the account, the agency lost its planning head for the Delhi operations, Pinaki Bhattacharya, to Saatchi & Saatchi; Bhattacharya joined Saatchi & Saatchi as senior vice-president, planning, for the Delhi and Bengaluru offices.
Bates 141 won Max Bupa and the new personal care range of Dabur - Dabur Uveda. Russell Barrett joined as executive creative director at the agency, while Rohit Malkani moved on to join Grey as executive creative director.
Euro RSCG saw the stepping in of Shavon Barua from JWT as director for the Mumbai office, while the agency lost out on the Voltas account to Capital Advertising.
Contract Advertising won the Samsonite India (American Tourister and Samsonite) and Set Wet accounts. It lost the Dabur Vatika business that it had the custody of for quite some time - the duties for the hair oil went to Ogilvy and the shampoos business went to Pickle Advertising. The agency also had a new planning head for the Mumbai office in Anand Damani, who came in from Saatchi & Saatchi.
Aviva Life Insurance and Wrigley's Doublemint were the two accounts that BBDO won during the year. Ranjeev Vij quit the agency as head on the HP business for a role as board director at iris. Publicis Dialog/Modem, too, lost Param Saikia to iris - he joined the latter as chief executive officer. Everest Brand Solutions won the Virgin Atlantic account.
Grey roped in Bindu Sethi as national planning head from Unilever, while Jishnu Sen, branch head, was promoted as COO.
BBH was able to wriggle into the TVS roster, winning the creative duties for TVS Wego. It also won the creative duties for Diageo's VAT 69 from Publicis Ambience and the slew of brands from Marico's umbrella - Mediker, Nihar Naturals, Parachute Advansed Starz, Parachute Advansed After Shower and Parachute Therapie Hair Fall Solution.
Capital Advertising made a dual grab at accounts - Apollo Tyres and Voltas - which more than made up for the loss of the Mail Today account.
Apart from the Volvo Car business, Pickle Advertising also picked up a chunk of business from the Dabur group - Henna Cream Conditioning and Root Strengthening shampoos.
With the fanfare about Harley-Davidson stepping into India, the creative duties for the same were entrusted with The Republic, which played an instrumental role in launching the brand and its communication in the country.
In all, '09 definitely wasn't slow on action. Treading into a new year, expect nothing less from the ad world.